Official surveys showing a decline in child labour in India keep the hope alive for total elimination of child labour in the country soon, but achieving the goal will require more time-bound action plans that focus on care after rescue and rehabilitation. The Assam government’s view that rescued children who are rehabilitated in family surroundings are much better off and their chances of relapsing as child labourers are lower than those of children who stay at Child Care Institutions (CCIs) signifies the crucial role of family and society in ending the menace of child labour. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, Textiles and Skill Development observed that CCIs in India cater for children up to 18 years old, and the sudden withdrawal of support at 18 years leaves these young people facing heightened challenges and, at times, adverse outcomes on leaving CCIs. The Committee expressed the view that since present aftercare services are insufficient, most of them are ill-prepared for transition from CCIs to independent living and thus again fall into the vicious cycle of vulnerability, homelessness, unemployment, poverty and exploitation. Thus, there is a need to explore initiatives for alternative care and transition gradually towards achieving a safe and nurturing family environment for children in vulnerable situations, the committee stated in its report. Preventing school dropouts is crucial to ensure that a child remains where it should be: in school to receive education and in a home to grow in family care. Following up on findings of surveys on school dropouts and tracking where the children have gone after their dropout can help the authorities initiate timely intervention for rescuing and restoring the children to their families if the dropouts had been exploited by any individual or business owners as child labourers or trafficked by child trafficking gangs. Teachers have to play the lead role in tracking the dropout children after they notice that they have stopped coming to school. Rationalisation of pupil-teacher ratio is critical to ensure that each school has adequate teachers compared to children to undertake the responsibility of tracking the dropout children and making efforts to bring them back to classrooms. In areas with single-teacher schools or schools with inadequate pupil-teacher ratios, this is a challenging task. Till the rationalisation is achieved in such areas, the state government entrusting the responsibility to officials of various other departments in addition to departments of education, labour, women and children will ensure that surveys on school enrolment and dropout are meaningfully followed up to curb child labour. Increasing budgetary allocation to the District Child Labour Rehabilitation Fund can help better manage aftercare of the rescued children to prevent them from falling prey to child labour recruiters’ gangs by increasing expenditure incurred against each rescued and rehabilitated child. Strict monitoring and evaluation of funds released and submission of utilisation certificates will ensure judicious utilisation. Active participation of local panchayats or local body institutions in activities undertaken with such funds will go a long way in building awareness of child labour and increasing monitoring of the society over school dropouts and rescued children. Increasing the fines and imprisonment period imposed on employers of child labour will act as a strong deterrent. The society taking care of the children is vital to the growth and progress of a state and the country, as it will ensure that the future workforce is strong, resilient and productive after receiving quality education, healthcare and skills. The ambiguity over the determination of the age of the child in various acts pointed out by the parliamentary panel needs to be addressed on a priority basis. The report highlights that The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986, as amended in 2016, covers complete prohibition on employment or work of children below 14 years of age in all occupations and processes; links the age of the prohibition of employment with the age for free and compulsory education under the Right to Education Act (RTE), 2009; prohibits the employment of adolescents (14 to 18 years of age) in hazardous occupations or processes; and makes stricter punishment for the employers contravening the provisions of the Act. The central government explains that linking the Act to RTE provides that if the age of free and compulsory education is raised, then automatically the prohibition of a child below that age bar in any occupation will be mandatory. While the Act prohibits the employment of children as domestic workers in roadside eateries, restaurants, hotels, and automobile workshops, the construction sector’s presence of child labour in all these paints a grim picture of a serious gap in enforcement. The number of child labourers being quite big across the country compared to the official strength of Labour and Employment Departments, a whole-of-government approach is necessary. Without an active role by the society, the social evil cannot be eradicated merely through enforcement of legal provisions.