The term Child labor is defined as any work done by the children below the age of 15 at the cost of their physical, mental and social development to economically benefit their family or themselves directly. India has the dubious distinction of having the maximum number of child labor in the world. As and out of 11 million, and as many as 2 million are engaged in hazardous industries. About 93 per cent of them are neither in the schools nor accounted for in the labor force in the country. These children sweat, toil and suffer under inhuman conditions to supplement the income of their parents. The availability of cheap and very pliable labor depresses labour market, forces down the wages and also increases total number of unemployed and underemployed people in the country. 
                        Sociologists, humanists, labor leaders, etc. had been waging a long battle with very limited success for decades to put an end to the evil practice of child labor. And a major step was taken in1995 when under the National Labor Project , a pilot project was mooted in selected districts in the country for a identifying a model for elimination of child labor, first in the hazardous industries, and later in all other fields. Tiruchi was one among the 100 districts selected in the country for the pilot project. 
                       The preliminary survey revealed that there were 4,334 children engaged in hazardous industries like quarrying, gem cutting, beedi rolling. To begin with it was decided to establish 30 special schools, each to enroll 50 released child labor.