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It began as a school project, became a citywide campaign and is now a national social media campaign aimed at getting communities to address child labour in India.

Kunaal Bhargava, 17, a student at the American School in聽Mumbai, picked child labour for a classroom project. He聽approached , a charity that works with street聽children, for help with material.

The Mumbai police were so impressed with the poster campaign聽he created that it was adapted for billboards across the city聽earlier this year.

This week, a citizen engagement platform , which聽connects its more than one million members in discussions on聽governance and other matters of public interest, created a聽discussion group on child labour to seek input on the issue.

鈥淐hild labour is an issue I think about a lot, as these are聽kids as old as me, younger than me, working instead of going to聽school like me,鈥� said Bhargava.

鈥淲e encounter it every day, so getting the community聽involved is an effective way to check child labour,鈥� he told the聽Thomson Reuters Foundation.

There are 5.7 million Indian child workers aged between five聽and 17, out of 168 million globally, according to the聽.

More than half are in agriculture, toiling in cotton,聽sugarcane and rice paddy fields, and over a quarter work in聽manufacturing, embroidering clothes, weaving carpets or making聽match sticks. Kids also work in restaurants and hotels, washing聽dishes and chopping vegetables, and in middle-class homes.

The Indian government wants to amend a three-decade-old law聽which bans children under 14 from working in 18 hazardous聽occupations and 65 processes including mining, gem cutting,聽cement manufacture and hand looms.

Rescued child labourers protest against the practice in Siliguri

However, children who help their family or family businesses are permitted to work outside school hours, and those in entertainment or sports can also work, provided it does not affect their studies.

Members of the LocalCircles group can, in addition to offering suggestions, post pictures and report instances of child labour that the police and NGOs can act on, said founder Sachin Taparia.

鈥淭his platform is more effective than a hotline 鈥� how many people will actually remember the number or think to call when they see a child worker in a tea stall or begging on the street?鈥� he said.

鈥淲hereas people are so comfortable taking pictures and聽posting on social media, and this facilitates that,鈥� he said.

Suggestions from the discussion group so far include聽stricter punishment for employers of child workers and training聽programmes for such children, so they can learn skills which聽could be used to earn an income when they are older.

Poor reintegration of rescued child workers leaves them聽vulnerable to being trafficked and made to work again, a report聽by Harvard University鈥檚 聽said last month.

The LocalCircles group for child labour is managed by the聽Indian Police Foundation, a think tank comprising police聽officials, bureaucrats and civil society leaders.

Community policing has already played a role in fighting聽child labour and human trafficking, Taparia said, citing police聽raids on illegal brothels in Delhi and Gurgaon as a result of聽information given by members of LocalCircles discussion groups.

鈥淭he police, the NGOs 鈥� we are all doing our bit to check聽child labour, and having citizens involved will only help create聽more awareness and rescue more child workers,鈥� said Pravin聽Patil, a deputy commissioner of police in Mumbai.

The , the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, covers humanitarian news, women鈥檚 rights, corruption and climate change.