“One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in
life is, I think, to have a happy childhood.”
— Agatha Christie
Childhood, as Agatha Christie the famous writer says, should be
enjoyed. It is supposed to be the most carefree phase of life when the child
gets to explore the world with all its eccentricities and quirks and question
each aspect of it. It is the most important development phase in the life of a
human being when values and morals develop through knowledge and education
being imparted. Guidance of elders at this stage defines the place in the
society the child is going to occupy in future. Childhood is akin to platform
of life, often waiting to board the right train in the quest for a human
being’s ultimate goal in this material world – even though the child is too young to comprehend the
importance of the same.
But, what happens, when the child boards the wrong train or
inadvertently gets to the wrong platform –
say bonded labour at a very tender age of six, even before he understands what
this is all about? What is the root-cause that drove the child to earn his
livelihood when he should be in school learning the basics? Who is responsible?
What repercussions does it have on the child and on the society as a whole?
What steps should be taken to address the same? These questions should intrigue
us as moral responsible citizens who are often witness to such instances in our
daily life but have come to accept it as a norm. We need to understand that it
not only derails the entire future of the child, but also has a disastrous
effect on the mental well-being of the child which steers much of his adult
life. Such grownup adults often have a distorted outlook about life and may
pose a threat to the very society that pushed them in the wrong path.
Child labour is a serious blot on our society and our tolerance
towards it shows our cold-heartedness in tackling this serious issue. Each
underprivileged child, if empowered to learn and study during the crucial
formative stages of life can advance our nation to the next level – we very well could have a high
probability of the next Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sachin Tendulkar, Chetan
Bhagat, Mary Kom, Kiran Bedi, future Prime Minister, President, Chief of Army
or Chief Justice of India rising up from among them. It should give one much
pleasure to ponder on the fact that so much talent could be harnessed by
diverting the right resources and environment to the needy.
Though
there has been conscientious effort by both government and private
organizations [NGOs] to address the issue of child labour, it has borne little
fruit. Every other day, we get to read in the newspapers about children being
rescued from factories, industrial units, hotels and urban homes. This, despite
the fact that Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 has been
passed, which clearly articulates that any child below 14 years of age cannot
be employed in hazardous or menial occupation enforcing Article 24 of
Constitution related to fundamental right against exploitation. The amendment
to the act in 2006, also prohibits children to be employed as domestic workers
and servants in households. Still, we do come across numerous instances wherein
children are toiling day and night for a decent livelihood whilst they should
be playing around with their peers.
We first need to understand the magnitude of the problem. UNICEF
estimates that India has 12.5 million child labourers according to 2001 census,
the highest number of child labourers in the world. This number is a huge
increase from 11.3 million as per 1991 census and is a worrying trend. One
aspect is clear – there has
been little curtail on child labour, indirectly pointing to the fact that the
measures taken to curb including penalties are not deterrent enough to stem the
tide. An article published in the Hindu dated 21st July,
2014 mentions 4,300 child labourers being rescued from Delhi alone since 2009 – most of them employed in barred places like
factories and hotels. If this number is compounded with the number of
metropolitan cities, mega-cities and tier-1 cities taken into account, the
count would increase exponentially, ignoring the count of unreported cases.
Copyright:
The Hindu
The issue needs to be looked at from a 360 degree view rather than a
piece-meal approach. One needs to understand what forces the child to work at
such a tender age, often at places far away from their families and the most
basic reason would be the meagre pecuniary condition of the family – the divide between the rich and the poor
has increased drastically since the advent of globalization, where the
government pegs the BPL limit at measly Rs. 32 for rural and Rs. 47 for urban
spend for an individual. For the poor, getting two square meals a day becomes a
daily hurdle to be crossed which ultimately drives the child to fend for
himself. Desperation also plays an important role, taken advantage of by the
hawks aka agents of human trafficking on whose behest the child is often sold
at few thousand rupees by needy parents; such is the real value placed on the
child.
The
child if lucky enough lands up with a good employer, but more often than not
has to work under unbearable circumstances for long hours and no holidays. For
girls, the situation is even worse where they are at the mercy of their
employers and are targets of sexual predators; molestation and at times rapes
are recurring events of their life. Many of the unfortunate girls, directly
land up in the flesh trade, which has the most serious consequences on their
mental well-being. Human Trafficking is one of the worst crimes that can be
imagined and the perpetrators should be punished strictly according to Immoral
Traffic Prevention Act, 1956 enforcing Article 23 of Constitution related to
Fundamental right to Prohibition of Traffic in Human Beings and Forced Labour.
The
prevalent solution in most of the cases where children are rescued is
repatriation to their native place for rehabilitation. It is to be noted here
that most of the rescued children are from poor families of West Bengal,
Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh; all belonging to the
bottom quartile in the list of states as per Indian Human Development Index
while Kerala leads the pack with highest HDI. The Labour Department sends Rs.
25,000 to District Magistrates annually for the welfare of each rescued child,
but there are no effective tracing and tracking mechanism. More, importantly,
the money is often not enough to sustain the basic requirements of each child.
The family situation of the child remains same as before and the family still
has to struggle to make both ends meet. It does not solve the real problem.
The
government has to develop a multi-pronged solution to address the root-cause.
Much has been done, but it must be fool-proof solution. First and foremost
being poverty alleviation. MNREGA is one such initiative that touches the
bottom of the pyramid directly. But it is mired with corruption that needs to
be tackled strongly. More such initiatives need to be taken to improve
financial condition of the poor. Secondly, ensuring that all children attain
primary education which is their fundamental right as per article 21a of the
Constitution. Various incentives like Mid-day meal schemes has been a huge
success in most of the states. It has not only resulted in the decline of
school drop-outs in primary classes, but has also provided a cost-effective means
for the under-privileged child to continue his education, who otherwise may
have been forced to take up a job. An additional aspect is rewarding family of
girl child. For example, in Punjab, girl students have been gifted bicycles to
travel comparatively larger distances to reach school along with free
education. It also needs to be mentioned that though RTE has been passed, it
needs to be implemented in earnest at all levels. Thirdly, with the passage of
Food Security Act of 2013, it is expected that the poor is supposed to derive
most of the benefits of subsidized food items through targeted Public
Distribution System [PDS]. This should provide some respite to the poor so that
they are not forced to send their wards to work. Fourthly, the judiciary and
police needs to work hand-in-hand to curb this menace. All cases, pending
before the National Commission and State Commissions for Protection of Child
rights and Children’s courts should be fast tracked. Lastly, all Labour
Inspectors should be held accountable for any child labourers being employed
under his area of jurisdiction. Any lackadaisical approach should be done away
with stringent punitive measures in place.
But one
cannot put the onus on the government alone. Given the vast size of our
country, huge population and the economic imbalance, the responsibility to
address the issue of child labour lies equally with the citizens of our
country. We, as responsible human beings, have to be conscious of the impact of
child labour and the negative impact on our society and cannot afford to turn a
blind eye. All instances of child labour should be promptly reported to the
concerned authorities. To achieve this, we need to alleviate ourselves to
cherish the ideals that the founding fathers of our nation envisaged, by
developing a strong sense of moral character within ourselves and ensuring that
the children from underprivileged families also lead a happy and joyous childhood.
For the growth of any nation, youngsters play a very crucial role.
Nation rides on the well-being of these youngsters who are ultimately
responsible for leading the nations in the world-stage. It is upto us, what
kind of future, we as responsible citizens imagine for our successive
generations – one, that is
compassionate and upholds the freedom for all, foregoing the rooster coop
mentality and pulling up the deprived ones by the more fortunate citizens as
Gandhi-ji envisioned, or remain self-centered and concerned with the well-being
of self, taking full advantage of the deprived sections of our society, to the
extent of forcing a child to forego his childhood. In case of latter, future of
our society will be pretty bleak indeed unless we strive towards eradicating
the blot – the child labour in all its forms.
As
Franklin D Roosevelt said, “We cannot always
build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”
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