Scary statistics were displayed over and over again when I made an attempt to know more about ‘child labour’.
"Fifty percent of the children of the world are working under trying and torturous circumstances."
( www.childlabour.in)
And India has the second largest contribution to that 55%. Scary again. Way back in 1986, The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act was enacted. What good did it do? The Act is hardly implemented despite efforts from international organizations such as the UNICEF.
The quoted Act of 1986 only ‘regulates’ the prevalence of child labour and does not prohibit it. What’s more, the said Act defines a child as ‘a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age’. So what about the human beings aged fifteen, sixteen and seventeen? Aren’t they entitled to ‘quality education’? Loopholes. Loopholes. Loopholes. Ironically enough, that is what makes these children active contributors to the national income even when they should really feature in the list of ‘unproductive consumers’!!!
Our country has a history of enacting Bills which hardly complement the existing laws, rather, they contradict them. The Right To Education Bill was welcomed and criticized alike. But what is the use of declaring such rights when people are hardly aware of the methods of claiming their share in these? We have, in our country, a great shortage of educating people about their rights.
You’ll always find a ‘chhottu’ at the Dhabas and sweets shops. In the metros, the scenario is equally worse. The traffic light goes red and there they are. Beggars and ‘sellers’ tap at the window of your car shouting in pathetic tones. Twenty percent of India’s child labourers are from Uttar Pradesh. Girls travel on foot for over 1.5 kilometers each day. Is this a matter of pride?
Recently ‘camel jockeys’ were in news. Small children from India and adjacent countries are trafficked and kept underfed so that they are ‘light-weight’ to participate in long camel races!!!!!
Child labour does not include household chores or school-related work. It refers to the employment of children ‘at sustained and regular labour’ below a certain age. The minimum age differs from country to country. While it is 14 years in our country, it is 16 in the U.S.A. Child labour, to quote from Wikipedia, includes employment of children in the following:
factory work, mining, prostitution, quarrying, agriculture, helping in the parents' business, having one's own small business (for example selling food), or doing odd jobs. Some children work as guides for tourists, sometimes combined with bringing in business for shops and restaurants (where they may also work as waiters). Other children are forced to do tedious and repetitive jobs such as: assembling boxes, polishing shoes, stocking a store's products, or cleaning. However, rather than in factories and sweatshops, most child labour occurs in the informal sector, "selling many things on the streets, at work in agriculture or hidden away in houses—far from the reach of official labour inspectors and from media scrutiny." And all the work that they did was done in all types of weather; and was also done for minimal pay. As long as there is family poverty there will be child labor. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Child_Labour)
The exploitation of children can be stopped if the nations and societies gear up to removing poverty from the face of the world. That is a large goal. But it certainly can be reduced if the common man begins to participate in community-based programmes or in direct action against child labour. It is time we begin reporting cases of child labour around our community.
Let us hope we do it.
"Fifty percent of the children of the world are working under trying and torturous circumstances."
( www.childlabour.in)
And India has the second largest contribution to that 55%. Scary again. Way back in 1986, The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act was enacted. What good did it do? The Act is hardly implemented despite efforts from international organizations such as the UNICEF.
The quoted Act of 1986 only ‘regulates’ the prevalence of child labour and does not prohibit it. What’s more, the said Act defines a child as ‘a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age’. So what about the human beings aged fifteen, sixteen and seventeen? Aren’t they entitled to ‘quality education’? Loopholes. Loopholes. Loopholes. Ironically enough, that is what makes these children active contributors to the national income even when they should really feature in the list of ‘unproductive consumers’!!!
Our country has a history of enacting Bills which hardly complement the existing laws, rather, they contradict them. The Right To Education Bill was welcomed and criticized alike. But what is the use of declaring such rights when people are hardly aware of the methods of claiming their share in these? We have, in our country, a great shortage of educating people about their rights.
You’ll always find a ‘chhottu’ at the Dhabas and sweets shops. In the metros, the scenario is equally worse. The traffic light goes red and there they are. Beggars and ‘sellers’ tap at the window of your car shouting in pathetic tones. Twenty percent of India’s child labourers are from Uttar Pradesh. Girls travel on foot for over 1.5 kilometers each day. Is this a matter of pride?
Recently ‘camel jockeys’ were in news. Small children from India and adjacent countries are trafficked and kept underfed so that they are ‘light-weight’ to participate in long camel races!!!!!
Child labour does not include household chores or school-related work. It refers to the employment of children ‘at sustained and regular labour’ below a certain age. The minimum age differs from country to country. While it is 14 years in our country, it is 16 in the U.S.A. Child labour, to quote from Wikipedia, includes employment of children in the following:
factory work, mining, prostitution, quarrying, agriculture, helping in the parents' business, having one's own small business (for example selling food), or doing odd jobs. Some children work as guides for tourists, sometimes combined with bringing in business for shops and restaurants (where they may also work as waiters). Other children are forced to do tedious and repetitive jobs such as: assembling boxes, polishing shoes, stocking a store's products, or cleaning. However, rather than in factories and sweatshops, most child labour occurs in the informal sector, "selling many things on the streets, at work in agriculture or hidden away in houses—far from the reach of official labour inspectors and from media scrutiny." And all the work that they did was done in all types of weather; and was also done for minimal pay. As long as there is family poverty there will be child labor. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Child_Labour)
The exploitation of children can be stopped if the nations and societies gear up to removing poverty from the face of the world. That is a large goal. But it certainly can be reduced if the common man begins to participate in community-based programmes or in direct action against child labour. It is time we begin reporting cases of child labour around our community.
Let us hope we do it.
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