Mysore city recently saw the first ever case of Juvenile Justice Act being enforced in the State. A woman was arrested for illegal detention of a 14 -year-old girl as a bonded labourer and ill-treating her. The girl had been working under strenuous conditions for over a year, according to Mysore District Child Welfare Committee which rescued her. This, unfortunately, has not been a singular case of child labour in the State. A 12-year-old girl was rescued in the recent past in Heggadadevana Kote taluk. Such cases which come to light are however very few. Karnataka, a State known for intellectuals and thinkers, has more than 8,23,000 child workers, according to a government census. Those children who escape the census are mostly the children who work in homes as domestic workers — unseen, unheard and undervalued. It is appalling to know that India is thriving on 90 million child labourers, 20% of whom are below 14 years. It is said, poverty is the primary cause for a parent to push a child to bonded labour. But it does not end there. The not-caring attitude of the poor parents towards education, that it is a luxury rather than a necessity in terms of economy, has added to the basket of woes. It is saddening that though according to Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, the period of work should not exceed beyond 41/2hours a day, most child labourers and other domestic workers are put to a gruelling 12 to 14 hours work per day, abused psychologically and physically. It should not, however, be the only option of the governmental and non-Governmental organisations to rescue and liberate them. Their rescue will just put them from the frying pan into the fire. Being uneducated and unskilled in other works except what they had been doing, most children go back to working as before albeit in a different place and a different condition. Chennai's Child Labour Elimination Programme (CLEP), which rehabilitated 6,050 children, was forced to wind up owing to paucity of funds. A large chunk of the cake called rehabilitation should be topped with education. Providing self-employment to the parents with enough profit to sustain themselves should be the priority. After all, parents who cannot help themselves, will be in no position to help their children.
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Our society holistically lacks the feel for social justice. My closest encounter with child labour was at IITM. Juveline teenagers (boys) were employed as temporary workers at the IITM hostel mess.
It was a very pitiable condition that it had to happen in the country's most prestigious institutions. We (hostel residents) debated this a lot and eventually felt that it would not be in the interest of the boy to pull him out of the job.
It was a saddening to see the young boy who should have been doing his 10th or 12th and probably preparing for JEE itself is eking out a living by cleaning the mess plates!
You are right. It is saddening to see the kids who are brighter than some privileged kids of the rich rotting away in hotels, bars, at homes doing domestic labour and begging. But the worst punishment for the kids is their physical exploitation by the perverted.
we may write, speak on platforms and declare budgetary allocations to child labourers, but we cannot go, pull them out of their jobs and put them to school, because when they don't have anything left to eat, they will go back to working or begging.
In Mysore, the Police are taking beggar children to remand homes. But its all temporary, they just run away, and resume begging. The parents sell their children for money even in villages near Mysore because they have more mouths to feed and less hands to feed them, thats what happened to the girl I mentioned. Her parents had 10 children, so they just sold one to feed other nine. Its all in the game to survive, however cruel it is.
The child labour problem is a manifestation of the bigger problem in our society. The root cause for which is a very intricate social setup biased by prejudice and presumptions. More to it, we have compounded the problem by bad governance and increasing poverty :-(
Do you see a path/ solution to get out of this ?
I'd be glad to know your views!
I see a path, but the heart to tread on that path should come from the larger society. If you want to improve the condition of a single child, u have to take a lot of responsibility on yourself, try convincing the parents that they have to learn to survive without the additional income of the child, take the child to school, ensure that he/she doesnot stop going to school one fine day and return to work, and improve his prospects of living in this cruel world. But to do it on a large scale, we need the co-operation of many people who are willing to give their time, money and energy for children not their own. And that is difficult. But once collective minds want to change the life of the lesser humans, then its all downhill, easier. Sometime ago, I tried in my own way by teaching some children in a village, but though the kids were willing, their parents were not and they went back to working-skipping school- and stealing from the neighbourhood. Their parents urged them to.
First of all, its very commendable that you reached out to the underprevileged.
However, as you might have learnt it from your experience it isnt all that easy.
Unless there is an apparent advantage, nobody would indulege in anything news!! Along these lines, education doesnt mean anything to a vast majority of our rural population.
I guess, we should create awareness among them and show the benefits education can make to their daily lives. Easier said than done!!
The target audience dont understand charts/ numbers and presentations. They would only do it if we prove it in practice.
I think the prevelant social conditions calls for educated youth to settle down in villages making the micro innovations which solves the day to day problems.
I would say that such a thing will provide enough substance for a rennaissance of our society :)!!
What say ??
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