Children shouldn’t work in fields, but on their dreams - Hindustan Times
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Children shouldn’t work in fields, but on their dreams

ByHindustan Times
Jun 12, 2022 12:01 AM IST

The article has been authored by Vinati Bhargava Mittal, an independent journalist from Madhya Pradesh.

The UN General Assembly declared 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. Ironically, while passing the resolution in 2019 little did members-States know that the pandemic would reverse several advances made in that direction and the year would see one of the highest incidences of child labour. About, 160 million children were subjected to child labour at the beginning of 2020, according to a UNICEF and International Labour Organization (ILO) report, with nine million additional children at the risk of being pushed into labour in 2022 due to the pandemic. Often, these vulnerable children, unaware of their rights, are subjected to physical, mental and emotional abuse.

Puri: Artist Sudarsan Patnaik gives finishing touches to a sand sculpture with a message, Stop Child Labour, ahead of World Day against Child Labour, in Puri, Thursday, June 11, 2020. (PTI Photo)(PTI11-06-2020_000162A) (PTI)
Puri: Artist Sudarsan Patnaik gives finishing touches to a sand sculpture with a message, Stop Child Labour, ahead of World Day against Child Labour, in Puri, Thursday, June 11, 2020. (PTI Photo)(PTI11-06-2020_000162A) (PTI)

Following the pandemic and closure of schools, Raju (name changed), 12, of Shikarpur, Bihar came to Indore with a relative to learn bangle-making. He found employment with a bangle-maker in Sirpur, and accommodation in a tiny shanty which he shared with other fellow workers to stay. Kept engaged in odd chores for long hours, Raju was not taught bangle-making. His telephone calls with his parents were monitored; he was told he would be paid his wages once he learnt the technique, and beaten up when he wanted to return. Once when he was emptying buckets of acid used in colouring bangles, some of it fell on him. Instead of being taken to a doctor, some sort of makeshift treatment was administered. Scared but seizing the first opportunity, Raju escaped. Child Line found him at the Indore railway station.

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In another case, an Indore-based employer reportedly burnt a minor boy from Burhanpur who was working as a domestic child labourer with a cigarette butt and beat him regularly, even pulling out hair from his scalp. During the first lockdown, a minor domestic help staying with a family in the city was allegedly impregnated by her employer’s son. Due to strict restrictions on movement then, she could not seek help. These are several incidents of emotional, physical and sexual abuse vulnerable child labourers in Indore, or any other Indian city, have faced during the pandemic.

“One case came to our knowledge where a boy from Bihar was left by his father to work as domestic help. Uske sath mar peet ki ghatna hui thi” (he was beaten up), assistant labour commissioner Meghna Bhatt said. On being asked whether there had been an increase in child labour in Indore, she said it was difficult to comment as no broad survey was carried out.

“A lot of children came to the city from Jharkand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (UP) following the closure of schools there,” said Pallavi Porwal, chairperson, Child Welfare Committee, Indore. UP and Bihar are the most populous states, and poor parents with large families to support find it difficult to feed eight to 10 children. Hence, children are forced to migrate to find work. Sadly, these minors should have been in schools studying for a better future or engaged in skill development activities, but as a fall out of the pandemic they have had to work hard to support their families and may never return to school.

As the pandemic prolonged, with schools closed for a long stretch, and the alternative system of education not accessible to all children, a large number of minors entered the workforce. Compared to adults, not only did they offer a cheap source of labour, they were not aware of their rights and employers did not have to abide by the rule of paying the minimum wages. Employers also preferred bringing unskilled labour from outside in comparison to hiring locally because these children, unable to speak the local dialect, could not communicate with the local populace and seek help. As families were pushed below the poverty line, inter-district, inter-state, intra-state movement of child labourers to support their families rose. In Census 2011, the state had recorded 7,00,239 child labourers.

While boys were employed in auto garages, dhabas, umbrella-, bag-, and bangle-making units in Moti Tabela, Deepalpur and Sirpur -- localities of Indore, girls were hired in homes mainly as nannies. “Children employed as domestic help are very vulnerable as they are not visible. There is no data base on them. Once in a year, employers may give about 10,000- 12,000 to their parents,” says Wasim Iqbal of local NGO Aas, associated with Child Line. In 2020-21, the NGO registered 34 cases of child labour, and 11 cases in 2021-22.

Rescue operations are carried after a complaint is lodged. Several times, employers on getting wind of an impending raid hide the child, thus cases registered are few, a source reveals, “Chape me bachche ko gayaab kar date hain, bache ko gawahi nahi dene dete.” (During crackdown they hide the child. Children are very scared; they are not allowed to speak.)

“Child labour has increased. A lot of children are brought to Madhya Pradesh (MP) especially from West Bengal and Bihar. A large number migrate due to poverty and unemployment there,” says Lokendra Sharma, Juvenile Justice Board member and former chairman, Child Welfare Committee, Ujjain, adding further “Surprisingly, no missing complaints of these children are recorded there.”

Poor families send their children to work with the belief they will get some cash in hand. It is only when contact with them is lost, investigations commence. Besides, children migrating from other states to work in MP and families from its border districts are vulnerable to trafficking to neighbouring states. MP shares borders with Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh; and is home to the largest tribal population, 60% of the Scheduled Tribes live in rural areas and are below the poverty line. When workers migrate to work, they take their children along, and the latter instead of attending school also work.

Last year, the police rescued 18 minors from Shahdol while they were being transported to work in UP. They were going to be allegedly sold to sugarcane growers, a media report said. Incidentally, the agriculture sector employs the largest number of children in the country as they are cheaper, can run fast and work. Here, children are exposed to pesticides and fertilisers, besides having to carry heavy loads.

According to a National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) study, conducted a few years ago, MP at 18.3% (4.3 million) accounted for the highest number of child labourers engaged in beedi industry.

The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, amended in 2016 (CLPR Act), prohibits employment of a child below 14 years, however, it allows adolescents (14-18 years) to be employed except in the listed hazardous occupation and processes. Following the relaxation of labour laws after the lockdown in 2020, Working Group on Women in Value Chains (WiVC) feared, “Dilution of monitoring mechanisms through tapered inspection may lead to increased incidences of exploitation and abuse of workers and see children join the workforce.” “They cannot work in hazardous conditions,” says Archana Sahay, director of Aarambh and Childline, Bhopal.

In response to a query in the Parliament, minister of state for l labour and employment, Rameswar Teli, said in 2020-21 over 58,289 children were rescued across India from work, rehabilitated and mainstreamed under the National Child Labour Project. MP accounted for half (29,179 children) the minors rescued that year.

Admitting there has been a rise in child labour, more visible in rural than urban areas, primarily due to circumstances, Madhya Pradesh Child Rights Protection Commission member Brajesh Chauhan said in a telephonic interview, “In consultation with other departments, we have tried to take care of the situation. Through NGOs, we have tried to bring children into the ambit of education again. Hostels have been provided to the children of migrant labourers so they can have undisrupted education.” Although, migration cannot be stopped because labourers are lured by higher wages, Chauhan said, zilla panchayats have been directed to create jobs so villagers are absorbed locally and children can attend schools.

In fact, the issue of child labour as a fall out of the pandemic is not a local but a global problem. While addressing the UNICEF executive board in February this year, its new executive director, Catherine M Russell, said, “We estimate that 100 million more children are now living in poverty because of the pandemic – a 10 percent increase since 2019. Increasing poverty could push an additional 9 million children into child labour by the end of this year.”

At the Group of Friends of Children and the Sustainable Development Goals’ first meeting on 13 April, 2022, she reiterated the her statement while adding, “UNICEF estimates that an additional 10 million girls are at the risk for child marriage, and there is mounting evidence of increases in gender-based violence and sexual abuse.” Voicing her concern, she said pandemic-related school closures had made a bad situation much worse with children now not being able to recognise letters and forgetting how to read. “What can the future hold for these children – and their societies? Instead of being the great equaliser, education is becoming a great divider.” On its part by strengthening the social security workforce, the transnational body has tried to curb child labour and enrol children in schools.

Child labour builds inter-generational cycles of poverty. As efforts are made to eliminate child labour in the state and the country at large, it is essential that policy makers understand the problems children and their families face, in rural and urban slum areas, while formulating policies. While agents and middlemen trafficking children have to be dealt with firmly, the authorities have to check the loopholes within the system and devise new ways to rehabilitate child labourers and encourage them to return to schools or enhance their skills by giving them necessary training.

“Every child matters. If we fail our children, we are bound to fail our present, our future, faith, cultures, and civilisations as well,” says Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi. It is time that the government, policy makers, stakeholders and the community all act now in concert to end child labour.

 

(The article has been authored by Vinati Bhargava Mittal, an independent journalist from Madhya Pradesh.)

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