Should we lend a helping hand to people? Many, it is hoped, will answer, yes. So should we not do something unselfish, beautiful and divine to children? We must leave walking a lonely way and looking the other way if we catch sight of a child being abused anywhere — be it a home, street, place of work, institution or playground, etc. Children, our future, are at times abused in aforesaid places, undermining the codal norms again child abuse. At stake is the pleasure of childhood and education opportunities of tens of thousands of children.
These children, child workers, get deprived of the opportunities of education and risk health issues such as skin diseases, diseases of the lungs, weak eyesight, etc. If this is not worrisome for us, then what is? If you notice a child carrying a spray motor on his/her shoulders across apple orchards, will you be happy? Perhaps not. A person of a sane and sympathetic perspective will be heartbroken on finding trapped a child in exploitative situations, the child labour; so should be a law abiding citizen.
According to Article 23 of the Indian Constitution any type of forced labour is prohibited. Thus, children are required to be protected from the hands of misuse and abuse. Article 24 states that a child under 14 years cannot be employed to perform any hazardous work. Religious books also instruct against child exploitation.
We are literally at the precipice of the child labour catastrophe. Just a casual look around, legions of children shouldering the onus of labour will catch your eye. Child labour peels off the mask of pro-children rhetoric; lofty morals are tossed out of the window and such children end up as unskilled workers for their remaining life. This brings us to one daunting challenge: school education of a generation is crumbling and doomed in the fog of child labour.
A question: Is education of child workers more important for them or labour-earning money? May be, I sound an old school here. According to a new report by the International Labour Organization ( ILO) and UNICEF, the number of children in child labour in the world has gone up to 160 million with millions more at risk due to the impact of COVID-19.
True, it is poverty which forces parents to see their minor children work at the expense of their childhood. Low-income families send their children for work to get a square meal, clear family debts and meet other needs. And high-income families hire children for a petty amount. So the general public and families of the young laborors turn a blind eye to how harmful child labour is and the impact of the physical and psychological violence which stays forever.
The ILO says that child labour is “work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and/or interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school, obliging them to leave school prematurely, or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work”.
In 2011, the ILO adopted the Domestic Workers Convention under which countries are to set a “minimum age for domestic workers consistent with the provisions of the Minimum Age Convention … and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention”. For the latter convention “work under particularly difficult conditions such as work for long hours or during the night or work where the child is unreasonably confined to the premises of the employer” is risky.
Though child labour is largely seen as an offence, it seems that we —as one people — are either unwilling or unable to prevent it in its practical forms. Hundreds of minor children can be seen doing manual labor in Dhabas, restaurants, railway stations; working as drivers/ conductors and construction workers; pruning apple trees, picking apple fruit , carrying apple boxes and doing other hazardous tasks for —a few rupees. .
The 2011 census counted 250103 child labourers in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. If the study on the number of orphans here involved in menial jobs is not wrong, then 43% of the child population of 26,53,422 i.e., 11,40,971 children are working in J&K which is far more than the figure of 1,75,630 child laborers of census 2001. A report on child labor in J&K finds more than one lakh child laborers here, most of whom work in the handcraft sector, automobile workshops, brick kilns, in agriculture and as domestic servants in homes ; thousands of children here are seen working as vendors, bus conductors and auto drivers.
The Union Territory can launch child welfare schemes. Also, it can demonstrate care and make efforts to meet the basic needs of all its citizens and lay the foundation of a dignified life for all – including children. Parents, teachers and preachers can play a key role in preventing child labor; they can take care of a child’s health and education.
A key requirement to obtain cooperation against child abuse is awareness. It is an invitation to disillusionment in due course if we accept this offense, child labour. Child rights are essential for a civilized society. Nelson Mandela had said: “Safety and security don’t just happen; they are the result of collective consensus and investment.”
For combating this rising exploitation–child labour– acknowledging its existence in multiple forms and earnestly working for children’s rights is paramount. Only if the authorities, the institutions and society can work together that child labour can be uprooted. Atleast, its occurrence may fall. Creating an environment where children stop working and get enrolled in schools instead, is a must-have move. Childhood should not be a painful stage in one’s life.
(Author is a teacher and RK Columnist. Feedback: [email protected])
