Let me rephrase that. How many times have you helped a child who is working as child labour?The famous CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION AND REGULATION) ACT was laid down in 1986. It states that children below the age of 14 are prohibited from any kind of employment. But it fails to explain how to implement it and under what circumstances. This results in no change whatsoever, while child labour is openly practised in Indian culture.Later in 2016, provisions were added stating the exact amendments to protect children below the age of 14 from child labour and those below 18 from working in hazardous conditions, eg., coal mines, cotton industries, roadside dhabas (it’s a common sight in our country). It also protects a child from being sold for prostitution or begging or from making any pornographic content.
Why is it called an “Evil practice”?
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), child labour should be prohibited because IT TAKES AWAY CHILDHOOD, and violates child protection and children’s rights. Regardless, each one of us is entitled to a childhood. It is postulated that poverty and child exploitation go hand in hand and similar statistics were observed. 9% of children in lower-middle-income countries, 7% of children in upper-middle-income countries, and 1% of children in upper-income countries suffer from child labour.
Child labour is a bigger problem
Child labour is a bigger problem because it touches the most sensitive category of society, the children. Sometimes, we hear a child’s suffering and ignore it, sometimes we see them suffering and still ignore it, and sadly at times, we are directly or indirectly involved in performing the heinous act. Many studies suggest that the makeup we apply, the clothes and jewellery we wear, in fact, the houses we live in have touched the hands of those unlucky ones. Below listed are the reasons why we should banish child labour.
- Exploitation of children:Child labour is a very common practice in low and middle-income areas because it’s easy to manipulate or force them to work for low or no wages. Exploitation related to their work timings should also be considered.
- Poor health conditions are common: Studies have shown that 50% of child labourers are suffering from skin diseases and greater are anaemic, lacking the essential nutrition required for growth. Studies have shown they are emotionally deprived, they suffer from anxiety and antisocial behavioural skills, low esteem and problems in forming relationships.
- Lack of education: : Marginalized situations force them to pick up ‘tools instead of books’. With basic education, it’s easy to secure a decent job but due to their poor conditions they lack the motivation to pursue proper education.
- Inculcates Nation’s poverty :Studies have shown that adults become jobless if children are employed. There are two reasons why this happens. Firstly, children take less wages and secondly, they are unaware of their rights. Pertaining to severe forms of exploitation should be stopped.
- The poor get poorer: The only way a child can come out of such situation is through education because they bluffed into thinking that they have no option but to continue doing the same kind of job in order to survive. They actually suffer more when they are used as cheap labour.
What are the solutions?
- Awareness: The term itself speaks a lot. We should make people understand the importance of the eradication of child labour. Explain to sufferers their rights, and of course, if we see a person forcing it on someone, we should take action against them. We should also read more about laws pertaining to this subject and share it.
- Report to police: The worst of things happen to children who indulge in acts of child labour. Either they are forced to beg under a mafia organization, sold for prostitution or used for pornographic content and much more. The best we can do is to report any such practices to the police to protect them.
- Seek help from NGOs: There are many organizations working to eradicate child prostitution, organized begging and exploitation. We can either be part of those organizations or we can inform them of any such acts. This can save a few by giving them the opportunity to have a normal future and integrate them into the social structure 12th of June is marked to spread awareness against child labour. Indian law states that a child is entitled to education despite their background/ class/caste or creed. Policies like free education, mid-day meals, and free books/uniforms for kids have encouraged them to leave substandard and inadequate conditions.
But are we doing our part? Lastly, the advancements have restored faith but lot of work is required to make India a better place for children. Let me end this by quoting “Birthplace is bestowed upon us, so little empathy is a must”.
#EndChildLabour
