Despite a ban, child labour flourishes in India

New Delhi: The focus on child labour is back even as Kailash Satyarthi continues to fight for the rights of children with renewed vigour after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize recently.

Child labour has been illegal in India since 1933. The Constitution stipulates that no child below the age of 14 will be employed in any industry or any kind of hazardous work. Also, the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, strictly outlawed all forms of debt bondage and forced labour.

But the munnas and munnis (young boys and girls) continue to be ubiquitous in cities and towns across India. They work as domestic servants, serve and wash dishes at roadside eateries, restaurants, hotels and tea shops, make crackers, polish shoes and even lift bricks at construction sites.

The state of affairs was already beyond control when activists began their fight to save the childhood of millions of child labourers. They filed Public Interest Litigations that led to the Supreme Court issuing notices to the Federal Government, states and union territories, seeking a complete ban on child labour.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment notified the ban on August 1, 2014 and it came into effect on October 10. The new provision in the Act made it mandatory for the government to rescue children from streets, restaurants and homes and produce them before the Child Welfare Committee before they were sent to shelter homes.

“The Ministry had asked the state governments to initiate a coordinated effort to rescue and rehabilitate children. The offenders were to be penalised under the Child Labour Protection Act and face between three months and a year in prison or a fine of up to Rs20,000 (Dh1,201) or both,” informed Ranjitha, an activist.

Sadly, regardless of laws and claims by the government of eliminating child labour and equipping them with their basic rights of education and shelter, status quo remains and the ban has not made much of a difference.

Children continue to work. The only difference is the addition of more occupations. Now they also sell newspapers and magazines at traffic intersections, work as acrobats and even beg to earn a living.

“Several NGOs have joined hands to root out the evil of child labour from society, but the Herculean task is unlikely to get accomplished unless people become aware about this social evil. It is up to them to consciously take a decision to stop this practice. Else, the mission of people like Satyarthi will fail. While some hundred children will be rescued by him, another thousand will be made to join the labour force,” Ranjitha stated.

Merely passing laws is not the solution, she said. “The problem lies in the implementation of these laws and our track record of past few years proves that we have not been able to grapple the issue. There’s argument among even the educated that poverty forces child labour and the police turn a blind eye on seeing the kids working. But the fact remains that there are few rehabilitation centres for kids, so where will the police send the kids.”

Several other factors have added to the rules being flouted and the Labour Department itself has nothing significant to show. A recent study by Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) on the implementation of the action plan talked about the state’s lack of initiative.

A DCPCR official remarked, “The Steering Committee was formed on the orders of the court in 2011. Its main objective was to review child labour cases every three months. But the committee has held a meeting only once in all these years. If this happens in the capital of the country, where the government has crafted laws to curb child labour, the condition in other states can be guessed.”

Even though the Labour Department claims citizens are legally empowered to curb child labour and residents should approach the Metropolitan Magistrate’s court and report cases of exploitation, no one cares.

Incidentally, India has the largest number of ‘working’ children than any other country in the world and it has 65 million bonded child labourers. Expectedly, poor and uneducated families have the highest percentage of child labourers.

In many cases, their shortsightedness compels parents to take their children out of education, not caring what profession the kids are exposed to, as long as it adds to the family income. Taking advantage of their predicament, across most industries that employ a considerable proportion of children, the wages given to the child are about half of adult wages. That’s the reason why young and ill trained children are highly sought after by employers.

In such scenarios, despite laws and schemes, exploitation of children goes on. Evidently, India has a long way to go before it can be called a child-friendly country. 

CASE STUDIES 

Four-year-old Chhotu and his two-year-old brother Chiku are growing up at construction sites. Their parents are labourers, with no home in the capital. The family lives in makeshift tents and wanders from one place to another. Ironically, they are presently, working at a site next to a school in east Delhi, without giving a thought to their own child’s education. The siblings often watch children come out of the school. Asked if he would like to go to school, Chhotu nods his head to say no. He has work to do and picks up a brick and begins assisting his parents, even as Chiku climbs the bicycle cart. Life is a long ride …. 

Binny is among the thousands of innocent children, who look for any useful thing they can lay their hands on in the pile of garbage that they sort out everyday. “On lucky days, I find broken toys to play. That makes the filthy work worthwhile,” she says shyly. She lives in the capital along with her mother, who is also in the same profession. “Earlier I used to avoid soiling my hands and the stink of the piles of refuse used to give me a headache, but now I don’t mind,” she says. The nine-year-old can count money, but does not know how much she earns on a daily basis. 

Juman and Aslam are rag pickers. Their day starts early and they make rounds of a garbage site several times in the day. Seven-year-old Juman is especially keen on looking for uncrushed mineral water bottles or other plastic stuff, which fetches their father a good amount. There’s safety in numbers, so the two brothers work together. “Sometimes other children try to threaten us, but we can fight them and scare them away,” Juman says. Aslam, 5, is keen to see his photograph in the camera. Unaware of the harsh realities of life, the nonchalant kid makes different poses to see which looks best. 

Parag aspires to someday run a small hotel. He washes dishes and assists his employer to cook and serve parathas at a makeshift kiosk in a city market. The 12-year-old has never gone to school, but is aware what child labour means. Working for the past three years, Parag declines to inform how much he earns every month. “I am treated well by the owner, who treats me like his own son and even helps me if I need money for the family,” he informs. He is careful not to let the police know he is an employee. “I tell everyone he is my uncle.”

Raju, 10, came to live in the capital from Uttar Pradesh along with his uncle. He studies in a night school and occasionally accompanies his uncle to construction sites. “I love to see how buildings come up and have resolved to make a house of my own in the city,” he says confidently. Raju does labour work at sites and makes extra money for his uncle and the two sometimes go to theatres and watch movies. Fond of good clothes, he refuses to wear anything other than jeans and T-shirt. “I am not working out of necessity and do not want to look like a labourer,” he reasons.