Despite the many measures to curb it, the menace of child labour continues to trouble society and the law enforcing machinery. It is time we got serious
A loose definition of a child labour is one who is under the age of 18 and made to work in some way that harms him/her, physically, mentally or morally. There are a number of constitutional laws on child labour and also provisions for stringent punishment for violators. But child labour remains a major challenge in India.
The reason is that the problem lies not only in society, but in the homes as well of such children. Sadly, parents and guardians, who are supposed to give food, shelter, security and education to their wards, till such time the latter are ready to face the cruel world, instead view them as working hands right from their tender ages, for increasing family income. Children are soft targets and are exploited both by their employers and by their parents. It is, therefore, important to address the issue of child labour from the point of view of parental neglect of duties in bringing up children, along with the help from the establishment.
With better media reporting, news stories of children employed in hazardous industries and as domestic maids and servants, being exploited by their employers and the middlemen from recruiting agencies, keep appearing time to time from every part of the country.
Raids at various places, mostly on the unorganised sector, have unearthed boys as young as 10-12 years, working as bonded labourers, living in the most inhuman conditions — underpaid, underfed, deprived of sufficient sleep and made to work up to 18-20 hours a day. Cases of young girls employed as maids, beaten and even getting sexually exploited by their employers are not unheard of.
There are a number of child welfare organisations, the ‘bachpan bachao’ non-governmental organisations, and human rights groups, that try to keep a vigil on work places, where there are reports of children employed illegally. Also, there are helplines for abused children widely advertised. These helping hands try to put the noose around the neck of unscrupulous employers and their source of recruitment. They even fight court cases against them, till such time, the guilty are convicted and punished. The Government also tries to apply pressures through sanctions and boycotts by cancelling licences of erring factories and agencies, and forcing them to give compensations in some cases.
The menace, however, continues to grow because the problem needs to be addressed from a wider angle, where both the households along with social parameters need to be taken into consideration.
Social activists and also the media for some reason shy away from pointing fingers at the root cause of the problem, which lies at homes of these victims. It is, in most cases, the parents and the guardians of children that are a party to the entire problem. They willingly barter their wards' childhood in exchange of money, even giving false affidavits on their ages. When confronted, the excuse mostly is poverty, too many mouths to feed and large family size, besides alcoholism, domestic violence etc. There is a tendency to shower sympathy on these poor families, and criticise the Government for not doing enough for poor people. But this is not the solution. There is a need to educate these people.
Some hard hitting measures have to be undertaken. There is an urgent need to send out a strong message that accountability would henceforth rest on parents also when they agree to send their children with people who lure them with jobs. They need also to understand that a big recruiting business is flourishing, and that the poor are being conned, in which often a big portion of the promised payments to children is usurped by employers and the middlemen. Sending minor children to work as child labour should attract the most stringent punishment.