The country needs a comprehensive policy framework to ensure proper rehabilitation and protection of children who have been trafficked and made to work as child labourers so that they don’t fall back into the clutches of those they were rescued from, says Nisha Madan Jha
As the sun sets, a child jingles a few coins in his tiny hands, which are his earnings for working 14 hours straight at a Delhi-based bangle manufacturing unit. It has been just a few months since he moved to Delhi, with a bhaiyya (brother) from his village. Little did he know that his bhaiyya had devised a cunning ploy to push him into the dark and dingy world of child labour. Confined to the factory, he would toil all day and through the night to make bangles that would one day adorn the arms of women.
This is the story of Ashiq, an eight-year-old boy from the hinterlands of Bihar, and that of thousands of children like him, who are trafficked every year and forced to live and unlawfully work in deplorable conditions. Among the children who are rescued from bonded labour, trafficking and abuse, trauma is often a dominant factor impacting their decisions, making them unsociable and aloof, even after being freed and repatriated. The stigma associated with being rehabilitated often pushes the children to believe that they have committed a crime. Their coping mechanism fails to help them re-integrate with other children in the community and they often end up growing into dysfunctional adults.
In the past decades, however, organisations, Government and NGOs have been working diligently at the grassroots with an aim to introduce mechanisms that would not only ensure full protection of the rights of children working as labourers in brick kilns, circuses, textile factories, bangle factories and the carpet industry but also help in rebuilding their lives.
A Nobel Peace Prize for India in 2014 for fighting for the rights of children and youth was an important turning point. Apart from the publicity that the movement received because of the award bestowed upon Kailash Satyarthi, this period was also marked by a significant step forward in the field of protection of child rights by way of improving and amending the existing child protection laws such as the Juvenile Justice Act, the POCSO Act and other provisions that support children in distress. These amendments have further helped a great deal towards creating a safer environment for children in some communities while others still remain vulnerable to incidences of trafficking, forced labour and sexual abuse.
Currently, under the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation Act) 1986, children rescued from labour may receive monetary benefits from the Government of up to `15,000, in addition to their back wages. If the children are found to have been bonded in their employment, there are additional provisions for benefits of up to `3,00,000 under the Central Sector Scheme for the Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers, 2016. The nature of the rehabilitation support available today is plainly financial, and the funds rationed by the Government for providing for the survivors of child labour fall short by almost 60 per cent.
When the rescued children are reunited with their families, they are often looked down upon by their parents and society. Not only this, the employers also threaten the parents. They are often made to believe that being rescued means getting caught and the child is responsible for the loss of income. For impoverished parents and children, this translates into direct pressure and they give in to the threats of the employers. In such situations, factors such as delay in receiving compensation, lack of awareness among parents about the avenues open for their children, social stigma and lack of community support, unavailability of educational and vocational opportunities, poverty and the family’s lack of access to social security schemes forces them to re-enter the world of trafficking and slavery.
Since it’s known that the vulnerability of a potential victim stems from the lack of a feeling of security, it’s really important that the child is empowered and safe, once back home. A comprehensive rehabilitation process must be implemented through a series of interventions that span mental, social, psychological, physical, aptitudinal and scholastic growth of the children.
With a goal to offer proper rehabilitation, shelter homes have been set up across the country that offer support to survivors of the heinous crimes of trafficking and forced labour. Many shelter homes also run programmes to provide immediate care and protection to rescued children.
Rehabilitation programmes have to be more efficient than the short-term solutions that focus only on providing immediate care and support. There should be a pragmatic approach towards designing programmes with realistic time-frames that must replace the current short-term yet seemingly never-ending processes. A comprehensive rehabilitation policy that addresses the current challenges must be introduced. Besides this, efforts must be made to train the stakeholders for effective implementation of laws related to child rights and protection. There is also a need for comprehensive research since there is hardly any documentation on ideal rehabilitation practices. An advocacy campaign must be launched to ensure allocation of adequate funds for effective rehabilitation of children. To operate on a scale as big as required, adoption of technology to efficiently deliver services is imperative.
The need of the hour is to make concerted efforts at the district level in order to create maximum impact. District-level centres should be made with facilities such as hostels, where apart from lodging, a holistic learning environment is provided to children. It is equally important to provide counselling resources to parents. Awareness-building initiatives are also necessary in order to ensure that the activities of agents are monitored. A lot of this work can be executed through consultants and volunteers operating at the panchayat, block and district level in partnership with the local administration. This will not only help us research the issues in-depth but also get to the root causes of child trafficking and the mindsets that cause problems in proper rehabilitation.
Today, after years of continuously learning about the problems faced by children, we have developed insights in fields that not only directly impact their protection and development but also provide a conducive environment for growth. We have greater understanding of how deep-rooted the problems are. The Bal Mitra Grams’ participation-based models have thrown up results.
It has taken India years to recognise the effects of child labour and give at least some attention it really deserves. The significant reforms in the child rights and protection policies have been pivotal in the fight against child labour. However, we still need greater collective effort to be empathetic towards children in need. This would certainly secure the future generations. They are more than capable of striking gold out of whatever they get.
(The writer is former Chairperson, Bihar State Commission for Protection of Child Rights)