By IANS
New Delhi : The sixth World Day Against Child Labour, meant to mobilize people to eradicate the social evil of child labour will be observed Tuesday.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) started observing June 12 as World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 at Geneva to draw attention towards the millions of children who often work under inhumane and dangerous conditions around the world. Campaigns against child labour, testimonies from former child labourers, performances and activities by and for children are held every year on the occasion.
In India, there are more than 12.6 million child labourers, with Uttar Pradesh topping the chart with 1,927,997. Andhra Pradesh and Bihar are next on the list with 1,363,339 and 1,117,500 children respectively working below the legal age of 14.
While the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Oscar Fernandes said that a total of 27,235 child labourers have been rescued in 2006-07 and put in mainstream schools, there are still a large number of kids toiling away in various corners of the country.
Fernandes also said that his ministry and the US Department of Labour have been working on a common project called Indus to eliminate the social menace in 21 identified districts of five states through effective support from the department of education.
Various civil society groups are also putting their heads and hearts together to eradicate this social menace. Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) is one such voluntary group, which works against child labour not only in India but in neighbouring countries as well.
Kailash Satyarthi, who spearheads BBA, told IANS that "Child labour can and will be eradicated. We have to nurture the belief that child labour can be eradicated from the world and it will be. About three decades back, Korea had a lot of child labourers but today they have managed to bring the numbers down tremendously.
"There is a lack of political will in India in tackling this problem effectively. We keep saying that children are our future but the number of child labourers is still very high".
While BBA is organizing rallies against child labour Tuesday in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, their volunteers in New Delhi are taking part in the campaigns against the same issue organized by the Delhi government.
Katha, another voluntary group in Delhi, tries to see this problem from a different perspective. By organizing mobile school vans, which carry books, computers and three teachers to all the traffic signals of the city where street children work, the group actually brings the school to the children.
"Sometimes these children who work on the roads are the only bread earners of their families. Hence, their parents would not let them leave their work to go to school. This initiative enables them to work but study for three hours everyday as well," said Parvinder Kaur, director of the programme.
Each year, the World Day Against Child Labour has focused on one of the Worst Forms of Child labour listed in Convention No.182, starting with the Unconditional Worst Forms, such as child trafficking in 2003.
This was then followed by child domestic labour in 2004 and child labour in mining in 2005. In 2006, it focused on the findings of the new ILO global report on child labour – "The end of child labour: within reach", released on May 4, 2006.
When the children's nimble fingers scrub oil from vessels or sweep the floor, stitch in embroidery units or mould glass bangles, the light of hope starts fading. Fierce determination, wholehearted participation, a motivated political will and passion are required to tackle and eradicate this social evil.