World Day Against Child Labour observed with a lingering hope

By IANS

New Delhi : World Day Against Child Labour was observed Tuesday amid some worrying statistics and a lingering hope to fight this social evil that threatens to strangulate the future of the world. There are more than 12.6 million child labourers in India.


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Global March Against Child labour, a worldwide movement of child rights group, teacher organisations and trade unions, is observing the day as 'Stop Child Labour in Agriculture Day' by organizing rallies, demonstrations and meetings in many of its member countries.

Active in 140 countries, the movement calls for urgent action to stop child labour in agriculture sector. An estimated 150 million children are engaged in this sector, which form 70 percent of the total child labour force in the world.

Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of the movement as well as of Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (BBA), a civil society group in India, said: "It is unethical to eat delicious food and wear expensive clothes which are produced by half fed, half naked and even enslaved children trapped in agriculture worldwide."

Uttar Pradesh tops the list in India with 1,927,997 child labourers. Andhra Pradesh and Bihar are next with 1,363,339 and 1,117,500 children respectively, working below the legal age of 14.

Gerry Pinto, advisor of Butterflies, a voluntary group working on child rights issues across the country, said: "On this day we are trying to swallow the frustration of being unable to do much to stop child labour."

Saying that April 30 is observed as Child Labour Day by all the civil society groups in India instead of June 12, which has been fixed by International Labour Organisation (ILO), Pinto said that not much work has been done in this context.

"The problem is that all the international organizations put up slogans against child labour but when it comes to doing some real work like recognizing and addressing this issue and putting pressure on the various governments to address the same, they don't do much," Pinto told IANS.

He said: "For instance, in September last year there was a ban on domestic child labour and child labour in eateries and 'dhabas' in our country. Before that in the 1986 legislation, 57 occupations have already been identified where child labour is banned.

"But when you walk down the road you still see children working everywhere. The implementation has not been effective. It's not enough just to make rules."

Satyarthi echoed similar sentiments. "There is 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," said the noted civil society activist.

The Indian government has prohibited the employment of children below the age of 14 years in 15 hazardous occupations under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986.

Yet, more than 20,000 prosecutions had to be launched against violators during the last three years in various states and union territories, said a statement released Tuesday by the ministry for labour and employment.

Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Oscar Fernandes, says his ministry and the US Department of Labour have been working on a common project called Indus to eliminate the social menace in 21 districts of five states through effective support from the department of education.

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