[Courtesy: flickr.com]
Yesterday, I visited a garage for motor-bike washing. All the employees of the garage were busy in one activity or the other. I asked one of them "Gaadi dhool jaayegi kya?"
"Wahan khadi kar dijiye, ladka aa raha hai dho dega"
"Oye Bhalu, kahan hai be?"
"Bhalu?"
"Haan Bhaalu humara ek khatarnaak jaanwar hai"
Then a small kid comes and starts washing my bike. After washing, he asks me for Rs. 10 to get varnish. While he was polishing, I ask him "Teri umar kitni hai?"
The boy replied "Sir, 9 saal"
"Kitne paise dete hai yahan pe tujhe?"
"3000 rupiyye"
"Paise kya saare ghar pe deta hai?"
"Haan Sir"
"Aur papa kya kartey hai tere?"
"Upar hai"
"Upar matlab?"
"Chhat pe"
"And Mummy?"
"Dono Saath hi hai"
"Kaise?"
"Ek TB se, ek Cancer se"
"Ghar kahan hai pe hai phir?"
"Punjab mein?"
"Phir tujhe yahan kaun leke aaya?"
"Garage waale bhaiyya, bhaiyya acchey hai"
"Tera school jaane ka mann nahi karta?
"Karta hai, yeh kaam chhod ke chala jaaunga 3 mahine ke baad. Mera naam bhi likha hua hai school mein. Abhi kuchh paise kamaa lun phir jaaunga. Achha aap mujhe 60 rupiyye hi do, polish aapki thi naa isiliye?
"Chal mein chalta hun, waise naam kya hai tera?"
"Dilip Kumar"
"Arrey waah, tu to yaar sach much ka Dilip Kumar hai", saying this I leave the garage and came back to my house. All along the drive back to my home, I was just thinking, what can be done to save this child. Complaint doesn't make sense, as the garage owner has given this singled child a new life to live. He is feeding him food and also behaves well. I cannot take him home as he does have a home in Punjab and he has a brother and moreover I do not have a stable future of my own.
The Pain:
There are many-a-times when I am confronted with such situations and maybe we all are, at least in a country like ours. I tell you, it is very painful to see when those tender hands are subjected to harsh chores and occupations. Some of these works are even difficult for adults like us.
[Courtesy: webjournalismindu.blogspot.in]
Many of the children are subjected to human trafficking. The recent case of Baby Falak is an eye-opener.
For those who are not aware of Baby Falak, you may please follow the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Falak
The problem is grave and something must be done urgently as child labour not only ruins the childhood of innocent kids but also gives birth to a host of other problems as Human trafficking and social menace like crime, terrorism, poverty, illiteracy, health related diseases, abuse etc.
I have seen many kids having the most gracious of smiles picking up rags in the midnight near community markets, wiping car mirrors at traffic lights, doing acrobats in railway bogies, taking orders in Wine model shops and many more.
Sweet little girls have been made amputated and forced to beg at crossings and stations. There is a nexus between the local police constables and traffickers.
My heart cries out over the small kids who are sold as exchange items for begging in Connaught Place and Karol Bagh. You name and you have it, Rs. 2000 for a blind singing boy of 4 years, Rs. 3000 for a girl 1 year old, Rs. 5000 for a 5 year boy without limbs and what not. These are not the authentic figures but it was what I heard from a rickshaw puller in Karol Bagh. Most of these kids are imported from Rajasthan, Punjab and Bihar. There is an entire racket of such trafficking in operation from Ghaziabad to Gurgaon to Rajasthan. I cannot claim any authenticity of this information, but I believe we all aren't completely blind to observe this.
What do our Laws Say:
It is not that Government or the people of India aren't aware of child labour. It has been given acknowledged in even our laws like Constitution, CrPC, IPC, RTE, The Child Labour (Prohibition And Regualtion) Act, 1986 And Rules, etc. But it seems that child-labour has not been taken seriously as polio vaccination or green revolution.
As per the Constitution of India:
Article 21- A:
The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 6-14 years in such manner as the State may by law determine.
Article 23 (1):Traffic in human beings, beggary and other similar forms of forced labour are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.
It has been clearly spelt out what is desired from the government and what is expected from the people of India.
Definition of Child labour and categories of child labour can be found in the following document:
Whereas, Child Labour Act can be read from:
Right to Education can be read from: http://righttoeducation.in/sites/default/files/rte_amendment_act-2012.pdf
[Courtesy: ghsindia.wordpress.com]
The Reality and the Check:
All so done, but the fact remains that we have utterly failed to address this issue. There are still 12,666,377 children working in the age group of 5 - 14 years (Source: http://www.ncpcr.gov.in/Reports/Data_on_Child_Labour_Census_1971_to_2001.pdf)
12 million is 1% of Indian population and a significant % of all children in the country.
Child-labour as such is a socio-economic problem and the very extent and nature poses great difficulties in its eradication. I believe I am not that a learned person to chalk out a road-map to tackle this problem nor can I enlist all the possible solutions towards it. But, what I believe is that child-labour is not at all a problem if we could at least follow certain things such as:
1. Strict enforcement of laws: Whether it is CrPC or IPC or RTE, the administrators (esp. civil servants) have an important role than their political masters. They are the real executors of the law of the land. They are more accessible to the people and the society. They should work for a good cause. Civil servants are the nation-builders and they cannot build a strong structure if it is maligned and weakened with issues like child-labour. India cannot develop if its young don’t even know what a country means to them. A hungry and starving country would die no sooner than longer.
2. Political Will: Administration is at the mercy of political masters who by way of their will exercise control over it. Our earlier political masters used to be the most revered people in the world, why can't the present generation try to work to build up the same image. All it takes is a good political will for a change, a change for the betterment, a change for respect and humanity. Exercise your authority over local and district administration if they aren't working any good. You are the voice of people, respect our voices, and hear us out. You have kids, so do we, don't you love your niece and nephews?
3. Social, Economic and Administrative Reforms: The root cause of entering into the ever-circling loop of misery and backwardness of any nation is hunger/poverty and illiteracy . You cannot make your mind work if your belly is empty. Hunger and starvation leads to low productivity, heavy expenditures on health and sanitation, increasing illiteracy, unemployment, social inequalities and associated crimes and ultimately child labour. This one-string chain can break if all important links called POVERTY & ILLITERACY be tackled on a war-footing level. All other problems will weed out automatically
4. Clarity and Flexibility in Rules: Adoption rules should be made flexible with more transparency in the working of Adoption centres. Government should monitor adoption procedures and track the development of children in such charity homes. Rehabilitation plans and rules related to rescue children should be clearly spelt out. The biggest problem is of ownership. If I rescue a singled-out child and take it to the police station, the police interrogates me as if I am the convict. If I keep it, police comes one day saying I have kidnapped the same child. I cannot hand it over to the charity homes as they refuse to accept it saying that they are already overbooked and I am kept on my toes to search 10 other charity homes nearby. I know there are adoption and rehabilitation rules but Government should see that they are carried out smoothly. NGOs working in this regard could do better with some support from the government.
5. Moral Ethics: Treat every child as your own child and you will feel the difference. After all a child is the father of a man, a child can teach you the things which you might not have learnt so far. Do not harass them, do not abuse them, treat them as if you care for them. Sponsor a child, Adopt a child, Educate a child, Do whatever you can with the best of your abilities. Avoid employing a child in your shop, business or home. Remember, you were also a child someday. You would certainly like to give the best to your child that you yourself could not get.
Try giving the same to some unfortunate child also. You would do great for humanity and for your country.
As someone rightly said "You can be the change, you want to see in the world", BE THAT CHANGE!
It is only our united effort that can change things and help us build a great nation.
Our future should not be left to scavenging, they should get a childhood full of smiles, tenderness and sweet memories.
SAVE MY NATION! SAVE MY CHILDHOOD
No comments:
Post a Comment