Make Child Labour Unacceptable

Editorial:
The child labourers rescued last month from homes across Gangtok, those whom the authorities found in need to be extracted from their places of work, have reportedly been sent back to their families. One does not use the term “reunited with their families” because these were not children who had been snatched away from home. In most cases, their own families had sent them out to work in Gangtok homes. But that does not make it okay. For one, it is a now a criminal offence to employ children below the age of 14 even as domestic servants, for another, it is inhuman to subject such young lives to the trauma of relocation to cultures and lifestyles alien to them.
To make children work, when there is a law which guarantees them education in a proper school at least till they are 14, is a subversion of law and denial of rights which cannot be excused with any justification, even abject poverty. If the impoverished condition of their families is indeed a concern, then instead of feeding on their distress one should contribute towards exerting pressure on governments to siphon less and release more from the handsome number of poverty alleviation and social assistance schemes. If even the extant laws and schemes are better implemented, then the children will receive better nutrition and education living at home and going to school than they do by working as domestic servants. Of all the commitments, even if the concerned governments could ensure flawless delivery of only Right to Compulsory Education and the Mid-Day Meal scheme, so many childhoods will not be lost to domestic chores in other people’s homes. Improved implementation of the MG-NREGA schemes, a less muddled agriculture policy and quicker response to failing rural economies will go a long way towards guaranteeing that people from the underprivileged regions do not get alienated and do not carry the guilt of having farmed out their children to bondage even before they have replaced their baby teeth.
These might appear simplistic, but if the right attention was paid to these issues, a turnaround is possible. If the ‘civil society’ invests the same energy and commitment [as devoted to their version the Lokpal Bill] to the destitution being suffered in areas from where even minor are migrating out, they can build the moral pressure on governments to perform better. In the same vein, if the media pursued these stories with same passion as they reserve for, say a Harbhajan sending a legal notice against an advertisement featuring Dhoni, maybe the right dose of embarrassment will be administered on the policy-makers to pursue more than just brownie points. While these are things that the governments could do, fact remains that engaging a minor even as a domestic servants is now an illegal activity; and yet it manifests openly, fig-leafed by dodgy justifications. The law remains conveniently grey and enforcement shamelessly ignored on the grounds that it is too complicated. These excuses work because of the societal acceptance of child labour - on surface with the veil suggesting that the bonded children are getting a better life and in reality, as a necessary evil [because other alternatives are too expensive]. If child labour has to be eradicated, then this social acceptance of its practise will have to be ended first. Wider awareness on the kind of abuse many of these children suffer in their homes of work and stronger reiteration of their rights which have been snatched away is necessary. This will require more involvement than the occasional rally. The best place to start will be at schools. The young need to be involved and informed because it is their generation which is suffering. Convince the young that child labour needs to be rooted out, and they will bring in the moral pressure required to convince parents not to employ the services of minors and stop concerned authorities from looking the other way. This is necessary, because with it will also come some measure of rehabilitation for the abused children. In the recent Sikkim case, all one knows is that some of the rescued children were sent back to their families and some others sent back to their homes of work with directions that their employers contact the families and send them home. There is no official communication on whether the children received any counselling or compensation. Even if criminal complaints were not processed, Sikkim could have at least displayed the decency of having counselled and compensated [from fines taken from guilty families] the rescued child labourers...