Child Labour

Children are the assets and hope of future and Childhood is the most important part of ones life. To be deprived of education at the early age when they are unable to understand the need or use of it is a crime that we as adults are doing to them. It is easy to sympathize with kids on seeing them clean the waste on the tables after you eat or to write articles to enlighten others on the issue but to do the little that we can to help them, requires a ‘resolve to act’ from each of us.

It was the smiling innocent face of a little kid at a Punjabi Dhaba near the office where we go for lunch that prompted me to write something on Childhood and Child Labour in our country. It was the second time that we went there for lunch and this little tot captures the attention of everyone who gets in there with his ‘Excuse Me’ plea when interrupted amidst his work of cleaning the tables that we dirty. The smile on his face is innocent truly oblivious of what he is losing.

Childhood is the most vibrant and important part of our life where we are gifted with the natural curiosity to know and learn, when the curve of learning has a whooping high slope. But sadly, children are the ones who are the most easily exploited.

I was forced to google on Free and Compulsory education guaranteed by our constitution to children below the age of fourteen; at least for the sake of understanding the loopholes in the system which has made the implementation of this guaranteed right a seemingly unrealizable dream. Here are few points that caught my attention.

. India has the dubious distinction of being the country with the largest number of child laborers. Statistics reveal that we have 17 million children working in agricultural, construction, household, manufacturing and various other forms of employment.

. The Supreme Court has already held in 1993, that citizens of India have a fundamental right to education up to 14 years of age. Undeniably, this right remains largely unimplemented.

. Socio-Cultural and Economic conditions of parents force them to send their children to work .

Karnataka now has a State Resource Centre on Child Labour. All individuals and civil society organizations interested to be part of the initiative may contact it. The Centre also plans to bring out a bimonthly e-journal on Child Labour, for which it welcomes contributions from development professionals.

Call Basavraj K, Deputy Coordinator of the State Resource Centre on 26531258 , 26531259 , 26531260 ( Extension number 152 ) for further details.