India Must Ban Child Labor

GORDON BROWN IN HUFFINGTON POST

Pressure is mounting on the Indian Parliament to end child labour after 150,000 Indians signed an abolition petition demanding an immediate change in the child labour laws. The petition follows the recent revelation of slave labour conditions under which young children of eight and nine were making Christmas decorations. Currently dangerous work is outlawed in India — but there is no blanket ban yet on child labour under the age of fourteen. As a result India accounts for some of the worst excesses in global child labour; overall fifteen million children worldwide work full time when they should be at school.

This week the children who escaped slave conditions have spoken of their fate and about their ambitions for the future. During their horrific ordeal they were trafficked, exploited, imprisoned and denied food and their stories underline the urgent action needed to end child labour. They would still be making tree decorations and other trinkets but for the courageous rescue carried out by Kailash Satyarthi and his co-leaders of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) and Global March Against Child Labour (GMACL).

Their captors were slave masters who had them trafficked from Indian provinces. Often their parents were tricked into believing they were leaving to be given free education.

Their stories, recounted in a new film published on our website EducationEnvoy.org, reveal a pattern of child abuse. The first child featured on the film is eleven year old Rahim from Malman Nagariain. From the moment he boarded a train to India’s capital he became a prisoner and was eventually confined to a dark and dingy sweatshop in LNJP colony. He was forced to work 18 hours a day with only two recesses of ten minutes each for eating. He was never allowed to leave the premises and had to cook food for himself and his employer inside the sweatshop. He was often scolded and hit for being slow at work. His employer did not pay him a single rupee for his work despite being promised INR1500 per month. Now free he wants to study hard and become a soldier.

Imran is eleven and hails from the Katihar district in Bihar. He was indentured to an employer who promised he could send home money to support his family. In the asphyxiating sweatshop, which also doubled up as his living quarters, Imran had to work 14 hours a day. While he produced quality Christmas ornaments and gifts for export, he was never paid anything.

Imran will find it difficult to recover from his ordeal as his health suffered having to spend endless hours inhaling chemicals and adhesives. Though he is now free from the shackles of slavery and wants to go to school, the injuries he endured may be lasting, standing in the way of his ambition to be a teacher. He feels strongly that no child should experience what he went through.

Aslam, twelve, is a native of Sipur village, Azam Nagar in the Katihar district. Despite being promised a good education he too ended up in the same dingy sweatshop in Delhi. Like the other rescued children he worked very long days, sleeping in the same room where he worked. He was never paid a single rupee. Interestingly he too now wants to be a teacher.

Abdul came from the same village as Aslam. His parents sold him after they were promised their son would receive training to help him get a job. Instead he worked from 10am until midnight every day for months. He is now at BBA’s transit Mukti Ashram rehabilitation centre whilst the legal formalities of his repatriation are completed so he can go home. Like Rahim, he wants to be soldier when he grows up.

These boys tell similar stories — from when they were trafficked through to being eventually rescued — but they are only four of around fifteen million children not at school because they are forced to work.

Only a bold change in the law and the policing of it will change the plight of these child slaves. So when the Indian parliament reconvenes in February, the Global March Against Child Labour is seeking a change in the law which bans forever child labour under fourteen and restricts the minimum age to eighteen. The bill has been drafted. Politicians of all parties support it. It just needs the time required to be heard in Parliament so it can be voted through and passed into law.

Join us at EducationEnvoy.org in demanding the Indian people finally abolish child labour. Children should be putting up decorations not making them; the only work they should be doing is school work.

Let’s make 2013 the year child labour is consigned to history.

Names have been changed in this article for the protection of those concerned.

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; UN Special Envoy for Global Education

Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir flags off march against child labour, trafficking

TIMES OF INDIA

GUWAHATI: Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir flagged off a 300-km march against of child labour and trafficking in the city on Saturday. The march was organized by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan and Global March against Child Labour in association with the state government and Assam State Legal Services Authority.

“Mere enforcement of laws will not help reduce the problem of child labour and trafficking. The mindset of people has to be changed to remove these problems from the society,” the chief justice said.

Despite the Right to Education Act, which makes education a fundamental right, many children are still deprived of education. This is because the act has not been implemented properly, Kabir said. According to the Child Labour Abolition Act, 1986, children below 14 years of age cannot be engaged in work, but there are several households, offices and food joints where children are engaged. “Laws will not bring about any change. It is the people who should take the responsibility to bring about a change in the prevailing custom,” he said.

“Trafficking is also becoming a curse in the region. The trafficking of the elder girl child is the worst as these girls are trafficked, forced to work as bonded labour and even engaged in prostitution,” he added.

Bonded Child Labour

MINISTRY OF LABOUR PRESS RELEASE

The bonded labour system has been abolished throughout the country w.e.f 25th October, 1975 under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Ordinance which was replaced by Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. As and when existence of bonded labour is detected, such persons are identified for rehabilitation. The responsibility of identifying and rehabilitating the freed bonded labourers lies with the respective State Governments.

In order to assist the State Governments in the task of rehabilitation of identified and released bonded labourers, the Centrally Sponsored Plan Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour is in operation since May, 1978. Under the Scheme, rehabilitation assistance @ Rs. 20,000/- per bonded labour is provided which is equally shared by the Central and State Government. The Central Government takes appropriate action on National Human Rights Commissions reports or references on rescued bonded labourers for release of central assistance to the concerned State Government under the scheme.

The Government is implementing the National Child Labour Project Scheme since 1988. The scheme seeks to adopt a sequential approach with focus on the rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations and processes in the first instance. Under the Scheme the surveys are conducted to identify children working in hazardous occupations and processes. Of the children identified, those in the age group 5-8 years are mainstreamed directly to formal education system through the SSA, Working Children in the age Group 9-14 years are rehabilitated through the special schools. Children rescued/withdrawn from work are enrolled in the special schools, where they are provided with bridge education, vocational training, nutrition, stipend, health care etc. before being mainstreamed into formal education system. The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986, prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in 18 Occupations and 65 Processes. The Act regulates the working conditions of children where they are not prohibited from working. Any person who employs a child in any occupation or process where employment of children is prohibited under the Child Labour Act, is liable for punishment with imprisonment or with fine. Further, the Ministry launches awareness generation campaigns against the evils of child labour and enforcement of child labour laws through electronic and print media at the center as well as at the district level.

The Minister of State for Labour & Employment Shri K. Suresh gave this information in reply to a written question in the Lok Sabha today whether identification of bonded child labourers in various industries in a very casual manner is resulting in the engagement of children in those places; whether the Government is also aware of the National Human Rights Commission report on rescued bonded child labourers who are still waiting for rehabilitation and compensation; and the measures taken by the Government for speedy identification and rehabilitation of rescued child labourers in the country.

Finally, the will for the right ban

ENAKSHI GANGULY THUKRAL IN THE HINDU

The Cabinet decision to seek total prohibition of child labour is a step long overdue

The Cabinet Committee has passed the proposal seeking a total ban on employing children under 14 years and of 14-18 year olds in hazardous occupations. When passed in Parliament as law, it will be a huge milestone in the journey that many of us had started in the mid-1980s. This also marks a milestone in my own personal journey as a child rights activist.The first time I engaged with this issue was in 1986 when the government was drafting the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 (CLPRA). Activists were protesting against the proposed law that would allow children to work in “non hazardous” occupations below the age of 14 years and in all occupations, hazardous and non-hazardous, beyond that age. We saw this as a violation of the basic right to childhood, as children as young as six and seven years were employed and leading horrifying lives.The law was passed and since then, India has had a law that for all practical purposes, that allows children to work. Over the years, activists have been advocating, fighting and campaigning on child labour throughout the country so that the government recognised the gravity of the problem and showed the political will to address it.

Leads to poverty

Child labour is a harsh reality, we were told by the government, children of the poor must work or how will they will survive?

This was the very argument that led to India’s declaration to Article 32 to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child when the government ratified the Convention in 1992, stating that “… being aware that it is not practical immediately to prescribe minimum ages for admission to each and every area of employment in India — the Government of India undertakes to take measures to progressively implement the provisions of article 32 ….”

And hence even while India marched into economic growth and its place as a world superpower, child labour continued with legal support.Child rights activists were clear that child labour leads to poverty and not vice versa; child labour was a reality because without doubt, employers preferred children as they could be paid less, made to work longer hours and beaten into submission: the only way to address child labour and poverty was to ensure that child labour was banned, every child was in school and that they were replaced by adults who were paid at least minimum wages.

Educating children

But, the child labour law was in direct disharmony with the Fundamental Right to Education after (86th Amendment to the Constitution, 2002) and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) passed in 2009. All children had the right to education but how could children be at school and at work at the same time?A public Interest litigation (PIL) filed by HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, M.V. Foundation and Social Jurist in 2005, for the first time raised this contradiction between the two laws in the Supreme Court, which issued a notice on December 12, 2005, to the Centre seeking enforcement of the right to education of every child in the age group of six to 14 by abolishing child labour in all its forms. But the government did not pay heed.

Moreover, even as raids and rescues of child labour revealed exploitation and abuse, CLPRA did not make child labour a cognisable offence. It was the Campaign against Child Labour (CACL) and the Campaign against Child Trafficking (CACT) that drew the government’s attention to this as did HAQ, a member of the Central Advisory Board on Child Labour. This issue was addressed somewhat in 2007, when the rules for the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (JJA), in Section 26 of JJA made child labour a cognisable offence, bringing some relief. However, now there was a contradiction between JJA and CLPRA. JJA covered all children under 18 years in hazardous sectors, while CLPRA remained restricted to under 14 year olds.

Meanwhile, India was under tremendous international pressure to recognise child labour as a problem. Big companies under flak from activists, began to opt for “child labour free” declarations for the products they bought from, or produced in India. U.N. agencies such as the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child to which India has reported three times (the last report is due for discussion) raised questions about India’s continued stand on child labour being a harsh reality and therefore not possible to eliminate.The present move of the government to finally ban all child labour below the age of 14 years and in hazardous labour between 14-18 years is a coming together of all these efforts. It will finally resolve contradictions between the different laws.Better late than never! Of course, this is only the first stage to its becoming law, and we hope that Parliament will pass the proposal making it a law.

Will the law alone lead to the elimination of child labour? Perhaps not. After all, any change on the ground is dependent on the successful implementation of the law and this is an area in which India lags behind severely. And hence the battle for implementation of the law, once it is passed, will have to continue.But let us not be sceptical for now. Let us recognise and rejoice that this will be a giant leap in the history of child rights in India. For the first time, after over two and a half decades of struggle, the government has recognised that despite child labour being a “harsh reality,” the law must be forward looking. Instead of law reflecting reality, it must be designed to change it.

(Enakshi Ganguly Thukral is co-director of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights.)

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“No one really looks for poor man’s missing child’’

Bindu Shajan Perappadan in THE HINDU

“The child of the poor who goes missing is just a number in the police record, it is only when a rich man’s child goes missing that the media, the police and the politicians really bother,’’ says Raj Kumar, who along with his wife continue to wait for the return of their eight-year-old daughter Kajol who went missing in April 2010 from in front of her house in Nangloi village.

The same month five other children, all under ten years of age, went missing from the same unauthorised colony.

“Some were picked up on their way from schools, others in the market place and a girl from the area never returned home from the nearby playground where she was last seen playing with her friends from the same locality.’’

After their child (Kajol) went missing Raj Kumar and his wife, who have four other children and sell second-hand clothes for a living, did the usual rounds of the police station, local leaders and even participated in a protest held by parents of missing children at Jantar Mantar organised by a non-government organisation some years ago.

“Sadly it all amounted to nothing. We have no news about our girl. Some say she might have been pushed into prostitution and it is a thought that does not allow us to sleep at night. I can’t remember the last time I saw my wife smile. The fear of what our child is undergoing does not let us rest. It feels like some body is choking us all the time,’’ says a tearful Raj Kumar.

Thirteen children go missing each day from the Capital, according to the Delhi Government’s reply to a Right to Information Report sought by non-government organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan, working in the area of child rescue.

Deena Nath, who works in the area of child rescue with Bachpan Bachao Andolan, says: “Areas in Delhi which have unauthorised colonies, or where the concentration of migrant workers is high, report the maximum number of missing children. Though the police have become a lot more sensitive to the issue now and are prompt in registering a first information report, there is a lot that can be done in terms of follow-up action. ”

Rakesh Senger of Bachpan Bachao Andolan says: “Areas of Delhi including Jahangirpuri, Sangam Vihar, Mandalawi have seen the maximum number of children going missing in the past few years. These are areas where the migrant population from Bihra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal is very high. People come in here because of the acute poverty that they face back home. They come to Delhi in the hope of a better living and even good education for their children. Once in the Capital they are forced to stay in slum clusters without any social security and their children immediately become vulnerable to crimes against them.’’

Former member of a Child Welfare Committee, Delhi, Mr. Raj Mangal Prasad says: “The parents are prompt to report a missing child, the police too plays role but it is the lack of co-ordination between the six Child Welfare Committees monitoring eleven districts in the Capital that fails these children. There is an urgent need to rectify this anomaly.’’

And it is probably this inability of the Government to act in time, apathy of the police and the lack of co-ordination between the vigilance and supporting agencies that has caused so much anguish to the parents of Sonu, who has been missing from the Jahangirpuri A-block area of Delhi for the past three years.

His mother Lilawati says: “My husband runs a small shop in the area. After our son went missing we did everything in our power to look for him. He was around 6-7 years old when he went missing. The police helped us in registering a case but after that nothing much has been heard from them. When we go to politicians they tell us that they have to worry about missing children across the country and that our case was just one of the many that comes to them. We now don’t know which agency to turn to for help. Sadly no one is really looking for a poor man’s missing child.’’

Same is the case with Depali who went missing from Jahangirpuri A-block two years ago. Depali’s father Ram Kewal, who works as a rickshaw-puller, says: “What can a poor man do. In case he goes looking for his child who is missing what he will earn for his family. I have three other children to look after and after running around for two years looking for my daughter I now we feel defeated. My poverty has forced me to abandon the search for my child. ’’

Delhi Women and Child Welfare Minister Kiran Walia says: “The problem of missing children is being taken up as a priority and we have been in talks with senior officials from Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa to set up an instant police alert for trafficked girls. Children forced to work, sold in adoption rackets and pushed into prostitution are all areas of concern. The police have been made aware and sensitised about the problem. Our department has put up pictures of missing children on its website and we also post their pictures in newspapers. We are working in partnership with various organisations to rescue, identify and restore missing children. There is, of course, a need to be more alert and active.’’

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KIDS BELONG IN SCHOOL NOT KITCHEN

MALLICA JOSHI IN THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

Talk to residents who have hired an underage domestic help and you will soon see them clamouring to justify their actions. “At least she is getting three square meals here. She would have died in her village”, “We treat her very well. We give her new clothes twice a year and also let her watch television. She wouldn’t get these things at home”, and “We take her along for all our vacations. Last year we took her to Singapore in an airplane”.

These are the usual protestations you would hear from those trying to justify their crime. “What most of these people do not understand, or choose to ignore, is that the girl should be in school, just like their children are. She should get the emotional support of her family and should be given the right to make informed choices,” said Rishi Kant, member, Shakti Vahini, an NGO.

What needs to change in the mindset of the middle and upper-middle class which is the primary employer of child domestic workers. Hindustan Times spoke to a number of families who have employed children to work in their homes most of these families have young children of their own. In fact the child domestic workers are hired primarily to take care of these children. But none of these families thought what they were doing was illegal.

“Unless this mindset does not change and the laws don’t become stricter, trafficking is here to stay,” Kant added.

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Concerted efforts will weed out trafficking

Concerted efforts will weed out trafficking

MALLICA JOSHI IN THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

Picked up from Simdega district in Jharkhand, Meena was first taken to Patna and then to Delhi by train. She stayed in the national Capital for a week after which she was put on a bus for Ahmedabad. In a story traversing four states, the 13-year-old found herself changing hands four times after which she was finally rescued by the police from a house where she was working as a domestic maid.

Meena’s story indicates how the challenge of trafficking needs coordinated efforts by different states. The growing menace of child trafficking can only be curbed if state agencies formulate laws and work together.

“Political will is very important. It will not help if Delhi alone follows all guidelines. We need a strong coordinated effort by the state governments and police force of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Delhi. The Juvenile Justice Act needs to be followed in letter and spirit in all states and the Child Welfare Committees need to be made functional,” said Raajmangal Prasad, child rights activist.

While child trafficking is an organised crime, the investigation and prosecution of traffickers is lackadaisical.”Inter-state investigation in such cases is very weak. They are not linked from the source states to the destination area,” said Rishi Kant, member, Shakti Vahini, an NGO working in the field of child rights.

While the union home ministry (MHA) has started Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTU) in 225 districts in the country, training and sensitisation of the police is yet to be completed.

“While the AHTUs have been instrumental in rescuing a large number of children, the network needs to be expanded. We have already held a number of training sessions for police personnel to sensitise them. We need to get the message out that the trafficked women are not the culprits. They are, rather, the victims of circumstances,” said Praveen Kumari Singh, director (SR), MHA. The non-implementation of the provisions of the Integrated Child Protection System (ICPS), which talks about identifying vulnerable families and supporting them, is also adding to the woes.

“ICPS can ensure that a lot of poor families and their children don’t have to migrate but its non-implementation remains a big drawback,” Prasad added.

Traffickers pushing girls as house helps

HINDUSTAN TIMES

Faizan Haider & Mallica Joshi, New Delhi, July 23, 2012

In a dilapidated ‘placement agency’ in Delhi’s Kotla Mubarakpur, the fate of an 11-year-old girl is being sealed. “She can wash, sweep and cook. She is hardworking and will not give you any trouble. If she does, you can come back for a replacement,” says an agent who fixes deals, selling hundreds of minor girls as domestic helps every year.

In return, all that’s required is a one-time fee of Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 2,500 per month thereafter. What’s not required is the girl’s consent. According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, while trafficking of minor girls has increased, the number of girls being sold and bought for prostitution has gone down. Instead, leading NGOs claim that trafficked minors are being increasingly employed as domestic helps.

“In 2011, 862 cases of trafficking were reported in comparison to 679 in 2010 – an increase of 27%. During the same period, selling and buying of girls for prostitution decreased by 13.1% and 65.4% respectively,” said a police officer.

Money, it seems, is the driving force behind this shift. “Out of the 325 children rescued by us in 2011, 162 were working as domestic helps. An agent earns between Rs. 5,000- Rs. 10,000 for selling a girl to a brothel, while he can get a commission of at least Rs. 20,000 if he sells her to a household,” said Rishi kant, executive director of NGO Shakti Vahini.

Girls, mostly in the age group of 10 to 15, are smuggled by organised gangs from Jharkhand. After speaking to several placement agencies, Hindustan Times found that the price range and age of domestic helps can be negotiated, with agents even willing to come home and talk.

The Delhi government is yet to enact a law that makes registration of placement agencies mandatory. A survey by NGOs of the 2300-odd agencies in the city revealed that only 364 of them were registered under the Commercial Establishment Act.

(Inputs from Neelam Pandey)

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Compensation meant for rescued child workers seldom reaches them

PUBLISHED IN THE HINDU

“It is essential that the system is made more transparent by having the Labour Department reveal the details of the penalties levied and compensation paid to the child workers” said Supreme Court lawyer . Rescued child workers seldom get the compensation or benefits under various schemes they are entitled to and often end up forced into working like bonded labourers due to the same.

Supreme Court lawyer Ravi Kant, also President of NGO Shakti Vahini, which has been actively involved in the rescue of child workers in Delhi and elsewhere, said less than 20 per cent of the rescued children are getting the compensation meant for them.

“The idea behind imposing the Rs.20,000 fine was to make it act as a deterrent, but I do not know how effective it has proved as a tool,” Mr. Kant said.

For the welfare of the children, he said, it is essential that the system is made more transparent by having the Labour Department reveal the details of the penalties levied and compensation paid to the child workers. Mr. Kant said the Supreme Court had also laid down that forced work by children without wages be booked under the Bonded Labour Act. This was also meant to provide the benefits of the Indira Vikas Yojana, to enable one member of the family get a job and enable the family access to ration supply as under the Below Poverty Line category that provides for the cheapest rations.

But even here, the implementation has left a lot to be desired and only a small fraction of the rescued children actually get the benefits of this scheme. A senior Labour Department official agreed that less than 20 per cent of the rescued children get the compensation money in hand. The reasons for this are many. The law as of now prohibits opening of an account in the name of a minor alone and they also cannot be issued debit cards. “While there is no one to ask about the welfare of these children when they are working, once they are rescued their relatives or distant relatives turn up for a slice of the money they are to get. It has also been seen that sometimes the families of these children force them back into the drudgery after getting the compensation amounts. The money lures them.”

The official said the Municipal Corporation of Delhi had in 2008 issued instructions that all rescued child workers would be given admission in the schools all through the year to ensure their proper rehabilitation. “Despite this, most child workers find their way back into the trade they are engaged in due to family pressure.”

The official said the parents are seldom booked for abetting child labour. Though The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933, provided for imposition of a penalty of Rs.50 on the parents and of Rs.250 on those engaging the parents for the services of their children, this law is seldom used to curb child labour. He said the children who are rescued are produced before the Child Welfare Committee dealing with the respective area. In all, there are four such committees in Delhi. These committees have magisterial powers and they give the custody of the children to the care homes which are being run by various non government organisations.

Children hailing from other States are repatriated to their native place. They are supposed to be paid a part of the Rs.20,000 fine imposed on the employer.

PUBLISHED IN THE HINDU

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Eight girls rescued from placement cells

TIMES OF INDIA

NEW DELHI: Eight girls from Assam, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have been rescued from four placement agencies in east Delhi allegedly involved in human trafficking. Four persons, including a woman, have been arrested.

“There was a tip-off from an NGO, Shakti Vahini, and we raided the four placement agencies, Babita Enterprises, India Maid Bureau, Deepika Placement Agency and Mission Welfare Society,” said Sanjay Kumar Jain, deputy commissioner of police (crime). The arrested have been identified as Ravinder Yadav, Pradeep Toppo, Vimal Kerketta and Babita, all residents of Shakurpur in east Delhi.

Four of the rescued girls are from Assam, one from Chhattisgarh and three from Jharkhand. “The girls were terrified and have disclosed that the placement agencies had employed them as domestic help across Delhi. When they wanted to go home, the agencies had detained them and withheld their earnings. These placement agencies wanted them to employ further as domestic helps

,” Jain said. After medical examination, the girls were sent to the children’s home for girls at Nirmal Chhaya in Hari Nagar. Ten girls, who were lured on the pretext of employment in the capital, were also rescued from GB Road brothels in central Delhi. The girls in the age group of 15-18 years were rescued from GB Road brothels following a tip-off by Rescue Foundation, an NGO. Nine of them are from West Bengal and one from Bihar.

“They all belong to poor families and were lured on the pretext of providing them employment in Delhi,” Devesh Srivastava, Additional Commissioner of Police (Central), said. The raid was conducted after the NGO informed police that a a minor girl who was missing from 24 Pargana in West Bengal is confined at Kotha No- 58, GB Road. Out of ten, nine are residents of West Bengal while one is from Bihar.