The Jaipur Bench of Rajasthan High Court, presided over by acting Chief Justice Mr. Mahindra Mohan Shrivastava and Mr. Justice Sameer Jain entertained the PIL Gopal Singh Bareth V/S State Of Rajasthan in order to institutionalize effective machinery and mechanism for rescue and post rescue rehabilitation of all child labours in the State of Rajasthan.

Background of PIL

The PIL (D.B. Civil Writ Petition (PIL) No. 5383/2020 ) was filled by the petitioner in person, advocate Mr. Gopal Singh Bareth. Rajasthan High Court in his previous order on 17.06.2020 had directed the state to form a high level committee comprising the Secretary, Department of Labour and the Labour Commissioner as Chairman and Secretary of that committee respectively. Further, Detailed directions on September 28, 2020 were also issued by the Court to the state government for enforcing and ensuring child rights to migrant labourers. Rajasthan The high court also directed the state to prepare appropriate action plan with the help of experts/NGOs to ensure that such exploitative child labour practices are put to halt. Gopal Singh Bareth seeking specific directions for the State Government. AG Mr. M.S. Singhvi with Adv. Siddhant Jain and Adv. Priyanka Mali appeared on behalf of the respondents-state government.

Decision of Court

The bench comprising acting Chief Justice Mr. Mahindra Mohan Shrivastava and Mr. Justice Sameer Jain, while hearing the petition observed that a number of child labourers were subject to unfair police actions and were later rescued. Large number of criminal cases have also been registered against those involved in child trafficking and exploitation of children in various small/large scale industrial and commercial activities. The court found that action has also been initiated where a child labourer were found dead

The petitioner sought to formulate and implement an action plan for the rescue and the post rescue care/rehabilitation of child labourers in the State of Rajasthan. On April 27, 2022 High Court pursuing the submissions made by the state government and the report filled by the state government, the Court observed that

“It would be in the interest of the children who are being subjected to exploitation as child labour that the high level committee focuses on this issue and prepare appropriate action plan with the help of experts/NGOs to ensure that such exploitative child labour practices are put to halt. Allowing such activities to first happen and then taking action by registering offence is not enough. Appropriate action plan is required to be prepared and implemented to prevent such activities so that the children are not put to such kind of exploitative practices as child labours”.

During the hearing the respondent’s counsel informed the court that she had filed two affidavits which highlighted that after rescue of children, the rehabilitation mechanism is required to take further steps which includes payment of compensation and rehabilitation of children and other rehabilitatory practices.

The Advocate General were unable to find the said affidavits on record, the court asked the respondent’s counsel to ensure that copies of the said affidavits are supplied in the office of Advocate General within a period of seven days. The court also directed the Registry to verify whether or not such affidavits have been filed and attach the same with the records of the present case. The court also granted three weeks time to Advocate General to respond to the averments made in the said two affidavits, if filed before the Registry.

Earlier directions of Rajasthan High Court

Rajasthan High Court on September 28, 2020 had directed the state government as follow:

(a) The Department of Social Justice shall issue directions to the child right enforcing officers to carry out the responsibilities strictly in view of the action plan prepared by the State and guidelines issued therein taking the assistance of NGOs working in the said field. We also call upon the said authority to submit before this Court monthly statements, facts and figures of the result (3 of 3) [CW-5383/2020] of such enforcement right as well as steps taken for rehabilitation of any minor who is found to be working.

(b) We also permit petitioner and/or NGOs working for the child right to provide necessary details of the child migrant worker who may have left for his/her State and such information once provided to the child enforcement authority, they in turn on being satisfied of the genuineness of such statements may intimate their counterparts in the respective States to initiate suitable action for taking care and rehabilitation of such child labourers.

(c) We direct the Secretary, Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority (RSLSA) to correspond with the appropriate police officers, who are concerned in the matter and to ensure that necessary financial benefits that are available under the various schemes are made available to such children at the earliest.

Moreover, the court also sought the action so far taken by the high-level committee along with a concrete action plan from the State on the next date hearing.

Related stories

SC directs Aadhaar cards be issued to sex workers without insisting on the residential proof

Human Trafficking Bill and the government’s Saviour Complex

Police should treat sex workers with dignity and should not abuse them: SC

Sex workers can’t be harassed, can’t be confined to shelter homes: SC

LHMC’s sanitation workers detained for asserting rights

The post “Concrete action plan needed to curb child exploitation and labour” Rajasthan HC appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has achieved universal ratification for its Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999 (No. 182) with all 187 member states accepting it. The Convention calls for the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including slavery, forced labour and trafficking. It prohibits the use of children in armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and illicit activities such as drug trafficking, and in hazardous work.

It is one of the ILO’s eight Fundamental Conventions. These cover the abolition of child labour, the elimination of forced labour, the abolition of work-related discrimination and the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. These principles are also covered by the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998).

ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said, “Universal ratification of Convention 182 is an historic first that means that all children now have legal protection against the worst forms of child labour.” He added, “It reflects a global commitment that the worst forms of child labour, such as slavery, sexual exploitation, the use of children in armed conflict or other illicit or hazardous work that compromises children’s health, morals or psychological wellbeing, have no place in our society.”

The ILO estimates that there are 152 million children in child labour, 73 million of whom are in hazardous work. Seventy per cent of all child labour takes place in agriculture and is mostly related to poverty and parents’ difficulties finding decent work.

According to Article 3 of the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999 (No. 182), the term the worst forms of child labour comprises:

• (a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;

• (b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;

• (c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;

• (d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

According to Article 7 (2) of the same convention, “Each Member shall, taking into account the importance of education in eliminating child labour, take effective and time-bound measures to:

• (a) prevent the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour;

• (b) provide the necessary and appropriate direct assistance for the removal of children from the worst forms of child labour and for their rehabilitation and social integration;

• (c) ensure access to free basic education, and, wherever possible and appropriate, vocational training, for all children removed from the worst forms of child labour;

• (d) identify and reach out to children at special risk; and

• (e) take account of the special situation of girls.”

The entire convention may be read here: https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C182

Related:

Covid-19 impact: Child Labour likely to increase

Covid-19 pandemic has cost one in six young people their jobs: ILO

The post ILO Child Labour Convention unanimously ratified by all members! appeared first on SabrangIndia.

We give our children loving care, but it makes no sense to do so unless we do everything in our power to give them a future world in which they can survive. We also have a duty to our grandchildren, and to all future generations.

Today we are faced with the threat of an environmental megacatastrophe, of which the danger of catastrophic climate change is a part. We also face the threat of an all-destroying nuclear war.

Finally, because of population growth, the effect of climate change on agriculture, and the end of the fossil fuel era, there is a danger that by the middle of the present century a very large-scale famine could take the lives of as many as a billion people.

We owe it to our children to take urgent action to prevent these threats from becoming future realities. We must also act with dedication to save our children from other social ills that currently prevent their lives from developing in a happy and optimal way, for example child labor, child slavery, starvation, preventable disease and lack of education. These, too, are threats to our children’s future.

The climate emergency: Urgent action is needed

The annual Emissions Gap report from the U.N. Environmental Program (UNEP), released on November 26, 2019,  warned that nations’ commitments under the Paris climate accord – from which U.S. President Donald Trump began formally withdrawing this month – are not nearly sufficient to bring about the widespread changes needed to avert climate catastrophe.

The report stated that global temperatures are on track to rise as much as 3.2$^o$C by the end of the century, meaning only drastic and unprecedented emissions reductions can stave off the most devastating consequences of the climate crisis. What is needed, according to the report, is a complete halt in the production of fossil fuels.

Renewable energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels, so the transition to renewables could be driven by economic forces alone, if governments worldwide would stop their sponsorship of fossil fuel industries, to which they currently give enormous tax benefits and other subsidies.

Other urgently needed actions are a halt to deforestation, combined with massive reforestation, substitution of other building materials for cement, better climate coverage in the mass media, abandonment of growth-oriented economic goals, shift to more plant-based diet, and deep cuts in military activities.

We must rid the world of nuclear weapons

A Treaty banning nuclear weapons was adopted by an overwhelming majority vote on the floor of the UN General Assembly, following the precedent set by the Arms Trade Treaty. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was passed on 7 July, 2017. It prohibits the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as assistance and encouragement to the prohibited activities. For nuclear armed states joining the treaty, it provides for a time-bound framework for negotiations leading to the verified and irreversible elimination of its nuclear weapons programme.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) campaigned vigorously for the adoption of the Treaty, and was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts. Although bitterly opposed by nuclear weapons states, the Treaty has great normative value, and one fervently hopes that the force of public opinion will eventually force all governments to give their citizens what the vast majority long for: a nuclear-weapon-free world.

It is generally agreed that a full-scale nuclear war would have disastrous effects, not only on belligerent nations but also on neutral countries. As long as there are nations that possess nuclear weapons, there is a danger that they will be used, either deliberately or through a technical or human error, or through unconcontrollable escalation of a conflict. Only a nuclear-free world will be safe for our children and the biosphere.

We must address the threat of widespread famine

As glaciers melt in the Himalayas, depriving India and China of summer water supplies; as sea levels rise, drowning the fertile rice fields of Viet Nam and Bangladesh; as drought threatens the productivity of grain-producing regions of North America; and as the end of the fossil fuel era impacts modern high-yield agriculture, there is a threat of wide-spread famine. There is a danger that the 1.5 billion people who are undernourished today will not survive an even more food-scarce future.

People threatened with famine will become refugees, desperately seeking entry into countries where food shortages are less acute. Wars, such as those currently waged in the Middle East, will add to the problem.

What can we do to avoid this crisis, or at least to reduce its severity? We must urgently address the problem of climate change; and we must shift money from military expenditure to the support of birth control programs and agricultural research. We must also replace the institution of war by a system of effective global governance and enforcible international laws.

We must eliminate child labor and child slavery

Worldwide 10 million children are in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of forced labor, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities, according to the International Labor Organization, (ILO). 151.6 million are estimated to be in child labor (ILO). 114 million child laborers are below the age of 14 (ILO). 72 million children are in hazardous work that directly endangers their health, safety and moral development (ILO). More than 700 million women alive today were married before their 18th birthday. More than one in three (about 250 million) entered into union before age 15 (UNICEF). 300,000 children are estimated to serve as child soldiers, some even younger than 10 years old (UNICEF). 15.5 million children are in domestic work worldwide – the overwhelming majority of them are girls (ILO).

Child labor is undesirable because it prevents children from receiving an education. Furthermore, when parents regard their children as a source of labor or income, it motivates the to have very large families, and our finite earth, unlimited growth of population is a logical impossibility. Population growth increases the threat of large-scale famine as well as ecological catastrophe.

Child slavery is unacceptable, as is any form of slavery. Forced marriage, and very early marriage of girls as young as 9 in some countries are also unacceptable practices. The international community has a duty to see that existing laws against these practices are enforced.

We must reduce starvation and preventable disease

According to a recent report published by the World Health Organization, in 2018 alone, 15,000 children died per day before reaching their fifth birthday. A WHO spokesman said, “It is especially unacceptable that these children and young adolescents died largely of preventable or treatable causes like infectious diseases and injuries when we have the means to prevent these deaths,” the authors write in the introduction to the report. The global under-five mortality rate fell to 39 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018, down from 76 in 2000 – a 49% decline.

“Despite advances in fighting childhood illnesses, infectious diseases remain a leading cause of death for children under the age of 5, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia,” says the report. Pneumonia remains the leading cause of death globally among children under the age of 5, accounting for 15% of deaths. Diarrhoea (8%) and malaria (5%), together with pneumonia, accounted for almost a third of global under-five deaths in 2018. “Malnourished children, particularly those with severe acute malnutrition, have a higher risk of death from these common childhood illnesses. Nutrition-related factors contribute to about 45 per cent of deaths in children under 5 years of age,” warns the report. The estimates also show vast inequalities worldwide, with women and children in sub-Saharan Africa facing a higher risk of death than in all other regions. Level of maternal deaths are nearly 50 times higher for women in sub-Saharan Africa compared to high-income countries. In 2018, 1 in 13 children in sub-Saharan Africa died before their fifth birthday – this is 15 times higher than the risk a child faces in Europe, where just 1 in 196 children aged less than 5 die.

We must provide universal reformed education

Illiteracy in the less developed countries exceeded that of the developed ones by a factor of ten in 1970. By 2000, this factor had increased to approximately 20. As our economies become more knowledge-based, education has become more and more important.

Besides universal education, educational reforms are urgently needed, particularly in the teaching of history. As it is taught today, history is a chronicle of power struggles and war, told from a biased national standpoint. Our own race or religion is superior; our own country is always heroic and in the right.

We urgently need to replace this indoctrination in chauvinism by a reformed view of history, where the slow development of human culture is described, giving adequate credit to all who have contributed.

The teaching of other topics, such as economics, should be reformed. Economics must be given both a social conscience and an ecological conscience. The mantra of growth must be abandoned, and the climate emergency must be addressed.

Childhood should be a time of joy

Children’s play is not a waste of time. Children at play are learning skills that they will use later in their lives. Let us allow our children to play and learn, while we work to give them a secure future world. Let us give our children, not predominantly material goods, but rather the love, happiness and future that they deserve.

A new freely downloadable book

I would like to announce the publication of a book, which examines the steps that we must take to give our children and their children a world in which thet can survive. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link:

http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Our-Childrens-Future-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf

Other books and articles about  global problems are on these links

http://eacpe.org/about-john-scales-avery/

https://wsimag.com/authors/716-john-scales-avery

The post Our children’s future appeared first on SabrangIndia.

An investigation by a high-profile e-journal run by a top American digital media and entertainment company focused on young women, Refinery 29 (R29), based in the Financial District, Manhattan neighbourhood of New York City, has raised the alarm that 9,000 miles away, nearly 22,000 children are risking their lives while working for a paltry sum of Rs 20 to 30 per day in mica mines of Jharkhand and Bihar.

Titled “The makeup industry’s darkest secret is hiding in your makeup bag”, the 3,800-word investigation by Lexy Lebsack, gives specific examples of those working in these mines, pointing out how Pooja Bhurla, 11, with her friends – some as young as five years old – would spend a whole day “shimmying into small, man-made tunnels”, and “pouring out of holes, their cheeks and clothes caked with glittery dust.”

Prepared with the active support of 2014 Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi’s Children’s Foundation (KSCF) and Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), among others, the report says, these children, armed with ice picks, hammers, and baskets, “carefully chip into the sides and backs of the small pits to loosen rock and dirt before carefully hauling it out of the mine.”

They take turns “dumping their baskets over a rudimentary sifting tool – a large piece of netting with a wooden frame — that reveals handfuls of mica, a shimmery mineral composite that’s been forming underground for hundreds of years”, the report states.

One of the estimated 22,000 kids that work in the mica mines in Jharkhand and Bihar, the report says, Pooja’s job “could leave her injured, paralyzed, or dead”, a risk “she’s all too aware of”, adding, “The tops of her hands are already scarred from sharp, fallen rocks, and she often thinks about a boy her age who died in a nearby mine when it collapsed.”
 

 

Asserting that “breathing in the dust in mica mines can cause infections, disease, and permanent damage to lungs”, report underlines, “But there’s a much more catastrophic risk that worries locals most.” Giving the example of Surma Kumari, 11, and her sister Lakmi, 14, the report informs, “They were working in a mine when it began to crumble.”

“When they tried to run, Surma got stuck under a rock and Lakmi was buried under a mountain of debris. Their mother and father were in the village when they heard there had been an accident, but by the time they got to the mine, Lakmi had died. ‘We couldn’t get her out for an hour’, says Surma, her surviving sister”, says the report.

Quoting Surma’s father, Kishar Kumari, the report says, the traders who control this particular cluster of mines have a set rate they give to families who lose loved ones while mining. “For each person who dies, they give Rs 30,000. Kishar has limited options to make a living, so he still works in the same mines, but stays above ground to sort the mica because it’s lower risk. ‘There’s no other form of [work]’, he explains. ‘When you’re hungry, there’s no other way’.”

Quoting Nagasayee Malathy, executive director KSCF, the report says, “There are between 10 and 20 deaths in mines every month, a conservative number based on what we heard on the ground. Kishar never saw the police fill out a report when they came to take Lakmi’s body for examination, and tells us that nothing happened to the traders who control the mine. It was all business as usual.”

Noting that these children, most of whom are school dropouts, do not know what happens to the raw mica after they mine it, the report says, eventually the raw material, excavated by these children, is collected by a broker, who sells it to an exporter, who then delivers it to a manufacturer, typically in China.
 

 

“It’s then milled into fine, pearly pigment that is purchased by international beauty companies to add a reflective finish to eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, and more. Everyone in the supply chain financially benefits from obscuring the origin of the mica through this complicated turn of hands, because it keeps costs low by allowing exporters to exploit the people mining it”, it adds.

The report underlines, “Mica linked to child labour is littered throughout the cosmetics industry – taking up residency in everything from high-end eyeshadows palettes to drugstore lipsticks. Listed as ‘mica,’ ‘potassium aluminium silicate,’ and ‘CI 77019,’ on ingredient lists, it’s what gives body lotion or eye cream a light glow, makes toothpaste look extra bright, or provides BB cream with a subtle radiance.”

It adds, “Unlike chunky glitter often made from plastic, mica’s delicate shimmer is one of the pillars of modern makeup – and 60% of the high-quality mica that goes into cosmetics comes from India, mostly from neighboring regions of Bihar and Jharkhand, where child mining and worker exploitation is the norm.”

Recalling that locals have “mined mica in this part of India for millenia, using it both for decoration and Ayurvedic medicine”, the report says, today, roughly 70% of mica produced in India comes from illegal mines that are totally unregulated by the government. “With no other industries in the region, many families have no choice but to continue working in crumbling mines under a new, informal organization sometimes referred to as the ‘mica mafia’,” it says.
 

 

Quoting Aysel Sabahoglu, who has been with the Terre des Hommes (TDH), a Dutch watchdog group monitoring the mica issue in India, the report says that “brands that have contributed to the current situation have a responsibility to clean up the supply chain and become involved in social empowerment programmes for those communities.”

And yet, “most of the biggest cosmetic conglomerates in the world, like L’Oréal – which owns brands like Maybelline, Urban Decay, Essie, Nyx, and more – have gone the other direction.” A L’Oréal’s official statement to R29 says, “We believe that discontinuing the use of Indian mica would further weaken the local situation.”

“L’Oréal is committed to the continued sourcing [of] natural mica from India in order to allow already impoverished communities to keep generating income. To do so, L’Oréal ensures traceability and transparency of its whole supply chain to guarantee fair and responsible mica”, the statement reads, claiming, it “only buys from suppliers who source from independently-verified, gated mines where children are not present.”

But Claire van Bekkum of TDH disagrees: “The majority of mica mining takes place in Jharkhand and Bihar, but there are hardly any legal mines in these states, so the mica from these states is exported using the licenses of legal mines in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan…”

First published on https://www.counterview.net

The post 22,000 children risking lives in India’s ‘illegal’ mica mines, 10-20 die each month appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In 2015, India was termed as the ‘shining star’ in the global economy by Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman, then Commerce and Industry Minister when India continued to grow at a fast pace while major economies facing a slowdown. One of the significant competitive advantages that India has is its cheap labour cost, which makes its products competitive in the exports market, and Child labour is a significant contributor to the reduced labour costs. This statement might seem far-fetched at first, but the historical data tells a different story.

Child labour constituted 13% of the workforce in India as per the 2001 Census. While child labour is a widespread phenomenon in India, it is not understood correctly. Quite a few people are not sure about the legal age to work in India, while some believe that child labour is limited to the employment of children in hazardous occupations like mining etc. International Labour Organization defines it as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.” It includes work that impedes with the opportunity to attend the school or forces them to leave it prematurely.

Current Situation

According to the 2011 Census, 10.1 million children between the age of 5 to 14 years were engaged in child labour, and around 45% of them were girls. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar region alone have more than 3 million child labourers, and a significant portion of these children works in the hazardous hand-knotted carpet industry where, in the past, NGOs have reported cases of children being beaten by metal rods, burnt with branding irons and hanged from top of trees to discourage them from running. Both the central and the state governments have turned a blind eye to the situation as this carpet belt constitutes around 80% of Indian carpet exports.

Factors leading to Child Labour

There are deep-rooted problems in our society which are contributing to child labour. Poverty and illiteracy of parents are the major factors leading to child labour. They are also responsible for other problems such as lack of awareness about the harmful effects of child labour and inaccessibility to quality education, which compounds the problem even further. There are other issues as well like family indebtedness, which pushes a child into bonded labour.

Past Initiatives

Over the past two decades, several programmes and initiatives, such as calls for the boycott of goods involving child labour and introduction of social certification of products as child laboor free, are seen as potential weapons against the use of child labour. In the past, we had seen consumer boycotts across the globe, from the Swadeshi movement in India to boycotting products manufactured by slave labour in the United States. These movements were reasonably successful in creating awareness among the general masses.

Even in the recent past, boycotting campaigns by several NGOs against multinational companies regarding the working conditions of labourers employed by their suppliers have put pressure on these MNCs to take a step to improve the situation of these workers. When it comes to child labour, these practices have been ineffective and might aggravate the problem rather than mitigating it in certain circumstances. These are the possible drawbacks of these initiatives:
 

• When we boycott particular products, we are decreasing the demand for labour in that industry while the supply of labourers remains constant, which pushes the wages of adults down or worse, creates unemployment. This makes the condition of low-income families worse, forcing the children in these families to seek employment and thus increasing child labour in the long term.
• Consumer boycotts make the child labour undesirable or, at least it intends to, which leads to a drop in wages of children. In a country like India, where 22% of the population is below the poverty line, the income from a child’s work might be vital for the survival of most impoverished of the families. Thus, it might force these families to increase the number of children they send to work, which would lead to an increase in child labour.
• The pressure from the consumers to boycott the products might lead to the elimination of children from companies. These children might join other sectors to maintain the family income, which is more dangerous or less well paid. We witnessed a similar situation when Maharashtra government’s ban on dance bars pushed some bar dancers into prostitution due to lack of other employment options.
• These methods are ineffective against child labour in the informal sector, which we see in places like houses, shops and cafes etc. This is evident from the fact that child labourers had increased in urban India from 1.3 million in 2001 to 2 million in 2011.

Way Forward

The initiatives like boycotting of products are more of a band-aid solution to a problem which is deep-rooted in our society. We need some fundamental changes to make a difference on the ground level. It is a human rights issue because of which the children are deprived of the dignity they deserve and are not able to realize their full potential and to combat this issue we need the government to play a more pro-active role. India needs to adopt a uniform minimum age for employment of children, which is denied under the pretence of constitutional constraints. Other social institutions like NGOs should play the role of a watchdog in the process.

The provision of programmes for subsidies, like income-generating programmes, is required to pull these children out of the vicious cycle of poverty, illiteracy and child labour. We need effective policies from the government so that we will be able to provide improved schooling to the children from less fortunate backgrounds. Provision for food, cash stipends, cloths and skill development programmes should be adopted to encourage children to join schools.

We need better implementation of the policies that are already in place to make education truly accessible and affordable for everyone which can get children away from the exploitative workplaces to an environment which is conducive to their physical and mental development. The changes in economic policies should be augmented with overall social change in the attitude of general masses towards child labour and the spread of education, and only then we will be able to curtail the exploitation of young children.

References
 

• Child Labour | UNICEF. (2019). Retrieved 17 July 2019, from http://unicef.in/whatwedo/21/child-labour
• Caesar-Leo, M. (1999). Child labour: the most visible type of child abuse and neglect in India. Child Abuse Review, 8(2), 75-86. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0852(199903/04)8:2<75::aid-car508>3.0.co;2-a
• What is child labour (IPEC). (2019). Retrieved 17 July 2019, from https://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/lang–en/index.htm
• India a ‘shining star’ in global economy: Nirmala Sitharaman. (2019). Retrieved 17 July 2019, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/india-a-shining-star-in-global-economy-nirmala-sitharaman/articleshow/49051164.cms?from=mdr
• Ballet, J., Bhukuth, A., & Carimentrand, A. (2011). Child Labour and Responsible Consumers. Business & Society, 53(1), 71-104. doi: 10.1177/0007650311416070
• Zislis, E., Defense, C., & Walia, A. (2019). The Truth About Our Clothes & Where They Come From – What You Will Find In A Typical Western Home. Retrieved 17 July 2019, from https://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/02/08/the-truth-about-our-clothes-where-they-come-from-what-you-will-find-in-a-typical-western-home/

Courtesy: Counter View

The post Boycotting products only band-aid solution to child labour problem, which is deep-rooted in society appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The index evaluates countries on eight indicators to determine the wellbeing of children and teenagers (0-19 years): mortality among children under five years of age, malnutrition that stunts growth, lack of education, child labour, early marriage, adolescent births, displacement by conflict and child homicide. A final score out of 1,000 is derived, and countries are ranked accordingly.

Between 2000 and 2019, India’s score rose from 632 to 769. India also improved its rank from 116 of 172 countries in 2018 to, as we said, 113 of 176 countries this year.

In the year 2000, an estimated 970 million children around the world were deprived of their childhood because of these causes. By 2019, that number fell 29% to 690 million.

An increase in public investments, and intervention through programmes targeted at marginalised children to ensure universal healthcare and education are needed to help improve the wellbeing of children, the report suggests.

A minimum financial security for all children through child-sensitive social protection needs to be on governments’ agenda, the report says, adding that adopting a national action plan to reduce and eliminate child poverty, together with dedicated budgets and monitoring systems that track improvements in poverty-related deprivations, will help achieve better childhood outcomes.

Infectious diseases cause most deaths of Indian children under five
India has reduced its child mortality rate by 55% in the last two decades, from 88 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 39 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2017, according to data from this 2018 report. Yet, it lags the Millennium Development Goal of 25 or fewer deaths per 1,000 live births.

These deaths are mostly attributed to preventable infectious diseases, followed by injuries, meningitis, measles and malaria.

Among neighbouring countries, India’s performance on under-five mortality was better only than that of Pakistan (74.9). Sri Lanka (8.8), China (9.3), Bhutan (30.8), Nepal (33.7) and Bangladesh (32.4) have all outperformed India.

38.4% Indian children are stunted
Between 2000 and 2019, the prevalence of stunting–low height for age–among children below age five fell 25% globally–from 198 million children to 149 million. More than 50% of this reduction was in China and India alone, the reports says.

As of 2018, 38.4% Indian children under five were stunted, the second worst performance compared to its neighbours after Pakistan (40.8%). China (6%) had the lowest rate in the region, followed by Nepal (13.8%), Sri Lanka (17.3%), Bangladesh (17.4%) and Bhutan (19.1%), the report says.

There are wide disparities between states in India–while 48.3% children are stunted in Bihar, 45.3% in Jharkhand and 37.6% in Chhattisgarh, Kerala has the least at 19%, followed by Tamil Nadu (27.1%), according to data from the National Family Health Survey, 2015-16.

1 in 5 Indian children is out of school
Despite India’s advances at giving free universal education to its children, 20.2% of them (aged 8-16) were still out of school as of 2018, according to data cited in the report. Compared to its neighbors, India performed better only than Pakistan (40.8%), while Sri Lanka (6.4%), Nepal (13.8%), Bangladesh (17.4%), Bhutan (19.1%) and China (7.6%) did better.

As of 2018, 152 million children were still engaged in child labour around the world, the report says, adding that a hypothetical country made up only of these child labourers would rank as the world’s ninth largest by population.

India has the most child labourers globally, as IndiaSpend reported in June 2017, depriving them of education and exposing them to unsafe and toxic environment–leading to irrecoverable health damage.

Between 2000 and 2018, child marriage in India fell 51%
India halved its number of child marriages in 18 years to 2018, while marriage rates for the poorest girls fell at least as much as for everyone else, data from the report show. The decline has been fastest among girls younger than 15.

In 1978, India raised the minimum age of marriage from 15 to 18 for girls and from 18 to 21 for boys. In the last two decades, India has worked to curb child marriage through legislation such as the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, and schemes such as the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (called ‘SABLA’), Kishori Shakti Yojana and Nutrition Programme for Adolescent Girls.

The decline is attributed to economic growth, rising rates of girls’ education and proactive investments by government, the report says. Community-based interventions such as empowerment counseling, sexual and reproductive health information, vocational training and life-skills development for girls have also been important factors. Schemes such as conditional cash transfers to educate the girl child have also helped reduce child marriage, the report notes.

Adolescent births in India fell 63% in 20 years
India has managed to reduce adolescent births by 63% since 2000, which has resulted in 2 million fewer young mothers. Progress in India alone accounts for nearly three-quarters of the global reduction in adolescent births–from 16 million to 13 million.

Child-bearing at a young age not only has fatal consequences for the baby but also for the mother, and makes for the leading cause of death for girls between 14 and 19 years of age.

Much of India’s progress has been the result of its social welfare programmes that have enabled more girls to stay in school, and increased access to sexual and reproductive health services.

As of 2018, adolescent birth rate–that is, births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19 years–in India was 24.5, higher than that in China (6.5), Sri Lanka (14.8) and Bhutan (22.1), and better than that in Pakistan (37.7), Nepal (62.1) and Bangladesh (84.4).

(Sana Ali is a reporter with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

The post Indian Children Fare Worst Among Neighbours, Except Pakistan appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
The central government allocated Rs. 90,594 crore for children in Budget 2019, a meagre 0.01-percentage-point increase to 3.25 per cent of the overall Budget compared to last year, according to a report by the non-government organisation Child Rights and You (CRY).
 
Children constitute nearly 40 per cent of India’s population, yet the funds allocated for their education, development, health and protection remained almost constant, the analysis noted.
 
The largest chunk (68 per cent) went towards education, followed by development (26 per cent), health (3 per cent) and protection (2 per cent). While allocation for education fell 1.1 percentage points, the allocation for protection increased 0.6 percentage points from last year.
 
The nation in 2011 had 10.1 million child labourers aged 5-14, according to census records. The estimate now is that there are 12.7 million toiling without access to a proper education.
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in a budget handed down earlier this month reduced funding to help stem child labour to US$14 million from last year’s US$17 million.
 
This will adversely impact the federal National Child Labour Project that aims to offer free education, meals and health care to these children, according to church leaders and rights activists.
 
“Is there any other problem greater than this in India at present?” asked Bishop Alex Vadakumthala, who heads the Indian bishops’ office for labour.
 
Just because children cannot vote should not mean they don’t deserve to be able to have a decent existence, Bishop Vadakumthala said, adding that there was no clue as to why the budget allocation was reduced.
 
India has a law that prohibits employing children below the age of 18. But with lax enforcement, children continue to work in roadside restaurants and small-scale industries, the bishop said.
 
“There have been no steps to seriously implement the law,” Bishop Vadakumthala said. “The problem is that the government isn’t taking the issue seriously.”
 
The law has provisions to punish those who employ children with jail terms of up to two years and a fine or US$715 or both.
 
Puja Marwaha, chief executive of the non-government organisation Child Rights and You (CRY), told ucanews.com that the government’s 2030 Vision goal to make India a developed nation had failed to adopt a comprehensive response to combat child labour.

Just because children don’t vote, it doesn’t mean that their welfare doesn’t matter.
 
The February budget was the last one before national elections due in April-May, but it had no specific scheme for the welfare of children who constitute some 40 per cent India’s 1.2 billion people, she said.
 
Balbir Singh, also a child rights activist, said the actual number of child labourers in India could be double the official estimate.
 
Fear of punishment or of being stopped from going to workforce parents and even children to lie about their actual age and employment, Singh said.
 
“You can find children working everywhere in the country; be it in construction, vehicle repair, domestic work, carpet making, selling cigarettes on the roadside,” Singh said. “But, ironically, the government isn’t acting to end this.”
 
J.P. Dutta, a social activist based in Jammu, said government alone cannot address the issue effectively and that social mobilization and community participation remain vital for the eradication of child labour.
 
“There has to be a public interest,” he said. “An extensive awareness campaign is needed, and budgetary provisions must be made for it.”
 
Father Jaison Vadassery, secretary of the Indian bishops’ labour office, told ucanews.com that church people in India are already conducting awareness campaigns to educate people against tolerating child labour.
 
However, he believes that a more effective government system is needed to eradicate the social evil. “Until steps are taken to strictly implement the ban on child labour, the situation will not change for the better,” Father Vadassery said.
 
With inputs from IndiaSpends and Ucanews.com
 

The post Modi govt cuts budget funds that tackle child labour appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Children work at a stone crushing unit in Churaibari area of Tripura

Children constitute nearly 40% of India’s population, yet the funds allocated for their education, development, health and protection remained almost constant, the analysis noted.

The largest chunk (68%) went towards education, followed by development (26%), health (3%) and protection (2%). While allocation for education fell 1.1 percentage points, the allocation for protection increased 0.6 percentage points from last year
.
“The interim budget 2019 has shown positive trends towards the vulnerable sections of our society, including farmers, small entrepreneurs and the tax-paying middle classes,” said Puja Marwaha, chief executive officer, CRY. “Yet, for almost 40% of India’s population comprising of its children, it failed to address the expectations of the nation as children were neither a part of the budget speech nor were they visible anywhere in the 10-point vision for 2030.”

Education allocation declines, post-matric scholarships shrink
There has been a “clear but gradual decline” in the share of education from almost 79% in 2015-16 (budget estimate or BE) to 68% in 2019-20 (BE), the report noted.

Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan or integrated scheme for school education has been allocated Rs 75,000 crore for the period between April 2018 and March 2020, the report noted.

Launched in June 2018, the scheme aims to bring all programmes–from pre-school to matriculation–including Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (education for all), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (national middle education mission) and teachers’ training programmes–under one umbrella.

After five years of schooling, at age 10-11 years, just over half (51%) of students in India can read a grade II-level text (appropriate for seven- to eight-year-olds), IndiaSpend reported on January 15, 2019. This was lower than in 2008 when 56% grade V students could read a grade II-level text.

The allocation for the post- and pre- matriculation scholarship for marginalised groups such as scheduled castes (SCs) and other backward castes (OBCs) has “remained stagnant or in fact reduced”.

Allocation to post-matriculation scholarships across the groups has declined while pre-matriculation scholarships have increased.
The increase (in percentage terms) in pre-matriculation scholarships was the highest for SCs (156%), followed by minorities (122%) and OBCs (53%), while the fall in post-matriculation scholarship was the highest for SCs (-60%) and the least for OBCs (-17%).
 

Source: Child Rights and You, 2019
Note: All figures in Rs crore are budget estimates

Health budget declines, anganwadi services get a boost
Health saw a 0.5-percentage-point decline to 3.4% in overall allocation for children. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)–the world’s largest integrated early childhood programme to reduce child mortality–saw a 19% increase to Rs 19,428 crore. The “substantial increase” may “not be adequate” to meet the demands in anganwadis (childcare centres), the analysis said.

Anganwadis provide services such as supplementary nutrition, pre-school non-formal education, nutrition, health education and immunisation. This has been the highest allocation over the last three years, according to the report.

Note: All figures in Rs crore are budget estimates and have been rounded off

“Under Anganwadi and Asha Yojana, honorarium has been enhanced by about 50% for all categories of workers,” Piyush Goyal, interim finance minister, said in his budget speech on February 1, 2019.

India utilises the services of 1.18 million anganwadi workers (AWWs) and 1.16 million anganwadi helpers (AWHs) under ICDS, IndiaSpend reported on February 23, 2018.

As many as 11 states and four union territories have not announced any change in the additional salary paid to AWWs and AWHs since 2015, the report added.

The increase in honorarium “ought to induce much-needed positivity and improved accountability”, the CRY report said.

Allocation for child protection doubles while Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao remains stagnant
The allocation for the Integrated Child Protection Scheme doubled to Rs 1,500 crore from last year. The centrally sponsored scheme aims at building a protective environment for children through government-civil society partnership.

The allocation for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme, aimed at preventing gender-biased sex selective elimination and ensuring survival, protection and education of the girl child, has remained stagnant since the last budget at Rs 280 crore.

Over 56% funds allocated for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao from 2014-15 to 2018-19 were spent on “media-related activities” and less than 25% were disbursed to districts and states, The Quint reported on January 21, 2019.

“I can say with pride that with Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign, there has been a rise in the number of girls (female ratio) in Haryana, Rajasthan and many other states,” prime minister Narendra Modi was quoted by NDTV in this report on October 13, 2018.

“Many innocents have got rights. The meaning of life is not only to live, but live with dignity.”

The budget reduced the allocation for the National Child Labour Project–to rehabilitate working children–by 17% to Rs 100 crore from the last budget. Nearly 10.1 million children–equal to the population of Uttarakhand–are working, either as ‘main worker’ or as ‘marginal worker’, according to International Labour Organisation data.

(Paliath is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy : India Spend
 

The post India Has 10m Working Children, But Budget 2019 Has Slashed Outlay For Key Rehabilitation Project By 17% appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 Context

Let’s go back to 1985 when a draft bill presented by an NGO, for the first time introduced the concept of regulation of working conditions, rather than complete prohibition of child labour. Groups working with children and child labour were all drawn into a nationwide debate. They were divided in their stand. One group felt that, although it may not be possible to eliminate child labour immediately, any move — legal or programmatic must be towards elimination. The second group felt that since child labour was a ‘harsh reality’ steps must be taken to ensure that they are not further exploited and therefore, legal measures were required to ensure this.[1] This draft was what was converted into the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986.
 
For those of us who have been witnesses to the debates around child labour since the 1980s, there is sense of déjà vu. The PIB release that released on May 16, 2015 says – However, while considering a total prohibition on the employment of child, it would be prudent to also keep in mind the country’s social fabric and socio-economic conditions. In a large number of families, children help their parents in their occupations like agriculture, artisanship etc. and while helping the parents, children also learn the basics of occupations. Therefore, striking a balance between the need for education for a child and the reality of the socio-economic condition and social fabric in the country, the Cabinet has approved that a child can help his family or family enterprise, which is other than any hazardous occupation or process, after his school hours or during vacation”.
 
This could be an undated statement as this is exactly the same argument that the government had made in 1985-86 to allow for children to be able to work in family based work or for skill training, even if it was hazardous. The only difference in 2015 is that while making  an exception for children to be engaged in family based enterprises, the current bill  qualifies it by saying that children must continue in school as per their Right to Education, and specifies that the family enterprise must not be hazardous. But therein lies the gap.
 
Loopholes in the law- are they deliberate?

‘Family’ is defined in the proposed bill as child’s mother, father, brother, sister and father’s sister and brother and mother’s sister and brother. It uses the word ‘help’ to describe the child’s involvement in the family enterprise (after school hours and during vacations).
 
In a feudal, caste driven Indian society what do these provisions amount to? Child labour in India has become so normalised that there is neither shock nor shame – it is a ‘necessary evil’. Since most family based occupations in India are caste based, the exception in Section 3 in the law, which allows children to work in family occupations, will only keep the caste system intact-like, for a potter's son/daughter to be a potter, a weaver's child to be a weaver and so on. Without doubt, this kind of a law will worst affect the Dalit and the marginalised who are at the bottom of the caste hierarchy. The Ministry officials of course say that this is taking the argument too far!
 
But, why would the government of a country, that is today by its own admission, the fastest growing economy of the world, feel compelled to justify and keep children in labour despite Parliamentary Standing Committee examining the bill saying: "The ministry is itself providing loopholes by inserting this proviso since it would be very difficult to make out whether children are merely helping their parents or are working to supplement the family income. Further, allowing children to work after school is detrimental to their health as rest and recreation is important for their physical and cognitive development."[2]The Committee also stated that rest and recreation is of utmost importance for the mental and physical development of a child and that working will only adversely affect their studies and their health.
 
Clearly, the Committee was more cognisant of the fact that children in India find it very hard to continue in school. That is why despite rising enrolment, retention is not that great. It is the girls, the Dalits and tribals who are ones who drop out to ‘help’ the family.
 
It must be recognised that the assumption, that ‘cultural traditions’ have to be accepted without intriguing into the inherent inequalities, perpetuates certain historic exploitative practices. It has been argued that any abstraction of child labour from children’s work accords social acceptability to some forms of child-work, masking marked ideological and gender biases in society. [3]
 
The officials of the Ministry of Labour and Employment who have drafted this bill say that this proviso is imperative to prevent criminalisation of parents and families. As  a  very senior official said “this explanation or exception is necessary, otherwise if I ask my child to put a  nail on the wall—that too can be counted as child labour and lead to my prosecution- see how dowry law is used to harass innocent people. We don’t want a similar situation with this law”.
 
A quick look at the government’s ownstatistics of prosecution tells us how limited the use of the law has been in the past.

 
What is more, the government also noted that most employers were acquitted by the courts as the prosecution failed to prove the offence due to the casual approach of the prosecution witnesses and inability to produce independent witnesses. [4]
 
Under these circumstances, is it at all likely that ‘zealous members of society’ that sees child labour as normal and necessary or labour inspectors who have been ineffectual in the past, will go around snooping into people’s houses only to pick up poor parents and prosecute them?
 
Defining or conceptualising child labour has been and continues to be one of the most complex issue as it involves three difficult-to-define concepts ‘child’, ‘work’and‘labour’. Each of them is defined differently by different countries and internationally. As stated by Burra, “those who have argued for narrow definition have best been motivated in part by the desire to reduce the size of the problem and thus make it manageable. But this conceptual sleight of hand flies in the face of common sense results in making the work of millions of children invisible to public policy and public action.”[5] This indeed is the reality even today.
 
Moreover, apparently non-exploitative, the notion of domestic work needs unpacking in the light of the fact that many children never get enrolled in school or are forced to drop out because they have to look after the home chores or undertake sibling care,  and this is especially true for girls.  This was an area that was highlighted and discussed even when the debate around child labour was at its nascent stage and continues to be as relevant today.
 
Children will and must support their families or ‘help’ their parents- they do so today and they will continue to do so. The problem lies in the inclusion of this proviso in the law, especially since we are well aware that the notion of family is a very wide and ambiguous in India. This is exactly the kind of legal loophole that has led to the continuation of child labour till now. Past experience of implementation of the law that had a similar proviso (Section 3 of the CLPRA, 1986) has amply shown that this was the one way in which children were tied to home based work and exploited.
 
Given the reality that the trafficking of children is rampant, in the back drop of the wide concept of family, this could also lead to children being trafficked for work as many traffickers claim that the children in their care are ‘family’. In the absence of comprehensive birth registration it may be very difficult to ascertain whether a child is really part of the family or not. In addition, many families may host children from the extended family as part of informal kinship care.

Remember, that the government is also in the middle of discussions on sponsorship- which will include kinship care.
 
And although all children are banned from working in hazardous occupations, the 16 occupations and 65 processes that were listed as hazardous in the 1986 law has now been replaced in the Bill with -mines, inflammable substance and hazardous processes which has the meaning assigned to it in clause (cb) of the Factories Act, 1948. These are the same that will also apply to the 14-18 year olds categorised as ‘adolescents’ in the Bill. 
 
This reduction in the number of occupations that fall into this category and no provisions in it for an increase in this list, means that children will be employed in domestic work, hotel and dhabas and several other such places that have now come to be recognized as extremely hazardous occupations.

 
Besides, every day newer ‘occupations’ are coming up which are hazardous and dangerous. For example when the law in 1986 was formulated, there was no employment related to e-wasteand no one can deny that children engaged in working with e-waste are in extremely hazardous occupations! Similarly the impact of working with pesticides on children in agriculture was not there in the past neither was working with bags full of hair to make wigs!But they will not find a place in the law.
 
Also, this proviso has been put in without taking into consideration the fact that although free and compulsory education is a right of children in the age-group of 6-14 years, we have only seen an increase in the enrolment rates, while attendance and retention of the students is still a challenge we are yet to overcome. In a situation when children feel compelled to work to support their families, there is a greater likelihood of their dropping out of school.
 
The second provison that has been included in the Bill is address children working as an artist in the audio- visual entertainment industry or in sports activities except circus. These are welcome inclusions given the large number of children in advertisements and reality shows today, or to address the fate of children like Budhia.[6]But what about children who are street performers and acrobats risking their lives on ropes and poles (although not in circus, what they do is not very different) or “artists” who are singing and dancing late into the night in restaurants and weddings? They are not covered by this law. Is that because they are needed to preserve our rich social fabric? There is a definite class bias to the law that needs to be addressed.
 
In fact it is high time to consider an amendment to Article 24 of the Constitution of India which identifies child labour as only those children below the age of 14 years and bans employment of child labour in only hazardous employments. In doing so, it remains  silent on employment of children above the age of 14 years and allows a statutory distinction between ‘hazardous’ and ‘non-hazardous’ sectors of employment,  which has resulted in a serious challenge in dealing with the issue.  It does not tell us what is to be done with the remaining children between the age of 14-18 years. This is important because this is how children have come to be defined in the National Policy for Children, 2013 and the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, National Plan of Action for Children, 2005 and other legal and policy instruments.
 
The Ministry of Labour and Employment says that the law is drafted keeping in view the option that the age upto which free and compulsory education will be made available can be raised and the law on child labour will be applicable accordingly. This is very welcome as today, the Right to Free and Compulsory Education law which only gives the right to education upto 14 years, or class eight, needs review as it does not qualify children for any further education or entry into any skill based/ vocational training in any recognised institute such as ITIs.  The age of child labour would then automatically be raised and our children protected. There is a clear argument for increasing the age of right to free and compulsory education to a minimum of secondary education so that children are protected from labour and exploitation. Although this is not in the purview of discussions around this bill, given the intrinsic connection between education and child labour, this cannot be ignored.
 
While in the 1980s and before, “nimble hands” were needed to knot carpets, today they are needed to cross-pollinate BT Cotton Seeds! It is perfectly justified! Most of middle class India, including many bureaucrats and political leaders feel it is perfectly “OK” to employ children as domestic workers as the children of the poor “need” to protection of art, culture and crafts and children’s working to do that is also justified.
 
This amendment to the child labour law must not be read in isolation. For example read the definition of family enterprise which means any work, profession, manufacture or business which is performed by the members of the family with the engagement of other persons along with the proposed Small Factories (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Bill that seeks to exempt units employing less than 40 workers from 14 labour laws including the child labour law[7]etc. Will these small factories also be part of “Family enterprises” that children will be “helping” in? The Factories Amendment Bill[8] continues to have several clauses that allows for children below 14 years to continue working.
 
Indeed, this Bill must be seen and analysed in the context of the dilution of labour laws and standards in the country and the move towards greater informalisation of labour and the push towards manufacturing in the unorganised sector. As Mr. Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary Ministry of Labour and Employment is quoted saying “All the amendments are being done keeping in mind three things—need of the times, workers’ protection and creating an environment for more job creation,” ….“Every year, the country needs to create an excess of 10 million jobs and for that manufacturing sector is key. The proposed labour reforms will help the pace of industrialization while keeping workers’ rights intact.”[9]
 
Clearly the main stress of the Ministry is to create jobs to meet the needs for manufacturing, not so much to protect children. In this backdrop, when production is pushed into the homes, who is to regulate the entry of children into the work force? This is nothing but keeping the un-scrutinised and the unregulated informalisation of labour alive, so that corporates can ‘make in India’ without having to deal with the labour unions and the labour laws.
 
Not convinced? Watch a film Stained Glass by Meera Dewan[10]. She had made a poignant, and for many of us, a life changing film- Whose Children in 1986, just as the discussion on the child labour bill was on. She has followed the children that were there in her film in 1986 into their adulthood in Stained Glass. As we discuss the new amendment, it is good to see what those children of 1986 and now adults of today have to say, as also the child labourers of today.
 
Is it not a shame for the fastest growing economy of the world to continue with its growth path on the backs of children and justifying it as a social reality?  And is it not time that the law on child labour was aspirational rather than a reflection of “harshsocial reality”? 
 
Laws can be used to lead the change and this is one such opportunity that has come after 29 years. Let us not lose it. 
 

ProChild Coalition: New Child Labour Bill will push more children into hazardous work

A hindi version of the Press Release by the Pro-Child Coalition can be found here

After 30 years the government has introduced a new child labour law which claims that it bans all forms of child labour till the age of 14. Sadly, the country is buying into an illusion. The truth is that the amendment to the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Amendment Bill 2016, passed by the Parliament continues to allow children to be employed in family-based enterprises, and secondly, the employment of children in most hazardous occupations like tanning, bangle-making, zari work, carpets, domestic work, e-waste and numerous others that till recently were recognised as hazardous for children will now be permitted. ProChild Coalition, a network of academics, organisations and individuals strongly opposes the Bill in its present form. Through this brief note we would like to raise some important concerns that arise in the wake of this.
Legitimises Child labour
 
The government claims that it has banned all forms of child labour up to the age of 14 years however, with the new Bill it has de-incentivized education by legalizing family-based work. ‘Family’ is defined in the proposed bill as child’s mother, father, brother, sister and father’s sister and brother and mother’s sister and brother. It uses the word ‘help’ to describe the child’s involvement in the family enterprise (after school hours and during vacations). The problem lies in the inclusion of this proviso in the law, especially since we are well aware that the notion of family is very wide and ambiguous in our country. This is exactly the kind of legal loophole that has led to the continuation of child labour till now. Past experience of implementation of the law that had a similar proviso (Section 3 of the CLPRA, 1986) has amply shown that this was the one way in which children were tied to home based work and exploited.
 
Reinforces Caste based occupations
 
Since most family based occupations in India are caste based, the exception in Section 3 in the law, which allows children to work in family occupations, will only keep the caste system intact-like, for a potter's son/daughter to be a potter, a weaver's child to be a weaver, a tanner’s child to be a tanner and so on. In a feudal, caste driven Indian society what do these provisions amount to? Without doubt, this will worst affect the dalit and the marginalised who are at the bottom of the caste hierarchy, a ghastly example of which was the recent beating and humiliation of dalit youths in Gujarat.
 
Child labour over Child Protection?
 
Although all children are banned from working in hazardous occupations, the 16 occupations and 65 processes that were listed as hazardous in the 1986 law has now been replaced in 3 occupations and 29 processes that are in the Factories Act which covers only the organized sector.
 
This reduction in the number of occupations that fall into this category and no provisions in it for an increase in this list, means that children will be employed in domestic work, hotel and dhabas, brick kilns and several other such places that have now come to be recognized as extremely hazardous occupations and fall in the unorganized sector. Although the government’s data claims there is a significant decrease in the number of child labour in the country, in reality the number of children already working in the unorganized are multiplying (for example Census 2011 shows that child labour in urban settings has actually increased- and that is where the unorganized sector is).Besides, every day newer ‘occupations’ are coming up which are hazardous and dangerous. But they will not find a place in the law.
 
No Rights for Poor Children
While the Parliament unanimously passed the Indian Institutes of Technology(Amendment) 2016 to benefit the young wizards of India, the same Parliament, barring MPs from the ruling NDA,expressed surprising empathy for India’s children to oppose the passing of this regressive Bill.
Indeed, this Bill must be seen and analysed in the context of the dilution of labour laws and standards in the country and the move towards greater informalisation of labour and the push towards manufacturing in the unorganised sector. As Mr. Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary Ministry of Labour and Employment is quoted saying “All the amendments are being done keeping in mind three things—need of the times, workers’ protection and creating an environment for more job creation,” ….“Every year, the country needs to create an excess of 10 million jobs and for that manufacturing sector is key. The proposed labour reforms will help the pace of industrialization while keeping workers’ rights intact.”[11]
 
Clearly the main stress of the Ministry is to create jobs to meet the needs for manufacturing, not so much to protect children. In this backdrop, when production is pushed into the homes, who is to regulate the entry of children into the work force? This is nothing but keeping the un-scrutinised and the unregulated informalisation of labour alive, so that corporates can ‘make in India’ without having to deal with the labour unions and the labour laws.
 
It seems the government is in a state of intellectual and policy disarray. While on one hand it talks about Skill India, and Girls’ education, on the other hand by passing this law dilutes the efforts keep their children out of school, as theParliamentary Standing Committee examining the bill had cautioned: "The ministry is itself providing loopholes by inserting this proviso since it would be very difficult to make out whether children are merely helping their parents or are working to supplement the family income. Further, allowing children to work after school is detrimental to their health as rest and recreation is important for their physical and cognitive development."[12]Child labour in India has become so normalised that there is neither shock nor shame – it is a ‘necessary evil’.
It is obvious that the government is happy to put the burden to make ‘Make in India’ a success only on children from poor,dalit, muslim and tribal families but Shouldn’t a country vying for the global high table aim higher for its children?

The post Should We ‘Make In India’ on the backs of our children? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

संवैधानिक विरोधभास

इस संशोधन से पहले १४ साल तक के बच्चों से केवल खतनाक व्यवसायों में मजदूरी कराने पर प्रतिबन्ध था. खतरनाक और गैर खतरनाक व्यवसायों का ये फर्क काफी विवादित था. बाल अधिकार संगठनो का मानना है कि किसी भी तरह की मजदूरी बच्चों के विकास में बाधक है इसलिए हर व्यवसाय बच्चों के लिए खतरनाक और हानिकारक है . पर भारत सरकार की सोच कुछ अलग थी और इसी सोच ने एक सवंधानिक संकट खड़ा कर दिया था . एक तरफ तो शिक्षा के मौलिक अधिकार के अनुसार १४ साल से कम के सभी बच्चों को शिक्षा का मौलिक अधिकार है और हर बच्चे को स्कूल में होना चाहिए. दूसरी बाल श्रम से सम्बंधित पूर्व कानून इसी आयु वर्ग के बच्चों से कुछ व्यवसायों में काम कराने की इजाज़त देता था . अब यह कैसे संभव है कि बच्चा स्कूल में भी दाखिल हो और काम पर भी जाये ? इसी तरह के अंतरद्वंद जे जे एक्ट और बाल श्रम कानून में भी थे. इस संशोधन में  इस तरह के कुछ विरोधाभासों को ख़त्म करने की कोशिश की गयी है पर कई अभी भी बाकी है.

आर्थिक प्रगति और बाल श्रम

यह संशोधन भारत को कुछ अन्य शर्मनाक स्थितियों से  बचाने में भी मदद करेगा. पिछले कई सालो से भारत एक तरफ तो अपनी आर्थिक प्रगति और ८% विकास दर का ढिंढोरा पीटता आ रहा है और दूसरी तरफ अंतर्राष्ट्रीय मंचो पर यह रोना रो रहा है कि हम एक गरीब देश है. हमारे पास बाल श्रम ख़त्म करने के लिए प्रयाप्त साधन नहीं है और हमारी अर्थव्यवस्था बच्चों की मजदूरी के बिना नहीं चल सकती. आज तक भारत ने  संयुक्त राष्ट्र बाल अधिकार समझोते की धारा ३२ पर सहमती नहीं दी है,   जिसमे वादा किया गया है कि सभी देश बाल मजदूरी को जड़ से ख़त्म करेंगे. अपने देश के बच्चों के प्रति भारत जैसे अग्रणी राष्ट्र का यह रवैया शर्मनाक था. इस सशोधन के बाद हम कहने को तो कह ही सकते हैं कि हम  बच्चों के अधिकारों को पूरा करने के लिए प्रतिबद्ध हैं.

अपवाद

इस अधिनियम में संशोधन के बाद १४ वर्ष से कम के बच्चों से किसी भी व्यवसाय में मजदूरी करवाने पर पूरी तरह प्रतिबन्ध लगाने का दावा किया जा रहा है. बहुत अच्छी बात है कि बच्चो से कोई काम नहीं कराया जाएगा. परन्तु इसमें एक पेंच है. इसमें एक अपवाद रखा गया है कि अगर वह  अपने ही घर पर काम करती या करता  है और वह उसके स्कूल जाने में बाधक नहीं बनता तो इसकी अनुमति है. प्रश्न यह उठता है कि क्या ऐसा संभव है. अगर बच्चा घर पर काम करेगी/गा और काम स्कूल में बाधक नहीं बनेगा. क्या यह व्यवाहरिक है? बच्चों की घर पर काम में व्यस्तता उनके स्कूल के छुटने/ड्राप आउट  का एक सबसे बड़ा कारण है.
कानून बनाने वालो का कहना है कि घर में बाल क्ष्रम की इज़ाज़त  तो अपवाद है और इसमें  मात्र छोटी सी संख्या आती है. वास्तविकता कुछ और है. वैश्वीकरण के इस दौर में अधिकतर उत्पादन अनौपचारिक क्षेत्र में होता है. इस अनौपचारिक  क्षेत्र में होने वाले उत्पादन  का एक बड़ा भाग घरो में होने वाले काम से होता है. और आने वाले समय में इसके अनुपात के घटने की कोई संभावना नहीं है बल्कि उदारवाद के इस दौर में घरो पर होने वालो कामो का प्रतिशत बढ़ने ही वाला है. सच्चाई तो यह है कि यह अपवाद एक बड़ी संख्या में बाल क्ष्रम को कानूनी मान्यता है.

बाल श्रम बनाम बाल विकास

कानून बनाने वालों की बात मान भी लें कि केवल स्कूल के बाद बच्चों को काम करने की इजाज़त होगी तो इसका आशय क्या है. बच्चा दिन के उपलब्ध सोलह घंटो में से आठ घंटे स्कूल जायेगा, दो तीन घंटे खाने और दिन के आवश्यक कामो में लगाएगा /लगाएगी और चार घंटे काम में लगाएगा/गी. ऐसे में क्या हम उस पर 8 घंटे के स्कूल और चार घंटे के काम  का दुगना बोझ नहीं डाल रहे. ऐसे में खेलने , स्कूल के काम और आराम का वक्त कहाँ है. क्या बच्चे के विकास के लिए खेलने और आराम करने की जरूरत नहीं है?

जातिप्रथा का सुदृढ़ीकरण

कानून बनाने वालो का इस अपवाद के पीछे एक  औचित्य यह है कि इससे उसे अपने पारंपरिक कामों को सीखने का मौका मिलेगा. यानी कुम्हार के बच्चे को केवल कुम्हार का काम सीखने का अवसर मिलेगा और लौहार के बच्चे को केवल लौहार का. क्या इसमें डॉक्टर या वकील के बच्चे के लिए कुम्हार या लौहार का काम सीखने  की सम्भावनाये है? वह तो डॉक्टर या वकील ही बनेगा/गी.

क्या यह हमारी स्थापित जाती व्यवस्था को बढाने का औजार नहीं है. क्या इससे समाज में व्याप्त असमानताओ को बढ़ावा नहीं मिलेगा?

खतरनाक व्यवसायों की सूची

नए कानून में १४ से १८ वर्ष तक के बच्चों से खतरनाक व्यवसायों में काम कराने पर रोक लगा दी गयी है. हालाँकि बाल अधिकार कार्यकर्ताओं एवं  संगठनो का मानना है कि १८ से कम हर व्यक्ति बच्चा है 
और इस तरह का प्रावधान बाल अधिकार विरोधी है. कुछ समय के लिए अगर यह तर्क को किनारे भी रख दें तो प्रश्न यह उठता है कि पूर्व कानून में खतरनाक व्यवसायों की जो व्यापक  सूची थी उसे नए कानून में क्यों हटा दिया गया. यह सूची पिछले तीन दशकों के जद्दोजहद के बाद बनी थी और इसे नए कानून में भी कायम रहना चाहिए.

कानून लागू करने में चुनौतियाँ

हम सभी जानते है कि कानून होना एक बात है और उसका क्रियान्वन दूसरी बात. माना कि बाल मजदूरी के खिलाफ पुराने कानून में कुछ खामियां थी पर ज्यादा समस्या उसके लागू करने में नज़र आती है. ये कानून सन १९८६ से लागू हुआ था और लगभग पिछले तीस सालों में पुरे देश में इसके अंतर्गत चालीस हज़ार केस दर्ज किये गए. इनमे से मात्र ४७०० को सजा हो सकी और उसमे भी अधिकतर सजाएँ १०० या २०० रूपये के मामूली जुर्माने की थी. बाल मजदूरी के सरकारी गैर सरकारी आंकड़े लाखों करोडो में हैं और उसके मुकाबले में कानून तोड़ने वालों को मिलने वाली सजा ना के बराबर रही है. कानून के क्रियान्वन का यही हाल रहा तो नया कानून भी बस किताबों में ही रह जायेगा.

क्षमतावर्धन और उन्मुखीकरण

कानून के पालन के लिए कानून को लागू करने वाली संस्थाओं सशक्त करना, उनका क्षमतावर्धन और उन्मुखीकरण बहुत जरूरी है. उदहारण के तौर पर कुछ समय पहले दिल्ली जैसे बड़े शहर में मात्र २२ लेबर इंस्पेक्टर थे  जिन पर बालमजदूरी के साथ साथ श्रम से सम्बंधित सात अन्य कानूनों के क्रियान्वन की जिम्मेदारी थी. स्थिति अगर ऐसी ही रही तो नए कानून के आने के बाद भी हालात में शायद ही कोई बदलाव आये. श्रम विभाग के साथ साथ पुलिस का उन्मुखीकरण और उन्हें सवेंदनशील बनाना भी जरूरी है ताकि बच्चों  को बालश्रम से छूटने के बाद थानों और न्यायालयों में फिर से पीड़ित न होना पड़े. अक्सर बाल मजदूरों को मुक्त कराने के अभियान कुछ इस तरह चलाये जाते हैं कि अपराधी बच्चों से काम कराने वाले न होकर खुद बच्चे ही हों.

समेकित बाल सरंक्षण कार्यक्रम ( ICPS) के अंतर्गत हर जिले मे  बाल सुरक्षा समितियां और हर थाने में किशोर कल्याण पदाधिकारी की नियुक्ति अनिवार्य है पर देश के अधिकतर जिलों और थानों में या तो ये समितियां बनी ही नहीं है या उनका अस्तित्व सिर्फ कागजों तक ही सीमित है. जिले स्तर पर बाल कल्याण समितियां और राज्य स्तर पर बाल सरंक्षण आयोगों कि भी इस कानून को लागू करने के और बच्चों की सुरक्षा सुनिश्चित करने में एक अहम् भूमिका है. पर देश के कई जिलों और राज्यों में ये संस्थाएं गठित ही नहीं की गयी हैं. आज भी देश के चौदह राज्यों में बाल सुरक्षा आयोग का गठन नहीं हुआ है ओर लगभग २५० जिलों में बाल कल्याण समिति का गठन नहीं हुआ है. बहुत से जिलो में बाल कल्याण समितियां ओर जे जे बोर्ड केवल कागजों पर है ओर ऐसे लोगों से भरी पड़ी है जिन्हें बाल अधिकारों से कोई वास्ता नहीं है. ऐसी ख़बरें अक्सर आती है कि जे जे बोर्ड, बाल विकास समिति या किसी सरकारी अफसर  के घर पर बाल मजदूर रखने और उसके साथ यौन शोषण की घटना सामने आई है. है. आये दिन सरकारी मुलाज़िमों और पढ़े लिखे तबके के लोगों के यहाँ बाल मजदूरी और उनके साथ होने वाले दुराचारों की घटनाएँ सामने आती रहती है . अगर बाल मजदूरी पर बने इस नए कानून को सही मायनों में लागू करना है तो बाल सुरक्षा के लिए बने संवेधानिक संस्थाओं को कारगर ढंग से काम करना होगा.

समस्या का सही सही आकलन

इस कानून को प्रभावी बनाने में दूसरी बड़ी चुनौती इस समस्या के आकार को ठीक ठीक नापने की है अर्थात ये पता लगाने की है कि आखिर बाल मजदूरों की संख्या कितनी है. जब तक समस्या के आकार  का पता नहीं होगा उसके हल के लिए योजना बनाना संभव नहीं है . २००१ की जनगणना के अनुसार बाल  मजदूरों की संख्या १२ करोड़ ६० लाख (केवल प्रतिबंधित व्यवसायों में) थी जो २०११ की जनगणना में भी लगभग उतनी ही है. यह बात सर्वविदित है कि लाखों ऐसे बच्चे है जिनका नाम स्कूल में दर्ज़ है (और वह बाल श्रमिकों की गणना में नहीं आते ) पर वो स्कूल न जाकर विभिन्न किस्म के व्यवसायों में लगे है . कृषि क्षेत्र में बड़ी संख्या में बच्चे लगे है पर उनकी कोई गिनती नहीं है. सरकारी आंकडो को गैर सरकारी आंकड़े लगातार चुनौती देते रहेते है और उनके हिसाब से बाल मजदूरों की संख्या तीन से छह करोड़ तक की है. यह ज़रूरी है कि सरकार बाल मजदूरों की संख्या का सही सही पता लगाये और उसके अनुसार योजना बनाये. बाल  मजदूरी पुनर्वास के लिए एन.सी.एल.पी (NCLP) जैसे कुछ आधे अधूरे   कार्यक्रम चलाये जा रहे हैं वह भी बहुत छोटे स्तर पर. अगर सरकारी आंकड़ो को भी माने तो बाल मजदूरों की संख्या १.२ करोड़ है और उनके पुनर्वास के लिए चल रहा कार्यक्रम मात्र छह लाख बच्चों के लिए है. ज़ाहिर है इस तरह के कार्यक्रमों के बूते इस समस्या को दूर नहीं किया जा सकता.

राजनैतिक इच्छाशक्ति और संसाधन

बाल श्रम को जड़ से दूर करने के लिए जरूरी है इनके पुनर्वास के लिए पर्याप्त कार्यक्रम हो और हर बच्चे के लिए गुणवत्ता पूर्ण शिक्षा के अवसर उपलब्ध हो ताकि उसे बाल मजदूर बनने से रोका जा सके. साथ ही परिवार के बड़े सदस्यों के लिए उचित मजदूरी वाले रोज़गार उपलब्ध हो जिससे वो अपने परिवार  के भरण पोषण की जिम्मेदारी निभा सके और परिवार चलाने के लिए बच्चों की मजदूरी पर निर्भर न रहे. इसके लिए जरूरी है कि एक तरफ तो कानून को लागू करने के लिए आवश्यक आधारभूत ढांचा उपलब्ध हो और दूसरी तरफ शिक्षा और रोज़गार के प्रयाप्त अवसर मौजूद हो. इन दोनों ही के लिए जरूरी है की सरकार बजट में प्रयाप्त प्रावधान करे. कानून में बदलाव करके सरकार ने बाल मजदूरी को खत्म करने की मंशा तो दिखाई है पर अब और जरूरी है कि सरकार इस कानून को लागू करने के लिए राजनैतिक इच्छाशक्ति दिखाए और बच्चों के प्रति अपनी जिम्मेदारी को पूरा करे.   

(लेखक डेवलेपमेंट प्रोफेश्नल के रूप में कार्यरत हैं और पिछले कई सालों से बाल अधिकारों के क्षेत्र में काम कर रहे हैं।)

The post बालश्रम उन्मूलन के लिए नया कानून: क्या यह हमारी स्थापित जाती व्यवस्था को बढाने का औजार नहीं है? appeared first on SabrangIndia.