Belabouring
Over Child Labour
By
Farzana Versey
13 October, 2006
Countercurrents.org
The
Indian government's recent announcement banning the employment of children
as domestic servants and workers in roadside eateries, restaurants,
teashops starts with a problem. The age limit is below 14 years. And
its figures are 80 per cent off the mark – the verdict talks about
20 million children whereas the number is close to a 100 million.
Child labour is an inevitability.
It sounds awfully romantic to shed tears over this fact, but then we
forget that if they were not rolling beedis or knotting carpets or serving
food, they would be out in the streets robbing, soliciting or even begging.
The last ought to be taken into special account because there is a large
mafia that maims children for them to qualify as prized beggars.
Often children work on their
own in these unorganised sectors before they 'graduate' to working for
employers. This is where a defined exploitation comes in.
Gerard Oonk, spokesperson
of the international campaign 'Stop Child Labour – School is the
best place to work', that India is affiliated to, has commented on the
recent ban: "This is a very important step in the fight against
child labour. Hopefully the Indian government will combine it with sound
rehabilitation programmes, as many children are traumatized, and with
programmes to get them into regular schools, either directly or through
special bridge programmes."
This is naïve and hands
over responsibility to an establishment that in the past took action
only because the United States refused to buy our carpets. A follow-up
action is a utopian dream. In our armchair cogitations, we completely
forget the person at the centre of this: the child.
I have met a number of children
working in private establishments in the tanneries at Dharavi, in shops,
doing arduous work, and they all felt work was the only way out. Mubarak
who left a job washing dishes at a small restaurant now works in a factory
making flash doors and at the very suggestion of banning child labour
he had smirked, "What's wrong with working anyway? It is better
than being in the streets. If you ask me I am willing to work anywhere,
do anything as long as I make money. I have to survive in this city."
Together with child labour
are connected the issues of other remedial actions, for many of them
are immigrants. The pavement becomes the child's home. In Brazil they
used to kill street children; in India it is a case of slow poisoning
– hafta, drug peddling, pimping, prostitution and the inhumanity
which robs them of innocence.
The present ban that has
been imposed under the Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act
1986 mentions frequent physical violence, psychological traumas and
"at some times" sexual abuse. Long working hours are mentioned,
too.
Who is going to ensure that
there will not be night shift, that there will be a one-hour rest period
in the stipulated six-hour day, and that the employer would maintain
a muster roll? Isn't the employer the exploiter? Aren't the parents
conniving due to financial compulsions?
Children themselves are powerless.
Sanctifying child labour with all the provisions will not take away
the bondage factor, just as abolishing it on paper is not going to end
its practice. Several years ago a Bill was tabled in the Upper House
making provisions for minimum legal protection: "Any person can
file a complaint before the courts," it said in all earnestness.
Who would go around scouting
in factories, make-shift hovels and homes to find beleaguered children
who would bare their souls? Moreover, who would take the case to court?
Would the parents, themselves ignorant, helpless and a party to the
deal, fight against an employer who is their mai-baap? Or does the law
think that work experience has made the child so mature that s/he could
hire a lawyer and make the employer a respondent?
Let us extend the parameters
a bit. Remember all those children immortalised in Mira Nair's film
'Salaam Bombay'? They were back to where they belonged, where they were
meant to belong. In the gush of authenticity it was forgotten that the
raw emotions they exposed for the camera would stay with them. They
too were exploited.
Or take the reality shows
on television, be it a fun programme or a serious music contest. Children
look and perform like adults and are made to wear outlandish and vulgar
clothes. It isn't their education that counts, but how well they can
manipulate the audience to send SMS votes that seems to matter.
Parents themselves exploit
these kids by pushing them in directions they had wanted to go but couldn't.
Under the garb of promoting their untapped talent, they display them
as their property, emotionally blackmailing them all the time.
Employers are only one of
the categories of exploiters.
Farzana Versey is a Mumbai-based
writer whose columns have been published in several leading newspapers
and magazines. She can be reached at [email protected]
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