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Project to help eradicate child labour launched

Union Labour Secretary L Mishra today launched an innovative project aimed at mobilising co-operative action of civil society for eliminating and rehabilitating child labour.

The Town Enrichment Action Movement, or TEAM, project being taken up at Rajeev Nagar in Gurgaon with support of the British High Commission and United Nations Development Programme, or UNDP, is the brainchild of SNS Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, or NGO.

Mishra lauded the project as a significant collaboration between the government, district administration, NGOs and international agencies. He said it was timely given the fact that over 100 million children in the 5-14 age group were out of school and thus potential child labour.

The labour secretary regretted that despite concerted efforts ''we have failed not only in providing educational access to all children but we have also failed to make education a joyous experience''.

Observing that more than 50 per cent of the drop-out rate was for girls, he said girls are victims of educational deprivation and need special attention.

''Social backwardness in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa and some pockets of Haryana are responsible for this educational deprivation," he said and called for drawing up effective strategies to tackle the problem.

Earlier UNDP's representative in India Brenda McSweeney said the challenge was enormous as the number of working children keeps increasing along with the ever-increasing number of migrant labourers, compounded by the current drought in the neighbouring states.

Giving a brief on the project, SNS Foundation chairman Jagdish Anand said by using methods like seminars, workshops, street plays and visits, they would pressure the district administration to tackle issues including enrolment of all children under 14 years, support for activities to train and skill mothers of the children/women to access micro-credit facilities and providing health care facilities for children.

Workshop on 'Elimination of worst forms of child labour'

Music filters out of almost every other factory employing children in Sivakasi. The deafening drumbeats are not meant to entertain, though. They are meant to ensure that the kids working inside roll out match sticks and crackers in a rhythmic manner.

Speaking at a media workshop on 'Elimination of the worst forms of child labour' in Delhi yesterday, participants said that those conducting raids on factories employing children will really not find many.

"There is a back door, you see, and the children have been trained to run away at the slightest hint of a raid," they said.

Sivakasi apart, the slate mines of Markarpur in Andhra Pradesh, the carpet-weaving industry in the Mirzapur-Bhadohi belt, the bangle industry in Firozabad, and prostitution, all prey upon the childhood of some kids.

Sharing their experiences on the worst form of child labour were Asha Krishnakumar of the Frontline and photographer Anita Khemka.

Asha, after researching the child-intensive industries in Sivakasi felt the local authorities must be given discretionary powers and the media must keep the issue alive if their lot is to be bettered.

Anita, who builds a rapport with her subjects over a period of time, said that though she documents the suffering of her subjects, she cannot publish them because she is wary of breaking that trust.

Later, various non-governmental organisations, or NGOs, working to eradicate child labour interacted with media representatives in a panel discussion moderated by veteran journalist Usha Rai.

"When you want formal education for you child, why think of vocational educational for these children?" wondered many NGO representatives.

Others like Pravin Patkar of Prerna, an NGO working in Maharashtra, have set up night shelters to house children of 'victims of commercial sexual exploitation'.

''We delink the children from these red light areas, but don't disassociate them from their mothers,'' he says.

The usage of the term 'sex workers' also came in for debate. Why call them workers, asks Patkar. A worker is a positive term and denotes someone working without stigma. These people have been exploited and are in a profession they have been pushed into.

The discussion also touched upon media coverage of such issues. Alarippu, a Delhi-based NGO staged a play on child labour.

UNI

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