Essay on Rehabilitating the Child Labour in India : Child labour is usually a natural consequence of a poor country afflicted by the sundry problems of underdevelopment. Government of India in cooperation with other state governments has been trying very hard for the eradication of child labour. The National Child Labour Project [NCLP] is one of the important government interventions towards the realisation of this goal. Needless to say, the project has made significant difference in this regard. Thousands of child labourers have been rescued and rehabilitated through the special schools run under the Project. These special schools run specially designed bridge courses so that these children can be suitably mainstreamed through consequent admission to formal school. These children not only learn the three [Rs] in the special school, but also get some vocational training in the area of their choice. The children receive a monthly stipend of Rs 150 per month apart from getting regular nutritional and medical support.
Essay on Rehabilitating the Child Labour in India
It is believed that there are more
children under the age fourteen years in India than the entire population of
United States. Children under fourteen constitute around 3.6 per cent of the
total labour force in India. Of these, nine out of every ten work for their own
family enterprises in the countryside. Nearly 85 per cent are supposed to be
engaged in traditional agricultural activities. Less than 9 per cent work in
manufacturing, services and repair workshops. Only about 0.8 per cent work in
factories.
Child labour is usually a natural
consequence of a poor country afflicted by the sundry problems of
underdevelopment. Government of India in cooperation with other state
governments has been trying very hard for the eradication of child labour. The
National Child Labour Project [NCLP] is one of the important government
interventions towards the realisation of this goal. Needless to say, the
project has made significant difference in this regard.
Thousands of child labourers have been
rescued and rehabilitated through the special schools run under the Project.
These special schools run specially designed bridge courses so that these
children can be suitably mainstreamed through consequent admission to formal
school. These children not only learn the three [Rs] in the special school, but
also get some vocational training in the area of their choice. The children
receive a monthly stipend of Rs 150 per month apart from getting regular
nutritional and medical support.
Run by NGOs or local self-government
bodies, these schools have been doing reasonably well towards realisation of
the Project objectives. Hundreds of thousands of children have been
mainstreamed, but still there remains a lot which needs to be done to extirpate
the malaise of child labour from our society for good.
The practical experience in running
the Project and the special schools across the country has brought forth many
issues which need to be considered, if at all we wish to make a serious dent to
this problem.
First thing which baffles one is the
age cap of 14 for identifying the child labour. After all, what is the
criterion whereby we need to confine our identification of child labour till
the age of 14 only, something which is accepted internationally? Do we meant o
say that the moment a child becomes 14, he ceases to deserve state attention
and care? This is more so when we know that such a child deserves better
nurturing to compensate for the poor family background and upbringing he has
been getting.
If we stop state support at 14 only,
then it is very much likely that the child would relapse to his previous fate.
Stopping state support and care at 14 means that the child labourers shall
always remain so and would never get out of the morass of an unflattering
living standard. Hence, one believes and proposes that the age bar for the
identification of the child labour be raised to 18. Consequently, all the
relevant government support including monthly stipend, medical care and
nutritional support should also continue until the child reaches the age of 18.
As per the extant norms, the stipend
is supposed to be stopped once the child is mainstreamed into a formal school.
That being the case, there remains no incentive for the mainstreaming of the
children as they or their parents don’t wish to lose the financial benefit,
hence children’s academic performance gets negatively affected. So, one feels
that the stipend should be continued even after the child is mainstreamed into
the formal education system and the same should be continued till he or she
reaches the age of 18.
After all, it is money that drives the
poor parents to use their children as additional sources in income. So, some
sort of pecuniary assistance should be provided and continued even after the
child is withdrawn from the active employment and till he is completely
mainstreamed.
Even though envisaged in the overall
rehabilitation package, still the parents of the child labourers are not
compulsorily entitled to get preferential treatment in allocation of different
government benefits or goodies. One feels that there can be a general guideline
in this respect so that there can be earmarked quota for such category of
people as we already have with respect to SC/St OBC, war widows, ex-military
personnel and the handicapped.
One another problem commonly faced
regarding identification of the child labour relates to age determination.
Whatever his project has done, at least, it has generated enough awareness
relating to the employment of child labour. Now, everyone is aware that employing
a child below 14 is an offence. So, today when one goes about enforcing
prohibition of employment of child labour, one is faced with the difficulty
that the child himself/herself tells his/her age to be above 14 and the same is
told by their employers/parents even though one knows for sure that the child
is below 14.
But as there is no way to verify the
same, one finds oneself helpless and handicapped to do anything about
rehabilitation of such children. These children have not been to schools and
their births are also not registered, so they manage to get an age certificate
from any corner and proffer the same in support of their age which one is
forced to accept for want of any other way to do the same.
One also feels that the exemption
given to children working for their parents or in their family
workshops/factories also needs to be withdrawn as the same defeats the very
purpose of the Project. After all, a good number of such children are employed
by their own parents and family members and as such, they start doing so from a
very early age which has very negative implications for on their person
including depriving them the unadulterated pleasures of an innocent childhood.
Again, there are some flaws in the
ways in which the vocational training is supposed to be imparted in the
Project-run special school. As per present norms, while there is provision for
the employment of vocational trainer, there is no separate allotment for the
capital and recurring cot relating cost relating to these vocational training
programmes, something without which there shall be difficulty in running these
courses successfully.
So, there is also an urgent need to
look into this aspect before we can expect to realise the true purpose and
benefit of the vocational training. However, one also feels that a good portion
of the recurring costs can be recovered if the products manufactured during the
course of vocational training in these special schools are properly marketed
and sold, at least, at break-even costs. But that depends on the specific
Project, the range and quality of products manufactured and the ability of the
Project personnel to be able to market the same.
Again, it has come to notice that the
process of enforcement against the employment of child labour has been so
designed that there has been very less enforcement in the field than expected
otherwise. Because of sundry practical problems and the fact that the
predominant majority of culprits employing child labour belongs to the poorer
sections of the society, there is a general disinclination arrest them or to
penalise them.
Where the employers happen to be very
well-off, they somehow manage to get away with the offence. It is here that we
need to strike and ensure that the enforcement of the legal provisions of the
Child Labour [Prohibition and Regulation] Act does take place so that the real
objectives of the Act are realised.
Then, it has also been seen that many
of the child labourers rescued are not immediately and suitably rehabilitated
resulting in their relapse into child labour, something which should be
strongly guarded against. Also, the amount of Rs 20,000 for rehabilitation of
every child labour is too meagre and needs an upward revision to be of any
consequence. There has to be centrally designed rehabilitation package/scheme
with better financial support, which could be suitably customised at the field
level.
Then, it has also come to seen that
many state governments hesitate to report more number of child labourers and
recommend the requisite number of special schools to avoid attracting stigma of
officially having larger number of child
labourers as that reflects poorly on their developmental initiatives and
performance. This aspect is very important and needs to be addressed urgently
as in all this, it is the child labour which suffers, for whom the whole
project is designed.
So, if less number of schools are
recommended to hide the real picture, then there is also a problem of
undertaking more enforcement activities as that would mean more child labourers
in need of mainstreaming and rehabilitation, something which shall not be
possible in absence of adequate number of special schools and for which,
therefore, there does not remain much infrastructure and resources available.
There is not only a need for a renewed
thrust towards tackling the problem of child labour, but there is also an
imperative need towards making more financial allocation for the Project, not
to speak of the need for certain conceptual clarification regarding
identification of the child labour and revising certain aspect of the project
design. Besides, more coordinated and synergised convergence is required to
successfully eradicate child labour from this country.
COMMENTS