Indians for protecting kids from work exploitation

Indians have once again highlighted the plight of child workers, and raised their voice against their continued exploitation.

Child labour is rampant throughout the world, and especially in India, with more than 12 million children below the age of 14 working as domestic servants or other jobs such as in stone quarries, embroidery units, mining, carpet-weaving, tea stalls, restaurants and hotels, according to government data.

A law prohibiting employing children in homes and in the hospitality industry came into effect in October 2006, but India is failing to enforce a ban on child labour.

In Siliguri, West Bengal, police officials, children and activists of a non-government organisation (NGO) took part in an awareness march to demand stricter laws against child labour.

"Siliguri metropolitan police and NGOs are co-conducting awareness programmes along with government units. We are conducting raids also; for example in hotels following information that children under the age of 14 are being involved in child labour. They were rescued and sent to their families," said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Saberi Rajkumar.

The children came out on streets holding placards and festoons with slogans asking to stop child labour.

The law - where violators face a jail term of up to two years and a maximum fine of Rs.20,000 is an extension of a previous 1986 ban prohibiting children from working jobs deemed too "hazardous" for minors such as in factories and mines.

Child rights campaigners say like the previous ban, the 2006 law has never been properly implemented or enforced.

Children working in lower-end restaurants and highway food stalls are a common sight in many parts of India, and many urban middle-class households hire young boys and girls from poor families as servants.

"They only see more income but they do not see the child's growth and that is why they send their children to work. They send their children to railway stations as most of them belong to poor families," said a counsellor of a social service organisation in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Arvind.

Children, mostly belonging to poor families, are sent to work near railway tracks and platforms and in small eat-out joints by their parents, who cannot afford to pay to feed the families, to have an extra helping hand.

"We are poor and do not have enough source of income. This is why we earn our bread like this. But we do make our children study. As school holidays are going on, I have brought them here," said Pyare Lal, a father whose children work with him at his stall.

In New Delhi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Narendra Singh Tomar leader and cabinet minister, and Punjabi singer Jasbir Jassi launched an anthem against child labour to create awareness among people.

"Child labour has originated from poverty. To end child labour we have to fight poverty, and I am glad that our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian Government have vowed to make India poverty free and to change the lives of poor people for good," said Tomar.

Thousands of children, mostly from poor rural areas, are also taken to the cities every year by trafficking gangs who sell them into bonded labour or hire them out to unscrupulous employers, promising to send their parents their wages.

In many cases, the children are not paid and go missing, and their families are unable to track them down.

June 12 is observed throughout the world as World Day against Child Labour to raise awareness against the prevalence of child labour in several countries worldwide.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates say there are over 218 million child labourers worldwide. The government's 2001 census estimated 12.7 million involved in child labour and children constitute 3.6 per cent of the total labour force of the country.