Scourge of Child Labor

Indian express(20th May, 2011)
http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/op-ed/scourge-of-child-labour-in-india/276016.html


When I ponder over the recent Assembly election results in four states, I observe a piquant irony in the common themes on which they have been fought. Most of the elections in the recent past have been fought on the corruption or economic growth planks. The economic growth plank encompasses growth of infrastructure, better employment, etc. While there is nothing wrong in focusing on economic growth, I am of the view that in this noise of economic development the need for social growth has taken a back seat or has been forgotten. It is understood that economic growth indirectly paves the way for social development, but there is a sinking feeling that some pressing social problems, which deserve proper, urgent attention, are not getting their due. One such issue which is on the top of the list is child labour.
Daily, we see hundreds and thousands of children working in small hotels, platforms, small vendors or as domestic help in houses. We are also aware of small children working in different industries and factories, some even under inhumane conditions. Work place abuse is common in these places and very often we hear of the atrocities committed to such innocent children by their masters. Even government bureaucrats, who are entrusted with the task of checking such malaise in society, are seen to employ child labour themselves.
The society appears oblivious because they believe that the employers are doing charity by giving employment to these otherwise destitute children. It is widely believed that these children are orphans and have no one to care for them. But this is not necessarily always true. Many poor parents send their child to do odd jobs just to earn that extra rupee which will make ends meet. Some people who are capable of earning enough to feed themselves and their children are also seen sending their children to earn an extra buck. The answer to why the government is oblivious is very obvious: for the simple reason that the society, which comprises of an unfortunate political creation called vote bank, is oblivious to this issue and thus pursuing this doesn’t earn any political brownie points for a party. The media often ignores this issue because the government and society are oblivious to this issue.
The biggest beneficiary would be the society and thus it should start taking the initiative to reduce child labour in our country. The media and government would automatically follow suit. To achieve this the misconception about child labour should be eliminated. The government can chip in here to segregate working children into two distinct groups: Those whose parents can provide for their food, education and health and the those whose parents are not capable of providing a square meal a day or those who are orphans. To tackle the first group, a combination of stringent punishment for errant parents and good subsidies/freebies for compliant ones could be a starting point. For the second group of children, a greater effort will be needed on the part of the government. It would entail forming of private-public partnership to adopt impecunious children and take care of their entire food/education expenses till a certain age. Another feasible solution to tackle the second group would be to allow the children to continue working in their respective work places for lesser hours and simultaneously making arrangements for them to attend schools and receive proper food and access to healthcare.
There would be of course a lot of implementation issues, but for eradication of such a deep-rooted social malaise a sincere effort is needed. India is projecting itself as a growing economy and as a rising superpower. But what use of a double-digit GDP or superpower status if the system within is rotten and its children do not have an opportunity to grow up with dignity? The scourge of child labour needs to be targeted and eliminated quickly.