New law a nuisance for millions of Indian child workers
By Parul Gupta
NEW DELHI: Twelve-year-old Indian dishwasher Akhlilesh Prajapati now faces an uncertain future after a new ban took effect on Tuesday outlawing children from working as servants or in the catering trade.
The shy boy, whose boss at the New Delhi tea stall where he works has told him to leave, does not know where his next stop will be.
“I don’t know what will happen to me. I’ve been told to look for other work but I don’t know what to do; I’ll see if anyone will hire me,” said Akhlilesh, who ran away from home six months ago after being beaten for breaking a pot.
The Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act 1986 already prohibit employing children under 14 in “hazardous” jobs such as those in glass factories and slaughter houses.
The ban is poorly enforced in India, home to the world’s largest number of child workers.
Some 12 million children among a population of 1.1 billion people are employed in India, according to census figures, although activists say the real number is closer to 60 million.
Now, under an amendment to the law, employing children as domestic helpers and in hotels, restaurants and roadside cafes will also be considered “hazardous”.
Activists are doubtful that the legislation, which carries penalties ranging from a prison term of up to two years and/or a fine of up to Rs20,000 ($424) will usher in any meaningful change.
“This new rule is a piece of paper, which has no meaning unless translated into serious action,” said activist Bhuwan Ribhu of Save the Childhood Foundation, which works to rehabilitate child labourers.
Many law enforcement officials will still turn a blind eye to child labour by saying poor children would probably starve if they did not work, he predicted.
“We will encourage people to inform us or the police if they find children employed in households and restaurants,” said Ribhu.
But “child labour is (still) treated as a social evil, not as a crime by most people,” said Ribhu. “Most of the times they (police) are not willing to act. It takes a lot of persuasion.”
The federal government says it plans to make use of existing infrastructure to accommodate the children and has launched an “awareness campaign”.
Newspaper advertisements on the weekend informing people about the new act read: “Don’t deny them their childhood.”
The federal government has told state governments and charities to make provisions to house child workers in state-run shelters and charities after the ban comes into effect.
But it conceded the new rule would not change things overnight.
“The government cannot go door-to-door. We can’t post a policeman at every house. Some mechanism will evolve automatically,” said labour ministry spokesman M.L. Dhar.
Many families routinely employ child servants, who are usually called “chhotu” (little boy) or “chhoti” (little girl) rather than by their names. They believe they are doing the children a favour by hiring them.
“These runaways have nowhere to go. If we don’t hire them, they will take to drugs and bad habits,” said Akhlilesh’s employer and tea-stall manager Suresh Patel, who also employs a 13-year-old boy.
“We have told the boys to leave after the 10th or else the police will harass us (for bribes), but they don’t want to go. They have nowhere to go,” Patel said.
Poverty and lack of good primary education are seen as main causes of child labour. About 65 million children aged six to 14 were not attending school, according to census figures.
“I don’t like this work, but what to do? I will starve,” said 14-year-old trash-picker Mohan Patel who lives on the streets.
Mohan, whose bright eyes are a marked contrast to his grubby clothes, earns his living selling discarded plastic bottles he picks up from a New Delhi railway station.
Despite a booming economy growing at more than eight per cent, India has the world’s most poor people, with some 290 million living in poverty, according to the World Bank.
The country’s level of child under-nutrition is almost double that of sub-Saharan Africa, it also says.
“About 70 per cent and 50 per cent parental responses indicate that children are pushed to work in order to maintain income levels for sustenance and survival of the families,” says a report by non-profit group Global March Against Child Labour.
“It’s a socio-economic problem. Many children work because their parents have no choice,” the labour ministry’s Dhar added.—AFP
