The kids aren't alright

-

As India celebrates Kailash Satyarthi's Nobel, a look at the child labour crisis that has condemned millions of children to toil ceaselessly. Children continue to labour as families, too poor to feed their young, send them out to work.

As the traffic signal near Masjid Moth in Delhi changes to red and cars start pulling up, ten-year-old Raina (name changed) stops playing with the other children waiting at the lights, and arranges her face in her trademark expression of distress. Slowly, she begins weaving her way between the cars, peering into the rolled-up windows, coaxing commuters to buy an angry bird or chhota bheem balloon. Behind her, other children peddle their various wares of toys, flowers and pens. When one glass window lowers, Raina begins to hand out a ballon. But out comes a hand holding a large box of pizza and a bottle of coke. The mysterious benefactor wins a whoop of delight and a face-splitting grin from Raina.
As India and the world celebrates Kailash Satyarthi's Nobel Peace Prize, child labour - which the child rights activist has been working to eradicate - continues to hold millions of children like Raina in its grasp. In its annual report for 2012-13, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, that Satyarthi founded, mentions 4,936 cases of child labour that it has identified. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Moral Polishing

-
Image
Child labour should not be entertained at all. It is legally and morally wrong. Children should not be allowed to provide labour at the expense of getting an education and enjoying their childhood. Factory owners, shopkeepers, and industries among others should not employ children. The society should be educated on the negative impacts of child labour so that it becomes an issue that is frowned upon whenever it occurs. This type of moral polishing would act as a deterrent to people who intend to employ children and use them as a source of cheap labour.  Many of the ills that go on in the society do so because people turn a blind eye or fail to consider their moral impacts.  With this kind of approach, cases of child labour will greatly fall among our communities. We only have 2 choices: Nothing or Do something
Read more

Free Education

-
Image
How can child labour be reduced or completely eradicated?  Every child born has the right to have dreams and pursue those dreams. Even though the realization of some of these aspirations may be limited by several challenges, it is still possible to overcome them and achieve the highest levels of success. There is need to involve various stakeholders to realize this objective. These are some of the ways in which the problem of child labour can be addressed.                                                                        CHILD EDUCATION Free education holds the key to eliminating child labour. Parents that do not have money for school fees can use this as an opportunity to provide their children with education. It has already proved to be a success in many places around the globe and with ...
Read more

Child Prostitution

-
Image
Child prostitution “involves offering the sexual services of a child or inducing a child to perform sexual acts for a form of compensation, financial or otherwise.” Worldwide, approximately 1 million children are forced into prostitution every year, and it is estimated that the total number of child prostitutes is as high as 10 million. “Generally children do not commit child prostitution but the adults who engage in prostitution or offer a child’s sexual services to others force them. It is estimated that at least 1 million girls worldwide are lured or forced into this scandalous form of child exploitation. Child prostitution is more frequent in developing countries such as Brazil and Thailand where more than 200,000 children are exploited.” Child prostitution is not only a cause of death and high morbidity for millions of children, but also a gross violation of their rights. Prostitution negatively affects children’s sexual health, causes psychological harm, and puts them a...
Read more