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ZuluSocial Issues & Initiatives
Childhood snatched from innocent angels
Read Time: 3 minutes
Childhood, one of the best part of a person’s life.
Every time we think about our childhood, we definitely have a wide smile on our face. Those innocent memories, silly fights with friends, being pampered by everyone, fun times with siblings or love and care from family makes us believe that childhood days were the best.
But this is the definition of a happy childhood what about a devastating childhood?
CHILD LABOUR refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful.
India has a population of 1.324 billion in which around 440 million belong to the category of children. In this, around 33 million are uneducated and 12 million are child workers and the figure can reach up to 60 million. These are those kids who don’t have a happy childhood.
At the age of 5 they’re expected to earn money and help their family, their childhood is snatched from them. Those little hands that are supposed to play with toys, lift bricks and wash utensils.
These kids usually work in places like Dhaba (roadside restaurants), textile industries, or as domestic workers.
The bottom line for child labour is poverty. At a very young age the kids are asked to work, they usually get these works through parents and most of the kids often tend to work where their parents are working. Kids even work in places such as firecrackers and matchstick factories which are completely hazardous for their health.
According to the child labour act of 1986, no child under 14 should work. Child labour laws exist in many countries but there are not enough resources to enforce them and inspections are rarely carried out. Who is to be blamed for all this? The kid who doesn’t even know what he is doing, his parents who don’t have the money to provide food for their own kid or the government which isn’t taking up enough responsibility to make a change?
They often say poverty is a cycle because a poor man’s kid doesn’t get an opportunity to get education so he ends up doing the same job as that of their parent and lives the same life.
The government has taken few steps to bring an end to this like in India, education is provided as a fundamental right to children between the age group of 6-14. But still parents don’t send kids to school and instead send them to work.
Most of the kids do not like working but even if they don’t they’ve to work for their mere survival.
Every child in this world deserves a normal life, a happy childhood and definitely education. But many of them don’t even get an opportunity to explore their ideas or to get out of the poverty cycle. We as individuals should take up responsibility and help these kids have a better life. Next time, when you see a child under the age of 14 working don’t just ignore it, take a step forward and do something to stop it.
Because, CHILD LABOUR IS A CRIME.
