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Children of Lesser God & Nobel Peace Prize

October 10, supposedly the World Child Labour Eradication day, has come and gone. Has that made any difference to the issue of exploitation of children in India? The answer is No. There are close to 65 million children across the country who are victims of exploitative practices, which is almost 40% of global figure of 165 million. A month later on 14th Nov, its Childrens Day in India. From Rashtrapathi Bhavan to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, just about all schools celebrate! Childrens Day, to mark the birth day of India’s First Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. But, what about those children without school, children without future, and certainly children without reasons to celebrate. And you see them all around. You find them in eateries, automobile garages, mechanical workshops, brassware making machineshops, carpet weaving factories, rug making units, bangle making works, glass factories, diamond polishing, cracker units, and even in homes of well off people as domestic helpers.

Some years ago, coming down my office, I met a boy climbing the stairs with his tray of tea cups and eats from a big restaurant nearby. He was probably in his mid-teen. On enquiring, found he was 7th pass and stood first in the school. He was without father, and mother wanted him to earn money. Obviously she didn’t know the value of education, but what about his school head master, teachers, and the School Development and Monitoring Committees? None of them thought there is this academic brilliance, need to be sustained. How poor we are, as a nation? The society around this boy couldn’t save him from being just statistics of child labour, at the altar of hunger. Are we so brazenly insensitive when it comes to someone else’s child? Of course, when his own mother let him down at the most crucial moment in his life, how others can be blamed?

Having tasted good food and the new found freedom, since a few years, the boy had lost interest in further studies in the mean time. The salary that he would get, he would dutifully give to his mother every month, but my offer of training to prepare him for direct 10th standard examination did not evoke the necessary interest of a career oriented youngster. Yes, the boy Raju, had stopped dreaming. The break from the studies, coupled with comfortable routine life had killed the brilliant Raju and made him one of the millions of our faceless child labour.

As if to appreciate the problem within the country and to highlight the need to address the issue of global child labour and its possible eradication, on 10th Oct., on the World Child Labour Eradication Day, the Nobel Committee from Oslo, Norway, announced the Nobel Peace Prize jointly to two protagonists of child empowerment. Kailash Sathyarthi, the 60 year old child rights activist from Madhya Pradesh and Malala Yousufzai, a Pakistan, who became a global icon for girl’s education after she was shot in the head in her Swat home town by Talibanis, were jointly awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. They were chosen for this award, according to the citation “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. It is the prerequisite for peaceful global development that the rights of children and young people be respected. In conflict ridden areas in particular, the violation of children leads to the continuation of violence from generation to generation”.   Committee reportedly stated “Mr Satyarthi showed great personal courage, maintaining Gandhi’s tradition, has headed various forms of protest and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain”.

Commenting on Malala, committee observed “Despite her youth, she has fought for several years for the rights of girls to education and has shown by example that children and young people, too can contribute to improving their own situations.”

While it is symbolically very significant, the decision of Nobel committee to award jointly to sub-continental rivals, what really prompted them to do so is not very clear. However, in the larger picture of peace and stability in the region, it is but best to take it in the right spirit. Quite rightly, the senior recipient of the award Mr Satyarthi has observed rather succinctly. According to Mr Satyarthi, the joint award to him and Malala Yousufzai “was a big statement” and “it must be read between the lines not only by the government but by the people of both countries. Not having peace is a curse for children. They should be born in peace, live in peace and should enjoy their childhood and freedom of education in peace. We cannot ignore the fundamental principles of peace” he had added.

Mr.Satyarthi, the founder of Bachpan Bachaao Aandolan, reportedly has saved 83,525 children from bonded labour. He sees education as the key instrument of liberation of children from poverty, exploitation and neglect. In his pioneering work on child labour and school education in India, the late political scientist Myron Weiner wrote “Modern states regard education as legal duty, not merely a right! Parents are required to send their children to school, children are required to attend school, and the state is obliged to enforce compulsory education. This is not the view held in India. Primary education is not compulsory, nor is child labour illegal.” As the Hindu editorial puts it “The Nobel Peace prize this year recognizes the crucial links among child rights, labour and school education. In doing so, it recognizes one of the most fundamental prerequisites of a better tomorrow for millions of children everyehere.”

Surely this global recognition, which is probably the top most, will bring to the centre stage the issue of ‘Child Labour’. As Mr.Satyarthi remarked, “award will be a turning point in the struggle for the rights of children”. There is absolutely no doubt that this latest public concern on the issue will reflect on the ground in coming days. But, it is also equally true that this cannot be a magic wand to change things early or fast, since child labour and child exploitation is fairly endemic globally, and India in particular, primarily due to uncontrolled population.

A recent re-look at the 2011 census data, post Nobel intervention, reportedly only reveals, that successive governmental and social interventions have hardly had an impact on its demographic distribution and the numerical vastness. The data, compiled and circulated by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in India put the number of working children in the country at over 35 million. That data categorises child labourers in two categories – main worker and marginal workers. The marginal workers are those who work for 3-6 months a year. According to the data, over 22 million of the child labourers are in the main worker category and over 13 million in the marginal worker category. Data indicated it was not just BIMARU states but also more resourceful states were infected with the problem.

Here, it needs to be emphasized that, there is a dismal absence of accurate data on the extent of child labour in India. Census 2011 put it at 4.3 million, UNICEFs figure for the same period was 28 million. While the ILO came up with 40 million. However according to Mr.Satyarthi, it is now around 65 million. Thus, all those who are paid to do the job, they always come up with figures much lower than the actual, probably to tell the world, it’s not so bad as it is made out to be. Or else, they may be pulled up or lose the job!

The ground condition, as seen by Bachpan Bachaao Aandolan, tells that the ‘child labour is thriving only because it is cheap and is an easy fodder for exploitation of the worst kind. These young boys and girls are sent by their parents through middlemen to contractors with a promise of education. Once these children reach work point they are made to endure 12 hours work shift with heavy work load on their young and fragile frame. They neither get minimum wage, nor proper medical help in case of need, nor any compensation for accidents. Situation, with all governmental intervention is very grim for these children. Dishonesty, deceit, cruelty, lack of fairness and transparency is rampant. Neither, the employer nor the enforcing authorities have done much to help the helpless situation of these young children. Recounting her experience, Meera Raman, a journalist, writes “when Ganesh, a child labour, found resting, he was punished with red hot iron on his stomach. That left a scar, both physical and psychological, for the rest of his life. He recounted his experience of another child labourer slipping into paddy boiling drum and how he boiled to death. Not only death was covered up but Ganesh was threatened with similar end  if he didn’t work properly. Unable to cope with the torture, he managed to escape to tell the story". Will it be difficult to think that such children, with both mental and physical scar join the ranks of naxalites and become militants!

Child Labour Eradication Day comes and Childrens Day goes, but on ground, these young and vulnerable victims of time and circumstances, continue to suffer. We need more and more Kailash Satyarthis who will not only work towards the emancipation of these bonded children, but who will also compel the governments – both federal and state – to take measures, not only to protect these young children but also make all those employers who make these helpless victims endure the suffering in silence. Will that happen? is a very big question.             

 J.SHRIYAN