By D N Singh
We are on spot ; World Day against child labour on June 12 just few days have gone by. Shame and guilt must prevail on the people in the world and in the country that we celebrate World Day against child labour, an incurable malady of short.
Now is the time to make the elimination of child labour a reality! This one liner has been agitating million souls everywhere but with little in the name of elimination.
Now is the 25th anniversary of the mission that has not spared any state.
Odisha
Just a stroll through the nooks and corners of a state like Odisha also reveal surprising realities of pain and inhuman treatment meted out to the posterity.
In a state like Odisha that has a population of 4.5 crs, believe it or not 2.3 percent of the child population, 8,31,664 are reeling under the curse of child labour slugging, day in day out, in most hazardous and even subhuman existence.
A majority of whom are mainly school drop-outs. This figure can be traced back to 2007 and 2008 with little consolation that it has been addressed to a tolerable size or simply has become a compulsive endurable reality.
In all the major cities like with the tag of smart cities or otherwise the menace is in a naked display and very pervasive.
A stunning 2.7 lakh students are out of school in Odisha.
Findings of the Department of School and Mass Education itself through the survey conducted by Sarva Shikshya Abhiyan in 2007-8.
Frustrating inputs
On the basis of the empirical studies/surveys working children in different districts are concentrated in certain occupations/processes which are injurious to human life and limb and detrimental to growth and development of children.
A child working in most unhygienic filthy hills collecting a means of living is exasperating. Living in there, inhaling the toxics and eating on those debris dumps are a reality that is a nuisance a child grows in.
Landfills, a recent nomenclature and compulsive spending time with them is a grim reality. But such things always hog the lime lights in the media yet the landfills remain dotted by kids with a sack on their shoulders.
“The Indian Constitution prohibits children under the age of 14 from working in mines or in any hazardous occupation. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) also states that a child under the age of 18 should not be involved in labour or any kind of hazardous work “said Mahendra Parida, Child Right activist .
In 1987, the Indian central government implemented a National Policy of Child Employment that focuses on rehabilitating children and adolescents who have been exposed to hazardous occupations since an early age.
“World Day Against Child Labour is observed to emphasise on the need to protect children from hazardous occupations and labour that are unfit for their age, noted Parida.
‘Beedi’ rolling units, mining, Forest product collection, road side ‘dhabas’ and Prawn processing sectors, just put your finger and there you see a child engaged in labour. What about the incidents of child labor exploitation of domestic help that is nerve shattering.
