The Baby's Mine

T. Narayan
ADOPTION LAW
The Baby's Mine
Amendments to make child adoption easy

For the 50 million children growing up on the streets in our country, help is at hand.
The department of women and child development has proposed some radical changes in the Juvenile Justice (Care and protection of Children) Amendment (JJ) Bill, 2005,
which will make child adoption as easy as opening a bank account. The doors have also been opened for foreigners. Perhaps, that's why not everyone is happy with the amendments.Foremost among the changes is a clause that deals with dropping restrictions on prospective parents from abroad who wish to adopt orphaned juvenile children. This, officials say, is to bring the changes at par with other changes in the JJ Act. Activists, meanwhile, fear that the move will lead to wholescale trafficking. "That fear is legitimate when adoptions take place even within the nation," says joint secretary, department of women and child development, Loveleen Kacker. Officials say adoption of children in need of care and protection should be encouraged despite such fears.But the fears are not entirely misplaced. India has one of the worst indicators of child trafficking. It is estimated that 50,000 children disappear annually, of whom nearly 10,000 end up as sex workers. It is aspects like this that must be factored in when changes are proposed, say social workers. Madan Mohan Vidyarthi, an official with the government's Child Welfare Committee, says not much good will come out of easing restrictions on adoption. "Children in conflict with the law are kept in observation homes where they need care and protection till they are rehabilitated. As it is, most of them return to the insecure environment they are fleeing from," says Vidyarthi.He reckons there are close to 500 children in conflict with the law in Delhi alone. They have been hauled up for petty thefts or for acting as conduits for drug dealers. "There is no way such kids will be adopted in the West, which has its own stringent rules on foster care. If our country does not provide enough restrictions on adoption, it will be tough to track the children and their foster parents," says Vidyarthi.The Bill, likely to be debated by Parliament in the monsoon session, has positive aspects also. Namely, the intention of providing a one-stop legislation instead of many conflicting rules. For instance, state governments and voluntary bodies running child/juvenile institutions will have to register themselves under this act. While the Act is being examined closely, an attempt is being made to work on an integrated child protection scheme which may find its way into the 11th Plan once okayed by the Planning Commission. Estimated to cost nearly Rs 2,000 crore, the scheme will put the child at the centre of all plans.An advanced child tracking system with a website giving information on missing children is also being envisaged. A national child helpline is being worked out for abused children. Currently, the helpline is in place in 68 centres which is inadequate compared to the 430 million-strong child population. The scheme will provide funds for the state to create a protective environment for children. It will also lay the roadmap for identifying children who are at risk, bringing within its ambit street children, children of sex workers, child prostitutes, abused children and children of prisoners.Though a little late in the day, the proposed scheme is a welcome move which may affect millions of children.

http://www.outlookindia.com/
Magazine Aug 14, 2006

Banned: the exploitation of children

Banned: the exploitation of children


Published on: Thursday, 3rd August, 2006 7DAYS UAE


Employing children under 14 in households, roadside eateries and hotels will be illegal in India from October, the government has announced, saying it hopes to improve the plight of millions. But rights activists held out little hope that the lot of child labourers would change. A labour ministry statement late on Tuesday said the ban had been imposed under the 1986 Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act and would take effect on October 10.

It warned that anyone employing children in homes, roadside eateries, restaurants, hotels, motels, teashops, resorts, spas or in other recreational centres will be liable to prosecution. Penalties range from a prison term of up to two years and/or a fine of between 10,000 rupees and 20,000 rupees (212 and 424 US dollars). The ban is expected to “ameliorate” the sufferings of millions of working children, said the labour ministry, estimating that there are some 12.6 million child labourers in India.

Describing the employment of children as domestic helps or in the hospitality industry as “hazardous,” the statement said that in most cases they were subject to physical violence, psychological trauma and sexual abuse. Those working in highway eateries were identified as the “most vulnerable” and “easy prey to sex and drug abuse.” These abuses went unnoticed and unreported as they took place in the close confines of the households or restaurants, the government said.

“Children are made to work for long hours and are made to undertake various hazardous activities severely affecting their health and psyche,” it added. India has already banned children from working in hazardous industries like making fire crackers and glass factories under a parliamentary act passed in 1986. But many children continue to work in such establishments because of lax enforcement of laws.

Activists said the new ban would not make much difference eliminating child labour. “I wonder how successful this move is going to be? How many people has the government penalised so far (under existing laws)? Do they have any records of that?” asked social anthropologist Neera Burra, an author of a book on child labour. “I want to know how the government plans to enforce the ban.” she said.

Burra also asked the government to spell out plans for the rehabilitation of children rescued from such places. “We need workable plans for rehabilitation. After the children are rescued they need to be sent to school. Do we have adequate schools to cater to the need?” she said. “Most are housed in observation homes that are very much like prisons.” Rishi Kant, an activist with Shakti Vahini, a non-governmental organisation working with children, also questioned the effectiveness of the ban.

“It is a welcome step no doubt but the government should follow it up with practical alternatives,” Kant said. “For instance, vocational training as well as sensitising parents will go a long way,” he said.
Parents, for instance, were diffident about sending children to schools two or three kilometres away from their villages but when it came to sending them off to work in another state they did not seem to mind, he said. The rescue of children had to be coupled with “overall economic development as well as incentives to parents and children to wean them away from child labour,” he added.

India bans child labour in homes and hotels

India bans child labour in homes and hotels
Wed Aug 2, 2006 4:18 PM BST

By Kamil Zaheer ,Reuters UK

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India, home to the largest number of child labourers in the world, has banned children under the age of 14 from working as domestic servants or at hotels, tea shops, restaurants and resorts.
The labour ministry said the ban would come into effect from October 10 and those violating it could face a jail term up to two years and a maximum fine of 20,000 rupees (228 pounds).
Children working in lower-end restaurants and highway food stalls are a common sight in many parts of India, and many urban households and shops hire young boys and girls under the age of 14 from poor families as servants or maids.
"The committee...while recommending a ban on employing children in these occupations, had said that these children are subjected to physical violence, psychological trauma and, at times, even sexual abuse," a government statement said, referring to the Technical Advisory Committee on Child Labour.
"These children are made to work for long hours and are made to undertake various hazardous activities severely affecting their health and psyche," it said, in a statement released late on Tuesday.
Under India's 1986 Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, children under 14 are already banned from "hazardous" industries such as making fireworks and glass-making.
But the ban is poorly implemented due to red tape and corruption, activists say, and given the government's poor record, some do not expect the latest ban to be effective.
"But it gives us moral support to fight child slavery," said Kailash Satyarthi, chairman of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement).

Government data shows there are more than 11 million child labourers under 14, but Satyarthi said this was a gross underestimate and the figure was closer to 60 million.
"Unless the government is honest about the magnitude of the problem, how can we solve it?"
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) welcomed the ban but said its implementation was a challenge, as many of the children worked in homes and away from public view.
"Children working at homes or in eateries have very long hours and face isolation, and are far away from support systems," said Leyla Tegmo-Reddy, ILO's India representative.
"Often, these children take care of more privileged children, seeing the world that they don't have."
The ILO has called for punitive steps such as fines and imprisonment for people violating the ban.
Labour ministry spokesman M.L. Dhar said children working as domestic servants and in street restaurants, were vulnerable because crime against them often went unreported.
"For children working in houses, it is an difficult area (to investigate) as there is a question of privacy of people living there," Dhar said. "But the government will evolve some methods."

Law brings hope for child workers who face rape, violence and abuse

By Ashling O’Connor,August 3 Times Online,UK

India says it wants to tackle abusive employers but campaigners are sceptical

INDIA announced plans to outlaw the employment of children under the age of 14 as domestic help and in the catering industry yesterday, as shocking details of the plight of child workers were revealed.
NI_MPU('middle');
The Labour Ministry said that the employment ban would apply to households, restaurants and hotels from October. Those who break it could be jailed for up to two years.
But campaigners were sceptical that it would do anything to improve the lot of the country’s estimated 12.6 million child labourers.
Save the Children is preparing to publish a report on human trafficking in India that focuses on the fate of workers such as Nirubala Sardar, an 11-year-old maid who failed to press the household laundry properly. Her employer flew into a violent rage and turned the scalding iron on her bare skin instead.
She spent a week in hospital with severe burns to a third of her body and was in rehabilitation for two months. It took a further year before she spoke.
Two years later Nirubala still utters only a few words and is wary of adults. Nervously fiddling with her hands and adjusting her sari to conceal the garish scar tissue on her arms, she resolutely avoids eye contact.
Manabendra Ray, the national project manager for Save the Children, had tears in his eyes as he told her story: “She was in a terrible way. Her body was so badly burned. I don’t know how people can be so cruel.”
In her village of Rajabati, a two-hour drive from Calcutta, Nirubala is back in school alongside scores of girls with grim tales of torture, serial rape and ritual humiliation behind closed doors in apparently respectable neighbourhoods.
Chanchala Sardar (no relation), 13, was allowed to eat her meagre rice rations only from the same bowl as the pet dog. Forced to sleep under the stairs, she received unwelcome nightly visits from her employer’s teenage son. “If I complained to the father, I got a beating,” she said.
Kanika Gayen, 17, bears the scars — across her forehead and right cheek — of three years with a Calcutta family. Repeatedly raped by the 17-year-old son, she sustained her worst physical injuries when he threw her down the stairs.
Nirubala, Chanchala, Kanika and millions like them are the usually invisible victims of India’s lucrative human trafficking industry, catalogued in Save the Children’s report based on interviews with more than 500 children. It spews forth horrific statistics: 68 per cent faced physical abuse; 20 per cent were forced to have sexual intercourse; 50 per cent had no time off; 32 per cent of their families had no idea where their daughters were working.
On the inland flood plains of West Bengal, tiger prawn cultivation is big business. One kilogram can fetch 1,000 rupees (£11.44) at market. For the same price, a “placement agent” can procure a naive young worker and turn a healthy profit.
These middlemen pluck girls and boys — mostly school dropouts — from poor rural areas, luring them to the cities with the promise of paid work or the prospect of a good marriage. But the reality is nothing like the sales pitch. Most find themselves serving their employers’ every whim and they are rarely paid their dues. The lucky ones get a message home and are rescued by the Save the Children network, which reintroduces them to school or vocational training.
Shamima Khatoon, a regal-looking 40-year-old, runs a beautician course for abused girls. In three years she has rescued nearly 100. “Children cannot speak up for themselves so people know by scaring them, they will keep them for work,” she said. “These people should be punished.”
Few are. The agent who sold Nirubala was arrested and the woman who burnt her was reported to the National Human Rights Commission but these are the exceptions. “Unless the parents press charges there is little anybody can do,” said Sister Cyril, an Irish nun who runs a Loreto school in Calcutta.
There are signs that mistreatment of domestic staff is becoming less socially acceptable.
Last month Bombay police arrested four members of a relatively well-to-do family on charges of murder, sodomy and rape after their ten-year-old servant was found hanging from a ceiling fan. Their false claim of suicide was exposed by the autopsy, which showed that Sonu Savle had been sexually tortured with an aluminium rod, beaten and smothered to death before being hoisted with a sheet. The little girl’s transgression? To try on some lipstick from a dressing table.
FIGHTING BACK FOR A CHILDHOOD
An estimated 12.6 million children work in India
Under-14s are about 3.6% of the labour force; 90% in rural family settings, 10% in manufacturing
Fabrics, firecracker and football industries are most implicated in the exploitation
International pressure has grown on India since pictures of children in sweatshops, hunched over footballs bearing the Fifa logo, caused outrage before the 1998 World Cup
Fifa says it only endorses child-labour-free balls. Companies including Reebok and Nike say they make similar checks on products
Global March Against Child Labour said that 10,000 children, each earning about 45p a day, stitched balls in Jalandhar and Meerut before the World Cup in Germany
India’s Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act has banned employment in mining and textiles since 1986
The International Labour Organisation estimated in 2002 that there were some 352 million economically active children worldwide, of whom 246 million could be counted as child labourers
In sub-Saharan Africa 29% of children aged 5-14 are working (48 million). In Asia and the Pacific the figure is 19% (127.3 million), Latin America and the Caribbean 16% (17.4 million) and the Middle East and North Africa 15% (13.4 million)
In Brazil the number of 10-17-year-olds at work fell in the period from 1992 to 2004 from 7,579,126 to 4,814,612
This year China banned under-16s from working

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2296827,00.html

Lok Sabha passes Bill on protection of children

New Delhi, Aug. 2 The Hindu

(PTI): A Bill aimed at preventing exploitation of children, deal with juvenile delinquency, defining adoption and setting up of state-level Child Protection Units was passed by the Lok Sabha tonight.
Replying to a debate on the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill, Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said a Child Commission would be set up by the government to deal with all problems faced by children.
"It is for the first time that such a Commission would be set up when India turns sixty years," she said, adding fast-track courts would also be established to expedite cases relating to juvenile delinquency.
Chowdhury said the Union Home Ministry had agreed to take steps to induct more women in the police forces to implement laws relating to women and children.
Observing that a child-friendly approach was imperative to prevent juvenile crime, the Minister agreed with members that organised gangs were active in forcing children to beg and indulge in criminal activities.
She said the amendments clearly laid down guidelines for adoption of children, including the right to inherit property.
Earlier, participating in the discussion on the amendment bill, members cutting across party lines supported the measure but made several suggestions including setting up of a separate investigating agency for dealing with juvenile crime, checking television serials from showing violence and obscenity and trials of cases involving minors being held in-camera.

Child labour will go by 2008, says govt

Child labour will go by 2008, says govt

CM assures speedy approval and funds for the programme


Parikshit Joshi


The state government's administrative college, YASHADA (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration), has chalked out a detailed action programme to eradicate the practice of child labour.

The programme, involving altogether 25 departments including those of labour, education, police, women and child welfare, health and revenue, has set a deadline of 2008 for eradicating the practice of child labour.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has assured an early approval for the programme as well as funds needed for its implementation.

While labour commissioners and district collectors will be working in their respective jurisdictions to root out child labour, a co-ordination committee headed by state's chief secretary will oversee the programme's implementation and evaluation at the state level.

Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil had set a deadline of August 15, 2006 to do away with the practice in Mumbai. But sources in the labour commissioner's office said it would not be possible to meet the deadline.

They said the labour commissioner's office along with the BMC, police and NGOs had undertaken a drive against child labour in the city. Altogether 38 raids were conducted at units where child labourers were working and 1,541 children were rescued.

However, they agreed that the number of children employed in zari, jewellery and leather units is still high. "We need to take a systematic campaign besides creating awareness among the people," they said.


VITAL STATS

• According to the 2001 census, the number of child labourers in Maharashtra was 7.06 lakh. Previously, it was 10.68 lakh.

• The state has 6.07 per cent of the total number of child labourers in the country.

In Nagpur, they are children of a lesser god no more

Nagpur, July 30 (IANS) As Pinki and Shweta, children of sex-workers, conduct health check-up camps and run errands in the hostel they live in, no dark secret from the past dares to cast a shadow on their future.
Perhaps the only facility of its kind in India, Nagpur's Vimlashram is home to some 40 children of commercial sex workers operating in the city's red-light area.
The children of Vimlashram were picked up from the so-called 'alleys of sin' - the red-light area of Nagpur, curiously called Ganga Jamuna, about 860 km east of Mumbai.
Today they are getting an education and employment. Pinki and Shweta are studying in a social work college in the city. Another girl here is waiting for her polytechnic diploma and a boy here is eyeing a degree in commerce.
This service for the hapless children started in the early 1980s as an offshoot of a three-pronged effort to save the sex workers from losing their only possible means of survival, end the pernicious brothel system in which minor girls are forced into prostitution and ensure that the activities in the red light area do not cause any nuisance to the mainstream society around it.
The 'save-the-prostitutes' mission was initiated by former MP Jambuvantrao Dhote as an answer to the 'Ganga-Jamuna hatao' agitation (close down the red light area) launched by the citizens of the adjoining neighbourhood.
On Dhote's entreaty, Ram Ingole and Krishnakumar Kusum then studied the problems of prostitutes, the prospect of their rehabilitation into mainstream society by providing them alternative means of livelihood and ways to end the trafficking of women.
'By setting up 'Amrapali Sangathan', an organisation of sex workers and their friends, we succeeded in ending the exploitative brothel system and keeping pimps at bay for eight years during which not a single prostitute was allowed to enter the red light area,' Ingole told IANS.
However, efforts to rehabilitate a few willing sex workers by finding some dignified modes of self-employment for them failed except in a couple of cases.
With Ingole concentrating on saving the children of prostitutes from the scourge of the oldest profession, the brothel system managed to return to the red light area.
Vimlashram, set up initially in a rented accommodation with the help of a few friends, has now been shifted to a three-storey building that the children can call their own, thanks to liberal financial support of the Rotary Club, Sai Seva Samiti and some other social organisations and individual donors like former MP Datta Meghe.
Arti, a final year student of Datta Meghe's Polytechnic in Nagpur and one of the senior-most inmates of Vimlashram, looks after the administration side.
The younger ones, studying in different stages of school down to nursery level, follow in the footsteps of their seniors - learning to keep themselves clean and tidy, helping the needy and doing their homework.
'The children must become sensitive to the miseries of the less fortunate and be helpful to them,' says Ingole.
In order to inculcate the spirit of social service in them, Ingole involves them in service projects for slum and street-children, lepers and beggars.
While the younger children of Vimlashram are growing up merrily, the senior ones are focused on laying down the foundation of Ingole's ambitious project of setting up a residential school for the children of quarry workers in nearby Panchgaon.
Ingole first started a weekend school for the children who would hang around in utter neglect near the quarries as their parents worked inside them. With quarry workers responding slowly but positively, he converted it into a daily school.
'But I soon realised that our effort was largely wasted as the quarry workers hailing from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa go to their native place thrice a year causing many long breaks in their children's schooling. A residential school would be a solution to this problem,' he reasons.
© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service
Nagpur, July 30 (IANS) As Pinki and Shweta, children of sex-workers, conduct health check-up camps and run errands in the hostel they live in, no dark secret from the past dares to cast a shadow on their future.
Perhaps the only facility of its kind in India, Nagpur's Vimlashram is home to some 40 children of commercial sex workers operating in the city's red-light area.
The children of Vimlashram were picked up from the so-called 'alleys of sin' - the red-light area of Nagpur, curiously called Ganga Jamuna, about 860 km east of Mumbai.
Today they are getting an education and employment. Pinki and Shweta are studying in a social work college in the city. Another girl here is waiting for her polytechnic diploma and a boy here is eyeing a degree in commerce.
This service for the hapless children started in the early 1980s as an offshoot of a three-pronged effort to save the sex workers from losing their only possible means of survival, end the pernicious brothel system in which minor girls are forced into prostitution and ensure that the activities in the red light area do not cause any nuisance to the mainstream society around it.
The 'save-the-prostitutes' mission was initiated by former MP Jambuvantrao Dhote as an answer to the 'Ganga-Jamuna hatao' agitation (close down the red light area) launched by the citizens of the adjoining neighbourhood.
On Dhote's entreaty, Ram Ingole and Krishnakumar Kusum then studied the problems of prostitutes, the prospect of their rehabilitation into mainstream society by providing them alternative means of livelihood and ways to end the trafficking of women.
'By setting up 'Amrapali Sangathan', an organisation of sex workers and their friends, we succeeded in ending the exploitative brothel system and keeping pimps at bay for eight years during which not a single prostitute was allowed to enter the red light area,' Ingole told IANS.
However, efforts to rehabilitate a few willing sex workers by finding some dignified modes of self-employment for them failed except in a couple of cases.
With Ingole concentrating on saving the children of prostitutes from the scourge of the oldest profession, the brothel system managed to return to the red light area.
Vimlashram, set up initially in a rented accommodation with the help of a few friends, has now been shifted to a three-storey building that the children can call their own, thanks to liberal financial support of the Rotary Club, Sai Seva Samiti and some other social organisations and individual donors like former MP Datta Meghe.
Arti, a final year student of Datta Meghe's Polytechnic in Nagpur and one of the senior-most inmates of Vimlashram, looks after the administration side.
The younger ones, studying in different stages of school down to nursery level, follow in the footsteps of their seniors - learning to keep themselves clean and tidy, helping the needy and doing their homework.
'The children must become sensitive to the miseries of the less fortunate and be helpful to them,' says Ingole.
In order to inculcate the spirit of social service in them, Ingole involves them in service projects for slum and street-children, lepers and beggars.
While the younger children of Vimlashram are growing up merrily, the senior ones are focused on laying down the foundation of Ingole's ambitious project of setting up a residential school for the children of quarry workers in nearby Panchgaon.
Ingole first started a weekend school for the children who would hang around in utter neglect near the quarries as their parents worked inside them. With quarry workers responding slowly but positively, he converted it into a daily school.
'But I soon realised that our effort was largely wasted as the quarry workers hailing from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa go to their native place thrice a year causing many long breaks in their children's schooling. A residential school would be a solution to this problem,' he reasons.
© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service

Help on way for abused maids

Help on way for abused maids
By EUNICE del ROSARIO

A REPORT on the mistreatment of housemaids in Bahrain is to be released by a human rights watchdog early next year, it was revealed yesterday.It will include statistics on the number of rape, sexual harassment, physical and psychological abuse cases among others.
The yearlong study, which is currently in progress, is already bringing to light some disturbing realities, said Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS) society regional and international relations director Faisal Fulad.The society hopes that the report would further encourage the inclusion of housemaids into the labour law in Bahrain.There is an estimated 40,000 maids in Bahrain, the majority are from India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia.
"The number of abuse cases filed are too many to count - but this is what we hope to find out, exactly how rampant abuse of maids is in Bahrain because this has to stop," said Mr Fulad.
He said that the compilation of information in Bahrain followed the 93-page report filed by the US-based Women's Rights Division of the Human Rights Watch, which revealed that maids face a wide range of grave abuses and labour exploitation in the Middle East and other parts of the world.
These include physical and sexual abuse, forced confinement, non-payment of wages, denial of food and health care and excessive working hours with no rest days.
"The report released in the US brought up several issues, which also mentioned the amount of abuse maids go through in Middle Eastern countries," said Mr Fulad.
"Abuse happens all the time here and the BHRWS feels that the Bahrain government, particularly the Labour Ministry, needs to focus on several issues, the most important of which is that maids must be included in the labour law.
"It is also very important to have a law in Bahrain that puts a stop to human trafficking.
"Recruitment agencies must also be monitored by the Labour Ministry."
Mr Fulad said that many maids complain about the manpower agencies that brought them here.
"Many of these maids come here to try to earn a good living for their families," he said.
"They come here with the hope that they can earn and save money.
"But many of them are fooled by their agencies, which tell them one thing when they are in their countries, but upon arrival in Bahrain tell them another.
"Many of them think they are coming to work in Bahrain as nurses or teachers, but end up working as maids."
Despite these ongoing issues, Mr Fulad said that the BHRWS was aware of the efforts exerted by the Labour Ministry.
"We know the ministry is doing everything to try to minimise the number of abuse cases in Bahrain and we always get cooperation from them.
"But still there is a definite weakness in this area and frankly it is worrying because it is not giving Bahrain a good name abroad.
"There must come a time here when housemaids are guaranteed the ability to work with dignity and freedom from violence.
"They are workers that need protecting too."
In the study by the Women's Rights Division of the Human Rights Watch, it stated that the number of women migrants has increased significantly over the last 30 years.
They now reportedly comprise approximately half of the estimated 200 million migrants worldwide.
The 'feminisation' of labour migration is particularly pronounced in the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, where national-level estimates include that women comprise 60 to 75 per cent of legal migrants, many of whom are employed as maids in the Middle East and other parts of Asia.

Centre, Delhi, Bihar Govts. to meet on child labour

Centre, Delhi, Bihar Govts. to meet on child labour

New Delhi, July 29 (PTI): With the maximum number of child workers in the national capital coming from Bihar, officials from the Centre and the two state governments would soon meet to chalk out a rehabilitation programme for the children.

Giving the information while inaugurating a Transitional Education Centre for working children here, Delhi Labour Minister, Mangatram Singhal, said the Union Ministry of Labour would organise the meeting in the Patna.

"The Government of India and state governments of Delhi and Bihar will draw a comprehensive programme for the rehabilitation of children who are compelled to work because of economic compulsions," Singhal said.

The Minister said Delhi Government wanted to make the capital a "no entry" zone for child labour and warned that strict prosecution measures would be initiated against those found employing children.

"On the other hand, the government will initiate steps to provide rehabilitation, of which education will be the core aspect, to such children who are compelled to work due to their economic misfortune," Singhal said.

The transitional education centre for children withdrawn from work, opened in Jahangirpuri area of the city, will be run by the NGO Kiran Deep Society for Women and Child Rights.

The Delhi Shops and Establishment Act, 1954 prohibits employment of children who have not completed their 12 years of age. The Factories Act, 1948 prohibits employment of children who are not yet 14-years-old.

Domestic labour: Reddy promises action

Domestic labour: Reddy promises action
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

::EXCLUSIVE::

Tejeswi Pratima

Watch story

Saturday, July 29, 2006 (Mantada):


Following NDTV's report on how children as young as six were being bought as domestic help for Rs 7000 a year, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister has promised immediate action.

But the labour minister says one has to tackle the problem from the roots.

Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy saw the NDTV story and promised the practice would stop immediately.

"I have already instructed our officers to get the matter verified and if it is true, I will take every needful action to see that it is stopped. Child labour is something that every one of us has to do to stop.

"They have to be given education, it is their constitutional right. It is their birthright, nobody can snatch it away," said Reddy.

The responsibility to initiate action rests on the state's labour minister G Vinod. He will have to start from scratch as his ministry has no statistics on how many children are employed in labour or more specifically, domestic labour.

"The laws in the country at the moment are not made out to look at domestic child labour. We are certainly going to see how we can regulate domestic child labour because we are looking at how it can addressed properly," said G Vinod, Labour Minister, AP.

NDTV has been getting reactions from various people on their shock at the agonising story of the innocent children of Mantada. But it is not a story restricted to Mantada alone.

Thousands of innocent lives are victims to an urban society that puts its necessity ahead of someone else's childhood.

Auction market

Mantada village is virtually an auction market where children can be hired off the road to work as domestic labour.

Twelve-year-old Durga worked as domestic help at a home in Hyderabad for one year to earn Rs 7000 rupees but now she is back home waiting to take up her next assignment.

In the meanwhile, she is learning to cook because that will fetch her more salary.

"If children stay back in the village, they will get spoilt and that's the reason we are sending them to work in houses. They will have better health, facilities and also earn money in the process," said Suramma, Durga's mother.

Durga knows she cannot hope to go to school like the children at the home where she worked.

Her parents are landless agricultural labour and there are four mouths to feed.

"In the house that I used to previously work in, had children of my age. Everyday they would prepare to go to school, I also felt like studying," said Durga.

Mantada village, which is 40 km from Vijayawada, is almost like the child domestic labour capital of the country.

Supply of children for domestic labour is a well-entrenched and organised trade here.

Virtually every family sends out a child to work in faraway homes not just in Andhra Pradesh but even Delhi and Kolkata.

Idly Appana, who runs a Tiffin centre, is one of the 20 brokers in Mantada.

"For every placement I get thousand rupees and each time the salary increases I charge an extra hundred. If the placement is good sometimes I even get paid two thousand rupees or more," said Appana.

Appana says every year, at least 200 children are hired from Mantada and the contracts are usually for an year.

Contract labours

Locals tell NDTV that there is an option of renewing the contract every year on June 1.

A seven-year-old girl will get Rs 4000 while a 14-year-old who can also cook, will cost Rs 15,000. Half of that amount has to be paid as advance to the parents.

Girls are preferred over boys because they are presumably better at domestic work and also more submissive.

"It seems that they are being sold away like cattle and people from all over the country come to pick the best, the most healthy person and again bargain for rates and conditions of work and take them away and go.

"It is, I think, quiet appalling, shocking and outrageous that in a civilised world like today that we are tolerating children who are trafficked like this. It is as good or as bad as flesh trade," said Shanta Sinha, Child Rights activist.

Mantada has only been gaining in notoriety over the last two decades as a place from where children can be just bought off the road to work as domestic labour.