Our rescue and rehabilitation policy to address child labour needs to include the kid's education and also the family’s needs, says Shrishti Shankar, who works with Bachpan Bachao Andolan in Jharkhand.
Shrishti Shankar: Child labour is not a standalone problem. It has various dimensions related to it, including forced labour, bonded labour and trafficking. We need to understand them together.
For instance, when going for rescue, most times we come across children who are the primary breadwinners for their families. Often in cases like this we don’t know what is the right thing to do.
For instance, once we rescued a child from a dhaba. He was approximately 15 years old and the only earning member of his family. His parents and a younger sister depended on him.
He was earning Rs 160-170 per day, whereas during rehabilitation he received Rs 300 per month from the government. This felt unjust to me. There is a strange dilemma in cases like this. We don’t have robust mechanisms to ensure proper rehabilitation for the child and the family.
We have to remember that the ultimate reason for child labour is poverty. What do you do when you and your family are hungry? You can’t think about education on an empty stomach. Our rescue and rehabilitation policy needs to include not only a child’s education, but also the family’s needs.
Shrishti Shankar: Most children are involved in bangle making, construction work, brick kilns and domestic work. It is as much of a rural phenomenon as it is urban. Many children in urban slums start working at a very young age.
Brick kilns are one of the major industries employing child labour across India. The whole family migrates to work there along with their children. It is difficult to intervene at these sites because they are often working along with their families.
In light of this we got every district in Jharkhand to undertake efforts for making at least education accessible at brick kilns with help from National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). We are in the process of executing this.
Domestic work too employs a lot of children. It is difficult to both track and rescue children from domestic work. Perhaps it is the most difficult, I would say.
Just a few days back I received a tip about a child working at an influential person’s household as a servant. She would get beaten up too. When I visited the household, I wasn’t allowed in. The situation is still developing and I am working with the local police to strategise her rescue.
Shrishti Shankar: While rescuing someone from child labour we follow the same steps as we do during child trafficking. Children’s safety is of paramount concern. We ensure that they are taken home safely. We do this formally through the Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) of the concerned districts.
We also research into their family’s background, the kind of social security they have access to and what their needs and struggles are. Based on this we facilitate their access to various existing government benefits, including education, scholarships, housing and pension schemes. We also do a periodic follow-up through schools and other community members.
Shrishti Shankar: As soon as we come across child labour we register an FIR at the nearest police station. Throughout the month of June we form dhawa dals (foray units), which consists of members from various government departments and NGOs. These groups are sent for raids in the region.
Then we find out about the wages that the child was receiving from the employer, including unpaid back wages, if any.
I was involved with the rescue of three girl children who were working in the textile industry. We found that they were not paid wages for years. The children eventually received lakhs of rupees in back wages. The whole process took us 18 months but eventually the employer did go to prison.
After turning 18, the rescued girls have now become entrepreneurs and started a bakery business in West Bengal.
Seeking criminal action and seeing it through are not the easiest things. It is riddled with systemic challenges of delay and corruption. Sometimes it takes months to convince the parents to cooperate with the proceedings. There are instances where the parents are threatened or paid out by the employer too.
BBA has a legal team which ensures that justice is served in each case to the best of their ability. I try to be physically present in the cases that I am involved in.
The lead image shows a child selling Indian flags before Independence Day (Photo by Pradeep Gaur/ Shutterstock)
