Child labour: Focus on working children

For decades now, Bhima Sangha, a union of working children, and those of us working with them, have cried hoarsely ‘let anti-child labour not be anti-child’. But responses to child labour continue to push working children and adolescents into even more perilous situations – captive in institutions or invisible.

Even during the Covid-19 a pandemic --when the ‘vulnerable’ is boxed into different categories for emergency support, these youngsters fall through the gaping holes in the ‘welfare security nets’. Even though they are ‘children’ according to national and international definitions, they are not treated on par with other children. During the lockdown, they were even denied mid-day meals and free sanitary napkins!

The plight of the migrant workers has held a naked mirror to the cruelty of the state and apathy of the well-heeled. Among them are lakhs of Jeeta Madkamis, their stories unheard. Many youngsters have lost their livelihoods and the scale of their collective horror is unprecedented.

Even before the pandemic, these youngsters have faced exclusion and discrimination. Their families are among the most vulnerable, with no access to basic facilities or protection. The state grossly under-reports working children since acknowledging them is acceptance of failure. Even when they become part of statistics as ‘children in need of care and protection’, they are treated as criminals.

In the case of working ‘adolescents’, the state turns a complete blind eye to their struggle for survival. Given this apathy, these youngsters have only each other to rely on, to keep their families afloat. Their remarkable courage and fortitude, instead of being valued and built upon, is rebuked and neglected.

The belief that ‘all school is good and all work is bad’ is far from true. The conditions imposed by the education system warrant the exclusion of many children. Even the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), set up especially for children who cannot access formal education, does not allow children who do not have ‘documentary proof’ of existence or who do not have the money required to pay for their exams.

For many children who make a tremendous effort to attend schools, the system provides precious little. It does not equip them for life in terms of empowerment, livelihood or even provide a favourable learning experience. Many of them work to continue their studies. For those who wish to go beyond secondary school or learn a vocation, there are simply no viable options.

Many children chose work over schooling because their work experience provides them knowledge and skills for the future. They have found a purpose, recognition, respect from their work – all of which have been denied to them in their schooling.

In the child labour discourse, the recognition that for young persons work is an important part of learning and socialisation; and that the problem lies in ‘exploitative’ work as also in ‘exploitative’ schooling is sadly missing.

Following any large scale epidemic or disaster, like floods in north Karnataka, children feel the need to take on new roles and responsibilities to supplement household income. Any job, no matter how hazardous, is preferred over starvation.

It is chilling to hear working children and adolescents narrate their challenges for the future. A teenager who sold brooms prior to lockdowns said “I have no idea what will happen next. I have no strength right now to think about the future.”

The weight of this uncertainty is unbearably heavy on these young shoulders. One child is worried about finding money for her father’s chemotherapy. Another is depressed about not being able to support her sister’s schooling. If only ‘we can get a safe job, any job’ they say.

Though the relevant law states that adolescents are entitled to safe work, they do not have any opportunities to access safe occupations. Labour inspectors do not review their workspaces to ensure their safety and wellbeing. Even under MGNREGA, hailed as an economic lifeline, there are no provisions for adolescents to access safe occupations.

Working children have to be recognised as individuals with a right to self-determination. The state must pay heed to their well-grounded recommendations, several of them, listed below, were shared by Bhima Sangha as early as 1985.

Learning spaces

Many working children need learning spaces that recognise their need to work. Adolescents have a right to access Flexi-schools and evening high-schools with state or NIOS curriculum. Vocational education interwoven into formal education should be available to children in their panchayats. For this, outreach programmes of the IITs and Koushalyakar programmes could be linked to them.

If not safeguarded, the legal provision for ‘safe work’ for adolescents may create ‘cheap’ and easy to exploit workforces to ‘Make in India’. To ensure their safety, their work could be linked to MGNREGA, ITIs and to Apprenticeship Act and overseen by the local governments.

Safe work during school holidays would be very useful. Apprenticeships which combine practical as well as theoretical inputs could be certified to ensure employability and linked to a ‘Development Fund’ to scholarships, skill-upgradation or seed capital.

Scholarships must be provided to these youngsters under the NIOS programme. Those under the Anthyodaya or BPL schemes and SC, ST Communities and minorities need special focus. For those children who have travelled back to their villages, Residential Child Care Institutions linked to the nearest government schools are crucial.

Bhima Sangha, in 2002, was instrumental in the first-ever children’s grama sabha in Karnataka. But the participation of working children in the children’s Grama Sabhas is ignored deliberately or by neglect. ‘To be heard’ is a right of children, not an act of adult benevolence and participation of these youngsters have to be ensured in the children’s Grama Sabhas, to raise their issues for redressal. These conversations are critical for creating child rights friendly communities for the future.

As the International Movement of Working Children, of which Bhima Sangha is a founder member, told the ILO, “We are not pests to be eradicated. We are not the problem. We are part of the solution’.

(The writer is Director (Advocacy), The Concerned for Working Children)