'STEPS TAKEN BY THE NGOs

WITH RESPECT TO CHILD LABOR'

- MITAALI DAYAL

Child labor is a devastation, they should concentrate on education“. Heard this saying? Well, if not, here’s something new. Child labor is one of the things holding our country back and the coronavirus pandemic is forcing India’s children out of school and into farms and factories to work, worsening a child-labor problem that was already one of the most dire in the world. The one’s seeking employment are not getting jobs and those who are supposed to study and enjoy life are working day and night to thrive and survive. Strange, isn’t it?

“It is a shame, it is a disgrace to have kids work in the workplace.”

Sixteen-year-old Maheshwari Munkalapally and her 15-year-old sister stopped attending lessons when virtually the entire economy was brought to a halt during the world’s biggest lockdown. Munkalapally’s mother and older sister lost their jobs as housemaids in Hyderabad, the capital of the southern Indian state of Telangana. The younger girls, who had been living with their grandmother in a nearby village, were forced to become farmhands along with their mother, in order to survive.

Even before the outbreak, India was struggling to keep children in school. A 2018 study by DHL International GmBH estimated that more than 56 million children were out of school in India — more than double the combined number across Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Despite desperate attempts to implement several policies to curb child labor, India still requires more effective steps to eliminate this problem.

There are a thousands of NGOs in India, working with the help and support of the government and the people. They identify the potential places of threat, rescue the children and work constantly to ensure that they get into good schools and receive proper education. They conduct various operations with the government in order to safeguard children especially in the rural areas so that they do not fall into the hands of those who might exploit them. This also includes conducting raids and rescue missions to ensure that the guilty ones are handed over to the police and justice is served to the young minds. They conduct awareness programs specifically in the poor and uneducated sections.

Most NGOs organize fundraising campaigns to spread awareness and collect enough donations to help work effectively towards the cause. They use this money to get the students enrolled into schools and educate them about their rights. Education acts as a boon for them and helps them to protect themselves from getting caught up in this crossfire.

“For a better nation, stop Child Exploitation.”

Global child labor had been gradually declining in the past two decades, but the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to reverse that trend, As many as 60 million people are expected to fall into poverty this year alone, and that inevitably drives families to send children out to work. A joint report by the ILO and United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that a 1 percentage point rise in poverty leads to at least a 0.7 percentage point increase in child labor.

The following steps can be taken on a personal level to finish child labor.

• Review national laws regarding child labor.
• Refer to your buyers’ requirements.
• Check the age of your employees.
• Identify hazardous work.
• Carry out workplace risk assessment.
• Stop hiring children below the minimum age.
• Remove children from hazardous work.

NGOs are a home for the homeless. NGOs are a blessing in disguise.

Now, I will end this by a beautiful saying by Paul Polman, “If we all act together — business, governments, NGOs and citizens and, especially, the young — just imagine the good we could create”.

- MITAALI DAYAL