Sir,
It is painful to see young children picking rags in the streets and lanes in the morning or begging at the Bus Stands, Railway Stations or other places at an age when they ought to have been enjoying their childhood and studying at school and playing with the other children of their age groups.Some of such children are also reported to have been employed in such fields as agriculture, fireworks factories, beedi industries, brick kilns and as domestic helps.Though there are strict labour laws which ban child labour in India, they are not implemented in letter and spirit with the result that some unscrupulous people continue to employ children as labourers. Some such children may perhaps have been kidnapped and forced to do work, the fact remains that the main reason of children doing work in their tender age is their poverty.As such, steps need to be taken to check child labour.Such children must be rehabilitated and admitted to schools.We have schemes such as Sakshar Bharat Mission, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan,RTE Act etc and young children need to be enrolled under such schemes.The government also ought to establish more children homes/shelters where such children should be rehabilitated and educated.The big corporate houses need to come forward and play their role in uplifting such children by opening schools for them and helping them in other ways to enable them to lead a good life.There are examples where children belonging to economically backward families or having other physical disabilities have cracked prestigious exams such as IITJEE.So if children living in slums or picking rags are provided opportunity, they may achieve feats in the fields of their interest.Freedom is the most valuable gift of God.So children must be provided opportunity to enjoy their childhood. Therefore, steps should be taken to provide education and opportunity to such deprived children,end child labour and child slavery and child labour laws should be amended for fast track disposal of child labour cases and strict action should be taken against kidnappers of children and those resorting to child slavery.At the same time, minimum wages need to be enhanced in view of the soaring prices of essential commodities so that poor parents can make their both ends meet and children don’t have to do labour to supplement the family income.
Yours etc….
Ashok Sharma,
Flat No 4, Housing Colony, Udhampur.
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