As the world today is celebrating
‘No Child Labour Day’ , the sound of the shrill call from a elite friend of the
past resonanced in my ears loudly again-
“Rama- Ekkada chachavey”….meaning
Rama, where the hell have you died….
The just 10+ year old child ran
to her ‘Madam’ side in a less than a minute and this fabulous rich civilized
woman creature gave her a kick in her pit saying that she should stay in her
sight all the time. The little girl was
embarrassed for I was there watching this happen …and as I tried stopping this
so called friend. The Madam gave the
instructions to Rama to start pressing her legs as she stretched them on the
coffee table from the sofa. I felt like
pushing her sofa upside down.. The poor little girl started to obey her
silently for everything she was instructed to!.
This is just one of the millions
Rama’s who silently endure the pain of a heavy childhood, not see a penny of
their earning which get sent to their parents in the villages, fed on the leftovers and let to sleep on the
floor even in chill winter nights. These
children help in domestic chores of cleaning, cooking and washing. Few help the elders run errands for them. Few are destined to be baby sitting all the times
as mothers keep busy with kitty party’s and clubs and sometime genuine work
schedules.
Children working as child sex
workers silently, not knowing of pregnancy and child birth, and subsequent
consequences are another side of this sad story. Children trafficked to other countries as
domestic help and baby sitters, forbid of their rightful education and growing
up years of childhood to enjoy, the poverty of the parents push them to the
chores beyond their age.
Millions of children work in
remote villages in farms, silently inside the rooms of the factories, do demeaning chores hidden inside the
industries and sadly in the red light areas of the country doing jobs beyond their
age and understanding.
Construction laborers’, hotel
waiters and cleaners, domestic helpers, courier boys, news paper boys, car
cleaners, workers in quarries and as
wood cutters, cobblers, painters and potters.
These children do not know what is it like having a four square meal, a
good night comfortable sleep, education and alphabets, money and savings and no dreams of a
sustainable future. They get for the day,
they eat and sleep what ever is possible and carry on with their lives. By the
time, they realize what they lost, they can never get back - the precious childhood and hopes of education
Thanks to the night schools and
no child left behind campaigns, the children today are getting the required
awareness and attention. However, there
is yet a larger segment of the society that is not careful of this menace
between us. Thoughtlessly employing children at any form
of work is made illegal in most part of the world, but the law remained in the
books far away from action.
Time to say NO to Child Labour
and put a strong end to this in our country.
Every child need to be set free
to dream and dare to move in their lives with confidence and choice than be
pushed to labour and burdened childhood.
