...sickening

61% kids work 17 hrs/day

Rahul Mangaonkar | TNN

Ahmedabad: The state government may have dedicated this year to the ‘nirogi balak’ and may also plan to open a children’s university. But a large number of children from outside the state earn a living in Gujarat as labourers. If that is a measure of the state’s prosperity, surveys have also indicated that several children from Gujarat too are employed as household helps or in tea kitlis, when they are very young.
A report published by the Union Women and Child Development Ministry—‘Study on Child Abuse in India: 2007’ shows at least 60.98 % of children in Gujarat between 5 and 12 years of age work seven days a week. The report also states 56.14% of girls in the state work seven days a week.
The study reveals that one of every two children across all age groups in the country has worked seven days. Most children working as domestic help covered under the study woke up for work between 5 and 6 am and slept only between 9 and 11 pm.
This path-breaking report on the basis of a national study raises the point as to whether children below 18 should be employed at all. Under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, engagement of children below the age of 14 years in hazardous occupations has been declared illegal. The Union ministry of labour and employment has declared domestic work, working in restaurants, tea stalls and dhabas as hazardous. Around 56.38% children are working in illegal and hazardous occupations such as domestic work, roadside restaurants and dhabas, construction work, bidi rolling, lock making, embroidery and zari and others.
Even in those occupations where the law allows children to be employed, the conditions under which these children work and the hours that they are made to work are exploitative and often inhuman. Children who work as domestic helps are the most vulnerable and exploited lot because of confinement in other people’s homes. They begin work at an early age, shoulder excessive responsibilities such as handling fuel, stoves, sharp tools, working for long hours with no rest and little or no remuneration. Working at the mercy of the employer they frequently suffer from gender and sexual violence.
They are deprived of access to schooling, play,the affection of their family and friends. As per the study across all age groups,58.79% of working children reported physical abuse, of which 47.3% were girls.
WHERE CHILDREN ARE TOILING IN GUJARAT
Hotels, chai-kitlis, lari-gallas: Local children, kids from Rajasthan Bt-cotton fields: Mainly north Gujarat, including Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Mehsana Textile markets in Surat Embroidery units in Gomtipur, Dani Limda and Amraiwadi in Ahmedabad: children mainly from Bihar Gold and silver jewellery melting and making units in Ratan Pol, Ahmedabad: Children from West Bengal