...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

CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD

GUJARAT’S THROBBING INDUSTRY MAKES IT THE WORST OFFENDER WHEN IT COMES TO CHILD LABOUR

Radha Sharma | TNN

Ahmedabad: This is a number one position which the state would rather not acknowledge! Gujarat tops the country with the highest number of children working, according to the National Family Health Survey - Phase III (NFHS-3).
The survey has revealed that 31.6% children in Gujarat were engaged in some or other kind of labour as compared to 9% children in Maharashtra which is economically and industrially progressive. Of the 31.6 % children working, 19.5%were involved in unpaid labour while 5.5% earned a wage.
“In Gujarat, every third child is engaged in labour. One in 18 children are paid workers while every fifth child is engaged in unpaid work for someone who is not a member of the household,” says MD Irfan Khan, professor and head research at Taleem Research Foundation, who was the project director for carrying out research for NFHS-3 in the state. Gujarat is followed by Arunachal Pradesh where 20.1% were involved in labour and Rajasthan wherein 19.6% children were found engaged in labour. Nearly 3,400 households were covered in Gujarat in the survey.
A child worker, as defined by UNICEF, is a child between 5-11 years, who in the seven days preceding the survey, worked for someone who is not a member of the household, with or without pay, or did household chores for 28 or more hours, or engaged in any family business. It also includes any child between 12-14 years. “In Gujarat, maximum children are employed in hotel, chai-kitlis, laari-gallas and entertainment sector. The second biggest sector employing children is domestic which has now been accepted as hazardous for girl children,” says child-rights activist Sukhdev Patel.
Meanwhile, Campaign Against Child Labour and Child Line has planned a rally where participants will wear extra-huge glasses to seek child-labour.

Anganwadis..

REPORT BY PLAN PANEL MEMBER

Anganwadis: State does well, but more needs to be done

Madhavi Rajadhyaksha I TNN

Mumbai: In Rajasthan, there was a carcass rotting outside an anganwadi and no women or children were in sight. A childcare centre in Chhattisgarh was closed at 1 pm, though the official timings were from 10 am to 2 pm.
In Andhra Pradesh, anganwadis were either missing or not functioning properly. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, though, presented a more hopeful picture with their “bright and cheerful children’’.
These were some of the observations of Planning Commission member Dr Sayeeda Hameed, who visited 48 anganwadis across 17 states over the last three years and recently sent an “eyewitness account’’ to the Maharashtra government.
Anganwadis are childcare centres in urban, rural and tribal districts, which provide supplementary nutrition to children below six years and are monitored under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
“The picture that emerges is a grim one,’’ is Dr Hameed’s hard-hitting observation, as her report goes on to detail how anganwadis in most parts are run from ‘kachcha’ premises with no space for children to spend the entire four hours and how personal hygiene is ignored. She
estimates that there are toilets in less than 25% of the centres and referral health services are seriously wanting.
Maharashtra, with its startling malnutrition rates, presented a comparatively encouraging picture in her report. Take the instance of the Abadimandi centre in Aurangabad, which the team visited in May 2007 and found “uniformed children sitting in neat rows’’.
The centre boasted of a child-friendly toilet, a tap for drinking water and was stocked with educational kits, a first-aid toolbox, a mirror and combs. “We learnt that children are given six different recipes in a week and the cooked food is given in take-home-rations to children below three,’’ the report states.
The observations have predictably pleased state officials. “Generally, we receive a lot of criticism. Her account came as a surprise even to us. We have started a lot of new activities under the Integrated Child Development Services and are glad that the efforts are showing,’’ says Dr Vijay Satbir Singh, secretary, women and child development department.
A centre in the Kagazipur area of Aurangabad district was, in fact, cited as a model in “personal hygiene’’ practices. “We were pleasantly surprised to see that all the children got up and went outside to wash their hands. They then dried them and sat down to eat,’’ says the report, adding that the children seemed comfortable with this routine and it didn’t seem like an act for the visitors.
Some of the other centres, however, received brickbats for the shortage of IFA (folic acid) tablets and the lack of drinking water facilities, which highlighted the poor coordination of Integrated Child Development Services with other departments. State officials say more projects are in the pipeline. “We recently sanctioned Rs 38 crore (for this year) for the construction of new buildings for anganwadis,’’ says Dr Singh.
But activists aren’t satisfied with Maharashtra’s high scores. “The observations for a few centres cannot be generalised when it comes to the implementation of Integrated Child Development Services across the state. In Aurangabad itself, there are many tribal and slum pockets, which still do not have Integrated Child Development Services centres,’’ says Amulya Nidhi from Bal Hakk Abhiyaan. He says malnutrition in the state has seen a huge public outcry in the last two years, be it in the heart of Mumbai or the tribal belts of Melghat.
While government records show that 80,00,000 children benefit from Integrated Child Development Services, the malnutrition-related infant deaths (which stand at more than 7,500 annually) suggest that Maharashtra though ahead of other states still needs a lot more to be done.
Apex court order
brings smiles
Demand an anganwadi and get one within three months? A little-known Supreme Court verdict of 2006 has brought a smile to several slumdwellers in Mumbai. The court had ruled that any community with more than 40 children below six years could petition the ICDS authorities for an anganwadi and get it within three months. Voluntary organisations Shahar Vikas Manch (SVM) and YUVA did precisely that.
“The verdict was delivered while hearing a petition, which questioned why government godowns were overflowing with rotting food, while children remained malnourished. We have been holding meetings with the slumdwellers and mobilising women’s groups in slums around Malad,’’ said Mohan Chavan of SVM. Their awareness drives saw 42 new anganwadi centres being inaugurated in P-ward (Malad-Malvani) on Saturday. TNN

HEALING TOUCH: A file picture of a doctor examining a child at an anganwadi