CHILD LABOUR

Child labour is banned in almost every country in the world, I presume. I think children below the age of 14 should not be deployed as workers in any place of work in any part of the country, as per the laws established by governments concerned. Considering my low exposure to the issues related to children, I focus on India only much. In India too, I have not checked the conditions of children at ground level except getting educated through articles, online videos, documentaries and films. I present my views on this issue based on what I have seen and can guess. This is my tribute to all children in this world.

I consider all those below 10 years only as children. Once they enter the 11^th year of their physical age, they invite teenage. It continues until they cross their 19^th year. Teenage brings many physical and psychological changes along. We cannot consider all children as innocent and helpless ones. Those who are brought up in rich and peaceful families may not think and behave like children in many contexts but adults. My female baby Sankeerthana is moving the images in the touch screen cellphone of my wife with her little finger when I was trying to see them the other day recently. I wondered at her dexterity. Children generally imitate the habits of those whom they are observing daily. Since my wife has a WhatsApp account and because she watches images and videos often on her cellphone as a modern girl of India, her baby is also learning it naturally. Should I consider my baby innocent when she was doing this even before crossing her second year of age? My son Anand also often educates me on some things, thinking that I don’t know about them. I never feel hurt or disturbed if a child teaches me something because they are blessings of God to us. When we fail to enjoy the company of sensitive and innocent children, we fail to enjoy our life even if we have billions of dollars. Like soothing music, healing breezes in summer, curative medicines and classic feature films, children are great paintings of God kept around us. The son of a potter learns how to make a pot from an early age. The daughter of a dancer imitates her mother. Our professions, lifestyles and social milieu certainly impact the psychological growth of children in any part of the world. So, considering children innocent or intelligent based on their age is not a right way. 

Let us consider that those who cross their 20^th year of physical age are adults. Our general understanding is that adults are more balanced, cultured and abled than children in assessing the circumstances around and living accordingly. We believe that they have logical thinking and sensible behaviour. This is our perception. I see many adults every single day doing such things and using such language which a child also does not do or use. Let’s not assess the worth of a living being based on age but psychological growth at broader level. I believe that 90% of Indians have not become adults yet in their evolution as human beings. So, considering children inferior to adults in many contexts is also objectionable to me. Adults are preparing children into becoming money machines, victims of bad habits and addicts to carnal joys. Children below 10 are far better than adults in many parts of the world now. They are not cheating others and insulting them brutally as adults do. They are crying silently if they have pain but not pointing their fingers at others shamelessly. Children are the beauty of a nation. Children are the assets of a society. Children are the pillars of our future. So, it is the moral responsibility of every adult, society, religion, government, local authoritative body and organization to create an atmosphere where children can grow up happily. Unfortunately we are not creating such world now for children. Millions of children, below the age of 14, are working in dangerous workplaces and living in pathetic conditions. Like any other major burning issue, child labour is also a big issue, which cannot be solved completely in any age. All that we can do is to ensure that majority of children are living happily. It cannot be achieved by governments or voluntary organizations alone but through cultural and psychological changes of humanity across the world. We should love and help any child, when we see him or her in a desperate condition, if possible, not just our children. When we develop this broader outlook towards children, they live happily. We need sensitivity, empathy and idealism to treat any child with love and respect.

Let us check how we are treating children now in our families or societies so that we can understand how sensitive or insensitive we are towards these little masters of our nation.

1. In every newspaper, many write about standards and values a man, an organization or a government should follow. Who are distributing newspapers in many parts of India now? It is children mostly. They wake up around 4:30 am and rush to their respective newspaper sorting and collecting points. They deliver these dailies at our doorsteps by the time we wake up. Is this not inhuman on part of the managements of dailies? Since adults don’t deliver newspapers door to door expecting a little payment every month like innocent and helpless boys, they are deploying boys only for this daily task. What do we do if a boy does not keep our newspaper neatly and systematically at a point in our abode expected by us? We address them with abusive language ordering them to keep our paper systematically somewhere but not throwing it carelessly? How many papers is he delivering daily? How much time is he given for the delivery by his recruiter? Is it possible to keep every newspaper in every abode perfectly? We never ask these questions ourselves? For us, a paperboy is an underdog. He is an alien to us. He does not belong to our class. Why should we bother about his financial or social conditions? This is the attitude of majority Indians towards paperboys. So, as newspaper publishers and readers we are insulting children directly.

2. In houses, cottage industries, mechanic outlets, shops, hotels, companies and many other places we happen to see children working for a little money. In houses, human beings are only living. Most of them present themselves as honourable citizens of India on public platforms but keep children as workers in their abodes for their comforts and luxuries. There are hundreds of cottage industries in India. They cannot pay huge salaries and recruit adults for their works. They depend on children only because they expect little due to their helplessness and work better than adults. We see many children in bike or car mechanic spots. They want to learn work and earn a little money that way. Mechanics assign them such dusty, rusty and messy works which they don’t like to do at their level. In shops we see boys sorting out things or packing items for immediate or scheduled delivery of goods at the doorsteps of customers. We see children in mediocre hotels also because they work more and expect little. There is one advantage for children working in hotels. They get enough quality food to eat daily. They cannot afford it at home or elsewhere due to their poverty. Many hoteliers assign much work to children and may use abusive language also addressing them if they don’t work quickly in a hotel but they allow these children to eat food satisfactorily. I think they don’t look down upon children in this aspect of their treatment. Almost all factories and companies know about child labour issues. So, they don’t recruit them to work in their workplaces. This is the stand of companies with stable financial status. Some mediocre companies, which want to save money in every possible manner, may deploy children also to get things done with low recurring expenses. Some companies may take children to help them live decently getting a little salary. We cannot judge that all companies are bad and are accepting children only for their benefit. Some are kind towards children. However, many companies are outsourcing some of their responsibilities to private agencies. We call them labour contractors. It is a huge business in India now. They may recruit children for some works. Companies cannot control everything happening within their campuses also. In volatile financial markets, where demand for goods and services may fall or rise at any point of time, most of the companies focus much on their core business areas only. Child labour is pervasive in unorganized sector. They want cheap labour who don’t form into dirty unions. Children are the best option for them.

3. Indians are good at pointing fingers at others for any mistake committed or drawback noticed. They transfer the blame onto somebody else. Many Indians are so lazy that they assign many petty works to their children at home or at parties. Since children cannot disobey or talk back to us when we order them to do something, we depend on their helplessness almost every day when they are at home. We tell them quite often to do this or that. In parties also, we expect children to do things like pouring water, arranging food items and serving them, moving goods of distribution from one point to another and so on. This is a kind of domestic violence towards children. We can certainly ask them to do certain things minding their knowledge and skills but we should not assign them any work at home just to create a comfort zone for ourselves. Children should be allowed to learn something utilizing their freedom under our kind guidance but not cruel treatment based on our expectations from them. When all children are playing opposite our house enjoying their vacation, we should not expect them to sit in our abode and do home work or learn something useful in their latter life. We should allow them to mingle with children of their age and interests when they are passionate about it. Children learn a lot when we leave them to experiment and enjoy. It does not mean we offer them unlimited freedom in which they can go anywhere with anybody and do whatever they like without our involvement at all. We should be like ideal observers and kind guides to them involving in their affairs when we sense they are going wrong but not like secret cameras fixed on their lives. How many of us are this liberal now towards our children? They are going to those schools which we finalize; pursuing those courses which we impose and choosing such careers which we like. This is a kind of child labour issue though the governments and voluntary organizations are not focusing on this aspect of domestic violence against children now much. If our outlook and treatment towards our sons and daughters change at home first, we start falling in love with other children also outside slowly. We are treating our children as rocks now. We believe that we need to shape their future planning about them continuously and directing their lives every day. We should understand that they are independent creatures. God equipped them with intelligence, rationality and creativity. We should show them a number of good choices available to beautify their lives or careers. We should allow them to opt for any path they like based on their personal choice. Learning without freedom is like punishment for children. A doctor expecting his son to become a doctor and a collector expecting her daughter to become a collector is avoidable. We should not impose our interests and passions on our children. They cannot grow into healthy and ideal individuals if we treat them like our slaves. They are like tender plants. They need good environment to grow happily but not fences and restrictions all around. The more you restrict their freedom, the more they are likely to go astray one day or the other. Suicides, elopements and crimes are happening by such children, who failed to feel and enjoy love and care by their parents or guardians.

4. In our society also, we are not sensitive towards children. When we see children on roads and in streets struggling to sell us something for their livelihood or wipe the glasses of our cars seeking alms from us, we take them as destitute beggars and outsiders but not as Indians victimized by circumstances. When we consider impoverished and unfortunate Indians also as citizens of this nation, who deserve good treatment from all of us and our governments, we develop sympathy or empathy for them also. We may not give them huge money or fight on streets for their rights but feel their helplessness first. When we become sensitive inwardly, we don’t hurt or insult them anywhere. This is also a kind of service to them. Once we understand their plight, we do something for them one day or the other. There are gangsters earning huge money forcing children into begging. Exploitation of helpless children has been institutionalized in many parts of the word. They kidnap children and dump them in a domain of crime. Time decides who become victims. What is surety that our children don’t get kidnapped and be victimized one day?  

Let’s examine what conditions and circumstances may force children into becoming labourers.

1. Financial backwardness and vulnerability is the primary reason for many children to become workers. His father consumes alcohol and beats his mother. His mother works somewhere to look after her family. Her son too does something to help his mother, though he has aversion for his father. It is a matter of survival. There may be many rich and influential people in his community, religion or region but very few look towards the poor. Such children can’t negotiate for remuneration. They do any work readily.

2. Fate is also another highly influential factor in turning children into workers. Father is suffering from a disease. Mother left their family years ago due to some disputes. The only able person in that family is she. She has to do some work to earn a little and support her family. This is what the contemporary society demands from her directly or indirectly. She cannot consider the concepts of self-respect or physical vulnerability. She has to go somewhere, do something and earn money regularly.

3. Natural calamities, accidents and mishaps too throw children into a pitiable state of life. It may be a cyclone, an earthquake, a stroke of lightning, floods or fire. The family members and their assets get carried away or burnt off during such calamities. Governments or voluntary organizations can never restore the peace and financial stability of a family after a calamity. They lose 10 lakh rupees, which they earned struggling for 10 years. Government may offer them 10,000 rupees. Children in that family, who lived happily till then, depending on the income of primary breadwinner, also turn into workers.

4. Ignorance or innocence of children too may victimize them. Somebody may trap a girl in the name of love and take her away. After some days, he may leave her there. She does not know how to come back. She may get shelter somewhere. Slowly she finds a way for work and earning to continue her life. She may never go back to her family. She remains as a worker forever. Their family members cannot trace her whereabouts. Nobody else is bothered about her. She has to work somewhere for her nominal survival.

5. The policies of central, state or local governments, contemporary social trends and locally influential people may also cause child labour. Governments often grab lands and other important assets from the poor and the helpless also in the name of development. Farmers and peasant farmers lose their lands. They get money but they spend it fast without minding their future. In course of time, they turn poor and helpless. When adults in a family are helpless, their children too have to struggle for existence.

6. Diseases and disorders in a family lead to victimhood of their children. The primary breadwinner might catch a disease like cancer or liver disorder. Doctors say that treatment must be continued or an operation must be done to save the life of this patient. Knowingly many poor and helpless Indians also cannot leave their dear ones to the call of death. They borrow money from others at high interest rates. They admit their children as contract workers in the farms or business units of selfish moneylenders. They exploit such children like anything. Their parents cannot bring them back. They suffer silently as workers there.

7.  Fascination for money and comforts may also push children into this state of life. His parents don’t give him enough money for anything. He compares his lifestyle with the children of contemporary times. He wants to live comfortably and happily like them wearing good clothes and looking trendy. He quits education and finds some work. They pay him some money at the end of every month. He enjoys it.

8. Anarchy or wars between countries and such highly unfortunate events in their lives may also turn them into child labour. They cannot be in orphanages or refugee camps for long. They work somewhere.

At surface level, child labour issue might look ordinary and negligible but when we investigate into the status and pains of these creatures, we feel very upset, disappointed and saddened to know it all.

1.  A home-maker tortures the boy working in her house not looking after him well or offering him the promised remuneration in time. He eats left out food, wears dirty clothes and sleeps outside helplessly.

2.  Girls working in houses washing dishes, clothes and running errands get abused by the male family members in that house. It might be physical harassment or abusive language. They suffer silently.

3. Some have sadistic mentality. They seek pleasure from torturing and harassing innocent and helpless children. They do such things always which satisfy their ego and false prestige. Children face agony.

4. Many girls are being kidnapped and dumped into the dark cave of prostitution. Mediators get huge money from this business. Police raid for formality. Voluntary organizations may arrive at the eleventh hour. The sensitivity lost and the physical pain underwent by them is catastrophic. They can’t trust police, lawyers, media, governments and voluntary organizations also because they got victimized horribly in a nation where injustice is common and crime is pervasive. Some of them retaliate against such societies joining hands with antisocial elements. Child trafficking is a major burning issue in India now.

5. Many Indian parents love their children so deeply that they don’t hesitate to make any sacrifice for the sake of their children. In fact, the very tradition and culture of Indians is established and respected for their care and concern towards their children. Abductions are happening frequently in many parts of India by gangs involved in child trafficking. How would it be to miss a daughter or a son after bringing them up for some years, weaving many dreams around them? Many Indian parents are in this hell now.

6. Many adopt male and female babies from orphanages promising to the respective governments and voluntary organizations that they have no children and also that they look after them very carefully forever. They may sell them to others later for money or other purposes. An orphan is in a critical state of life. Being adopted by unfamiliar ones and being taken to an entirely new place and culture, they suffer to live there. When sold out, they struggle and suffer even more. Who is bothered about them?

7. Organ collection and sale is a huge illegal business in India and other countries now. Children too may become victims of these inhuman practices. They remove the organs desired by them from the bodies of abducted children, sell them to rich ones at high prices and throw those dead bodies somewhere.

8. Religious fanaticism and related atrocities by some fundamentalist groups are another challenging threat to all nations and children in those regions. They focus on those who are financially vulnerable, socially downtrodden and religiously mad. They buy children from such families. They take them into their camps in remote and secret places to train and make them into insane humans. They inculcate absolute aversion against their enemy countries, races and religions teaching quite illogical and irrational topics to them fanatically. In course of time, these children become mass destruction weapons. They shoot at innocent people or explode bombs targeting the death of many present there. They kill themselves using bombs to kill others massively. Children, the beautiful representatives of kind and generous God, who should attract us with their innocence, cuteness and pristine curiosity, are turning into criminals at such early age due to the failures of our governments and policies in nurturing peace and order in their places through stringent measures. Islamic terrorism has become a major challenge to the world now.   

Is it fair to punish blindly those who violate child labour laws in organized or unorganized sector? Nobody knows why, when and how a child becomes into an ordinary worker or bonded labourer? When survival is the point of question, one has to do something for it. Logical thinking, rational arguments and legal perspectives cannot stand in the way of a child. He or she gets into work for himself or herself but not to benefit those for whom he or she is working now. Offering some work, food, shelter and money, in fact, those cottage industries or companies are allowing them to live somehow without committing suicides or being insulted by contemporary societies. So, regulatory bodies must mind the following points of concern before taking a legally abiding action against those that violate labour laws.

1. Helping the helpless is a virtue. One offering work to a child might have done so to help a few helpless boys or girls. It is necessary to talk with the employer amicably and with the children kindly and deeply before deciding to take an action or not against them. If he or she did so on humanitarian grounds, there is no need to take the issue legally. Show the children how they can survive beyond working there? If you cannot find an alternative for the survival of helpless ones in a context, there is no use of taking them out from that zone of shelter. Appreciate that employer for his kindness. Ask him to take care of those children with a fatherly or motherly attitude. When you cannot look after a destitute child representing government or a voluntary organization, you have no moral authority to pull him out from his comfort zone. That employer is actually doing a better job than you. He is giving life to that child. When he grows physically and mentally, he may find another source of livelihood. It is not exploitation by employer but giving an opportunity to a boy or a girl to live moderately. Punishing such employers is a moral crime.

2. Educated, rich and influential ones in our societies are actually tormenting innocent children assigning them insulting and dangerous works in their homes and other places. When a celebrity or influential person is caught as part of a child abuse case, there won’t be rigorous investigation afterwards. The police close the case accepting bribes from the criminals and sinners behind the screen. Many police, lawyers and judges, who are supposed to be custodians of law and order in their respective regions, have turned into unscrupulous and corrupt rogues. Children are suffering immensely due to the inhumanity and cruelty of police and courts of law. How do police respond or react if a boy or a girl goes to a police station to complain them that their parents, relatives, guardians or employer is torturing them physically or mentally? In the mindsets of Indians, children means negligible entities. We don’t take their words or acts seriously. Police say a few words to them aggressively and command them to go back. Courts of law have no time to take the issues of children seriously and punish the wrongdoers severely in no time. They are more focused on cases related to celebrities, high class criminals and influential politicians only. Children are thus becoming permanent victims due to the negligence and cruelty of police and courts.  

3. No children should be employed in hazardous workplaces. Governments, idealists and voluntary organizations believe that children should go to school for reading, writing and related psychological growth. I wonder about it. I often believe that my son is disfiguring his childhood going to a school. They are running schools to earn money but not to offer quality education, with humanitarian approach, to kids. When schools have become into prisons from the perspectives of children, what is use in educating them, bringing them back from workplaces? It is appreciable if they learn how to work and live on their own from early childhood. Uneducated ones become contract workers. The educated become permanent workers. Both are labourers. Children working in safe workplaces is acceptable from this perspective.

4. Anybody that tortures and victimizes a child in any context must be identified and punished strictly.

Insights

1. If children are leading pathetic lives in a region or nation, the families, societies, governments and regulatory authorities are responsible for it. Children cannot think about many things logically. Others may misguide and exploit them easily. We need to love children and do everything possible for them.

2. Many Indian parents are worried about the education of their children only now but not their vulnerability as formative children. They are treating and guiding them like businesspersons but not kind and possessive parents. Education and earning are just one part of life. Take care of their lives first.

3. Touch is a way of our expression of warmth and possessiveness towards others. Teachers at school, others in other imaginable places, your close relatives or highly reliable friends might be touching your children with sexual interest. Learn to differentiate between lust and affection. Expression of decent love even by millions of people is acceptable to us as parents but not unethical behavior even by our siblings. The sensitivity of children should not be at stake in their formative age. They become psychic patients and introverts in course of time if you neglect them in their formative age. They should have freedom to discuss any matter with you. If you think and behave like a machine, your children suffer silently. You may be a winner and challenger in many fields but what’s use of it when you could not bring up your children carefully. He or she may shake or explode all your kingdom of dreams within days if they turn so just because of your carelessness towards them. Neglecting formative children is worse than child labour.

4. We may not be able to solve many problems in this world but we can certainly bring love and happiness into the lives of many just through our kind words and gestures. Do not insult or look down upon poor and helpless children in any part of the world. Their parents may not be rich, educated, enlightened and lucky enough like you to bring them up comfortably and securely. They never wanted to lead such lives but fate made and kept them so. Kiss or hug them lovingly. They feel very happy. They believe that there are some people in this world to love them unconditionally. Offer them a storybook, a set of clothes, a little money or a gift. We are spending a lot of money daily for various things. Many businessmen and entrepreneurs are cheating us selling low quality items at high rates. We don’t know how the prices of many commodities are being fixed in any nation. Cheating has become organized and institutionalized across the world now. Some are earning huge money within no time. Some are unable to make a little profit also after much struggle. In this regressive and disgusting environment around us, we can derive pure joy and satisfaction being in touch with children and doing something good for them at our level. Don’t expect media coverage or appreciation from others for what you are doing for a child or many. Our conscience is the best guide and authority to all of us. Appreciate yourself if you have done anything good for a child, who is hungry or helpless. The responses and reactions of children are innocent and inspiring. God is keeping many such tension relievers around us. Notice them. Spend with them.

5. I feel infuriated when I see a female beggar with a sick or weak child with her. She uses that baby as a means to arouse pity and sympathy in public in open places. What kind of hell are these babies facing? A baby of that age, if very poor, should, at least, sleep under a tree and consume milk and such light foods offered by her mother, father or others. She is an adult criminal using such baby in the profession of begging. Can we consider this the development of India? Are those babies not Indians? We have millions of rupees for worthless cricket and national games but not to save the lives of babies in this nation! We spend lakhs of rupees to bring masses to our routine meetings. Our employee unions shout on roads for more privileges from governments. Nobody is concerned about the children suffering publicly before us.

6. No government, in any part of the world, has moral authority to punish any employer on grounds of child labour, when they could not make proper and sustainable arrangements for happy and comfortable lives of destitute and forsaken children in any part of their nation. When governments fail to save and guide children properly, they turn into thieves and antisocial elements. We arrest or kill them in course of time but we are not checking why they have become so. Circumstances shape our lives. I can eat food if I can afford it on my own. I beg others when I can’t get it. If they don’t offer it readily, I grab it to save myself somehow. If all are beating me when I am grabbing food from them, I turn mad or cruel. I don’t choose it intentionally but circumstance force me to become so. The moral responsibility of societies and governments is to create and continue an environment of safety, security and happiness to all children.

7. Sunitha Krishnan in South India and Kailash Satyardhi in North India have become stars, not through acting in films, playing worthless games, showing magic or shouting about issues publicly but saving and guiding affected children generously. Real stars are those who bring comfort and happiness into the lives of those struggling and suffering due to inevitable circumstances. Salute, appreciate and encourage such real stars of India, if possible. Become so if you want to be in the selected list of God. God loves all creatures but He cannot serve all of them directly. He created man with equal intelligence and energy with the hope that he serves other creatures on behalf of Him. Soft language and kind service are the best virtues in this world. See if you can extend such service to any child in this world. Children seek and celebrate love and care from us. Love and serve children. Understand things from their perspective.

8. Don’t send your formative children into distant places for education or anything else. I have been away from my parents, siblings and relatives for long for the sake of my education and jobs. I always missed them. I never like to keep my children in a hostel because I developed such aversion for residential education system. They offered me good food, space to rest and did everything possible to educate and entertain me decently. I have no complaints against governments or supervisors there. I could not get love and possessiveness from my parents and others when I wanted it badly. I was lovesick for years. It is equal to child labour. Send them away only when it is a matter of survival or death, not otherwise. Offer love to your children keeping them with you always. As parents and guardians, if you don’t have time and interest to take care of your children, who else does it for you? Children badly crave our love and care. It is not enough if you feel much concerned about your children and save a lot of money for their future; do something good and pleasing for them when they are with you. They cannot see your plans and dreams for them but what you offer them right now. If you miss their beautiful childhood, you cannot buy it later.

9. Don’t take things for granted when it comes to your children. There is a dangerous environment around us now. Don’t leave them unattended even for a few minutes. Accidents occur due to their mischief or innocence. Criminals may kidnap them. Once they are out of your reach, you cannot get them back that easily. Police and lawyers don’t help you much because they are not their children but your children. What do they lose if you suffer silently? Don’t take the society as your guide and well-wisher.

10. Do not spend too much for your children. Show them and make them realize what is happening around them. You cannot be with them always. Educate them how to conduct themselves in different and difficult circumstances as they grow. Do it all smoothly with unlimited patience and unconditional love. Your children may not meet your expectations but it is your moral responsibility to look after them and build their future. In fact, it is the essence of Indian culture; struggling for the happiness of children continuously, not expecting anything back from them. How you bring up your children decides what they become in course of time. Being angry with them occasionally when they do something wrong despite your advice is acceptable and appreciable but not to be affectionate and possessive towards them occasionally.