WHO ARE WE KIDDING? (editorial, Hindustan Times)
"We will not quarrel with the Labour Ministry's notification banning employment of children below 14 years of age as domestic servants or helpers in eateries. We cannot but welcome such an important welfare measure. Having said that, it is difficult to avoid feeling that this is another case of government grandstanding on what is euphemistically an entrenched socio-economic problem. Child labour is a function of the endemic poverty in society and attempting to tackle it through a prohibition is not likely to go far. All that it is likely to do is provide a new avenue for the police - or whoever is to enforce the law - to make money.
"The government's record of monitoring and regulating laws already in force is far from exemplary. To begin with, there is the problem of classification of a 'child' - for Indian labour laws it is 14, for the Penal Code, 16, and for the Ministry of Women and Child Development, 18. Enforcement has been so poor that 20 years after the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act came into force, about 25-30 million children remain a part of the workforce, and an estimated 75 per cent of them are employed in hazardous occupations. Moreover, the Labour Ministry's rehabilitation scheme under the National Child Labour Project, although well-intentioned, only covers 250 child-labour endemic districts of the country.
"No one would deny that child labour is an unhealthy phenomenon - it robs a child of a 'childhood', exposes them to abuse and can have long-lasting psychological consequences. In an ideal world where all children went to school and got two square meals a day, it would be positively objectionable and undesirable. As it is, despite the government's avowed aim to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of 14, over 40 million children are out of school. But what is a child born to destitute parents, with no access to a school or any social security benefit, to do if he or she is denied even the right to earn a living? Until the government is able to provide the supporting infrastructure to ensure that no child needs to work to earn a living, child labour will, sadly, continue."
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