Education must to end child labour
Celebrating June 12 as the World Day Against Child Labour, a Delhi-based NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan drew attention to the global call for education to end all forms of exploitation against children. Kicking-off the three-day event, India’s labour minister released a book on procedures to combat child trafficking.
New Delhi: India’s Minister of Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes said: “Our work is to put toys and remove tools from the hands of children.”
He was speaking on the occasion of a three-day event organised to mark the World Day Against Child Labour: “[This] is an important day for the world and we hope this helps us to realise the importance of the fight against child labour.”
- Indian labour minister releasing the book on child labour / Photo credit: BBA
He assured that the union government’s initiatives such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) would help stop trafficking under the garb of migration. He also requested the SAARC countries to work together on the issue.
Renewing the pledge
World Day Against Child Labour is celebrated on June 12 every year to remind humanity of the pledge to abolish child slavery, child trafficking, prostitution of children, and forced and hazardous child labour.
In 1998, a Global March Against Child Labour was organised across 103 countries, which eventually led to the unanimous adoption of an international legislation – the Convention on Combating Worst Form of Child Labour at the ILO Conference in Geneva on June 12, 1999.
This year, Bachpan Bachao Andolan is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the historic event by organising a South Asia Congress on Child Labour and Education from June 11-13 in the Indian capital.
Fernandes also released a book titled: Standard Operating Procedure: Trafficking for Forced Labour on the occasion.
An initiative of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), the book is a guide on the procedures to be followed by the police and law enforcement agencies on cases of trafficking of forced labour. The UNODC has the mandate to implement projects to control human trafficking.
Education holds the key
The theme for this year’s World Day Against Child Labour reads: “Education is the Right Response to Child Labour.”
Education, as has been amply demonstrated, is the only approach that should be adopted by all the stakeholders and social leaders to end exploitation of children.
The recent progress reports on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) and the Education For All (EFA) targets have also identified child labour as the major obstacle to access education.
According to ILO’s Global Alliance Against Forced Labour Report, one in seven children is a child labourer. A vast majority of them are in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Despite a ban on employing children under 14, India's labour ministry recently said there are 12.6 million children aged between 5 and 14 are working.
India has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of child labourers in the world.
Bhanu Pratap Sahi, Jharkhand’s labour minister; Gary Lewis, UNODC’s South Asia representative; Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of Global March Against Child Labour and representatives from Nepal, Pakistan and other South Asian countries participated in the event.
Need for a joint effort
Satyarthi requested the union minister that the ILO Conventions 182 (on worst forms of child labour) and 138 (on minimum wages) be ratified by India during his tenure.
He also said: “Alliances with UNODC, ILO and judicial agencies are required to end trafficking for forced labour.”
Gary Lewis, the South Asia representative of UNODC said: “There are many players in this noble cause. But the key players, that is, the law enforcers are not being used to full extent, as majority of them are not trained to do so.”
He further added: “We have collaborated with BBA to formulate a module to help them and this is the Standard Operating Procedure. In five states – Andhra Pradesh, Goa, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Bihar, where we have implemented it – have seen tremendous progress. We want it to be translated into local languages.”
Satyarthi informed that BBA had recently rescued 62 child bonded labourers from Seelampur area in the capital with the help of Delhi Government.
He said that the main reason for conducting the raid on the eve of the World Day Against Child Labour was to show that action was needed to end the scourge.
“If the police, labour department, administration and civil society work together and remain proactive, a complete elimination of child labour is not only possible, but also attainable in the near future,” he added.
