Can law stop child trade?

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Parents in Andhra Pradesh are selling their own daughters into prostitution. This is not child trafficking carried out by criminal gangs. This is child trafficking carried out by parents themselves. What can the law do when families sell their own children?

A terrible incidence indeed. Couple this with the terrible incidents at Nithari village where children went missing for the last two years, which many have described as a case of child trafficking and India has a big problem at hand as far as the little ones are concerned.

And it's not just Nithari. Every year lakhs of children go missing throughout India. A number of children are lured away from home and suffer abuse and torture. So what innovations are needed to change how we view our little ones?

The question that was being put forward by India 360 was: Can laws prevent child trafficking?

On the panel of experts to try and answer the question were: Head of Policy, Save The Children India, Shireen Miller Wakil; Supreme Court lawyer, Pinky Anand; and former chairperson, National Commission For Women, Vibha Parthasarthy.

Moral Crisis

When parents themselves sell their daughters, it is not juts a collosal failure of law and order, it is also a moral crisis. What innovative measures can be taken to see that this does not happen because the law is clearly not enough?

To this, Vibha Parthasarthy said, "I think we first need to find out why parents are forced into taking this action. Very often, a family will sell a child in order to feed five other children. It's a question on abject poverty. These kind of families go without meals for three days at a stretch and the Rs 300-500 that they get are a sign of meals for them. It's a terrible sacrifice for the family."

So in that situation, isn't it better that the child works rather than the child being sold off for money?

"I wish it was such a simple 'either, or' situation. Working where? Who is the child going to work with and what are the kinds of caring and working conditions that one can ensure for the child? These are the questions that need to be answered. For example - the child should not be overworked, should get adequate meals, should get medical attention when he or she is ill and proper living conditions without any abuse," she said.

Minister for Women and Child Development, Renuka Chodhury has said that basically, the ban on child labour, should not be put in place in certain industries. She is of the opinion that children should be allowed to work in certain traditional industries so that they bring in an income else they would be trafficked by their own parents.

Pinky Anand said that she agreed with the minister completely. "This has been my view all along said she. I think what happens all the time is that all of us perpetually try and imitate Western philosophy. In the West, the situation is far more developed and there are welfare policies and children are not starving on the roads. If in such conditions there is a ban on child labour, then it is understandable. But, India is trying to transpose those conditions and saying that children should not work, is not going to work here."

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She said that 80 per cent of the country's population is involved in agriculture. "Children are always working in the fields and there is nothing wrong with that and there has never been anything wrong with that principle of working. But there are children who need to work outside to sponsor their families and bring in an income to feed family members," she stated.

However, Shireen Miller Wakil said that she completely disagreed with the view and that no children should be working. "Every child has the right to be in school and the Government has assured this right to every child. I understand that it has been some time since these bans and laws have been in place."

At this point, Pinky Anand cut in and said, "No in fact these laws have actually come into being now. The Act was introduced recently. Constitutionally, yes there was a principle that children should not be allowed to work, but the laws have actually come into place now."

So are these laws adequate?

"There isn't a child trafficking act. There is an Immoral Trafficking Act, which does not cover children comprehensively, so the laws do not reach far enough to protect children," said Shireen Miller Wakil.

She said that the laws that are already there should be effectively implemented. She added that there should be responsibility taken by each and every citizen. "We need to understand that we should not tolerate children being trafficked, sold or working."

Some social scientists had come up with a few schemes. One of them was that mothers should be given money and loans so that they become economically independent. Another suggestion was that children should be kept in school and they should also be given the mid-day meal regularly and they should be given some money to attend school.

"'Should be' is one thing. Compare this to the ground reality and it's a whole new picture. Go to far-flung areas and you will realise that the children are trafficked in areas that are drought affected, cyclone-struck. The sad part is that nothing happens in these villages. There is no food security to begin with and in such circumstances, how can parents even begin to think of sending their children to schools?" said Vibha Parthasarthy.

There are no schools, there is no food and the state administration is completely apathetic to the condition of the children and child trafficking. No wonder horrors like Nithari continue to happen and children continue to disappear.

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It cannot be an easy thing for a mother to part with her own child. But she does it because she knows that it is the only way to save her family. What concrete steps can be taken so that the mother is not forced to sell off her child?

To this Vibha Parthasarthy said that the ambiance that the urban Indians live in would not even allow them to imagine the condition of these families. "After the super cyclone in Orissa, there were girls being sold for Rs 200 and Rs 300. I met some of the mothers who had sold off their girls and it was certainly not easy for them. And they hadn't forgiven themselves for it. Even when they had a meal with that money, they were not able to eat it," she said.

But it's sheer helplessness she added. "When the entire district is wiped off by a cyclone or by a drought and there is no help coming, what do these people do?" she asked.

Is there no such thing as the Indian home?

These children are not welcome in their own homes and their own parents view them as economic entities. So is there a problem with how they view their children?

"There is definitely something called an Indian home and that Indian home should afford protection for its children. But because they are living in such conditions, they are forced to do things that they might not want to do. Plus these people are not informed about what would happen to their children. Now this is where the Government and all other citizens need to step in. It should not be the child who pays the price for his or her family's poverty. The Government, the community, the Panchayat system, everybody needs to take action and responsibility at some point," said Shireen Miller Wakil.

So what is the role of her group in eradicating these social evils? Are they spreading awareness among families?

"We are with the families and the children and we are setting up a mechanism at the village and ward levels. We are setting up groups that address child protection issues and which monitor and report. We are making a space where children can speak and voice themselves," said Shireen.

But isn't there that continuing feeling that a child who is going out there and getting some money is more valuable than a child who is at home?

To this, Shireen Miller Wakil said, "No. These families too do want their children to progress, they want their children to learn. Unfortunately they don't often know the difference between progress and child trafficking. A lot of times when these children are lured with the promise of money, many of these parents think that it is a career for them. They think that their child is going to work and get an income and maybe get food to eat and help the family get a roof over their heads. But very often what happens is that no money actually comes into the family."

So what is being done to keep children in school? The sarva shiksha abhiyaan is compulsory and children between 6 and 14 years of age have to attend school. But if this is the case, then why is trafficking happening and why is the state not being able to keep these children in school?

Pinky Anand said that the Indian Government had not treated the issue of children very seriously.

"I don't think human life in general is very valuable in India. Children as a sector are being ignored, the laws are hopelessly inadequate as they stand. By and large, all of these deal with kidnapping or abduction. There are laws that deal with things like prostitution. These are more law and order problems rather than reform laws. These situations will not change unless we have compulsory laws and unless action is taken against delinquent parents or the community for sponsoring such kind of work when children should be in school, nothing can change," she said.

Sadly, in India, there is simply not enough attention paid to children. A terrible indictment perhaps on the state of India's children, where neither the state, nor the families care enough about their children and take them as economic resources and not as their little ones.

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