Click to play videoTalwara: Today a new notification of the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act of 1986 comes into force. Children now cannot be employed as domestic servants in shops or hotels. Those who violate this will face a jail term of two years and a fine of Rs 20,000.
But CNN-IBN found out that in Jammu little children are often their families’ sole breadwinners.
For 13-year-old Neelam, it's yet another day at work.
Neelam has been forced to work for years in order to repay her family's debt of Rs 70,000.
Neelam has been working for the past five years hoping that some day she would be able to repay the debt. In effect, her job means much more to her than the Supreme Court's ban.
“Kaam wi karma hai karza wi mukana hai. Padne da man karda kam karne do koi nahin. ” (I have to work. We have taken so much of money. I want to study also but can’t)," Neelam says.
Neelam's family had migrated to Talwara from Doda because of militancy. And there are over 800 families that have migrated since the mid 1990s from Doda, Rajouri and Poonch.
The families are now living at the Talwara migrant camps where over 83 minor children support their families.
For Ishri Devi, her 12-year-old grandson Rakesh, who works in Punjab, is the only source of income for the fmaily.
“If we get something to eat then we will call him back. Now if we call him back what we will we eat? We want him home, but there is no way we can get him back. It has been ordered that we would get relief but we have not got any," Ishri Devi says.
In March this year, migrants at Talwara had protested alleging that extreme conditions and displacement were forcing them to make their minor children work.
A monthly relief of nine kg flour and two kg rice was announced but for many these measures came too late. If militancy took away their homes, then family debt took away their childhood. And for most of the children the ban on child labour simply means yet another day at work.
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