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No respite for children despite ban on child labour
Published on Thu, Oct 11, 2007 at 16:12 in Nation » India section
Tags: Child Labour, Domestic , New Delhi
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New Delhi: Mohini's vocabulary betrays what she's used to talking about, what she's used to doing.
"Sweeping, swabbing, washing vessels, clothes," is what she says she is used to doing.
She's just 12, but Mohini has been working in four homes in Delhi since she was nine. And she has her very grown-up reasons for it.
"My brothers and sisters go to school and I have to make sure that their fee is filled so I have to work," says Mohini.
It's a common story, one that the Central Government tried to end by banning child labour in homes, dhabas, and eating joints throughout the country. Exactly one year since the ban, nothing has changed.
A few rescue operations were kicked off, but no employer has been convicted, and not a single rescued child has been properly rehabilitated.
Says Raaj Mangal Prasad, who had filed an RTI with Labour Department, "If you rescue a child, and don't have the mechanism for rehabilitation, the whole rescue is a farce."
The official number of child labourers in India is just 6,700, but NGOs realistically estimate it to be around 12 million. The many child rights commissions and committees might be passing the buck, but in a way, the buck stops at the ordinary citizen.
Whether it's in teashops, or in middle or upper class homes, the shameful truth is that there is still a demand for child labour.
It's often explained away by people saying that the children are better off this way, what with them not being abused, but whatever the justification, putting a child to work, is killing his or her right to a childhood.
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only banning won't do anything ,we will have to make sure that the child labour is getting money from some
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chinmoy,hope HR minister and minister for child welfare looks at it! it's a pity that he has time to worry
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