child_labour

Sad State of Affairs…

Majority of the children face a lot of problems in Tamilnadu everyday such as child labour, malnutrition, sexual abuses, not getting proper education and more…

The National Family Health Survey for Tamilnadu reported 47% of all children below 4 years are of underweight and 13% as severely malnourished. The National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau Report indicates high levels of malnutrition in Tamilnadu.

A report from Indian Human Development Dept. says “The incidence of child labour was found to be relatively high in the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamilnadu.

It becomes clear that around 20-30 Lakhs children (age 5-14) in Tamilnadu are being forcefully denied their childhood and made to work for their own and their families’ livelihood.

It is very shameful to note that around 26% of child domestic workers at Chennai work in the homes of government employees, in spite of the Government order banning State Government employees from employing child labourers in their houses.

The lethargy of the administration, coupled with the strength of powerful lobbies and inefficient governance has made mockery of any effort undertaken to eradicate child labour in the State. Even after several years after the Child Labour Protection and Regulation Act was passed, the State Government has not implemented it – rules have not been framed, nor enforcing committees set up”

In India, there are about 50 million children who are below 14 years of age are engaged in some kind of labour. For instance, in a town named Sivakasi in the state of Tamilnadu, there are thousands of children working in fire cracker factories. The reason for engaging them is simple. The owners don’t have to give much wages to them. Almost they are paid only one-tenth for a normal person.

Although the Child Labour Prohibition Act bans the child labour, but still these laws are not enforced completely. This has always been a problem in India and especially in Tamilnadu. The laws that are formulated are never followed. In addition of the existing laws, the state government has to make tougher laws against the child labour.

Education is still a dream for many kids in Tamilnadu. Another important reason why the child labour has to be thrown out of is that it deprives them the education they require to survive in this modern world.

Another worst problem that the state faces is sexual abuses against children. If you open any newspaper in Tamilnadu, you can see a least one child abuse case highlighted almost every day. Such is the rat eat which is the child abuse is increasing in the state. It sounds very shocking but it is the truth. In fact, the cases that are reported to the police are very less as the families fear for shame and media coverage makes them even more difficult.

The children below the age of even five are getting raped. More than 90 per cent of the abused are the girls. Even the teachers whose responsibility is to provide good education are involved in such shameful acts. Also there is no clear law in Tamilnadu to tackle these issues. The laws have to be made strict and should be enforced in order to punish those responsible for these merciless criminal activities.

It is a need of the hour to compile a “Status Report of Children” in Tamilnadu by an independent committee of experts and come up with practical solutions in eradicating child labour, malnutrition, and sexual abuses. Campaigns demanding free, compulsory and quality education for all children need to gain strength. The new Government needs to look seriously into this aspect of this most important public policy with vigour.