CHILD ABUSE IN INDIA - CHILD LABOR IN INDIA

Child Labour in India: We must stop it...

The India's largest survey on child abuse informed that had 16,800 child (below 18) and 5,000 young adult respondents and covered 13 states, including Delhi, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Kerala, Bihar, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Some 50% of India's children have been abused according to a yearlong survey conducted by the welfare department and the Union department of women and child development (DWCD), the Delhi-based non-governmental organization (NGO) Prayas and funded by UNICEF. MAIN FINDINGS, FOUR CATEGORIES OF ABUSE:       50 % Children who suffered abuse of one kind or other. 60 % Economically abused. 50 % Emotionally abused. 40 % Physically abused. 30 % Sexually abused by relatives or known persons. 25 per cent Sexually abused.

THE SURVEY DEFINED FOUR CATEGORIES OF ABUSE: Emotional, Sexual, Physical and Economic.  Emotional abuse, for example, a girl is constantly ill-treated for not being born a male, or any child pulled up for low performance at school.  Sexual abuse, for example, extends from fondling to rape.  Physical abuse, for example, is force used against a child by teachers, parents and others.  Economic abuse, for example, encompasses forced labour in both hazardous and non-hazardous places of work. In India, there are about 50 million children who are below 14 years of age are engaged in some kind of labor. For instance, in a town named Sivakasi in the state of Tamil Nadu, there are thousands of children working in fire cracker factories.  The reason for engaging them is simple.

 The owners not have to give a higher salary to them.  Almost they are paid only one-tenth for a normal person.  Although the Child Labor Prohibition, but still these laws are not enforced completely. This has always been a problem in India. The laws that are formulated are never followed. In addition of the existing laws, the government has to make tougher laws against the child labor. The majority of the children still face a lot of problems in this country everyday such as Child Labor, Malnutrition, Sexual Abuses, not getting proper Education etc. Even though the government and various welfare organizations are trying hard to help the struggling kids and overcome their problems, but the count is not decreasing. SILENT SUFFERING, SILENT SOCIETY? Based on the report says that is "hidden from the media glare, millions of children in India suffer abuse in silence". The survey indicates that the extent of abuse of children saturates throughout many different aspects of Indian society, not just amongst orphanages, juvenile homes and street children. Arun Pandey of the Goa-based NGO Anyway Rahit Zindagi says that child abuse has always been pervasive. He said: "The only reason why people are talking about it now is because society is beginning to see children as victims and is making an attempt to reach out to them."

At least 5% of the respondents said that they had resorted to substance abuse to cope with the sexual and/or physical trauma they were routinely subjected The 25% of children surveyed said that they had been abused sexually. Some 71% said that they have been beaten, of which, more than 56% said their beatings resulted in bleeding and 29% needed medical attention. Nearly 80% said they had been subjected to emotional abuse. AN IMPENDING ISSUE The article says that the allocation for children in the national budget is very low, the Union budget has been below 5 % of the total, of which, 0.034 % is allocated to child protection, some 3.76 rupees (less than 0.08 US dollars) for child. Activist-advocate Ashok Aggarwal said that it current measures are not enough, instead it should be made mandatory to put every child rescued from forced labour or brothels into government-aided schools with hostels so that they can be integrated with the society. He was quoted in the Outlook article to have said: "I think it is high time the government began to really protect children instead of spending money on remand homes from where they usually escape to return to the very world from which they were rescued." EDUCATION IS STILL A DREAM FOR MANY KIDS IN INDIA. Another important reason why the child labor has to be thrown out of is that it deprives them the education they require to survive in this modern world. Today, computers and technology are playing an

important role in the world and hence the kids must be provided with a proper education. The government has made tremendous efforts in order to provide education for every kid by providing free education, uniform dresses and books. In addition, food, milk is also provided for the poor people to come to schools. But as per government statistics, still there are around 8 million kids are not attending school even though education is considered as a fundamental right in this country. The parents have to take much responsibility in their kid the education in order to give them a wonderful future. Education should be made a must for everyone to overcome this problem. The number of schools especially in the villages should be increased. Malnutrition is another important problem faced by the children in India. As per various reports, every year there are at least 2 million below 5 years of age die due to various preventable and curable diseases. Half of the country s children are underfed and around 45% of children below the age of 3 are underweight. In spite of rapid increase in economy growth in India, the child mortality is bad compared to small countries such as Bangladesh. The rate stands at 7.2 % live births. India ranks very low in the world in public health spending. India is also a member of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), but it is not following member states guidelines to recognize child s inherent right to life. This needs to be taken care with utmost importance, as the country is expected to face these kinds of problems more in future.

Another worst problem that the country faces is sexual abuses against children. If you open any newspaper in India, 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 country. 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 again and again. More than 90 % 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 India 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. If India has to be become a developed nation, the child abuses should be tackled as soon as possible and the children should get the basic essentials such as education, food. Until then celebrating children s day every year doesn t make sense. Hope India overcomes these problems and a true children s day will be celebrated in near future with happy smiles in the faces of all the children in the country. Child labor has assumed gigantic proportions today. In most developing and under-developed countries, children are exploited because they work more than the adults at less than half their wages. In India, child labor is rampant in carpet-weaving, the bead industry and wayside eating houses. Their lot is, indeed, pitiable. The following measures are suggested to improve their lot: Education for all must be made mandatory for all children of school-going age in all parts of the country, and it should be free. Children should be encouraged to

attend school and, if need be, their parents be given incentives for sending their children to school. Legislation, such as the British labor laws of the late 19thcentury, banning child labor be enacted and strictly implemented at all levels. No child below the age of 14 Should be allowed to in sub-human conditions that have become the lot of child laborers today. Stringent punishment should be meted out to the employers as well as the parents of such children, who are below 14years of age and working in factories. The Government should generate mass awareness about the harmful effects of child labor on the society. Non-governmental organizations such voluntary leaders like Swami Agnivesh should be encouraged in their efforts towards eradicating child labor. Basic necessities of life must be made available to the people at the grassroots level because it is economic compulsion That forces the parents to send their children to work at an early age as more hands supplement the family s meager income. This, coupled with vigorous family planning drive, should lead to the improvement in lot of child Laborers and, in due course of time, in the elimination of child labor from India" WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF EDUCATION IN INDIA IN COMPARISON TO OTHER DEVELOPING COUNTRIES? India s state of education lacks effectiveness in yielding basic literacy in the population. It has been observed that "the overall condition of the education system can be a powerful influence on the supply of child labour . The Census of India shows that 64% of males and 39% of females are literate - an increase of 17% and 14% respectively.

These increases seem significant, but India s overall literacy rate of 40.8% lags behind other developing countries such as China (72.6%), Sri Lanka (86.1%), and Indonesia (74.1%), all of which have Per Capita Incomes comparable to India s. India s primary-school survival rate of 38.0% is also lower than China s rate of 70.0% and Sri Lanka s rate of 90.8%. This indicates that few students are reaching fifth or sixth grade, and dropout rates support this conclusion. Dropout rates measured by the Department of Education show that 35% of males and 39% of female s dropout. WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THESE HIGH DROPOUT RATES AND POOR SCHOOL SURVIVAL RATES? One possible argument given by Nangia is that "the pressing need for the child s earnings as well as low perceived advantages of school" cause parents to withdraw children from school and deposit them in the labour force. In this case, poverty and the inadequacy of the school system play significant roles in causing child labour, but also affect each other. Poverty forces high dropout rates, and thus no matter how good schools are, school survival rates and literacy rates will still remain low. COMPULSORY EDUCATION The concept of compulsory education, where all school aged children are required to attend school, combats the force of poverty that pulls children out of school. Policies relating to compulsory education not only force children to attend school, but also contribute appropriate funds to the primary education system, instead of higher education.

An example of a country where compulsory education has worked to reduce child labour is Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government decided to enforce compulsory education in the 1920 s and 1930 s. With this compulsory education policy, school participation rates rose from 58 % in 1946 to 74 % in 1963. The literacy rate also increased from 58 %. The corresponding result has been that the employment rate of children in the ten to fourteen age group has shown a substantial decline from 13% in 1946 to 6.2 % in 1963, and currently stands at 5.3% for males and 4.6% for females. These trends lead Weiner to the conclusion that "Sri Lanka has achieved a remarkably high enrollment rate, high retention rate, and a corresponding decline in child labor". The Indian state of Kerala distinguishes itself from the rest of India with its educational system. The government of Kerala allocates more funds to education than any other state, with a per capita expenditure of 11.5 rupees compared to the Indian average of 7.8 rupees. It is not only the expenditure of more funds, but where the funds are used that make the difference. Kerala spends more money on "mass education than colleges and universities". No correlation exists between expenditure on education and literacy when comparing different countries because some countries, such as India, spend more funds on higher education than primary education. Kerala s emphasis on primary education has lead to a dropout rate of close to 0%, a literacy rate of 94% for males and 86% for females, and a low child work participation rate of 1.9% compared to the Indian average of 7.1% in 1971 . Weiner points out that "The Kerala government has made no special effort to end child labor. It is the expansion of the school system rather than the

enforcement of labor legislation that has reduced the amount of child labor". Article 45 of the Constitution of India states says that "The State shall endeavour to provide within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years". It is obvious that "The State" has not achieved this goal, shown by the literacy, dropout, and child work participation rates discussed previously. A National Policy on Education was adopted in 1986, and it addresses the need to "expand and improve basic education". Recently, the central government implemented The District Primary Education Program (DPEP), in an attempt to act on the recommendations of the National Policy on Education. The program involves the subsidizing of approved investments, by the Government of India. The central government will provide a grant of 85% on expenditures by the states. Since these measures have been implemented very recently, results cannot be obtained and the effectiveness of the DPEP cannot be commented on at this time. CONCLUSION Child labour is a significant problem in India. The prevalence of it is shown by the child work participation rates which are higher in Indian than in other developing countries. The major determinant of child labour is poverty. Even though children are paid less than adults, whatever income they earn is of benefit to poor families. In addition to poverty, the lack of adequate and

accessible sources of credit forces poor parents to engage their children in the harsher form of child labour-bonded child labour. Some parents also feel that a formal education is not beneficial, and that children learn work skills through labour at a young age. These views are narrow and do not take the long term developmental benefits of education into account. Another determinant is access to education. In some areas, education is not affordable, or is found to be inadequate. With no other alternatives, children spend their time working. The Constitution of India clearly states that child labour is wrong and that measures should be taken to end it. The government of India has implemented the Child Labour Act in 1986 that outlaws child labour in certain areas and sets the minimum age of employment at fourteen. This Act falls short of making all child labour illegal, and fails to meet the ILO guideline concerning the minimum age of employment set at fifteen years of age. Though policies are in place that could potentially reduce the incidence of child labour, enforcement is a problem. If child labour is to be eradicated in India, the government and those responsible for enforcement need to start doing their jobs. Policies can and will be developed concerning child labour, but without enforcement they are all useless. The state of education in India also needs to be improved. High illiteracy and dropout rates are reflective of the inadequacy of the educational system. Poverty plays a role in the ineffectiveness of the educational system. Dropout rates are high because children are forced to work in order to support their families. The attitudes of the people also contribute to the lack of enrollment - parents feel that work

develops skills that can be used to earn an income, while education does not help in this matter. Compulsory education may help in regard to these attitudes. The examples of Sri Lanka and Kerala show that compulsory education has worked in those areas. There are differences between Sri Lanka, Kerala and the rest of India. What types of social welfare structures do these places have? What are the attitudes of the people? Is there some other reason why the labour market for child labourers is poor in these areas? These are some questions that need to be answered before applying the concept of compulsory education to India? India is making progress in terms of educational policy? The DPEP has been implemented only four years ago, and so results are not apparent at this time. Hopefully the future will show that this program has made progress towards universal education, and eradicating child labour. Child labour cannot be eliminated by focusing on one determinant, for example education, or by brute enforcement of child labour laws. The government of India must ensure that the needs of the poor are filled before attacking child labour. If poverty is addressed, the need for child labour will automatically diminish. No matter how hard India tries, child labour always will exist until the need for it is removed. The development of India as a nation is being hampered by child labour. Children are growing up illiterate because they have been working and not attending school. A cycle of poverty is formed and the need for

child labour is reborn after every generation. India needs to address the situation by tackling the underlying causes of child labour through governmental policies and the enforcement of these policies. Only then will India succeed in the fight against child labour.

By: Chiara.