80% of kids trafficked by relatives: Study
Somreet Bhattacharya
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New Delhi:
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Of the 254 cases registered under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act in the past year in Delhi, a little under half involved youngsters lured to the workplace by friends below the age of 14. This revelation is one of the more shocking of the many in a study conducted by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), the findings of which were released in Delhi on Monday .The National Capital Region was found to be pretty notorious with 2,222 of the 5,253 child labourers rescued across the country in the past year employed here. And while 254 cases were registered against businesses using children in hazardous operations, 42% of the cases sadly showed that it were minors themselves who had lured their under-aged friends.
Of the child labourers rescued in the NCR, 80% had been trafficked by either their relatives or by people known to them, and shockingly , almost 90% of them had been yoked by industries producing hazardous goods. BBA officials say that under a proposed amendment to the Child Labour Act, the government plans to reduce the number of jobs classified as hazardous from 83 to three, and so the number of children rescued under this category could show a decline.
The data between 2010 and 2014 showed that only 185 children could be freed on average every month against the target of 500 set for the state la bour department by the Delhi high court. Of those emancipated, 1,289 were less than 14 years old and employed in small-scale industries being run from residences in west and northeast Delhi.
Incredibly , around 21% of the children below the age of 14 were bonded labourers.Their movement had been restricted and they were paid a pittance as wages. The figures showed that 50% of the children were employed in industries producing zari, plastic goods, footwear and bags.
The study also showed that 21% of the children were employed by their parents or their relatives and had been brought to the city on the pretext of access to better education. The rest had either been kidnapped or brought here by placement agents. A vast majority of the rescued children, 82% of them, were employed as “household helps“. Officials say that a propo sed law to permit the employment of children for home-based work is likely to perpetua te the trafficking of children.And since most manufacturing units operating out of residential areas claim to be family enterprises, Kailash Sa tyarthi, Nobel laureate and founder of BBA, pointed out the findings “would have implica tions for any change in the law allowing children to work for their families, especially if they are below the age of 14.“
BBA found that children were mostly trafficked from rural areas in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Nepal by people belonging to the same community . “Despite the fact that this atrocity has existed for many years no, little intervention has been possible to take action against the said agents due to the lax laws,“ said the study .
Of the child labourers rescued in the NCR, 80% had been trafficked by either their relatives or by people known to them, and shockingly , almost 90% of them had been yoked by industries producing hazardous goods. BBA officials say that under a proposed amendment to the Child Labour Act, the government plans to reduce the number of jobs classified as hazardous from 83 to three, and so the number of children rescued under this category could show a decline.
The data between 2010 and 2014 showed that only 185 children could be freed on average every month against the target of 500 set for the state la bour department by the Delhi high court. Of those emancipated, 1,289 were less than 14 years old and employed in small-scale industries being run from residences in west and northeast Delhi.
Incredibly , around 21% of the children below the age of 14 were bonded labourers.Their movement had been restricted and they were paid a pittance as wages. The figures showed that 50% of the children were employed in industries producing zari, plastic goods, footwear and bags.
The study also showed that 21% of the children were employed by their parents or their relatives and had been brought to the city on the pretext of access to better education. The rest had either been kidnapped or brought here by placement agents. A vast majority of the rescued children, 82% of them, were employed as “household helps“. Officials say that a propo sed law to permit the employment of children for home-based work is likely to perpetua te the trafficking of children.And since most manufacturing units operating out of residential areas claim to be family enterprises, Kailash Sa tyarthi, Nobel laureate and founder of BBA, pointed out the findings “would have implica tions for any change in the law allowing children to work for their families, especially if they are below the age of 14.“
BBA found that children were mostly trafficked from rural areas in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Nepal by people belonging to the same community . “Despite the fact that this atrocity has existed for many years no, little intervention has been possible to take action against the said agents due to the lax laws,“ said the study .
Source: Times of India, 24-11-2015
