Eight-year-old Chunam Kumari's face is plastered all over the northern Indian state of Bihar in posters campaigning against child labour.
Nothing surprising about that - Chunam was picked by the United Nation's Children's Fund (Unicef) to be their poster girl in an awareness campaign about child labour in this impoverished state.
What is surprising is that Chunam continues to work 12 hours a day at her father's ramshackle roadside food stall in the capital, Patna, cleaning creaky wooden tables, washing utensils and serving up cheap meals.
Read the BBC story here
How serious is the establishment in eradicating Child labour? I should admit that I am not an expert in these matters. But I really do think that this is a big job that the government has undertaken. Whether they are serious about implementing it is anybody's guess.
A huge population of India is still under the poverty line, if not near by it inspite of the economy boom that is happening. And for surival money is necessary. Quite a large number of families send their children to work because of the necessity to make ends meet. Unless and until their poverty is eliminated, Child labour law is going to be in effective.
Courtesy : BBC
3 comments:
I am so grateful that we outlawed child labor here many years ago. There are harsh penalties for breaking this law and vigorous enforcement. Working with a parent is not such a grave source of concern, but it is very sad when children do factory work. It is a shame that India is not seriously trying to move forward to get rid of child labor. On the other hand, it beats starvation.
What you said is very true. it beats starvation. And it is very difficult to implement it unless and until the whole of India is serious about it, which I don't think it is...so...let us see...time will tell...
Nice one balaji.
My opinion is that "atleast make children educated - soln for striking the cause of poverty at its roots"
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