Out of the estimated 246 million child laborers in our country, a majority have come face to face with abuse, be in physical, mental or sexual, early in their lives. Ranging from the cliched theory that a regular beating does more good than harm, and keeps the child in line, to a popular belief that in order to assert your superiority over your domestic servants, and command instant obedience from them, you must demean them at every opportunity, employers produce various reasons to justify why abuse is an evil, but still a necessity.
In a recently publicised story in Pune, thirteen year old Krishna Pande, employed with the Bhandari family for the past two years, was rescued by a social worker after he was found badly beaten by his owners for no fault of his. With cut marks and bloodstains all over his body, Krishna says he was beaten black and blue because a bottle had accidentally fallen on his ownerâs head, and that too in Krishnaâs absence from the room. âShe works in a school. She used to take water in a bottle. The bottle fell on her head. She lost her temper and hit me,â said Krishna.
Eleven year old Raju (name changed) has been working for a well to do family in Sanjaynagar for the past five years. When he first joined, his employers offered to sponsor his education at an evening school. Then Raju saw it as a boon, now he thinks of it as a curse. Since his fees are paid on a monthly basis, each time his employers are dissatisfied with his work, they punish him by refusing to pay the next monthâs fees, in addition to beating him black and blue. Raju has now been expelled from the school because his education was occurring in fits and starts.
Millions of girls work as domestic servants and unpaid household help and are especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. They may be trafficked, forced into debt bondage or other forms of slavery, into prostitution and pornography, or even into participating in armed conflict. Millions of others work under horrific circumstances in hazardous industries that have export markets, like carpet weaving, match and fireworks, gem polishing, glass blowing, brassware and electro-plating, lead mining, stone quarrying, lock making, and beedi rolling. Children working in the quarry industry often injure themselves and have little or no medical help. Those working in beedi, silk or carpet industries sit in crouched positions for eight to ten hours a day on all seven days of the week, and often experience atrophying of muscles, and stunted growth.
Child labour is a result of industries and communities inhumanely exploiting the poorest and the weakest sections of our society to profit. Although the Child Labour ban, under the provisions of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, came into existence recently, we still have a long way to go in dealing with the after effects of the atrocities committed upon these children in the past.
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