Soundarya, a 17-year-old agricultural labourer from Hugalur village in Karnataka’s Ballari district, had to drop out of school three years ago to support her family. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act allows for adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 to take up non-exploitative work. However, the lack of adequate options provided to these children, especially girls, has left their rights unrecognised.
Soundarya works from 9 am to 6 pm and is the sole breadwinner of her family of five. She earns Rs 150 per day, which helps her family survive. Soundarya aspires to acquire some skills that would help her improve her standard of living. But with no options provided to her by the government, she continues to hope that her petitions to the panchayat are recognised.
“Boys have the option of learning plumbing, electrical work or how to be a mechanic. Options for girls are limited. I hope this changes,” she says.
Soundarya adds that if she was provided vocational training, she would be able to lead a better life.
Just like Soundarya, Mamata, a 16-year-old girl from Bannikallu village, says that she aspires to learn tailoring. Mamata lives in a shanty and is also the sole breadwinner in her family. Her meagre income ensures that her younger siblings are clothed and fed.
“I have asked the panchayat officials in my village and also the taluk panchayat to give some of the girls training in tailoring or any vocation they want. It has been over a year and they have not done much,” she adds.
Many boys and girls in rural and urban communities from low income backgrounds drop out of school voluntarily or out of desperation when they need to support their family. With the government focusing on bringing these children back to school, the rights of working children as a workforce goes unrecognised due to the stigma, says Kavita Ratna, a member of The Concerned for Working Children (CWC).
“The burden is on these adolescents to take up work in order to support their families. The reason could also be because in many villages, high schools and colleges are located far away from their homes and they drop out due to lack of money to commute,” Kavita notes.
“Before the coronavirus pandemic, I used to be able to go to work. Now there is no work. The ration given by the government includes only rice and wheat. We have not been given dal or any other supplies. I have incurred loans just to buy vegetables. We don’t even have enough vegetables to buy in my village. I have to walk to the neighbouring village to buy it,” Soundarya says.
With no income, and mounting debts, Kavita says that once the lockdown is lifted, a lot more adolescents are likely to drop out of school as many families are likely to be impoverished due to the lack of a steady income.
“Even during the floods in Belagavi and Bagalakote, so many adolescents dropped out of school to work and support their families. Many families are incurring loans to be able to pay for their daily needs, so once the lockdown ends we will see more children drop out of school for this purpose. This is exactly why we need a holistic education system, which is decentralised and where children have the option to choose what they want to learn,” she adds.
Soundarya says that academic education does not interest her and that she wants to learn a skill set that would help her earn more money. Mamata, on the other hand, says that she wants an option where she could go to school in the evenings while working during the day.
The CWC has been advocating a skill-based education system that is decentralised at the panchayat level. Kavita maintains that the government should look at providing options for evening high school and also have vocational, academic and empowerment education.
She says that if working children are identified at the panchayat level, their interests can be ascertained, and they can be trained accordingly.
“Say the working girls are interested in tailoring or agricultural activities, they should be taught how to market what they produce. This is also learning. They should be taught empowerment studies and options must be given to them to take on academic learning too, if they are interested through scholarships,” she says.
She further states that by decentralising the system, it will become easier to monitor whether the working children are being exploited or not. In addition, the monitoring of apprenticeship programmes can also be streamlined.
“All work is not exploitative and no child has to work in an environment that is detrimental to their growth and development. In Western countries, children earn their pocket money. Here too, children must be given the option of vocational or academic learning. If they are identified at the panchayat level, they can also be placed in apprenticeship programmes and that can be monitored locally to avoid exploitation. It will be easier to anticipate concerns, identify those likely to drop out and come up with alternative solutions if this is decentralised,” she adds.
Thirty years ago, the Bhima Sangha, a union of working adolescents and children, chose April 30, the day before Labour Day as Child Labour Day. The Bhima Sangha chose this day to bring awareness and draw the attention of people and the government towards their existence, their contributions as a workforce, and their demands for alternative and safe workplaces. Over the years, April 30 has been adopted as Child Labour Day by many unions of working children in the country.
The CWC is empowering working children in both urban and rural areas to form an association and start demanding the rightful facilities they are entitled to, from the government. Both Soundarya and Mamata are members of the Bhima Sangha in their respective villages. These are a group of boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 18 years, who have dropped out of school and started working for myriad reasons.
The Bhima Sangha advocates the rights of children at the village level. “We highlight issues we face. For example, child marriage, or any problems related to working conditions, or lack of street lights. This can be risky for children who work. Every time we submit a request to the panchayat, we tie a red band outside the gate. This is to show that the panchayat has not yet resolved our issues. If they are resolved, we replace the red bands with white ones. This year, I tied a red band for the issue of child marriage and two months ago, I tied a white band for the cause after it was tackled,” Mamata says.
She adds that she is awaiting vocational training for working girls in her village and hopes that a white band replaces the red one she has tied for the cause.