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| Child labour at galore in Kathua | | | Arun Trisal
Kathua, Oct 27: The SOIL observed that Kathua has become the hub of exploitation of the children of age below the fourteen by the big business houses, rich people, bureaucrats, and the children under fourteen can be seen as labour in various hotels, restaurants, sweet shops, industries and other shops openly.
The vice president of the SOIL, Ram Paul Sharma, Kishor Kumar, Arun and Ranjeev said that the growing number child labour has exposed the height of the effectiveness of the district administration and the claims made by the state government to control the child labour and the level of the functioning of labour department in Kathua.
And the menace of child labour continues to flourish in the state of district Kathua despite it having been banned under Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act, 1986- courtesy, the failure of concerned government agencies to prosecute the offenders in the court of law. The sources attribute the high incidence of child labour to the lack of coordination among various government departments having their role in the eradication of the menace and enforcement of the anti- child labour laws.
"The main reason behind poor enforcement is the lack of coordination among the government departments and in such a situation the offenders easily manage to escape the punishment", sources said.
They said that in most of the cases of child labour, the violators go scot free as the prosecution fails to prove the charges. "As per the law, anyone found employing child below the age of 14 have to face a jail term up to two years and a maximum fine of Rs 20,000 but irony is many of law makers employee's children in their homes as domestic helpers," and most the children are brought from far-flung areas of district Kathua like Bani, Billawar, and others the sources added. Most of the officers who go for their service in their respective departments in these far-flung areas bring the innocent and little male children from their parents with lot of promises and assurances to secure the future of these innocent children but most of them are used as servant and forced to do hard work.
Various cases in Kathua town are also available, the administrative officers themselves involve to commit such heinous and criminal act by using the labour of children who are being brought from Bani, Billawar, and other far flung areas of the district Kathua.
Now there is a question for Deputy Commissioner Kathua what action has to be taken against these administrative officers who are exploiting the innocent children belonging from poor families as servant in their home.
Will DC Kathua take any action against the child labour? Pertinently, a study conducted by an NGO in 2009 stated that Jammu and Kashmir State has over three lakh children working under the age of 14 and nearly 34 per cent of child laborers have only received a fifth-grade education, while just over 66 per cent have studied upto the eighth grade. The study stated that 9.2 per cent of child laborers are between five and 10 years old, while 90 per cent of them are between 11 and 14 years of age.
More than 80 per cent of the child workforce comes from families with six to 10 members, with just over 15 per cent from families of 11 to 15 members.
It stated that over 61 per cent of parents of child laborers are illiterate. These children commonly spotted as helpers at roadside Dhabas and eateries on highway, washing cars and bikes in automobile showrooms, struggling with heavy tools at automobile workshops, serving the guests on wedding and other parties at banquet halls while many of them are working in urban middle-class households as servants.
The labour department has never been seen to take any strong action against such social evil. In this context the SOIL urge the state government to take strong and result oriented steps to root out the menace of child labour from Kathua and save the future of the country. |
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