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| Child labour still plagues Kashmir | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Srinagar, Dec 3: Children in Kashmir continue to lose out on their childhood, in spite of ‘Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act’’, warn experts. According to them more than 20,000 children work in carpet manufacturing units and around 3000 constitute workforce in automobile workshop in district Budgam alone.
While blaming State government and civil society actors for showing laidback attitude in redressal of this problem noted advocate and social activist A.R Hanjura said,
‘’Despite the Act considering the employment of children below 14 years as a criminal offence, state government and social activists allow this worst form of human exploitation to crop up in Kashmir,’’.
“Carpet industry constitutes maximum child workforce in district Budgam. The boys work 20 hours a day, seven days a week in dingy small sized rooms. The children working in such small scale industries confront numerous problems like wage disparity on the basis of sex, absence of definite wage structure and rigorous seven -day work load,” he adds
Hanjura further observed that nearly 80% of them suffer from myopia and retinal disease due to the constant eyestrain. The children are also vulnerable to various other physical ailments.
Hanjura asserted that Social Welfare Department has failed miserably to take effective measures for the welfare of these children. Far from taking new initiatives for the benefit of children living below poverty line, the department does not even implement existing schemes.
‘’Social Welfare Department is running ‘National Family Benefit’ scheme which entails to provide monetary assistance to the family who have lost their only bread earner. The ground reality is that hardly any deserving family receives support from this scheme,’ he maintains.
While lashing out at social workers and activists for being indifferent towards the plight of these poor children Hanjura adds,
“Thousands of children work under inhuman conditions, yet social actor’s does not bother to sensitize government to tackle this problem. Either they are wearing blinkers or they do not think it is a grave issue, he further reiterates.
Despite knowing the pathetic plights of their children the families continue to send them in such sectors. Immense poverty owing to loss of bread winner compels families to send ablest child to work.
In some cases middle men prey on the poor families who lack resources to bring up children. They usually go to vulnerable areas and lure families to send children to work as domestic servant while promising a better life. |
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