HYDERABAD: THIS children’s day was not as ‘happy’ for many kids in the city, if one goes by the latest study on child labour by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS). With greater awareness of laws prohibiting child labour, there is a rise of ‘invisible’ child labour in the city. And where is it concentrated? In one of the city’s richest and most educated areas of Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills.
“A lot of children and adolescents rescued from forced to work as domestic help in the city are from Banjara and Jubilee Hills,” observed E Gangadhar, joint commissioner, labour department (Hyderabad). “It is strange considering that these area fall in the bracket of higher income and literacy,” he added.
UNICEF says that the types of child labour have changed in recent years due to greater awareness about laws prohibiting it. Child labour is now more ‘invisible’ because the work location has changed from factories, to business owners’ homes. The Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) conducted in the State’s ten districts, the children and adolescents working as domestic help constitute the non-agricultural labour. According to a recent study by CESS, 16.5 per cent of children and 22.3 per cent of adolescents, respectively, are currently engaged in non-agricultural labour.
The Child Labour Prohibition Act of 1986 bans the employment of children below the age of 14 in many professions, such as domestic labour, and hospitality (dhabas, restaurants, hotels) but not in agriculture. Whoever employs a child or permits a child to work is punishable with imprisonment from three months to one year or with fine no less than INR 10,000-20,000 rupees or with both.
The labour department, for two years now, has been extensively conducting sensitisation programs, with the support of various NGOs in the twin cities to combat this ‘invisible’ menace. The drive is to mark apartments and gated communities ‘child labour free’, after conducting a thorough check of child labour incidents in the respective buildings. But in Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills, this is seemingly not happening.
-- Agriculture still ahead in swallowing childhoods --
According to the study, a major chunk of children and adolescents continue to be engaged in agriculture. It says 83.85 per cent of children and 77.77 per cent of adolescents are currently employed in fields, majority of them in the cotton fields. “A lot of children are now employed in cotton picking and the whole supply chain that follows. Planting of cotton seeds and so on” observed Gangadhar. “A major reason to this is inter-state migration and we are focusing on that. We are asking the source states like Bihar and Orissa to give us information so that the menace can be curbed,” he added. It may be noted that Bihar reported the highest number of child labourers according to the 2011 Census, with a number of over 2 million.