BENGALURU: Child labour is real, and so is the pain and struggle that the young ones go through. You can now experience the plight if you head to any of these four places -- Christ College, Bannerghatta Road and Hosur Road, Gopalan Innovation Mall, Bannerghatta, and Gopalan Signature Mall, Old Madras Road, which have a mobile room installed inside their premises that bring alive the issue.
The campaign has been launched by the NGO Child Rights and You (CRY), to observe World Day Against Child Labour, which falls on June 12. It aims to introduce the public to the world of child labourers and sensitise them towards it. As part of the campaign, an experiential zone has been created that depicts a working child’s everyday life. Passersby in the city were asked to walk into a mobile room where an ambience similar to situations in which children are made to work was re-created. Sights, sounds and smells were additionally included to instill a more realistic feel. The campaign is on till June 29.
“Child labour in its many ways is still an acceptable norm in the society,” Suma Ravi, regional director, CRY, said. “Through this campaign we want to sensitise people against it and make them understand the difficult circumstances a child is put through for labour. It is our effort to reach out to the last child and child labour is one of the battles that we fight. Education and the right to childhood are some of the basic non-negotiable requirements to harness the true potential for the child,” Ravi added.
The issue has been a growing concern in the city, and the number of cases reported, according to the City Crime Records Bureau (CCRB), is less than that received by the childline. While the Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA), which covers the east, south-east, north-east zones, besides parts of central Bengaluru and Anekal, saw 31 cases, while CCRB reports show only 19 cases in the entire city in 2018.