CHENNAI: Naveen is all of 11, but he is already helping his mother put food on their table. A class six student at Periamet government school, Naveen now also works as tea supplier, apart from doing odd chores, for a few extra bucks. His mother Jaya, who used to work as a maid, lost her job when the pandemic hit last year.
“Life has become difficult,” says Jaya. Naveen earns around Rs 100 a day, of which, after expenses, he hands over Rs 50 to his mother. Even as low-income families, such as that of Naveen’s, are trying to limp back to normalcy, the second wave of pandemic has descended upon us. The poor and the vulnerable are a worried lot now, as uncertainty looms large, once again. The mood is evident in North Chennai, where most of the city’s homeless people live on the streets. With free schools and not-so-free online classes remaining out of bounds, children in these families have started working.
Sateesh, a class 11 student, is one such teenager. Sateesh studies in St Gabriel Higher Secondary School in Broadway. He also moonlights at a welding shop, so that he can pay his school fee. His mother Rani, who used to work in a book-binding shop, recently lost her job. Schools were closed for a year, and there was no need for book-binders.
“I make Rs 6,000 a month. I am saving up so that I can pay by class 12 fees.” Every Indian child is entitled to free and compulsory education, but only on paper.
On ground, those like Sateesh and Naveen struggle to be able to afford going to school, and thereby an upward social mobility, because the pandemic has upset the existing social welfare system. “It must be ensured that children are not pushed into such a situation,” says N Paul Sunder Singh, secretary of Karunalaya, which has been helping children on streets of North Chennai access education.
“Considering that there is a second wave, there is a real need for a solution that will work, at least in the upcoming academic year.” A large number of children are unable to attend online classes, even in a metropolitan such as Chennai, for a variety of reasons. This includes those privileged few that can afford the cost of a gadget, internet, and study space. 10-year-old Gautham is one such child. His single mother Amla says her son has lost interest in studies since the classes moved online. There is a lack of interaction, and inability to comprehend what is being taught in the virtual space.
The result: an alarming increase in child labour. “Child labour has increased nearly 280 per cent among vulnerable communities,” claims A Devaneyan, zonal convenor of Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL). The organization recently conducted a survey on rise in child labour following the pandemic. It shows that just one year of the pandemic has reversed the achievements made in the last couple of decades in reversing child labour and improving school enrolment.
“Close to 76 per cent of school-going children have started working once the pandemic set in,” says Devaneyan. The survey was conducted between September and November 2020 in 23 districts of Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, Coimbatore, and Madurai. It highlighted that a large number of the children joined the manufacturing and service sectors, working as hawkers, domestic helps, cycle repair workers and vegetable sellers.
Devaneyan says that Child Protection Committees at the village and local level should be activated to see that vulnerable children are identified and their families supported through social protection schemes.
“School teachers should at least ensure that all those children studying in their schools prior to the pandemic be brought back to classes. They should work in collaboration with the local level child protection committees,” he says.
However, the biggest challenge to these efforts is the availability of sufficient funds. Most of the non-governmental organisations are struggling for funds following the Covid-19 pandemic. Singh says prior to Covid-19, they would get generous donations but it’s not so anymore. It is learnt that many NGOs are on cost-cutting measures. Sources said that due to the magnitude of the pandemic and the corresponding measures to counter its adverse effects, NGOs channelised their resources and efforts towards COVID-related initiatives.
The implication of this was that their core work which revolved around critical socio-economic causes such as education, hunger, nutrition, poverty, water security, sanitation, women empowerment, non-COVID healthcare, took a backseat. Oblivious to the larger picture, 17-year-old Durga has taken up the job of mopping floors of two offices for a meager monthly pay of Rs 3,000. She hopes to save up enough to pay fees for class 12. Durga is enthusiastic about returning to school, and from there to a brighter future. But, when will the schools reopen?