In 2013, CRY had conducted a survey on 300 city employers who hired children to work in their houses, restaurants, garages etc. The survey revealed the reasons why people preferred employing children — because they are more submissive than adults, can be paid less and because they eat less than adults. “In other words, they hire kids because they can be exploited,” said Sweta Bhattacharjee, senior manager- volunteer action, Child Rights and You (CRY), who was sharing the results of the study.
AIWC Social Welfare Mahila Samity, Salt Lake Sector II, had held an awareness programme on child rights and child abuse at their BH Block centre where speakers like Bhattacharjee took the audience through horror tales that make up the childhoods of many in India.
On the eve of Children’s Day and a few days before International Child Rights Day on November 20, The Telegraph Salt Lake reports on the discussion.
Child labour
Bhattacharjee’s study showed that one of three child labourers in Calcutta work more than eight hours a day and that many do not even get a day off in the week. The practice is common in many Salt Lake homes.
“Families who hire children say that these kids were starving in their villages and that by employing them, they are at least feeding them two meals a day. This argument is rubbish,” said Prof Joydev Mazumdar, executive director of Jayaprakash Institute of Social Change, a DD Block-based NGO that also conducts post-graduation courses in social work.
“Let us be clear that the family has not employed the child to do her a favour. They have got her to make their own lives easier. No child wants to stay away from home so there is no excuse for forcing children to work,” said Mazumdar, adding that a 2008 study had estimated 50,000 children to be working as domestic helps in Calcutta, mostly in the 12 to 17 year age group. “And across India, 85 per cent of these are girls.”
As for the lure of food, he cited the example of a south Calcutta family that went for a vacation to Puri locking their 12-year-old domestic help inside their house with a fridge full of food. “The girl got scared and wailed till neighbours called the police. She didn’t care about the food; she had been imprisoned.”
Mazumdar also said that only 15 per cent of trafficked children are forced into the sex industry. “The rest are forced to work as labourers, domestic helps etc,” he said.
Besides the problem of finding missing children, Bengal faces the problem of not being able to rehabilitate the “found” children. “That’s because many are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh whose parents cannot be traced. So we are often forced to keep them in our children’s homes.” One such is Sukanya Home in Sector V.
Then again, child labour is such a complex problem that any drastic step can cause more harm than good. “Children are in high demand in the carpet industry as they can weave better with their little fingers. So, many children were employed in the carpet industry in Nepal. To protest this, the US put a blanket ban on importing Nepalese carpets. But having lost their jobs, the children who previously made carpets had no option but to move into the sex industry,” said Sukhendu Bank, who was at the time of the seminar the programme co-ordinator of Childline India Foundation, under the ministry of women and child development. Their eastern zone branch is in AB Block.
Sexual abuse
Homeless girls who sleep on the streets always sleep sideways. “If we lie straight on our backs we get raped.” This is what a teenager had told social worker Paromita Chowdhury after she had mistakenly slept on her back one night and paid the price.
“But our boys are no safer. Studies show that rapes within homes are more common on boys than girls. They just get hushed up,” said Chowdhury, who is the programme officer, child protection, of a Swiss foundation called Terre Des Hommes.
She cited a 2007 study that revealed that 53 per cent of children in India had faced sexual abuse. In the majority of the cases, the perpetrator was someone known to the child or was in a position of trust and responsibility and so the kids never reported the abuse.
Chowdhury explained how children of sex workers are especially vulnerable to abuse and how they are likely to get into the same profession as they are exposed to it right from childhood. “If it’s raining outside and the kids have nowhere to go, they play under the bed while the mother is with a customer on top of it,” she said.
Homeless girls who sleep on the streets always sleep sideways. “If we lie straight on our backs we get raped,” said a teenager, who had mistakenly slept on her back one night and paid the price
Gender bias
An audience member shared an incident from her childhood when she had tripped in the dark over her sleeping brother and had a bad fall. “Instead of tending to my injury, my mother hit me for hurting her son. All the good food always went to the brothers. We sisters would get leftovers, if any,” she said, calling them the most depressing memories of her childhood.
Mazumdar noted that the calorie intake of most girls is less than that of boys right from birth and that the female to male ratio in Bengal is declining. “This would lead to further crimes against women as many men would not find partners. In Haryana, there are instances of one woman being married off to all three brothers in a house as there’s a scarcity of women,” he said.
But it’s not just girls who are discriminated against. “When parents want a male child what they really want is someone who will be strong, will earn and will take forward their family name. But in case a male child does not match this description, he is neglected or even abandoned,” said Chowdhury, recalling how the parents of a differently-abled boy had carried him into a train when he was asleep and left. The boy now lives in a children’s home.
“Sometimes parents prefer to send their girl to school hoping it would reduce her dowry but force the son to work in the fields as he is stronger and will yield more produce,” added Chowdhury.
Sumitra Basu, president of the AIWC group, noted that among the under-privileged students that they tutor at their centre, the dropout rate is higher among boys in the higher classes. “They boys leave studies to start working,” she said.
Child marriage
While districts like Malda, Murshidabad, Bankura and Birbhum have high rates of child marriage, the highest figures in the state are seen in the slums on the fringes of Calcutta, said Mazumdar. “In such places the rate is as high as 53 per cent,” he said.
While some of these youths are forced into matrimony by parents, others elope. “It is natural for adolescents to want to interact with the other gender but the families are hostile and allow none of it. So these teenagers do what their matinee idols do in such a situation — elope,” says Bank. “One such incident sends ripples through the neighbourhood and parents of other adolescents get worked up. So they marry off their own children at a very early age, before they are old enough to think of eloping.”
Childline (1098) is the number to call if you hear your neighbour beating her 12-year-old domestic help or if you find out that your driver is marrying off his daughter at the age of 16 or 17
How you can help
“The first thing you can do is to accept that a child means anyone under the age of 18. Not 16, not 14, but 18. It is only then that you will feel it is wrong to make a 14-year-old do your dishes,” said Bhattacharjee.
Next is a non-co-operation movement. Refuse to buy tea from a stall that makes a child clean the tables and make sure you tell the owner why you are blocking him out. He will not change his ways till he sees he is losing customers.
Finally, look around and be proactive. If you see slum children in your neighbourhood playing the whole day, speak to their parents and explain why it’s important to send them to school. If you are apprehensive about how they will react, call 1098.
“The Childline number — 1098 — is your strongest weapon. In such a case we would go over and try to convince the parents to send their children to school. We would handle formalities with the local and school authorities too,” said Bank.
Childline is the number to call if you hear your neighbour beating her 12-year-old domestic help or if you find out that your driver is marrying off his daughter at the age of 16. “We would assess the situation, rescue the child and have the police arrest the offenders if necessary. If the child’s environment is found to be unsafe we would also place him in a home,” said Bank.
Calls to Childline can be made anonymously and can be dialed from mobile phones and landlines without a 033 prefix.
Brinda Sarkar
