Mumbai, Maharashtra Jun 13, 2022 (Issuewire.com) - Educo, a global child rights organisation, urges the governments, NGOs and civil society to join hands to end child labour in India. Working globally for over three decades, Educo has been working in India since 1998, focusing on ensuring children’s rights and wellbeing. Educo’s work in 14 countries across Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe comprises work with the most vulnerable children in warn torn regions or struggling economies putting families at risk.
On World Day Against Child Labour, Educo in India reiterates its commitment to end child labour in India by bringing together collective voices of one and all. As part of its interventions in Odisha, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, Educo has intervened in many cases of children engaged in labour work. Our years of work have shown how such engagement is extremely detrimental to children’s physical and mental health. They are further deprived of education or any developmental activity, and thus, their chance at any better future is further jeopardised.
Child labour truly robs children and adolescents of their innocence and childhoods. Educo, along with its partner NGOs, is committed to ending this practice. For the same, Educo has launched a digital campaign ‘Say No to Child Labour’ which aims at sensitising the masses on the perils of abuse of children in the form of child labour. If you are committed to the rights of children and want to do your bit to ensure their safety and wellbeing, please visit www.saynotochildlabour.org and take the pledge against child labour now.
Our work with local partner NGOs in different states has shown how children and adolescents from tribal/ ethnic groups, marginalised communities or vulnerable due to their social and economic status, leave for bigger cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi etc. to supplement the earnings of their families. For girls, as moving out is not an option, they work in other people’s fields or at construction sites. In all cases, they face abuse, exploitation and violation and never come out of the cycle of poverty.
Asmita Pradhan (name changed), 15 years, hails from a small village in Kandhamal, Odisha. Until two years ago, she had been attending school and studying in class 8th.
Due to her father’s disability and extreme poverty at home, Asmita was made to drop out of school two years ago and compelled to work. Asmita’s brothers were earning meagre, and the mother would work in her field as well as on other people’s land as a labourer. Asmita shares, “my parents told me that they can’t afford to send me to school as my father can’t work due to his physical disability and mother barely manages to make ends meet.”
Asmita got work at a road construction site, where she was made to carry buckets full of mud and bring them to the workers constructing the road. When available, she would also work on other people’s farms just like her own mother. In her own words, “It was laborious work. I used to carry heavy buckets full of mud. My arms used to hurt. The Maalik (employer) was not concerned with how difficult it was for me. He showed no sympathy and would only scream and say “work, don’t sit!”
Any last hopes she could have to ever return to school were crushed by the onset of the pandemic. She however understood her parents’ vulnerability and shared, “There was a lot of struggle at home. With my father’s disability, I had to work to support my mother.”
The Educo-PREM intervention helped her parents understand the repercussions of such conditions for an adolescent. The parents understood and eventually, Asmita was re-enrolled in school. While the struggle for her parents is still there, they are committed to not depriving Asmita of opportunities to learn. The project is also engaging with government authorities to link children and families with available government welfare schemes. Asmita is hopeful for better days and chirps, “I am looking forward to being back to school again. I want to become an engineer when I grow up and I will study hard for it.”
Many Asmitas have not been helped yet. A stronger collective resolve on part of all of us is required to reach out to them. Through the digital campaign ‘Say No to Child Labour’, Educo is committed to bringing together stakeholders from all walks of life together to strengthen a collective voice to eradicate the evil of child labour from India. The campaign will give a platform for all to become aware of the gravity of the issue of child labour and what they can do at their level to discourage it. It aims at spreading awareness, building a collective conscience against this evil and mainstreaming the discourse around child rights in the country.
When you take the pledge at www.saynotochildlabour.org, you are not only committing to not engaging any child in labour for your work but also committing to spreading awareness on the issue, discouraging others from engaging children in work and also taking all possible steps for supporting children in such exploitative conditions.
Your pledge is your commitment to the children of the country and their future. This one step from you will go a long way in creating a cadre of socially aware citizens who prioritise children and are committed to children’s rights and wellbeing.
If you have any questions regarding the issue of child labour or want to know what more you can do to help children, write to us at contact@sayntochildlabour.org
For the Educo India office, contact:
Guruprasad Rao
Country Director, Educo India guruprasad.rao@educo.org +91-8800367410
Apurva Singh
Communications Lead, India apurva.singh@educo.org +91-8860683086
Media Contact
Educoindia apurva.singh@educo.org 918860683086 Fundación Educación y Cooperación B-301, Polaris Premises Co-operative Society Ltd, Off. Marol Maroshi Road,Marol, Andheri (East), Mumbai-400 059 http://www.saynotochildlabour.org
