This is a story about a ten year old girl, every morning she rushes with her ablutions so that she does not get late. You might be guessing that if she will not rush she will be late to her school, but sorry to say you are wrong. Unlike the other children she is not racing against time for school but to her employer’s house where she takes care of a baby less than half of her age along with doing other household works. She is doing all this when most of the others are seen waiting for the buses dressed impeccably, that little girl in her worn-down clothes walks past them with hope and dreams in her eyes.
All the times she thinks the same “I wish I could be the same”. Yes here we are talking about child labor.
If we look at the stats of National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) there are more than 10 million child laborers between 8 to 14 years of age in our country forget about unregistered Bangladeshi community. Still…. we just say that child labor is a problem, but if we ask ourselves do we really have any idea about the problem or do we really care about that ?
We discuss about Indian politics, child labor, scams and corruption. We blame every politician we know sitting in a restaurant and keep talking on these serious topics. Then suddenly one from our group shouts “Chhotu!!! Five cups of tea on the table, and clean the table first”. What an irony discussing about child labor and asking a seven year old boy who is working in that tea shop to clean the table?
Few of us are still busy in swiping through our so called smartphones, has any one of us ever tried to think how they are made. If you don’t so just Google it folks, all the top brands what we consider as status symbol comes from a place where every piece of it is cleaned with benzene. Yes the same that causes Leukemia (the blood cancer). The small kids for the sake of money work for part time in the companies to clean the parts so that they can earn for their college but only blessed one are able to go while a huge percentage dies.
It’s not just the story about any of the company or about any tea seller who is exploiting child laborers. It is a story about every household. The person who commits crime and the one who promotes crime both are same.
“And YES!! Promoting Child labor is a crime.”
Just criticizing others for the problem over a cup of coffee and going back to our cubicles won’t work. If we can’t raise voice against so at least we ourselves should try not to commit the same. Now think again and try to recall how many times you called a child below the age of 14 for serving you tea, coffee, food, mending the flat tires of your vehicle, or for cleaning your car. We consider ourselves the educated one, the responsible one; think a little harder are we really that responsible? This can’t be changed by any government any political party or by any other person. If we want to see the change we should change ourselves. Remember friends Right to education is just equal to the right to speech.
Just think “How you will feel if someone takes away that right, just because you are poor.”
So friends let’s not exploit the fundamental rights of those kids, neither it is a wiser act not it is fine against the law.
