Behind joy and laughter, there may be a temperament, coarse, hard and callous. But behind sorrow, there is always sorrow. Pain, unlike pleasure, wears no mask…
Oscar Wilde
For this reason, there is no truth comparable to sorrow. There are times when sorrow seems to me to be the only truth. Other things may be illusions of the eye or the appetite, made to blind the one and cloy the other, but out of sorrow have the worlds been built, and at the birth of a child or a star, there is pain.
One of the happiest moments in a couple’s life is the confirmation that they are going to become parents. The pain the mother goes through to give birth to the child and the dedicated efforts the parents make in bringing them up are enormous. Recall the anxiety, worry in the minds of parents when the child returns home a few minutes later than expected, joy and celebration when they succeed, all part of parenthood. But what happened to all of us, millions of children are languishing as child labourers, working in very harsh environments, struggling to meet their bare minimum daily requirements. Where did it go wrong?
ILO defines child labour is that which would affect their childhood negatively and deprive them of the opportunity to secure a better future. ILO passed a resolution to celebrate June 12 as World Day against Child Labour in 2002 to attract the attention of the world and big and small companies, organizations, government, employers to do to uproot child labour from societies. According to the latest report of ILO, there are 152 million child labourers (42% of them being girls) across the globe, nearly half of them engaged in hazardous work. Child labour prevalent in labour industries like Diamond industry, Fireworks manufacture, Silk manufacture, Carpet weaving, Domestic labour and Mining with agriculture accounting for 71% of them. Africa, Asia and the Pacific regions have the largest share of child labour (9 out of 10) in the globe. Low income, poverty, lack of resources forces the families in taking the children to take up works. The National Anti-Child Labour Day is observed every year in India on April 30.
There is only one means to eliminate it and that is knowledge. Every country must modify its law and education system and work with honesty. Many NGOs across the world are working towards the eradicating the child labour in India.
Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi says “Anger is within each one of you, and if we are confined in the narrow shells of egos, and the circles of selfishness, then the anger will turn out to be hatred, violence, revenge, destruction. But if we are able to break the circles, then the same anger could turn into a great power. We can break the circles by using our inherent compassion and connect with the world, through compassion, to make this world better.”
If you have the anger in you, then it is the time to act.
Child labour robs children of their right to an innocent childhood. Do your bit to stop it.
Chief Justice S A Bobde, while hearing a plea filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan said, “Register contractors, seek a list of their employees to ensure no child labour is employed. Only policing won’t do. We are the ones who provide them a market since child labour is cheap. We will have to start with contractors”.
“A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started…the fate of humanity is in his hands.”
Abraham Lincoln
Toons: Reema Jaiswal and Taskeen Bhatt
Logs: Kartikay Shukla and Sai Baba
