CHILD LABOR

In the previous article we discussed a gist of child labor and meager portrayed the haunting details about the crime in and around India. In this article, we are going to continue on the latter half on the same topic, in which we are going to glimpse how child labor is introduced in the society as a pin inserted in a banana. Child labor takes its ugly form in various states.

In our day to day life we come across so many children in and around our streets esp in shopping areas, among them most of the children are fortunate enough to experience the fun world and enjoy the amenities of different luxuries. On the contrary, there is another section of under privileged children who work as laborers in the same shopping area. We see children as rag pickers, drifters, cleaners in tea shops, mechanic shops and so on. These children can be categorized in level one. Such children may be forced to work due to the family conditions and undergo psychological turmoil. There is a second level of children who are forced into bonded labor to work in hard and hazardous physical conditions that can damage their physical and also their psychological conditions. For example, children who work in fire work factories, circuses fall in this category. Such children are physically abused by their superiors where they incur serious injuries which some of them succumb to. There are children who work as maids in houses and in physically abusive areas. Such children face a mammoth of trauma that leaves them injured psychologically ceaselessly.

Next to that level, we have one more sophisticated level of child labor which we do not recognize it as child labor. It is the media field in which the children are employed in movies, serials and advertisements. Such children go to school and also work simultaneously in late hours just to earn a penny and fame. This is an unrecognized form of child labor that needs immediate attention. We all are aware of the hardships faced by the children in this field. Such children are deprived of education. Literally, the right to enjoy their childhood is being snatched. They deserve to live burden free at that age, instead they are being thrust with work and abuses.

To conclude, how can we curb child labor? We can try to take an initiative to educate atleast one child who is deprived of it and is forced to work as a labor at a tender age. Let’s all take an oath within oneself that we will never encourage products from shops and factories. So our young buddies, let’s not think that child labor is a fact of life, and instead work as a life saver to curb it.    

                                                                          Steffey Sherine
                                                                     Kids Prodigy writer and social worker
                                                                            Tuticorin.