There is nothing
worse than forcing a child to work and earn a living at a young age. Child
labour, no doubt, closes doors of opportunities, fun and freedom to kids. At a time meant to attend school, play or spend
time with friends, thousands of children in India today find themselves trapped
in hazardous working environments like mining, quarrying, agriculture or
domestic service.
It is shocking that
approximately 168 million children, aged between five and 17, are employed in
these kinds of occupations in different parts of the world. Of these, nearly 15.5 million children, the majority
being girls, work in domestic service.
There has been a
huge global effort to end child labour, however according to UNICEF more than
100 million children will still continue to be engaged in child labour till
2020.
In India, several
acts prohibiting employing children in mines, factories or any other hazardous
fields have been introduced since independence. The
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act in 2009, made
education free for underserved children.
Apart from
these, efforts of several non-profit organisations like The Akshaya Patra Foundation
have also helped bring change to children’s lives.
Akshaya Patra, a NGO
dedicated to underserved children since 2000, supplies freshly cooked mid-day
meals to over 1.4 million children across 10 states in India. Interestingly, the initiative taken by The Akshaya Patra Foundation has helped
bring a notable decline in child labour. The Mid-Day
Meal Programme has also helped boost school enrolment, classroom attendance
and concentration in children.
Not surprisingly,
only around 43.53 lakh children aged between five and 14 are employed today compared
to the 1.26 crore working children in 2001.
However,
thousands of children in India still miss out school and go to work at an early
age. These children will grow up as uneducated and economically backward adults
and will affect the nation’s progress and development.
To end classroom
hunger and child labour in India, Akshaya
Patra is planning to extend its feeding reach to 5 million by
2020.
A world without child labour is not very far
away. But, each one of us has to come
forward to turn it into a reality.
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