Partners of “Khushi” Meet - Role of Government – People – Corporate the need of hour

Partners of “KHUSHI” had their first meeting on 5^th May 2012.  The agenda was to enhance “KHUSHIs” reach and bring out effective creative campaigns.  The brainstorming resulted in churning out creative campaigns like spreading awareness through ‘Street Plays’, inter-school ‘Debate Competitions', ‘Organizing Workshops in the Slums’,  and ‘Painting Competitions for the Under-Privileged Children’ to generate curiosity amongst these children.

A unanimous thinking was that "KHUSHI" needs the active involvement of Government – People - Corporate Houses to create larger awareness.

Can You Send Me Back To The School ?....

Pranay wrote about his experience of sending  his maid's daughter back to the school. She had to remove her dauther from the school coz her husband met with an accident and there was shortage of funds.  We present his story that spreads the message of Vedanta's Khushi initiative towards `Care for the Under-privileged Children'.

Can You Send Me Back To The School

I am currently working in Delhi and generally travel as I look after Business Development in a reputed company at a senior level.  My timings are such that I get-up early, leave early and come back late.  Thus I am detached to what is happening at the house front and my wife handles it all.

This incident is about 2 months back when I was working in Ahmedabad, and unfortunately I happened to be on sick leave. 

I was a little upset to find that my maid servant was bringing her 10 year old daughter for work every day.  Initially I thought, might be her daughter had taken a holiday from school. But I could feel that this was getting repeated.  On my enquiring my wife informed me that she is a new maid and even she is not happy she bringing her daughter for work and worst is she has been lending a helping hand to her mother in cleaning the utensils and dusting.

On my insisting my maid informed me that her husband drives auto-rickshaw and she works in the houses.  Recently, her husband met with an accident and not only his auto-rickshaw has broken but he too received serious injuries and is hospitalized. The expenses of medicines and repairs of auto-rickshaw are very high. She had no money left to pay the Annual Fees of ‘Geeta’, her daughter, and buy books and uniform, thus she dropped her out from the school.  She had to also leave 2 houses of work as she was unable to handle with regular visits to the hospital.

My anger turned into sympathy. I asked her which school she was studying.  She was going in a small private school and had recently entered into Class-V with good marks.  I could see the pain in the eyes of my maid who was visibly unhappy by not sending her daughter to school. Leaving her alone was not advisable as there is no one in the house, she said.

We immediately decided to find some solution. It was already 2 months she had left the school and the classes had started in new session.

The expenses were not much and we could afford it easily.  We decided to finance Geeta’s school fees, buy her new books and uniform and look after her studies until her father gets back to work.  My wife decided to teach her what she would have probably lost in 2 months.

But before that I decided to ask Geeta, `Do you want to go back to School ?' Her eyes became wet with tears, 'Can you send me back to the school ?, she asked'.

I said Yes. We will.

Geeta’s mother cried like a child.  She wanted to deduct the expenditure involved from her salary every month, but we never agreed – God has given us enough to take care of such things.

Satisfaction was, Geeta went back to school and she is one of the brightest students in the class.

I got transferred to Delhi and now head Delhi Branch, but our commitment towards Geeta is as strong as ever. My wife has already sent the Quarter fees of Geeta and is in touch for her education.

This episode was limited with-in the walls but now due to “Khushi” campaign, I am sharing it.  It is a different feeling to do something different.

Pranay Mudgal, Delhi

FACEBOOK Debates on "Eradication of Child Labour"

"KHUSHI" initiated a discussion on "How an individual can contribute towards Eradication of Child Labour?,  on 28th April 2012 and about 70 people joined the discussion, and it still continues..

Amazing is the sensitivity of people towards the cause.. some discussions on the facebook..

1.    Arunima Dey - http://www.facebook.com/arunimadey10

I feel that rehabilitation and free education is a big answer in eradication of child labour. The majority of children work or as forced to work only to meet their daily basic needs. Also, if each one of us contribute little by little, it helps tremendously. What my aunt and I do, we have 'adopted' 2 children. By that I mean, we pay in kind or cash for the fooding and education of those two children, or for the basic needs in the hope they will be able to have a better future. I think if each one of us 'adopt' a child in this sense, then child labour can be dealt with. 

2.    Shrabana Banerjee - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000373483312

I guess child labour also goes hand-in-hand with the more sinister crime of child trafficking... We also need to sensitize communities such as sex-workers as to the evils of child labours. As an individual one can contribute to such NGOs which allows one to become the sponsor of 1 or 2 children at a nominal amount.... If everyone can take responsibility of even one child.. a sea change can be made

 

3.    Dhrushal Bhandari - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000042662699

We ourselves are the big culprit in this world for childlabour as we in our day to day life come across many such situations in which children of age 5-14 are engaged in work. Some of the situations are like when we pass a roadside tea stall many of such teastall have child of same age as working for their livelihood we just pass on from that tea stall but donot have courage to question upon child labour. There are many such situations. One of the main reason of increasing child labour day by day is poverty as poor people are debt trapped n to come upon their livelihood all the members of these families go for work so that their family income could be sufficient enough to meet the basic needs of their family i.e. Food , shelter and clothes. Many of these poor people increase their family number so rapidly that the income of mother and father together is not enough to meet their children needs and send their child to school. If this selfish government who think of their own profit if could spend some on these poor families and their welfare then both poverty and child labour could be eradicated from its root. Another way of eradicating child labour could be that we ourselves employ servants at our homes for housework if we are aware of the age or education he had acquired or not , if not then we should have courage to educate that employee and if he is under 14 then we should blame their parents and make them understand about child labour and to get these children educated.

There could be many more such ways of eradicating child labour
I am and will always be in favour of eradicating child labour from its birth.

 

4.    Anirudh Singh Ranawat  - http://www.facebook.com/anirudh.ranawat

These kids are there by chance not choice.....No money no food. For most of them der is no choice but to work for food. What can possibly work out is collectively adopting a child. if a group of friends / co workers etc can take responsibility of 1 child. Where a group of say 5 plp are making sure that a child goes to school , eats well ... the effort and money gets divided ... making this affordable and effort also gets divided.

5.    Maulik Chandarana - http://www.facebook.com/maulik.chandarana

To begin with, I would like to highlight the start of CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility. When introduced, there was a general abhorrence among Corporate Conglomerates. Many thought it to be a waste of money, and unnecessary wastage. But then the grand old masters promoted CSR as a tool for marketing, for showcasing companies as saviours. CLICK! That was it. Corporates now did not think of CSR as a wastage. it became indulgence, a necessity and more than a responsibility, a 'duty' as most corporates try to portray it. Well, this is the solution at the individual level too. A promotion of PSR - Personal Social Responsibility (or shall we say CSD - Corporate Social Duty) will help. While it may sound crass, but promotion of PSR as a style statement or as an addition to the image quotient, will go a long way in helping people not only become aware but also take actions. Of course, the online media is a good start to promote the same, but certain offline platforms like print and activations need to provide requisite showcase space. Suggestions on this will help causes like child labour eradication, women issues, old persons care, etc.

6.    Harendra Sharma - http://www.facebook.com/harendras

Free Education is the best possible solution ..but it is not possible without the involvement of pvt and govt organizations..and some are even into it...but they end up making business out of it...I know some of the famous indian NGOs but trust me for them its the flow of money that counts not these kids..!

7.    Gunjan Agnihotri - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=544830232

‎1. Each and everyone should be made aware of what child labor is all about. This can be done by holding seminars on child labor and everyone should be given a chance to air out his/her views. 

2.  Everyone should be made aware about the government policies like freebasic 
education, Mid day meal programs, sarva shikha abhiyan etc.

3.  Law abiding to child labor should be emphasized and be publicized and anyone who goes against it is liable for punishment. 

4.  Family planning methods should be improvised for everyone to have a family which they can properly manage and cater for.

 

 

8.    Rahul J Nair -  http://www.facebook.com/rahul.nair1

Lets start by doing something very simple. Every time we see a working child (And I don't think that's a rarity), tell them what education is all about and ask them to go to school.

 It might not work all the time. but once you tell them that education gifts them whole new worlds to explore, a few of them will definitely start thinking about it. The whole point of talking to them is to convince them that no matter what they see and are told, it is very much possible for them to lead lives better than what they eventually will resign themselves to.

9.   Himanshu Rawal  - http://www.facebook.com/himanshu.rawal.4u

Appreciable @Rahul J Nair - lets be a part of change. Approaching NGOs will definitely help, I know I had worked for them like TCS Maitree initiatives, Seva Mandir, Narayan Seva Sansthan etc. They are very easy to approach and ready to help, just they require some more volunteers like us. @Namrata Jain have you volunteered, I request you to just visit one of them, may be your mindset will change and you also join them - who knows. It's really nice to see responses from all of you, God bless you all. Ending up with one note - "We all not only part of system but we all also make this system and we have the ability to change"

10.   Divya Sahadev  - http://www.facebook.com/dr.divyasahadev

It isn't just one child we are talking about. To bring about a large scale change, a policy change is the only way. Endorsing child labor should first become a strict punishable offence. The environment you grow up in influences the way you think, so, trying to get your point across to these kids wouldn't help much, jus coz they don know any better. It is up to those who r educated and understand the implications to influence these changes in the society.

11.   Namrata Thakur  - http://www.facebook.com/namratat1

By only giving money to parents or building schools won't help to get these kids to school because by that time these kids start enjoying the life of roaming in cities and having fun with their fellows..so apart from giving knowledge in a regular fashion of classroom a differnt activity session can be held for children. these sessions will attract them to be there and not to go and work. also incentives needs to be there as in good food or small toys to keep them glued till the time they dont realise the importance of education and what role it can play.For ex- there is one lady who teaches handful of child beggars in her garage and shows them movies after every test they pass.

12.   Aniesh Chawla - http://www.facebook.com/chawla.aniesh

Gunjan:the root cause of child labour is the economic needs od thr family...if that is not solved then there is nothing one can do...it starts with satisfying the basic needs of poor...more hands to earn...i am sorry to say but ur points are valid only when the root cause is solved...n u know what our govt also knows this fact thats y child labour is not illegal in our country(its illegal for them to work in some specific industries like firecracker,mining,etc but not all)...

13.   Mohnish Bose - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=596151996

I totally agree with you, when it comes to awareness about child labour. A lot of times we are in a hurry and think "what difference will I make if I take this child to school? Others will continue to exploit the kid anyway." We should really get away from this duty and lend an unconditional helping hand

 

 

14.   Namrata Jain  - http://www.facebook.com/namrataj1

i think just approaching NGO will not help we should try at are level also becoz if we can help one also tht will help much to eradicate child labour....

 

 

15.   Pranav Jain - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=682667270

The eradication can be either by making contribution and resending the children back to school and continuously paying for their school fees, next is when one is found working a child below 18 years then he or she will be in for it. Thirdly is that we should collect those children in one place and educate them more about education; finally provide them with all the facility they need. Last but not least we should look at those parents suffering with poverty and in what way you could help those parents either in giving them money or deciding to volunteer and help them . 

The last point is that to help those children whose child labour is caused by the misunderstanding of parents then we have to talk with the counseling organization to come and correct ,guide the family. We can also stop the dropping out of school by really knowing the reason behind it then we can talk and the child goes back to school or if the matter is of misbehaving then the child is guided.

16.   Pradhuman Solanki  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000747706992

From now I wherever I'm will report to the concerned organizations and let them know about the child who is working. Will definitely find out such govt. organizations and list them. So that we can start this initiative

17.   Maitreyee Sankhla - http://www.facebook.com/maitreyee.sankhla

One more thing we can do is there are several NGOs that run schools with hostels for the under-privileged where they provide free education-food-shelter to them, so all these children who are trapped in Child Labour or Begging can be directed to these schools.....it puts no burden on any of their parents and their parents can educated about different govt. run schemes like NREGA where they can work and earn without engaging their children in work.

however small d effort may be, it is countable....
adopting education, teaching in spare time, helping by providing basic amenities or just discouraging d child labour by informing any NGO or the govt body about the concern....

 

"KHUSHI" will announce the topic of next discussion soon...

 "Khushi" continues..

28 Million Children in India, in the age-group 5-14, are engaged in work

As per the UNICEF Report on Situation of Children in India - Article 32 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the right of children to be protected from economic exploitation, from performing any work that is hazardous, interferes with their education, or is harmful to their health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. The Government of India continues to maintain its declaration made to Article 32 at the time of ratification to progressively implement the provisions of the article in accordance with its national legislation and international instruments to which it is a State Party. In India an estimated 28 million children in the age-group 5-14 are engaged in work.

This is based on the following definition used by :

-  Age 5–11 years: At least 1 hour of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week.

-  Age 12–14 years: At least 14 hours of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week.

According to the Census 2001, only five percent children were estimated to be working. However, the Census definition considered last one year as reference period, even if a child was engaged for one day of economic activity, which included work for family business and farm. This did not include any household chores. Among the major states, Gujarat has the highest proportion of children working (32 per cent) followed by Rajasthan (20 per cent). Kerala has only three per cent of children reported to be working. While there is no difference in work participation rates between boys and girls, the rate in rural areas (13 per cent) is significantly higher than that in urban areas (9 per cent).

The work participation rate increases with age and at all ages, girls are more likely to be involved in household chores or family work. Children from the poorer households are more likely to get engaged in work. A child belonging to a Scheduled Tribes household is more likely to work than a child from a household in Other category. The education level of parents is also an important determinant of child work. One of the recent studies based on data from 35 countries (including India) identified poverty as the most important determinant of low school attendance and high child labour rates. The education of the household head was also found to be an important factor in the decision between work and school for children, underscoring the inter-generational benefits of education.

There is an inherent contradiction between the National Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 as the former does not ban all forms of child labour, but only hazardous labour.

According to the notified occupations and processes for children below 14 years, the latter, on coming into force on 1 April 2010, has made free and compulsory education for all children without exception a justifiable right. Considering there is no general minimum age for employment, the act recognizes that children should be in school which is an implicit recognition that they should not be at work.

An issue of concern...............