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Showing posts with label Under-Privileged. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Under-Privileged. Show all posts

"KHUSHI" - Facebook Debates on "Child Beggary" in India

"KHUSHI" initiated a debate on " Increasing Menace of Child Beggary in India - What Solutions do we have?, on 4th May 2012. About 125 people joined the discussion, and the discussion still continues....

All the participants came up with intriguing suggestions and comments on the topic.. Some of the discussions on the facebook are reproduced below:

What could be the reasons of child beggary?  They could b poverty, insufficient family income,
forced by blacklisted person , forced by parents themselves, etc . Children beg at traffic signals, at temples, mosque , church etc we should not give them money but we should make them eat something so that atleast we are aware that the money we are using for them is used at good place otherwise we don't knw that where these children use the money if we give them money. The children can get addicted to bad habits like smoking, drinking, taking drugs etc which is very very dangerous and harmful for these children So its better we make them eat something or instead of money we can give them some things like clothes etc.

Some parents force their children to beg so that they bring money for their family bt. At the age of playing, studying , etc these children are begging. Such parents should be punished and made understand that educating these children is more important than begging if the child is educated he himself alone is much capable of taking the responsibility of his/her family and if not educated and begging at roads then begging just only add something to their family income at the risk of children's life. So at last i want to conclude by looking this i can say India is industrialising but not developing.

I feel we need to look at larger picture. No parent want his/her child to beg....I mean they are not doing it coz they like to beg...I think its lack of options for them for their livelihood which force them to make their kid beg or work

Initiatives like making a city beggar free are indeed commendable if the rehabilitation of these children is taken care of with the involvement of NGOs and social welfare organizations with support from the government and state authorities..

But we also need to be careful that these kind of initiatives don't make these children end up in far-worse living conditions … these people could get involved in unlawful acts like stealing and can create a huge law and order situation…

Most of us do have sympathy towards children and trying to help kids by giving one rupee. Average Rs 200 per day every child is earning, So it became a profitable business and more children are brought into begging (without sending to school/free hostels). There has been number of reports revealed that missing children from our home or neighborhood end up in begging or other dark business. Do you know the average age of these kids? It is 5 yrs, the reason is kids were not given proper food and were given harmful drugs (Small kids are given sleeping tablets so that they will sleep without crying). Unknowingly we are being part of this issue, by giving money to the kid thinking that we help kids but that money goes to their organizer (Why child should struggle for elders? Let elders work/beg). In a survey many people said they are not aware of free hostels available for them. So here is the solution for orphans to join hostels very easily just calling to Govt child helpline 1098 or 040-23233550

We have to start from something....which should be some strong law for them.....individual contribution are expected from every good citizen ...but u can not force somebody...so LAW is going to save life of poor child....while it can be a small part......

There should be strict law for beggar for thier basic constitutional fundamental rights. Food....Education...which govt. must provide......the contribution from ourselves should be that we should contribute some part of our earning to educate them......so they can also make their dream...which should not be in thier hand like BOWL................

A minimum number of days assured work and 2 square meals for each person in the country is a solution which only the government can aid in implementing.. Once this is efficiently implemented can we talk about what individual citizens need to do!

The biggest problem in my view is that people who are beggars should ideally not give birth to more of their kind. At least that's the view from our perspective. However, for them, children are the best route to gain sympathy at signals, etc. These parents should be discouraged from begging and brought into productive employment first. And using children for the purpose of begging should be dealt with severely

We know that children are forced to beg but we dont know who gets benefited by what they get. So its usually the public who gives money and encourages begging. What if they are not given money or rather given something else... may be food or clothes. This way it would be reasonably assured that only the child is being benefited & not someone else which might lead to removal of child beggery. Therefore its the public who could discourage child beggary.

Such a cruel this...country of spritual & devine culture our ethics& vedha"s told to us many moral things to lead our life with humanity&honesty............in jail goverment amends lots action plan to recover their bad qualities such as education,rehablitation activites,job oppourtunities likesto be plan for child beggary rahablitation centres to make a turn on their life by basic education,job,moral support by passing law in constitutional ....to organize the NGO,s & social service centres to eradicate child beggaary...... childs are god..for developing nation

We can have programs 'Like Earn while you Learn' where such kids are paid to study and learn the different vocational skills. Any monetary incentive is a good way to lure kids. Yes people like us have to contribute in such a system however its worth it. The more the financiers the lesser would be the burden on each one and more would be the beneficiaries.

Child begging..........the biggest fault of our system.
Even though begging is a crime, the police response is inconsistent. One young child was begging while police looked on and did nothing about it.But now there is something good going in Delhi.....where some NGO's are working very hard to stop this.They are being urged to report child beggars with a quick phone call to 1-0-9-8..............A 24x7 open helpline. Childline Coordinator Varun Pathak and Kanika Tripathy handle the calls at one of five Childline centers in Delhi........They will help these children regarding food , shelter nd study.
I think this is the best we can do......in other states also ..........

Pranav its real good initiative...but the fact is that its kept on papers mostly due to syste failure in our govt body ....the distribtion channel should be improved and there are hell lot of thing that has more to be implemented than planning alone...India is a country where plans are made but execution partis still very low....
it cant be done so easily...strong nexus is there which has prevailed in the roots of every system which has to be eradicated....real long process...leaving few who cares..!!!
well d best alwaz ..!!

Child labour is the employment of children under an age determined by law or custom.This practice is considered exploitative by many countries and international organizations.Child labor was not seen as a problem throughout most of history,only becoming a disputed issue with the beginning of universal schooling and the concepts of laborers and children's rights.
Child labor can include factory work,mining or quarrying,agriculture,helping in the parent's business,having one's own small business,or doing odd jobs.However, rather than in factories and sweatshops, most child labor occurs in the informal sector, "selling on the street, at work in agriculture or hidden away in houses—far from the reach of official labor inspectors and from media scrut.

SEXUAL ABUSE!! THE SECOND FORM OF EXPLOITATION More than 53% children report facing one or more forms of sexual abuse. People come together and unite ourselves to eradicate this problem of humiliation of children and youth in india by stoping childs exploitation.


A powerful and swift solution is convincing our legislators to ban this and make provisions for rehabilitation of the kids. Noting that in a democracy voters have the power, bringing the above changes will be tough if not difficult as kids neither can vote nor have parents to vote for their future. Public money will not be easily allocated or spent for people who cannot vote. There are such govt rehabilitation homes present but I only have heard bad reviews about them. A good option can be to fund private autonomous run institutions working in this area like the SOS Children's Villages of India. They have a very good facility here at Bhopal. Lastly, I think depending on the executive to implement ban on this will not be a successful idea as sooner or later our police and other services become lazy. Hence, forming a public opinion about this is crucial in banning of child begging. People currently do know that Child Begging is wrong and illegal but what they do not know is what should they do with these children. Investing in publicity of such options will increase public awareness and responsible citizen then will themselves see to it that child beggers are sent to rehabilitation.

One of the main reasons why so many children are forced into begging is that they generate most sympathy and hence earn more... there have been many excellent suggestions in this debate as to the long term solution of it.. but every individual may start making an immediate contribution.. idf u see a child beggar buy him/her food.. dont give money.. maybe that will discourage their parents from ruining their futures while they will receive nutrition.

Many a times its their parents who sell them for money... what if instead of "that gang" buying them we offer any daily house hold job to the parents and in return send their children to schools.... mom and I have already done this... :)
this was just one such idea... if we really want to heal our pains by helping them.. lets not only give them money and think the job is done (when we know its even worse when we give money)... lets give them also a chance to see a better part of life...

Great to see so many people being sympathetic .. i do not intend to be a critic here, but a lot of d real work needs to be done at ground level..can reach out to schools and involve them in organizing camps...plus not sure why people mix rural India with child begging....??
i also read some views about stronger laws, we do have already and that wont solve the purpose at the root..compassion helps and not enforcement...Mother Teresa have demonstrated that...

I know it sounds cruel but then you need to be so to solve such problem because untill we all stop giving money to these beggers they will not stop asking for it......so no matter how emotional you get seing their condition do not have pity on them........though there are some who are really in need but there are so many others who are taking undue advantage of such few examples.......and just think once would you ever like to work very hard if the life you are living can be continued with minimum efforts.....just be true to yourself and i know very few would deny the fact.......so its as simple as that why would they stop asking if its so easy for them and they are so very used to it.......

The problem of begging is gigantic, yet it can easily be solved, if there is will and determination to do so. By creating healthy public opinion against it and by passing laws which make this profession a punishable offence, the problem can be solved within no time.

When we literate people doesn't know laws properly then how can we expect that these people r going to understand it..... n most imp. it take years to form one law there r many bills pending since years which should be law then how can u expect that this law will be made early..... we need some steps which can help them from now not after years we need to make them learn not to beg but to earn their livelihood.

People are mercy on children and giving money as it is just 1 Rs coin. But it is spoiling many other children life from normal children. The people behind the chilren are doing business with kids and forcing them for begging again and again. They are stoping kids from going to Govt school as they get more money for alcohol drinking & smoking.(Some of the children are taken for rent or some times they are kidnapping kids from other cities). 

We can avoid child begging if everyone stops giving money to kids(If you want give to old people). We stopped giving money to child !!!!!!!

I agree with you ... bt just stop giving money is not the solution.. our government didnt have any policy for orphan children or children of poor single mother, also if they have it is not reached to the deserving children... i would suggest dnt give money directly to the children try to give thing of need..like cloths books, food, etc

Money is not the only thing you can give to them. There are so many other things to give which will give more happiness to them and more satisfaction to you. As it says "Money never gives you true happiness". You can give them food, clothes or toys if you have. I have myself given food like chips, ice cream and sometimes whatever was there in my hand. In fact you can go with them and buy things they want. In this way you will be spending atleast some time with them. You can know little more about them and guide them in the right direction. By doing so, I am sure they will have a big smile on their face. I urge that if you really feel pity on those children then give them anything other than money. I agree that it is not the solution to the problem but definitely it is a step forward. It will not only help the children but also help in controlling the crime which is happening underground.

Yes we do have the solutions. They just take a lot of time to show up, which is the main problem. The other problem is the question of roti, kapda aur makaan, which in itself is the core of the struggle. We just need more self aware people in this world, who can take care of these children and show them the pointlessness of begging. Each one, teach at least one!

Government is doing its bit. Corporates are doing their own bit. I can talk about Vedanta who
have adopted more than 5500 Anganwadi centres in Rajasthan, Orissa, Chattisgarh and Karnataka. Each Anganwadi has about 30 small children in the age group of less than 6 years. Which mean education, health and nutrition of about 165,000 under-privileged children are under care in association with the state governments?

Now if few of us can take care of some of the other under-privileged children, including child beggars, we would be contributing directly to the nation.
 
 
"KHUSHI" - Partners in Creating Happiness 
A Vedanta Group Initiatives

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)...

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.

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

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..