Interesting Article from childlabor.in for a country which traditionally spends most of its financial resources in weapons procurement since the 80's.
The most inhuman and onerous form of child exploitation is the age old practice of bonded labor in India. In this, the child is sold to the loaner like a commodity for a certain period of time. His labor is treated like security or collateral security and cunning rich men procure them for small sums at exorbitant interest rates.
The children who are sold as bonded labor only get a handful of coarse grain to keep them alive in return for their labor. Sometimes their period of thrall extends for a life time, and they have to simply toil hard and depend on the mercy of their owners, without any hope of release or redemption. The impoverished parents of the bonded child is usually a poor, uneducated landless laborer and the mortgagee is traditionally some big landlord, money lender or a big business man who thrives on their vulnerability to such exploitation.
The practice of bonded child labor is prevalent in many parts of rural India, but is very conspicuously in the Vellore district of Tamil Nadu. Here the bonded child is allowed to reside with his parents, if he presents himself for work at 8 a.m. every day. The practice of child bonded labor persists like a scourge to humanity in spite of many laws against it. These laws although stringent and providing for imprisonment and imposition of huge fines on those who are found guilty are literally non- functional in terms of implementation.
However most of their efforts were sabotaged by high level government officials covering the fact that children were doing bonded work in factory promises. They deliberately employed their energy in running public awareness campaigns and made claims of creating propaganda against child labor, instead of punishing erring employers and freeing and rehabilitating the bonded children.
Governments did take few directions on the right track initially, but most of their efforts came to naught with time. Moreover the government efforts did not reach high profile industries like bidi, cigarette making and carpet weaving. According to Cousen Neff - an official of the Human Rights watch Instead of living up to its promises, the Indian government is starting to backtrack, claiming the problem is being solved. Our research shows that it is not.
Neff also identified a major link between caste and bondage in Indian society. Dalit familys functions as bonded labor due to caste based discrimination and violence and not poverty in many cases. The caste system in India is one of the main foundations on which the edifice of bonded labor rests. Dalits or the so called untouchable are denied access to land in India, forced to work in inhuman conditions, and expected to perform labor for free. This is due to the so called upper castes boycotting them socially and subjecting them to economic exploitation. This attitude of society keeps the poor families bonded in a scourge of perpetual poverty and labor. It is now very important for all International donors to put pressure on the Indian government to enforce bonded labor and child labor laws in the country. To find more child labor websites visit : ngo in india
The most inhuman and onerous form of child exploitation is the age old practice of bonded labor in India. In this, the child is sold to the loaner like a commodity for a certain period of time. His labor is treated like security or collateral security and cunning rich men procure them for small sums at exorbitant interest rates.
The children who are sold as bonded labor only get a handful of coarse grain to keep them alive in return for their labor. Sometimes their period of thrall extends for a life time, and they have to simply toil hard and depend on the mercy of their owners, without any hope of release or redemption. The impoverished parents of the bonded child is usually a poor, uneducated landless laborer and the mortgagee is traditionally some big landlord, money lender or a big business man who thrives on their vulnerability to such exploitation.
The practice of bonded child labor is prevalent in many parts of rural India, but is very conspicuously in the Vellore district of Tamil Nadu. Here the bonded child is allowed to reside with his parents, if he presents himself for work at 8 a.m. every day. The practice of child bonded labor persists like a scourge to humanity in spite of many laws against it. These laws although stringent and providing for imprisonment and imposition of huge fines on those who are found guilty are literally non- functional in terms of implementation.
However most of their efforts were sabotaged by high level government officials covering the fact that children were doing bonded work in factory promises. They deliberately employed their energy in running public awareness campaigns and made claims of creating propaganda against child labor, instead of punishing erring employers and freeing and rehabilitating the bonded children.
Governments did take few directions on the right track initially, but most of their efforts came to naught with time. Moreover the government efforts did not reach high profile industries like bidi, cigarette making and carpet weaving. According to Cousen Neff - an official of the Human Rights watch Instead of living up to its promises, the Indian government is starting to backtrack, claiming the problem is being solved. Our research shows that it is not.
Neff also identified a major link between caste and bondage in Indian society. Dalit familys functions as bonded labor due to caste based discrimination and violence and not poverty in many cases. The caste system in India is one of the main foundations on which the edifice of bonded labor rests. Dalits or the so called untouchable are denied access to land in India, forced to work in inhuman conditions, and expected to perform labor for free. This is due to the so called upper castes boycotting them socially and subjecting them to economic exploitation. This attitude of society keeps the poor families bonded in a scourge of perpetual poverty and labor. It is now very important for all International donors to put pressure on the Indian government to enforce bonded labor and child labor laws in the country. To find more child labor websites visit : ngo in india
