Pandemic-induced hunger forces millions of Indian children into cheap labor market

[beijingwalker]

Pandemic-induced hunger forces millions of Indian children into cheap labor market

Updated 19 October 2020

• Rights groups blame lack of money, support from govt. for spike in child trafficking cases

NEW DELHI: Ten-year-old Sujay Haldar has a difficult decision to make in the next few weeks – should he return to his hilly hometown of Nainital in India’s Uttarakhand state to resume school or continue working as a ragpicker in Noida, an industrial city in Uttar Pradesh?
The youngster’s ordeal began in March after the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic paralyzed the country, putting millions of people out of work, and leaving most struggling to make ends meet.
“I never worked before. My life moved around school and other fun activities. Once the lockdown started, we faced an acute shortage of income, and for us, it became difficult to manage even our daily ration,” Haldar told Arab News.
The Grade 4 student said that with schools closed during the lockdown and his parents, who worked as daily wagers, rendered jobless his family faced a “hunger-like situation” in the absence of any income or “support from the government.”
Haldar, the eldest of three siblings, added: “Once the lockdown got relaxed, my family came to Noida in search of work. Since June, I have been rag-picking to support the family.”
His neighbor and friend, Vinay Kumar, also aged 10, is in the same situation. He said: “We decided to work together as going alone was risky. Usually, we earn 400 (Indian) rupees ($5.45) per day and split the income. It comes in handy for the family in this hour of crisis.”
Haldar and Kumar’s stories are not unique to the narrative of child labor issues in India.
According to a 2011 census, India has more than 10.1 million cases of children working as laborers.
However, child rights organizations claim that there has been a spike in the number of cases and incidents of child trafficking in the past four months since lockdown restrictions were relaxed.
“The number of cases of child trafficking and child labor has gone up in recent months after an ease in lockdown conditions and gradual reopening of the economy,” Dhananjay Tinga, of prominent New Delhi-based child rights NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save Childhood Protest, or BBA), told Arab News.
Established in 1980, the BBA “is India’s largest movement for the protection of children and works with government agencies and policymakers to strengthen the system,” according to its website.
At its helm is child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi who won a Nobel Prize for his efforts in 2014.
Tinga said some migrant workers returned to their native states of Bihar or Uttar Pradesh during the lockdown after losing jobs overnight.
One estimate suggests that 2.5 million people returned to Bihar alone from different parts of the country.
“Once the economy opened, there was pressure from factories around the country to find workers. With schools shut and daily wage workers facing acute economic distress, they are forcing their children also to work,” he added.
In the months of June to September, the BBA rescued 1,195 children from workplaces while more than 100 child traffickers have been arrested.
Patna-based NGO, Human Liberty Network (HLN), which works for the reduction of human trafficking cases, said that several factory owners allegedly sent “luxury buses to Bihar to ferry children for industrial work.”
Suresh Kumar, executive director of Centre DIRECT, an affiliate NGO of HLN, on Monday told Arab News: “So far, 300 children have been rescued from various parts of the country and have been brought back to their native state in the last three months.”
He said that unlike in the past, this time children were not being trafficked by “unknown persons, but by their parents.”
Kumar, who is currently helping to look after 500 rescued children, added: “The parents are accompanying their children to avoid attention. The impoverished parents facing an existential crisis feel that the children are less prone to COVID-19 and they can provide much-needed economic assistance in this hour of grave crisis.”
He blamed a lack of support from the government for their dire straits. “The local government promised jobs, but they did not give; they promised ration, and that was also not delivered fully. As a result, they faced an acute pressure on their livelihoods which forced them to migrate to different places with their children.”
Meanwhile, another NGO, Save the Children, conducted two rapid assessments of child labor cases – both during the lockdown and after – and found that marginalized sections of society were the “worst affected” by the pandemic-induced economic disruptions.
“We managed to speak to nearly 8,000 people – both children and parents – and found that the pandemic has created great pressure on employment for the most marginalized sections of society who we work with,” Anindit Roy Chowdhury, program director of Save the Children, told Arab News.
One such example was that of 12-year-old Pawan Pasi who, along with six other children, was rescued from a child trafficker at Old Delhi railway station, in early September.
Pasi said he was lured with job opportunities and agreed to the arrangement because “the situation at home was not good. We need money and food. I was brought to Delhi to work in some units.”
Now in a BBA-run rehabilitation center, Pasi added: “I feel it was a mistake to come to Delhi. I want to study. Living in the shelter for over a month has taught me the value of education.”

Pandemic-induced hunger forces millions of Indian children into cheap labor market

NEW DELHI: Ten-year-old Sujay Haldar has a difficult decision to make in the next few weeks – should he return to his hilly hometown of Nainital in India’s Uttarakhand state to resume school or continue working as a ragpicker in Noida, an industrial city in Uttar Pradesh? The youngster’s ordeal...

www.arabnews.com

 

[Enigma SIG]

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/24/asia/india-covid-child-trafficking-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

One evening in August, a 14-year-old boy snuck out of his home and boarded a private bus to travel from his village in Bihar to Jaipur, a chaotic, crowded and historical city 800 miles away in India's Rajasthan state.

He and his friends had been given 500 rupees (about $7) by a man in their village to "go on vacation" in Jaipur, said the boy, who CNN is calling Mujeeb because Indian law forbids naming suspected victims of child trafficking.

As the bus entered Jaipur, it was intercepted by police.

The man was arrested and charged under India's child trafficking laws, along with two other suspects. Nineteen children, including Mujeeb, were rescued. Jaipur police said they were likely being taken to bangle factories to be sold as cheap labor.

Mujeeb (not his real name) was rescued in a child trafficking raid in Jaipur, India, on August 21.

In India, children are allowed to work from the age of 14, but only in family-related businesses and never in hazardous conditions. But the country's economy has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and many have lost their jobs, leading some families to allow their children to work to bring in anything they can.

Making colored lac bangles like those sold in Jaipur is hot and dangerous work, requiring the manipulation of lacquer melted over burning coal. Bangle manufacturing is on the list of industries that aren't allowed to employ children under 18.

In recent years, India has strengthened its laws on child labor, but in the past six months -- with Covid-19 taking a toll on the economy -- that work has started to unravel.
"Children have never faced such crisis," said 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, whose organization Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) works to protect vulnerable children. "This is not simply the health crisis or economic crisis. This is the crisis of justice, of humanity, of childhood, of the future of an entire generation."
https://www.cnn.com/specials/asia/coronavirus-outbreak-intl-hnk
When India went into a strict lockdown in March, schools and workplaces closed. Millions of children were deprived of the midday meal they used to receive at school and many people lost their jobs.

Traffickers have exploited the situation by targeting desperate families, activists said.

Between April and September, 1,127 children suspected of being trafficked were rescued across India and 86 alleged traffickers were arrested, according to Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

Most of the children came from rural areas of poorer states, such as Jharkhand or Bihar. Pramila Kumari, the chairwoman of Bihar's Commission For Protection Of Child Rights, said the government commission had received more complaints of trafficking during the pandemic.

Child trafficking, when young people are tricked, forced or persuaded to leave their homes and then exploited, forced to work or sold, can occur in several ways. Experts say sometimes, children are lured with false promises without their parents ever knowing, like Mujeeb. Other times, desperate parents hand their children over to work so they can send money home.

Rescued children describe being forced to work without pay in grueling conditions. Some say they have also experienced physical abuse. Without resources and under the control of traffickers, many have no way to leave or communicate with their families.

Nearly always, the trafficker is known to the local community, if not a member of the community themselves, according to children's rights activists and police.
And the children most at risk are those in families facing acute poverty -- a symptom of the country's massive wealth inequality, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Poverty, unemployment and hunger during lockdown
After India went into total lockdown in March, more than half of all migrant households in Bihar state lost all their income, according to a study conducted in July by UNICEF and Population Council Institute.

The region is home to millions of migrant workers, including Mujeeb's father, a construction worker in Delhi.
The state government provided food rations -- but only 42% of migrant households found the aid sufficient, according to the study.
By the time the federal government began lifting lockdown measures in late May, poorer families were struggling. So many migrant workers went home during the lockdown that demand for cheap labor in India's cities soared as the country reopened.


In India's remote villages, going hungry is as big a fear as catching the coronavirus

Indian police said this desperation, demand for workers, and the reopening of state borders created the perfect environment for traffickers to exploit children.
"Now post the lockdown, factories are re-opening and the migrant labor is returning (and) what we are seeing is that children are coming with them," said Shiv Narayan, the station police officer in Jaipur's Bhatta Basti neighborhood, which is home to many small-scale industries and bangle factories.

A survey by Satyarthi's Children's Foundation of 245 households in rural areas of five poorer states, including Bihar, found that 21% of respondents were potentially ready to send their children under 18 to urban areas for work due to their increased economic vulnerability.

But it's not just parents who feel they have no other choice -- the children themselves may feel compelled to go to earn money for their hungry families. Mujeeb said he had brought up the possibility of leaving before with his grandmother, but she had always discouraged him, despite the family's troubles.
"There are no earnings here," said his grandmother, who didn't want to be named. "How do I feed the child? I told him not to go, but he left with nothing to eat at home."

Aman (not his real name) was rescued by police in a child trafficking raid in Jaipur, India, on August 21.
Fifteen-year-old Aman (not his real name) from Madhubani district in Bihar, also left home during the pandemic to earn money for his family. His father, a daily wage laborer, lost his job during the lockdown leaving the family with very little to eat, said Aman, whose identity cannot be revealed under Indian laws to protect trafficked minors.

"When there is tension in the village, shortage of food, then one is forced to think of going elsewhere to work," said Aman. "I thought if I go and get a job, I can send some money home for my family to eat."

Schools were still shut and, as the eldest child in his family, he felt a responsibility to help. So, after borders reopened, he decided to go to Jaipur with a man who promised paid work there. Like Mujeeb, Aman got on the bus without telling his family, knowing they might try to stop him. His bus was right behind Mujeeb's, according to police.

When the police intercepted the buses and arrested the traffickers, they brought Aman, Mujeeb, and 17 other children to a shelter.
Soon after arriving, Mujeeb said he was eager to go home. Aman said there was nothing awaiting him but the same poverty that drove him to leave.
"We don't even have enough to eat," he said. "So, my only option is to drop out of school and work to help my family."

Forced labor in sweltering conditions
If Mujeeb and Aman hadn't been rescued by police on their way to Jaipur, they might have ended up like Nishad, a 12-year-old boy who was allegedly forced to work in a bangle factory under brutal conditions.

Nishad, whose real identity can't be revealed under Indian law, was brought to Jaipur from Bihar by an alleged trafficker just before the March lockdown. Nishad claimed the man locked him and five other boys in a dingy room without any windows and forced them to make bangles for 15 hours a day. There was no way to call authorities or even contact their families, he said.

"He made us work for so long and if we didn't work, he would hit us. We were not allowed to step outside. He said that if we got out the police would arrest us," said Nishad.



Over 10 agonizing days, this migrant worker walked and hitchhiked 1,250 miles home. India's lockdown left him no choice
"He paid my parents 1,500 rupees (about $21). (He said) I have to work to pay back that debt. I shouldn't complain since I get a meal at night, at around midnight, and about 50 rupees (70 cents) every Sunday."

Nishad and the other children worked in one factory for five months before police raided it in August after receiving a tip-off from child rights activists at Bhatta Basti.
The man Nishad says mistreated him has been charged under India's Child Labor Act and Juvenile Justice Act and is now in police custody. Before his arrest, the alleged trafficker told CNN that he pays parents a few thousand rupees to bring their children to Jaipur for work and a better life.
"I go and get poor children from Bihar and pay their parents 3,000 rupees (about $40)," he said. "I bring the children in a bus to work here in factories."

Calls for urgent action
Jaipur is a major destination for traffickers to sell children for labor because it's home to bangle factories that perform difficult, intricate work.
In north Jaipur alone, there have been up to 20 police raids and 12 registered cases of child trafficking and child labor since early June, when the lockdown was eased, according to police.

In Jaipur, 50 children were rescued in the last two weeks of August, said Police Inspector Rajendra Khandelwal, whose anti-human trafficking unit conducted the raids on Nishad's factory. The 50 children included Mujeeb, Aman and the other children on the buses from Bihar.
Satyarthi says his organization has been tracing the movement of traffickers from source areas like Bihar, as well as rescuing trafficked children from railway stations or transport hubs. He and other rights activists say the government isn't taking sufficient action on a national level.

The government's Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill was passed by parliament in 2018, but lapsed when the Modi government's first term ended before it could be approved by the upper house.
A revised version was due to be considered by ministers earlier this year, but it hasn't progressed to parliament due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Activists warn that if more urgent action isn't taken to address the problems known to cause child trafficking, the current crisis could reverse decades of progress.
To help avoid that, the government needs to do more to get children back in school after the lockdown, activists say.
Kumari, of Bihar government's child rights commission, said they have formed an anti-child trafficking task force in response to the spike in cases. They also issued advisories to local officials and hold virtual meetings on the issue, she said.
"About the rise in child trafficking, we have sent letters to all district magistrates and NGOs, that if a case like this comes up, there should be immediate action taken," she said.

Niranjanaradhya V. P., a development educationist at the National Law School, believes that 30% of children who left school due to the pandemic lockdown will never return. He says the government's National Education Policy, which aims to formalize early childhood schooling and expand tertiary education, has no measures in place to address this dropout.

Satyarathi says children who leave school early are the most vulnerable to exploitation.
"Those who drop out and are not able to come back to classes, they will not be sitting free at home," Satyarathi said. "They will be trafficked, they would become child laborers, they will get married at an early age, beg on streets or even become child criminals and child soldiers."
He said he has written to national and local authorities to express his concerns.
Aman, the 15-year-old boy, wants to go back to school, but without enough money for food, let alone a computer for online classes during the pandemic, an education doesn't seem possible.

The boys stayed at the shelter for about a month before officials arranged for them to go home.
When asked if he preferred to stay in the shelter or return home, Aman looked off in the distance. He took a deep breath and a long pause.
"I'll go where I have to go to survive," he finally answered. "I don't have an option, do I?"

 

[Nityam]

NIA Files Chargesheet Against 12 Traffickers in International Human Trafficking case

‘Kale Baba’ aka Nasir caught sexually exploiting women in Lucknow, Times of India gives it a Hindu spin by calling the accused as ‘Tantrik’

In general parlance, the 'Tantrik' is a practitioner of the “tantra vidya“, is mainly associated with Hinduism, leading to a perception that the crime was committed by a Hindu individual.

The Times of India on Saturday attempted to give a Hindu spin to a crime perpetrated by an Islamic cleric, who is an accused in the sex racket, by referring to him as a ‘Tantrik’.

On Thursday, a Mazar caretaker was arrested for allegedly running a sex racket. The caretaker of Jama Mazar situated at Hussainabad in Thakurganj area of Lucknow named ‘Kale Baba’ also identified as Nasir, allegedly used to sexually exploit women in the name of treatment.

We had reported on how the local people had been receiving complaints regarding some suspicious activities taking place in the Mazar. Some of the locals had caught a woman and a man in an objectionable condition in a room adjacent to the Mazar and had recorded the incident on cameras.

However, the Times of India, in its attempt to ‘secularise’ the crime, passed off the accused as a ‘Tantrik’, by giving an impression to its readers that the crime was actually committed by a Hindu person. Even though the report carries the name of the accused as ‘Nasir’ inside, Times of India in its misleading headline says arrested accused is a ‘Tantrik’.



Not just Times of India, another ‘feminist’ portal ‘Shethepeople’ too peddled the same propaganda by claiming that the arrested individual in Lucknow sexual assault case was a ‘Tantrik’ and attempted to hide that it was actually an Islamic cleric who was an accused in the case.

Image Source: Shethepeople

In general parlance, the ‘Tantrik’ is a practitioner of the “tantra vidya“, is mainly associated with Hinduism, leading to a perception that the crime was committed by a Hindu individual.

Repeated instances of media ‘Hindu-ising’ the crimes perpetrated by criminals of other faiths

To push their secular narrative, the media has been trying to shield the perpetrators by withholding complete details and leaving out the identities of the criminals altogether if the accused belonged to certain minority communities.

Last year, several media organisations attributed the death of a 10-year-old boy because of the rituals performed by a Muslim healer to a ‘Tantrik’. While the death of the child occurred due to a Muslim healer, PTI report gave it an obvious Hindu slant in the headline by referring to him as a ‘Tantrik’.

This headline was then carried by many media houses such as NDTV, India Today, The Tribune verbatim without changes.


NDTV passing-off Muslim ‘healer’ as ‘Tantriks’

India Today, in fact, went a step further and even used a rather ‘Hindu looking’ featured image for their story that appeared as if the ritual itself was Hindu.

Image Source: India Today

Not just this, there are several incidents in the past where media has resorted to such chicanery. As per a report in The Hindu, a woman had accused a “Tantrik” of raping her in Ajmer, after taking her there on the “pretext of offering prayers at a Dargah”. In the same month, Times of India had carried an article titled, “Tantrik gets 10 years in jail for rape and extortion”. Like the reports mentioned above, the name of the accused was ‘Warsi’.

The vernacular media seems to have learnt the same trick as Hindi-daily Dainik Jagran too had decided to call an accused in a harassment case as “Tantrik Sufi baba” in the headline. However, the perpetrator was identified as Aftab. In their article, Hindi News18 had carried the headline, “Tantrik arrested for committing misdemeanour with a minor, under the pretext of chasing away ghosts”. The ‘Tantrik’ was later identified as Hafiz Sajid.

Lucknow: Man arrested for sexual assault after video goes viral | Lucknow News - Times of India

Police arrested a man who claimed to be a tantric indulging in indecent behavior at Jama Mazar near Hussainabad on Thursday on the pretext of treatmen

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

 

[Nityam]

Lucknow: Jama Mazar caretaker ‘Kale Baba’ caught running sex racket, video goes viral

Some of the locals caught a woman and a man in an objectionable condition in a room adjacent to the Mazar. They recorded the incident on cameras.

Screenshots from video

In a shocking incident in Lucknow, a Mazar caretaker was arrested yesterday for allegedly running a sex racket. As per a report of News 18, the caretaker of Jama Mazar situated at Hussainabad in Thakurganj area of Lucknow named ‘Kale Baba’ allegedly used to sexually exploit women in the name of treatment.
The local people had reportedly been receiving complaints regarding some suspicious activities taking place in the Mazar. Some of the locals caught a woman and a man in an objectionable condition in a room adjacent to the Mazar. They recorded the incident on cameras. A video of the so-called ‘Kale Baba’ being caught by locals and the illicit activities being run in an adjoining room has gone viral on social media.

(Disclaimer: Explicit video, reader discretion advised)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1319198385979543553

The locals handed over Kale Baba to the police. He has been arrested and an investigation has been initiated against him by the police as informed by ACP Chowk IP Singh. During interrogation, the Baba allegedly confessed that he used to treat women for issues like infertility and leukorrhea. He said that he used to force women into the sex racket in the name of treatment.

लखनऊ: मजार के अंदर सेक्स रैकेट चलने का आरोप, लोगों ने धावा बोलकर संचालक काले बाबा को पकड़ा

Lucknow News: काले बाबा पर मजार के अंदर बने कमरे में सेक्‍स रैकेट चलाने का आरोप लगा है. स्‍थानीय लोगों ने ही अचानक से वहां पहुंचकर इसका भंडाफोड़ करने का दावा किया है.

hindi.news18.com

 

[Nityam]

CM Yogi Announces 40 New Anti-Human Trafficking Police Stations In UP To Check Trafficking Of Women And Children
byIANS-Oct 27, 2020 10:48 AM

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. (@GorakhnathMndr/Twitter)

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that all the districts of the state will now have anti-human trafficking police stations to check the trafficking of women and children.

These police stations will be set up in all districts of the state for effective action in trafficking cases.
According to a government order issued on Monday, 40 new anti-human trafficking units will be set up to function as police stations. So far, there are 35 anti-human trafficking units in the state which were set up in 2011 and 2016 by the then governments.

These police stations will have the power to register FIRs, carry out investigation and take required legal action, said the government spokesperson.

The police stations are being set up on the directives of the central government and funds for them have been allotted by the Centre.

According to the spokesman, the Centre has provided Rs 15 lakh each for the 40 new police stations, amounting to Rs 6 crore in total, and Rs 12 lakh each for the existing 35 police stations, amounting to Rs 4.20 crore.

CM Yogi Announces 40 New Anti-Human Trafficking Police Stations In UP To Check Trafficking Of Women And Children

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that all the districts of the state will now have anti-human trafficking police stations to check the trafficking of women and children

swarajyamag.com