Pandemic hit education, no access to online classes, says working kids

BENGALURU: Representatives of unions and organisations of working children and adolescents from Karnataka, New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, on the eve of National Anti-Child Labour Day on April 30, spoke of how they were unable to access online classes and requested the government to help them and their families with free Covid vaccination, medical kits, among other demands for safe shelter and livelihood.  

Speaking during the event ‘Children: Ambassadors of Change’, the young representatives said that COVID-19 has further aggravated many of the long-standing systemic issues, gravely affecting them and their communities. The speakers commented on the state of education hit by the pandemic and the lack of access to online education for working children.  

“We do not have access to smartphones, and even if we manage to arrange for one phone for many of us, we don’t have internet facilities, for which we must have subsidy from the government,” they said, recommending that educational kits for easy learning like ‘Shaishav’ in Gujarat and community-based small group teaching -- ‘Vidyagama’ in Karnataka -- should be made available to all children.

“As representatives of our unions and child-led organisations, we demand protection for all working children, safe work environment and pay parity for girls and boys. We work because we have to survive and we have to support our families. Laws that penalise us should not be implemented,” they stated. They asked the government to identify people and agencies that sell children and subject them to all forms of exploitation, and also not “direct them to such institutions to stay and be safe”, they stated. The young unionists also demanded employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for adolescents in the age group of 16-18 years.

The participants in Thursday’s virtual event were from Tarun Sena, Bhima Sangha, Vidiyal Child Rights Movement, Azad Jugnu Club, Praajak’s Youth Collective, Balak Nama and Bal Adhikar Sangharsh Sanghatan (BASS) under the banner of ‘Children: Ambassadors of Change’. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016, had amended the earlier Act of 1986.

The amendment, while prohibiting the employment of children aged between 6 and 14 years in any occupation, had introduced the category of ‘adolescents’ aged between 14 and 18 years, who were prohibited from working in “hazardous occupations and processes”. The amendment had also provided for the rehabilitation of children or adolescents employed illegally and had set up the Child and Adolescent Labour Rehabilitation Fund at the district level for this purpose. The amendment prescribed stringent punishment for those employing children and adolescents.