The five letter word, ‘child’, reminds us of a bright face and soft hands, that are eager to play and keen to learn all the time. Yet, the scenario with many children is not as splendid as it seems. The stark truth may sound horrendous – that hundreds and thousands of them are being exploited as laborers.
If emphasis is laid on the conditions in our country, the story is a little excruciating as this evil has weaved a never ending web in the Indian society. The vicious circle of poverty and illiteracy gives a consequent rise to child labour that has badly trapped these little gems.
The fingers meant to hold pencils and eyes which should focus on alphabets of a book, are slogging their daylight hours for the sake of survival. Dozens of children can be found pushing carts heaped upon piles of bangles, or handicraft stuff under the heat of the sun. Many others can be found at street food stalls and repair shops.
These children do have dreams to fly, but their wings can’t flap as they are be-marooned in the darkness of penury. The preconceived notion that having children help around to work could relieves a family from poverty, is too outlandish. However, the fact we need to inculcate in us, is that banning child labour is a pre-requisite for eradicating poverty.
While the government has made laws, but who cares? On one hand, we have colossal rockets which tear up the sky, while on the other side, we have people deprived of education and even a single meal of the day. The need of the hour is surprisingly simple – we need nothing more than a strengthened, united and an honest effort to eradicate this evil from the grass-root level.