The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : `40 per cent of workers on building sites are children'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 07, 2006
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

`40 per cent of workers on building sites are children'

Chitra V. Ramani

HARD WORK: A girl toiling to beautify Ulsoor lake, in Bangalore on Friday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

Bangalore: "I do not work every day. I only work on days when my mother is ill," said Hema (names of the children have been changed to protect identities), a nine-year-old construction worker.

"I ran away from home because my father used to beat me every day," said Mukesh, a 12-year-old who cleans the floor of train compartments to earn some money.

Hema and Mukesh are two of a kind, both working when they should be studying and playing like other children.

Looks after siblings

Hema has to look after two younger siblings aged five and three. Hema is not alone. Many other children are being exploited as well at the numerous construction sites that dot Bangalore.

Shobha is a 12-year-old migrant worker from Bellary working for the agency hired by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) to develop Ulsoor Lake. Shobha preferred to remain silent when questioned by this reporter.

According to Sheila Devraj of the Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA), there are approximately eight lakh construction workers in Bangalore, over 40 per cent of whom are children. "It is mandatory for builders to provide a day-care centre and ensure that children, especially those below six years, are taken care of," she said.

The number of street children is no less. Quite a few of them take to crime, as they are left to take care of themselves.

Nine-year-old Subbu, like Mukesh, cleans the floor of train compartments with his shirt and asks for money from passengers. "I am from Kuppam. I come here with my brother Somu and sister Pushpa. Somu and Pushpa sing and collect money and I clean," he said.

Edward Thomas, executive director of Don Bosco, an organisation that takes care of street children, said that a number of them run away from home and come to the city every day.

"They are often picked up at the railway and bus stations by brokers and taken to hotels where they are employed as cleaners," he said.

Fr. Edward said street children were prone to getting into bad habits because of peer pressure. "The Government, with help from the numerous non-governmental organisations, should keep a check on street children, as they are vulnerable. The children should be counselled and later sent back to their homes," he said.

Nina Nayak of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) said that often street children were rescued by NGOs. "The main focus of the CWC is to restore the child to the family. If we find that the family is dysfunctional and cannot take care of the child, we rehabilitate the child by sending the child to an NGO or take care of it in our homes," she said.

Education scheme

Ms. Nayak said the Government had introduced a scheme wherein if the family was not able to pay for the child's education, the Government would step in to take care of it.

Though the Government has schemes on paper to help street children and juvenile construction workers, clearly life has not changed for many like Hema, Shobha, Mukesh and Subbu.

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