Tamil Nadu   

Employment of children: awareness level goes up

S. Annamalai

No complaint in southern districts after the ban came into force

MADURAI: After about two weeks of the enforcement of the ban on employment of children below 14 years of age as domestic help and in restaurants, hotels and the hospitality industry under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, no complaint has been registered in the southern districts. But the level of awareness has gone up with owners of hotels and restaurants and residents' welfare associations coming forward not to employ children.

An awareness programme was launched a month in advance with officials of the Department of Labour distributing pamphlets about the ban, and using the media to spread the message that employing children as domestic help is punishable. In Madurai district, some residents' welfare associations and hotel owners' associations have given an undertaking that they will not employ children aged below 14.

The Labour Department plans to involve non-governmental organisations, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Childline in conducting a survey of domestic help, says T. Kumaran, Inspector of Labour. Officials have also planned to organise surprise checks of hotels and hospitality industry.

Though awareness has gone up, enforcement of the ban seems to be difficult, especially in the case of domestic help. Affluent families keep children as domestic help and nonchalantly parade them in public as "poor cousins," points out J. Paul Baskar, national convenor, Global March Against Child Labour. In a survey conducted four years ago, his organisation found 30,000 children employed as domestic help in the headquarters of 11 districts.

A project done by Drishti Ashwin Desai, a student of Lakshmi School, Madurai, shows children below 14 years are employed as domestic help by affluent families. These children come from very poor families of far-off places.

Urban luxuries

Some of them are attracted to urban luxuries such as air-conditioning, television and cinema and refuse to go back to their villages. Children hailing from the peripheries of Madurai do part-time work after school hours.

Labour Department officials admit that it will be difficult to check individual houses. The department is thinking of taking the help of women police personnel while visiting homes that employ children.

Child rights activists say that when the Government is unable to enforce the ban on employment of children even in the making of fireworks how could it prevent child labour in hotels and homes. Officials do admit that children continue to be employed, though indirectly, in small and cottage units making fireworks in Virudhunagar district. It is common to see children involved in the making of fireworks in villages around Sivakasi.

Absence of adequate vehicles, paucity of manpower and difficulty in determining the age of child workers are the reasons for not effectively enforcing the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act.

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