BANGALORE: Thirteen-year-old Raju looks lost when he is given some building blocks and other educational toys and has no clue what to do with them. He has never gone to school and probably never seen such toys before.

He was rescued a couple of weeks ago by the Association for Promotion of Social Action (APSA) from a construction site in Ulsoor, where he was working along with his mother. A member of the public called the helpline for children in distress, Childline (1098), of which APSA is a partner. Raju is just one of the many children who are forced to take up jobs because of poverty and commitment to family.

The initial fervour of the authorities to conduct raids following the October 10, 2006 directive to include domestic work and the work in the hospitality industry as hazardous for children seems to have petered out. Things are back to the same pathetic condition as it was before and there is no concerted effort from the government machinery to save children from losing their childhood to backbreaking labour, say child welfare activists.

"I came to Bangalore from Madanapalle with my mother and grandmother after my father left us to live with another woman. My mother works as a construction labourer and I have also joined her, as my father has incurred a lot of debt and we have to pay it off," said Raju.

He wants to go home to his mother and says he will go to school once he is sent back. But it is obvious that if he is sent back he may again work as a construction labourer.

Nandini (11), who has been in the APSA home, Nammane, for the last three months, also says she wants to go back. "But I do not want to stay with my father because he is alcoholic and abuses me. I would like to stay with my aunt because she will look after me well," she said.

Hailing from Doddaballapur, she was rescued by APSA from a house in Basavanagudi where she was working as domestic help. "The lady of the house used to hit and pinch me all the time even though I used to do all the work, including washing utensils and clothes and cleaning the house," she said.

There was not much sympathy coming from her family either. Her father came to Nammane to take her home and when she refused, he cursed her, told her to drink poison and die.

Raids

Things are not different for children from the neighbouring States.

"I have been working in a fireworks manufacturing unit in Sivakasi for the last four years, but I have never seen any genuine effort from the Government to rehabilitate children like me. The Labour Department officials conduct token raids, but mysteriously, the information about the raid reaches the factory before the officials come, and we are sent home for the day," said 18-year-old Kalaivani, who was in the city to attend a national workshop on child rights.

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