The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Walls shine with self-portraits

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 15, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Walls shine with self-portraits

Staff Reporter

The paintings were made on Wednesday by children who had earlier worked as domestic helps, sales boys, mechanic assistants and cleaners in hotels

— Photo: V. Ganesan.

FREE AT LAST: Children paint their thoughts on a wall of Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board on Kamarajar Salai on Wednesday.

Chennai: The next time you drive along the Marina, pause for a moment to view some poignant pictures drawn by former child labourers on a wall of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board building.

The paintings were made on Wednesday by children who had earlier worked as domestic helps, sales boys, mechanic assistants and cleaners in hotels. The children, now rehabilitated under the National Child Labour Project, go to transit schools and are then enrolled into mainstream schools.

Labour Minister T. M. Anbarasan inaugurated the painting session.

E. Sivakumar, who worked in a juice stall, has depicted his life before and after rehabilitation. One picture shows him behind a juice stall counter and the next shows him in a uniform going to school. His friend, who worked in a tea shop, has drawn a picture of himself scurrying about with glasses of coffee and tea for customers.

“Many of the children have had a very difficult time,” said G. Lally, Assistant State Coordinator of the State Resource Cell, Indus Child Labour Project.

For instance, Muthazhagu, a seven-year-old, worked as a baby-sitter.

The rehabilitation project has offered her a chance to go to school. The transit schools are run in association with non-governmental organisations.

Mercy Joy Joshua, child labour rehabilitation project officer, Chennai Corporation, said employing children below 14 was an offence punishable with a fine of Rs. 20,000 and imprisonment for a year.

SMS campaign

The Corporation also organised an awareness campaign through SMS to urge people to report child labour at the toll-free helpline 1098. Stickers were posted on trains, buses and auto-rickshaws displaying the helpline number.

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