The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Sticker campaign against child domestic work

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Saturday, Jun 13, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Sticker campaign against child domestic work

Staff Reporter

Young adults who worked as domestic helps share their experience

— PHOTO: R. Shivaji Rao

CHILDREN’S CAUSE: R. Vidyasagar, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF, releases a special poster on the occasion of Anti-Child Labour Day in Chennai on Friday. Virgil D’Sami, executive director of Arunodhaya, is in the picture.

CHENNAI: Every time 12-year old R. Premkumar jumped into the middle of the road, to stop a passing vehicle, it invited angry stares. But as soon as the youngster took out a sticker depicting a small child washing utensils and pasted it in front of the vehicle, the drivers mellowed. This student of Corporation High School in Rangarajapuram was one of the many children who participated in the sticker campaign against child domestic work here on Friday.

Organised by non-governmental organisations Arunodhaya Centre for Street and Working Children and Save the Children, the campaign was aimed at making school children more aware of the rights of children and make them part of the child labour eradication efforts.

Interacting with the students, Save the Children national manager – child protection Mohammad Aftab asked the children to be vigilant about child labour in their vicinity.

“If you see a small child doing domestic work in the house of your relatives, friends or neighbours call 1098 to lodge a complaint,” he told them. He recalled how a similar effort in Kolkata had made a significant intervention.

R. Pavithra, a student, said she had come across several children working but had never intervened on their behalf. “Now, if I see children working I will surely try to save them,” she said.

Puppet show

Later in the day, a puppet show by Kalaiaraperavai was organised to reinforce the message of eradicating child labour. R. Vidyasagar, Child Protection Officer, UNICEF, released a poster on the theme. Young adults who had previously worked as domestic helps shared their experience at the podium.

Virgil D’Sami, executive director of Arunodhaya, said they had launched a new project to make the city a child domestic work-free zone. She hoped that this campaign would go a long way in creating awareness of the rights of the child to education and a life free from abuse.

“The project will be implemented in T.P.Chatram, Anna Nagar, Aminjikarai, Kodambakkam, T.Nagar, Choolaimedu,” she said. P.Manorama, chairperson of Child Welfare Committee spoke.

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