Child labour... no end to it!

A young boy washes utensils outside a restaurant.
©Diptendu Dutta/AFP (Source: Google)

SHOBHA, an 11-year-old child, wakes up at 6 in the morning. Her chores start from making breakfast for a family of five.

By 9 she sweeps and mops the house, bathes and feeds the dog 'Laila', cleans the utensils and then bathes herself. 

She has to take care of the owner's mother ( a 78-year-old woman), who cannot even manage to feed herself let alone walk without human support. 

She makes sure, the elderly is bathed, well-dressed and fed. She is after all an 11-year-old girl, big enough to do all  the work. 

She then cooks lunch, rice, roti, dal and sabzi. Yes, she knows how to cook. All through the day she fetches water, the TV remote, fruits, wash clothes, dress people  and everything else she is asked to do.  

Her day ends when all those in the house sleep. She goes to a shady corner, spreads a sheet and dozes off. 

You ask her if she needs something and in return she stares at you with blank eyes. Eyes that will ask you why? You have a daughter too, almost the same age as mine, would you want her to grow up like this? 

All this in a house where the owner is the principal of a very reputed university and her husband is a doctor while one daughter is pursuing her Masters in English literature, the other is young and goes to school. 

A well educated family with surplus amount of money to splash out on three drivers, one child servant, three cars and a brand new house worth crores. 

Child labour, an issue which has been talked and written about to death. Each one of us is aware of what it is. I doubt there is a person around who would not have heard of it.

Yet we see children working from morning to night, in conditions which one can barely think of working in. 

You walk out in the morning and you see kids working on tea stalls, washing utensils and cleaning the place. Kids as young as six are forced into labour. 

Yes, it is an offence, we have laws but who implements these laws? How many people actually get punished and how many get away? 

Well roughly it can be said not even a few end up behind bars. And nearly thousands of children lose their childhood, days that were meant to put smiles across their faces and inspire their souls. 

If each one us make it a point to act against the wrong, you won't see empty eyes and lost smiles. 


© 2013 Nasreen Ghani