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 

I support Irom Sharmila..do you?

NOVEMBER 2, 2000 is the day she started fasting. It has been 11 years since then and she hasn't eaten a grain of food nor has she had a drop of water.

Irom Sharmila also called the Iron Lady of Manipur is protesting against the Armed Forces Secret Power Act, 1958 (AFSPA) which is equal to a military rule in Manipur (the north eastern zone of India).

The military has undisputed and unaccounted power to do anything they feel like doing.

The worst part of the Act is the fact that Human rights violations is permissible. When you say violations of human rights is not a problem then of course most of us can wonder what we are looking at.

“The AFSPA empowers the representative of the Central government, the governor to subsume the powers of the State government to declare “undefined” disturbed areas. It also empowers the non-commissioned officers of the armed forces to arrest without warrant, to destroy any structure that may be hiding absconders without any verification, to conduct search and seizure without warrant and to shoot even to the causing of death. No legal proceeding against abuse of such arbitrary powers can be initiated without the prior permission of the Central government. While introducing the AFSPA on 18 August 1958, the government accepted it as an emergency measure and it was supposed to have remained in operation only for one year.” (An analysis of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 ^-- By The Asian Centre for Human Rights)

Manipur is under a military rule for more than 40 years now. To make it simple, it is like the emergency in India that was declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975. For two years, all of us know what India went through. These people in Manipur have been going through the same for some 40 years now.

Imagine your loved ones being shot in front of you, or say your sister or your daughter being raped and there is nothing you can do except watching. Imagine going to the authorities and they shoot you in return or throw you out or bash you up. Try and visualise the agony of a mother whose child is detained, tortured and thrown in some dark corner and forgotten about.

The woman has been fasting since years and none of us have the courage to stand up or her. Instead we prefer standing up for corruption. We prefer pointing fingers at others even though we ourselves are deep into it, covered from head to toe.

Once in a while, there is always a need to look inside your heart and question yourself whether what you are doing is right or are you just blindly copying or following someone.

Yes, we are all busy with our lives, all of us have to earn for a living but we always have time to stand up for a cause.

And by standing up for a cause I don't just mean I support, you need to show your support As we all know, actions speak more than words.

© 2011 Nasreen Ghani

Such is the condition....

THIS guy was seriously ill and the train he had to travel by was 24 hours late. His wife asked the railways officials to give them some space in a room where he could rest for the time the train was late. But the railways turned her request down.

She is sitting right in front of the railway station with her husband lying there on the road in really cold weather.

The wife said that they couldn't afford a room outside and the waiting rooms were full. The waiting room for the first class was empty but since they weren't first class travelers they couldn't stay there even for a while. Such are the conditions...a person cannot be accommodated in a first class A/C waiting room but can be left on the road in the cold to die.

© 2010 Nasreen Ghani

Should they be here..??

THIS is Connaught Place. A hub for the biggest brands out there in the market, a hub for the elite. Some find happiness in a happy meal others try and look for it here, a trash bin acting like a swing. Do they deserve to be here? Does any kid deserve to be here?

© 2010 Nasreen Ghani

This picture needs no explanation.

This is a scene at a bus stop outside the Central Secretariat Metro Station. And like the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words, this picture needs no explanation.

© 2010 Nasreen Ghani