CHILDREN

CHILDREN - 2005

(Orphaned Children, child adoption, child trafficking, Child Labour, Juvenile Justice Act,

Child Development, Child Marriages, Child Rights, Street Children, child sacrifice, child

burials,)



Compiled & Edited By

K. SAMU

Human Rights Documentation,

Indian Social Institute, Lodi Road, New Delhi, India





Government to adopt tsunami-orphaned children (14)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, DEC. 31. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, today visited the

tsunami-hit areas in the State, consoling the victims and reassuring them of the Government's

commitment to rehabilitate them. Children orphaned by the tragedy in all the affected States will

be adopted by the Government, he told presspersons after visiting the injured at the Government

hospital at Karunagappally, in Kollam district. Their education will be the Government's

responsibility. The Centre will set up a welfare fund especially for the benefit of the women and

children in the coastal regions of the country. And a special package will be announced soon for

improving the lot of the fishing community, he said. (The Hindu 1.1.05)



Tamil Nadu govt in dark over tsunami orphans (14)

NAGAPATTINAM, Jan. 1. — Burdened as it is by the enormity of the disaster, the Tamil Nadu

government which is still struggling to put an effective disaster management plan in place is not

about to give a thought as to how the relief could be utilised by the tsunami orphans. Mr. J

Radhakrishnan, Thanjavur Collector who has been drafted to oversee relief operations in parts of

Nagapattinam told the Statesman that the state Department of Social Defence had identified 145

orphaned children so far. During a two hour survey yesterday, the Social Defence Department's

probationary officer, Mr. Mohammed Saliq, identified 50 destitute children in just three relief

centres here. In fact, the 16 shelters across Nagapattinam housed more than 10,000 homeless

from the worst hit . Akkaraipettai, Keechankuppam and Nambiar Nagar hamlets, and many

among them were children. (Statesman 2.1.05)



Caution call on adoption (14)

New Delhi, Jan. 7: Non-government organisations across the world have advised against hasty

adoption of children orphaned by the tsunami. Many people have come forward with offers to

provide a home for the children who find themselves alone after the calamity. But aid workers are

advising families that want to adopt children to go slow to avoid complications in future.

"In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, it is often difficult to ascertain that a child is truly an

orphan," said an aid worker. Aid workers said parents may have been separated from their

children and may be staying in another refugee camp or just across the border. It is not ethical to

place a child for adoption unless it is clear that no parent able to care for a child will be found.

Ethical adoption practice requires that a child be considered "legally abandoned" before being

adopted by a family other than its own. The argument against hasty adoption rests on the ground

that the governments of the tsunami-ravaged countries are in disarray. The courts and other insti-

tutions that handle adoptions may be in a shambles. "Adoption," said an aid worker, "cannot take

place in such an environment." The government today said efforts are underway to look for

parents or extended family members of the children. "The district magistrates are compiling lists

of orphans. Efforts should be made to see that the child is not traumatised any further," said Nav-

een Chawla, a secretary in the information and broadcasting ministry. (Telegraph 8.1.05)



TN Govt adopts orphans to save them from traffickers (14)

Chennai: THEY ARE a new category of victims but the tsunami orphans of Tamil Nadu are not

entirely devoid of hope for a meaningful future. The State Government has announced an

ambitious plan to adopt all of them and take care of their upbringing at State cost. But is the State

ready to shoulder the huge burden, considering the large amounts it has committed to the project

to rehabilitate those hit by the sea-quake induced attack of giant waves on the Coromandel Coast

on December 26? The tsunami orphans also pose a challenge in social terms as to how best they

could be protected from child trafficking groups and adoption rackets. And many of them having

been brought up in families may face a huge psychological demand if they are institutionalised

and taken away from their immediate surroundings. Thankfully, both Government and society

seem to be alive to these vulnerabilities. For a start, the Government calls the three orphanages it

has started to cope with the post-tsunami phenomenon as "child care centres." "I firmly believe

that these kids who have borne the brunt of nature's fury should not be allowed to become

orphans. We estimate the number of orphans to be - around 300," says Commissioner for

Revenue Administration R Santhanam, adding, "We have started orphanages at Nagapattinam,

Cuddalore and Nagercoil, and they have started admitting children." (Pioneer 12.1.05)



Orphaned children are sold in Lanka (14)

Colombo, Jan. 12: Sri Lankan authorities are investigating an alleged attempt to sell two children

orphaned by last month's tsunami, a police officer said on Wednesday. A 60-year-old man tried to

sell the children, aged 12 and 13, in Balapitiya, near the hard-hit southern city of Galle, said the

police officer W.D.T. Wijesena. Police, however, were tipped off of the sale and arrested the man

on Tuesday, he said. The suspect was released on bail, Mr Wijesena said. He didn't give details

about the suspect or the attempted sale, and said the authorities were still investigating the case.

The fate of the children was not immediately clear. The children are among scores who have lost

their parents in the December 26 tsunami that killed about 31,000 people in this island country.

(Asian Age 13.1.05)



"LTTE recruiting tsunami-affected children” (14)

NEW YORK, JAN. 15. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka are recruiting

children affected by the tsunami for use as soldiers, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.

It said the Tamil Tigers, who were already recruiting large numbers of child soldiers, now may

seek to replace forces lost in the tsunami with child recruits. The United Nations Children's Fund

(UNI-CEF) reported on Thursday three cases of children recruited from camps for tsunami

survivors in Batticaloa and Ampara. Human Rights Watch has received additional information on

LTTE recruitment of children in Trincomalee and Jaffna. "The Tamil Tigers are preying on the

most vulnerable by taking advantage of children who have been orphaned or displaced by the

tsunami," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. "Every

effort must be made to stop this unconscionable recruiting from families who have already

suffered so much." At a relief camp in Trincomalee, a 16-year old boy, who had been recruited

prior to the tsunami and later escaped, told credible sources that he witnessed the LTTE recruit

three girls from the camp. In Jaffna, independent human rights monitors documented LTTE

recruitment of two 13-year old boys on January 3. Human Rights Watch has found that the LTTE

often used threats, intimidation and even abduction to bring children into its ranks. (The Hindu

16.1.05



Foreigners’ Child adoption formalities (14)

New Delhi: At a time when several foreigners have expressed willingness to adopt tsunami-hit

children in southern India, a city court has said foreign nationals wanting to adopt Indian children

should complete the adoption formalities in the country and not take them abroad on

guardianship rights. The judgment, said legal experts, is timely and reiterates the importance of

following the adoption guidelines laid down by the government following Supreme Court's

directions aimed at limiting the scope for child abuse by foreigner guardians. Advocate Sanjay

Parikh welcomed the judgment. He said: "Despite guidelines, incidents of child abuse by foreign

parents have come to light and it is encouraging that the court has stepped in to emphasise the

measures to safeguard the interest of adopted children." District judge Rekha Sharma observed,

while deciding on a petition by two foreign nationals who wanted to adopt an Indian girl, that

foreign nationals wanting to adopt Indian children should follow the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000

which requires them to adopt the child within the country, and not the Guardian and Wards Act,

1890 (GAWA). Under GAWA, Indian courts could only grant guardianship rights to the foreign

national who could adopt the child as per the rules of his/her country. "Why should an Indian

child...be left to the mercy of foreign parents for his ultimate adoption in the country of origin of

such parents, when we now have an act which provides for such an adoption," Sharma said while

deciding a petition in which NGOs and the Delhi Council of Child Welfare sought its permission to

give orphaned children to foreign nationals. (Times of India 18.1.05)



Juvenile Justice Act lets foreigners adopt kids (14)

New Delhi, Jan. 18: Henceforth any foreign national who seeks to adopt an Indian child, will have

to follow the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, rather than the Guardian and Wards Act of 1890. A city

court favoured the J.J. Act, 2000, which requires the parents adopt the child within India itself.

Under the Guardian and Wards Act, 1890, Indian courts could only grant guardianship rights to

foreigners who would then adopt the child as per the rules of their own country. "Why should an

Indian child be left at the mercy of foreign parents for his ultimate adoption in the country of origin

of such parents when we now have an act which provides for such an adoption," observed district

judge Rekha Sharma, while deciding on a petition moved by two foreign nationals seeking

adoption of an Indian girl. This was directed with an aim to reduce the scope of abuse. "There

should be no reason to resort should to the Guardian and Wards Act, 1890 which does not result

in giving permanent custody of the child to foreign parents and which will entitle the parent to the

custody of the child only if they adopt the child as per the laws of their country," pointed out the

judge as she called for giving permanent custody under the J.J. Act. (Asian Age 19.1.05)



Deserted by parents, tortured by employer (14)

CHENNAI, JAN. 30. In a shocking case that highlights the dangers of domestic child labour, a

beaten and burnt 10-year-old child was recently rescued from her workplace. According to the

child, she had been at the house in Anna Nagar for as long as she could remember, and her

employer often found fault with her and beat her. However, this time about two weeks ago, her

employer scorched her on the legs, arms and back with a hot ‘dosai karandi’. She was unable to

walk and could not stop screaming. She was locked up in a room for a day to prevent her from

attracting attention. However, the next day she managed to escape, and was found on the street

by an unknown Samaritan who tipped off Childline 1098, the 24 hour toll-free hotline for children

in distress. A team from the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW), Tamil Nadu, responded and

rescued the child. A complaint has been lodged with the the Tirumangalam police station. Her

employer was arrested, as she had filed a missing persons report regarding the child and is now

out on bail. The child is recovering well under the care of the ICCW. According to the child, she

was abandoned by her mother, a coolie worker, who kept returning only to collect money every

month or so. On those occasions, her mother did not even speak to her. The child was also

separated from her father. According to Vidya, an ICCW volunteer familiar with this case, “she

was under the complete control of her employer.” (The Hindu 31.1.05)



Economists plump for child labour (14)

London, Jan. 31: Its horrors were highlighted by Charles Dickens and countless campaigners

since, but child labour — including prostitution, mining, deep-sea fishing and drug-trafficking—

should not be banned in poor countries, according to a study by the Royal Economic Society

The research, by two professors of economics, says that making the worst forms of child labour

illegal is misguided, does more harm than good, and can damage the economy and the living

standards of many families in developing nations. India has about 1.2 crore child labourers.

The study says that a worldwide ban, championed by the International Labour Organisation and

supported by 151 countries, could deprive families of money that might otherwise be used to pay

for children's food and education. "Where there is a choice, the worst forms of child labour will

usually be chosen because they pay better than other forms, considered 'non-harmful'," the report

says. "The market for the worst forms of child labour helps to keep wages in the market for the

'good' forms of child labour sufficiently high to help poor families finance their children's

education." (Telegraph 1/2/05)



Meet to create incest awareness among youth (14)

New Delhi, Feb. 4: Though there is no mass research on incest and child sexual abuse in India,

according to studies conducted by the Recovering and Healing from Incest Foundation (RAHI),

which is working towards prevention and intervention in the area of incest and child sexual abuse

(CSA), nearly 76 per cent of 600 women in metropolitan cities said they had been abused before

the age of 18 years and around 40 per cent had been victims of incest. In an attempt to bring this

issue out of the closet, college students are taking the lead to create awareness in this regard

among a greater number of people. College students participated and showed keen interest at a

seminar on "Preventing Incest/Child Sexual Abuse: Within Our Reach" last week. Organised by

students from five women's colleges of the Delhi University, the seminar was aimed to equip the

participants with information and skills so that they are better equipped to deal with this issue.

"There is a common myth that women is safe in the four walls of her house, which unfortunately

is untrue. (Asian Age 5.2.05)



Parliament to adopt tsunami orphans (14)

JAIPUR, FEB. 22. The country's Parliament is likely to initiate a few far-reaching steps, including

adoption of all the children orphaned by the killer tsunami, in the near future that would perhaps

change its image in the public eyes forever. Not only the children orphaned by the tsunami but

also children rendered orphans in natural calamities and even accidents would be "Children of

Parliament" in future as their upkeep and education would be taken care of by a new fund to be

created from the contributions of the MPs. The Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who

has held consultations with the Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, in this regard, is said to

be of the view that a "human face" is a much needed makeover for Parliament. Sources close to

the Vice-President, during his recent visit to the Rajasthan capital, told The Hindu that a corpus

of Rs.100 crores was expected to be set up with contributions from Members of Parliament and

other sources. After tsunami, the members have been asked to contribute Rs.ll lakhs each from

their MP's Local Area Development Fund and also a month's salary each. So far a total of Rs.36

crores has been collected from the members. (The Hindu 23/2/05)



Allocation for Children’s development inadequate (14)

NEW DELHI, MARCH 1. Child Relief and You (CRY), a non-governmental organisation working

for underprivileged children, has said the Government's commitment to improve the condition of

children was not reflected in the budget. "The annual budget is an opportunity for the Government

to match its rhetoric with adequate allocations for children's development. That has not happened

again," Ila Hukku, Director, CRY, said in a statement here today. The Government had

announced measures such as creation of Shiksha Kosh, a non-lapsable fund for primary

education; increasing number of schools in minority areas and expansion of the Integrated Child

Development Scheme. "These are schemes and proposals operational for years. There appears

to be a dearth of ideas on how the Government should address the educational needs of facilities

at this time, nor is there a plan on how to improve the quality of the education being provided,"

she said. The common minimum programme had called for 6 per cent allocation for education.

Though the allocation had been increased, it was still well below the target and the Government's

commitment to education was inadequate, the statement said. Similarly, CRY believed that the

increased allocation to health sector was also inadequate. Also, the missing links were the details

of how the allocation would be spent, especially on child health. (The Hindu 2/3/05)



HC sets deadline for clearing Hindu adoption cases (14)

NEW DELHI. FEBRUARY 28 IN a major relief to anxious parents and children waiting for

adoption in the Capita! since mid-2004, Delhi High Court has given the district judge a three-week

deadline to dispose of adoption cases under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA)

1956, Newsline had highlighted the plight of several such adoptive parents and babies waiting

since July last year for their cases to be cleared by the district court. Justice C K Mahajan has

issued directions to the district judge to dispose of the over 50 cases pending before it as "ex-

peditiousiy" as possible and if need be to assign cases to the additional district judges. Hie cases

had got stuck when the then district judge, Rekha Sharma, raised the issue of whether adoptions

should be under the Guardians . and Wards Act (GAWA) or the Juvenile Justice (Care and

Protection of Children) Act 2000. And while the district court heard arguments by the government

and the agencies concerned, adoption cases were not heard. Even those adoption cases which

were under the Hindu Adoption Act (HAMA) were not disposed of despite the fact that this legal

question didn't apply to them. (Indian Express 1/3/05)



8-yr-old locked in with dog (14)

Kolkata, March 6: Though dog bites man is not supposed to make news, this one would certainly

do. A child domestic help was badly mauled by the furious pet dog of her owner who had gone

out after locking the girl and the animal in a room of the house at Agarpara in the northern

extremities of the city on Friday. The Alsatian, who had been tethered by its master, pulled at the

leash till it gave away, and vented its ire by launching a fierce attack on the eight-year-old.

The wounded maid servant was taken to the hospital in an injured state with third degree bites.

Guria Jacob, employed by Chanda Majumder a few days ago, is a resident of Shibpur in Howrah.

Ms Majumder lives with her ailing mother and son on South Station Road in Agaipara. (Asian Age

7/3/05)



Budgetary allocation for child welfare inadequate (14)

NEW DELHI, MARCH 12. Centre for Child Rights has said the budgetary allocation for child

welfare was inadequate. In a statement here, it said the Union Finance Minister had levied a two

per cent cess on all central taxes in his last budget. The collection on this account was Rs. 5010

crores and this should have been allocated entirely for universalisation of quality elementary

education, but this had not happened. The allocation for elementary education increased only by

Rs. 3991.91 crores, suggesting a shortfall of Rs. 1018.09 crores. After accepting the Abhijit Sen

committee report on conversion cost to implement the Supreme Court orders on Mid Day Meal

scheme, the Centre worked out a mechanism to give Rs. 1 per child per school day for 200 days

to the States and Union Territories. The Centre had allocated Rs, 1,846.06 crores towards grants-

in-aid, whereas it should have been Rs. 2,572 crores to provide for 12.86 crores children it had to

cover. The Financial Memorandum to the Amendment mentions that Rs. 98,000 crores is needed

over 10 years to enrol all children into the school system and ensure eight years of compulsory

and quality schooling, which implies that Rs. 9,800 crores should be allocated annually for

elementary education over and above the existing levels of expenditure in 2001. On this point too,

the Finance Minister has failed the children who still await free and good quality education.

In India, 47 per cent of children in the age group of 0 to 3 years are undernourished, 51 per cent

of them suffer from severe or moderate anaemia and the child mortality (0 to 5 years) is the

highest in the world. In these circumstances the Integrated Child Development Scheme is the

only hope for children in the age group of 0 to 6 years. (The Hindu 13/3/05)



Protest against child labour (14)

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14. To raise issues related to girl child labour, Campaign Against Child

Labour today organised from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar. The rally included hundreds of girl

child labours, women activists, trade unions academic institutions, media agencies, child and

human rights organisations, research bodies, corporate houses and student volunteers. The rally

was followed by dialogue between political leaders from various parties and girl child labours.

This gave the victims an opportunity to place their demands before political leaders. Speaking

about her association with CACL, social activist Jaya Jaitely said, "I feel that it's high time that this

cause gets the attention due to it by the government and child labour should be completely

eradicated from our social system." She further said that they are supporting the cause of girl

child education so that they are confident enough to put forward their demands and help in

changing the system when they grow up. (The Hindu 15/3/05)



Probe 'sale' of Salem children in Kerala auctions: PIL (14)

CHENNAI, MARCH 16. A public interest litigation petition, highlighting "sale" of Salem-based

children for household works in Kerala and seeking action against the racketeers, has been filed

in the Madras High Court. Admitting the petition filed by K. Ramakrishnan, general secretary of

the Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, a Division Bench comprising Justice M.

Karpagavinayagam and Justice C. Nagappan, asked the Special Government Pleader, K.

Mahendran, to get instructions from the Director-General of Police and the Home Secretary within

a week. Relying on media reports, the petitioner said a large number of children aged between

seven and 12 were taken from villages in Salem district and sold at auctions at Olur Nagar in

Kerala's Thrissur district. The petitioner named a person as being responsible for the trafficking

in humans and said he himself was witness to an "auction." Children from Tamil Nadu were being

sold like cattle in a shandy. This was one form of reprehensible bonded labour. But no action was

taken despite representations. Mr. Ramakrishnan prayed for a direction to the authorities to

initiate a preliminary inquiry and submit a report to the court on the veracity of the reports. (The

Hindu 17/3/05)



Don't allow child marriages: SC to collectors, SPs (14)

NEW DELHI, MARCH 22: THE Supreme Court has asked district collectors and SPs across the

country to take steps to prevent child marriages. A bench comprising Justices S.B. Sinha and

S.H. Kapadia issued the direction just before the Holi vacation on a PIL filed by Forum, Fact

Finding Documentation and Advocacy. The forum sought stringent action against officials who fail

to prevent child marriages. Presenting the case of the Centre, Solicitor General Goolam E.

Vahanvati submitted that the Prevention of Child Marriages Bill, 2004, had been introduced in

Parliament to replace the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, and objections and suggestions had

been invited from the public. The NGO pointed out loopholes in the 1929 Act and said the

impugned Act was a queer piece of legislation which rendered all child marriages illegal but not

void. Criticising the 2004 Bill, the petitioner said that instead of plugging the loopholes in the law,

Section 3 of the Bill provides that a child marriage would be rendered void only if the children file

legal proceedings in this regard. (Indian Express 23/3/05)



Nod for Bill on panel to protect child rights (14)

NEW DELHI, MARCH 24: The Union Cabinet today approved introduction of the Commission for

the Protection of Child Rights Bill, 2005, in the current session of Parliament. This fulfils India's

obligation as a signatory to the U.N. Convention on Child Rights. Announcing this after the Union

Cabinet met here, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, S. Jaipal Reddy, said the

Commission for the Protection of Child Rights would be the statutory mechanism to oversee and

review the implementation of the National Policy for Children. It will also recommend remedial

action in cases of violation of child rights. This would result in improving the survival rates, health,

nutrition, and education of children, particularly girls, and equip them to be economically

productive adults who could contribute to the nation, he said. Also, the Cabinet Committee on

Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the proposal for extension of the World Bank-assisted

Integrated Child Development Services Project in Andhra Pradesh as part of the Andhra Pra-

desh Economic Restructuring (APER) Programme. (The Hindu 25/3/05)



Broken marriages not just a modern metropolitan phenomenon (14)

Child marriages are rampant in rural India. A look at the demographic pattern explains

this. Rural India with a share of about 75% among total males aged below 21 and females aged

below 18 has a high 83% of the underage married population. But that still leaves two million

underaged married people in urban India. Another counter-intuitive finding is that the proportion of

divorced/separated persons in urban areas (24.5%) is lower than the share of total urban

population (27.8%). Clearly, broken marriages are not just a modern metropolitan phenomenon

and the countryside has more than its fair share of them. Child marriages seem to be more

common among Hindus than in other religious denominations, though they are by no means

unknown in any community Hindus account for 79% of the total population below the legal age of

marriage, but account for 84.7% of all persons married before this age. Muslims have a 15.4%

share in the population of those below the legal marriage age, but a relatively lower share of

12.2% among those married before the legal age. Christians with just under 1% of those married

before the legal age and Jains with a 0.1 % share have the lowest ratios when one compares with

their overall population in this age bracket. (Times of India 28/3/05)



Caring for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS (14)

NEW DELHI, MARCH 28. A two-day national consultation on children orphaned or made

vulnerable by HIV/AIDS began here today to review and recommend strategies to care of them

and commit funding for prevention, care and support services for the affected children. The

consultation is an initiative to address an often-ignored aspect of the disease in the country. The

hidden dimension of the HIV/AIDS in India is that of the child and this will be brought to the

forefront during the consultation, perhaps for the first time. It is expected to come out with a Delhi

Commitment to formulate policies and develop all future programmes for such children.

Inaugurating the meet by tying a red band on the wrist of Kaushalya, secretary of Positive

Women's Network of India, former film star Sharmila Tagore said she was glad to see the

inclusion of several religious organisations, apart from the government organisations and the non-

government organisations, in the consultation since they had a common thread of compassion.

Compassion was a must to fight the stigma and discrimination the children faced after their

parents died. Some, despite having tested negative, were denied education and had to go to

work very early in life, thus facing exploitation. "It is time society came forward to help using the

framework of 'Panchsheel' that is to strengthen families, mobilise communities to accept HIV

patients, provide services needed to them, protect the vulnerable and lastly create a supportive

environment for care of children orphaned by them," she said. (The Hindu 29/3/05)



Andhra now tries to draw child labour to school (14)

Hyderabad, March 31: Child rights issues are up yet again for a debate. The twin city unit of

the National Child Labour Programme (NCLP) is gearing up to run the bridge schools on a unique

"Earn while learn" scheme, which will be implemented, from this academic year. The district

administration is proposing to open 18 bridge schools in the twin cities this summer, to attract

"working children" towards education. They will be provided a midday meal on condition that they

should stay back in the school to learn in their afternoon hours, at least till 4.30 pm. NCLP twin

cities project officer Mohammed Sirajur Rahman said, "We are proposing to introduce this system

to ensure that all children get attracted to schools. They should be earning something by working

half the day and studying for the other half. This will also equip them with vocational knowledge

by the time they leave the school." The interest of each child will be identified before imparting

vocational training to it. The NCLP authorities have approached different public agencies, like the

Setwin, for work and also faculty support. The Setwin has offered to provide faculty support. Mr

Rahman said it was yet to be worked out how much a child can earn in this sys-tem.Initially, the

government (read the NCLP) may be able to provide such a facility to about 3,600 children.

Each school can accommodate 200 kids.The idea to provide vocational training to the children

above 12 years has come in for criticism from the NGO quarters. (Asian Age 1/4/05)



Children of the Valley suffer the most (14)

When a group of children were asked to write a story, a young girl penned her desire to become

Aishwarya Rai one day. But for others, it was the same story: how their mother was raped, their

father was killed, and brothers and sisters made orphan. These children belong to Baramulla in

Kashmir, and at a camp organised by the Army and an NGO, they gave expression to the

problems they faced in the conflict-torn Valley. "Children matter so little in these areas that we

don't even bother to write about them. But they are the most vulnerable lot," said Ms Paro Anand,

writer of No Guns at My Son's Funeral, at a seminar on Healing Children of Political Violence in

New Delhi on Wednesday. The seminar was attended by Centre for Equity Studies director Harsh

Mander and Ms Razia Ismail of the India Alliance for Child Rights. About her experiences with

Kashmiri children at camps held in collaboration with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Ms Anand

said, "These children have no fun in their lives, no imagination to have a better future, they are

unable to move beyond their own rock of grief." She further added, "Young boys in Kashmir are

picked up by militants from the road. Whenever the boys go out, they are accompanied by their

mothers for fear of kidnapping." The seminar also focused on the state's responsibility for helping

such children cope with their life. "We have to help the children of the terrorists, otherwise we

allow them to become terrorists. They don't have bloody minds, but they will if we do not help,"

she warned. Ms Ismail said some Kashmiri women wanted to join her in her crusade. "They want

to help as they have suffered too." (Asian Age 2/4/05)



Child's body found in jungle, villagers allege sacrifice (14)

Meerut: IT LOOKS like tantriks are continuously playing a role in people's life in western Uttar

Pradesh. A six-year-old child was allegedly sacrificed in the jungle of Sadarpur area here on

Sunday. The body of the child was recovered from a field outside the village. After observing the

body, the villagers alleged that somebody has sacrificed the child and protested the act in front of

police officials. Subhash Chandra lives in village Sadarpur with his family members and runs a

grocery shop. His six-year-old son Ankur would play with other children of the village in a

playground near the village. On Saturday afternoon, Ankur told his mother that he was going to

play with his friends but he did not return home till late evening. His mother got worried and

informed Subhash that their son was missing. A worried father contacted all the friends of his son

but in vain. All the villagers gathered there and started searching for the child. But, even after all

nightlong search, the villagers could not find the missing child. On Sunday morning, a woman of

the village saw a child's body lying in a field in the jungle. She then rushed towards the village

and informed the villagers about the body. The officials although did not confirm human sacrifice

but after looking into the evidences they did not rule out the chances of such an incident. (Pioneer

5.4/05)



The tale of children of a lesser God (14)

New Delhi: THEY ARE usually addressed as slum children with an insecure and bleak future

ahead. However, these young underprivileged lot are not worried about their social status as

they are courageous enough to fight back. Through a short play called Akhir Kyon? the naive

actors of the Anubhav Siksha Kendra will tell you about their determined effort at social

awakening through intense introspection. Meet 14-year-old Vishnu, playing the character of

Vicky, a rag picker who dreams about going to school but is not ashamed of his present

condition. "Our characters in the play reflect that even though we wish to wear nice clothes and

lead a luxurious life, we are not going to compromise our self respect at any cost. We would fight

back and get what we deserve but are not ashamed of our financial status or social upbringing,"

said Vishnu, studying in Class VIII. Though he aims to be a world-class cricketer, this Shahrukh

Khan fan, however, has not given up the thought of trying his luck in Bollywood. He gets inspired

when his teachers appreciate his acting skills. "I have a lot of aspirations in my mind but I wish I

could fulfil them all in one lifetime," sighed Vishnu. (Pioneer 5/4/05)



Unicef says LTTE took in 106 kids (14)

Colombo, April 5: Tamil tiger rebels have recruited 106 children into their ranks since the

December 26 tsunami hit Sri Lanka, Unicef officials said. The recruits included those taken from

tsunami refugee camps in the Tamil-majority north and east of Sri Lanka, parts of which are

under militants control, Unicef spokesman Mr Marc Vergara said. "There have been 106 verified

cases over the last three months," he said. There was no immediate response from the rebels.

(Asian Age 6/4/05)



43 kids ‘forced to work’ rescued (14)

NEW DELHI, APRIL 7: THE Delhi Police Special Cell has rescued 43 juveniles — mostly aged

below 12 — who were forced to stay in inhuman conditions and work for long hours by some

embroidery unit owners in Sarita Vihar area of South Delhi. The children hailed from Bihar. Raids

were carried out last night on a tip-off that in gross violation of the Juvenile Justice Act, minors

from remote areas of Bihar were being brought to Delhi with the promise of employment, only to

be treated cruelly and exploited by some embroidery businessmen. "Our men posed as garment

exporters and secretly surveyed the Shaheen Bagh area" before the raids, Joint Commissioner,

Special Cell, Karnal Singh, said, adding, the team saw small children working in ill-ventilated

cramped rooms for long hours. After the survey, six premises were raided in Shaheen Bagh, Abul

Fazal Part-II and Sarita Vihar areas, leading to the rescue of 43 children, Singh said. The owner

of one of the premises, Abid Hussain (38), was arrested under the Juvenile Justice (care and

protection of children) Act, 2000. On interrogation, Hussain, a matriculate from Muzaffarpur

district in Bihar, disclosed that after working for a few years in Dubai, he had set up an

embroidery unit. "Since the business was labour-intensive, he brought minor children from remote

areas of Bihar as they could be made to work for long hours with virtually no remuneration," said

DCP, Special Cell, Ashok Chand. (Indian Express 8/4/05)

Bihar child labourer turns tutor in slums (14)

NEW DELHI: Four teenagers, three from public schools and one rehabilitated child labourer,

became friends at an Indo-Pak peace programme last year. The friends have now turned

teachers for around 70 slum children in Burari, a remote village in northwest Delhi. Akshat Jain

and Nishit Sood are from Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, and Puja Singh studies in Queen's

Mary School. Helping them is 16-year-old Mohan Kumar Mukhia, a child labourer from Bihar who

was rescued from the carpet industry recently. "I was sold by my parents for Rs 400 and became

a labourer. Today, I have left behind my past. I have a sense of accomplishment as I encourage

other slum children to study and become self-dependent," says Mukhia. The volunteers organise

literacy classes in the village and mobilise girls from underprivileged backgrounds to learn sewing

and embroidery. (Asian Age 8/4/05)



Parents abandon girls in Lucknow (14)

Lucknow, April 7: Two-year-old Vandana and one-year-old Kalli are not orphans but their plight

is worse than that of an orphan. The girls have been abandoned for no apparent reason by their

parents. Their mother Ramkali, eloped with her lover about a week ago and two days later, their

father Ramu also abandoned the two infants and went away to his home in Sitapur district where

he is reportedly staying with his paramour. The infants were left alone in their house in Aziz

Nagar under Madiyaon police station where they kept crying incessantly for almost two days in

lover's house but the woman apparently refused to take the custody of her daughters and on the

other hand, abused and physically manhandled Mr Lal for "troubling" her. "I contacted the father

in their house till they fainted with hunger and exhaustion. A kindly neighbour Sohan Lal peeped

in and rescued he infants. Mr Lal, first of all, traced Ramkali, the mother of the girls, to her

Sitapur but he said he had nothing to do with his daughters either. I cannot afford to keep the girls

with me since I have my own family to fend for so I then went to the district magistrate's office and

then to the office of the senior superintendent of police hoping that these two officials would

arrange for a home for the babies. But the staff of both the officers misbehaved with me when I

told them of my problem and shooed me away," says Mr Lal. Finally, on Wednesday evening, Mr

Lal got in touch with a lawyer and filed a petition on behalf of the two girls, asking for shelter and

protection from the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court. (Asian Age 8/4/05)



India among ‘slow progressing’ nations in child, maternal care (14)

NEW DELHI, APRIL 7. Hundreds of millions of women and children have no access to potentially

life-saving care and it is no surprise then that 10.6 million children die before the age of five and

half a million women globally die at child birth, according to the World Health Report, 2005

released here today. The report points out that these deaths could be sharply reduced through

wider use of key interventions and a "continuum of care" approach for mother and child that

began before pregnancy. The report puts India in the list of 51 "slow progressing" countries as far

as infant and child mortality and maternal mortality is concerned with an estimated 1,36,000

maternal and one million newborn deaths, and newborns suffering from pregnancy birth-related

mortality and where morbidity continued to take a toll on the lives of Indian women and their

newborns. Globally about 5,30,000 women die annually in pregnancy or childbirth, more than

three million babies are stillborn, more than four million newborns die within the first days of

weeks of life, and altogether 10.6 million die before their fifth birthday, according to the World

Health Organisation (WHO) report. In "The World Heath Report 2005 — Make Every Mother and

Child Count", WHO estimates that out of a total of 136 million births every year worldwide, less

than two-thirds of women in less developed countries and only one-third in the least developed

countries have their babies delivered by a skilled attendant. The report was launched in India to

draw the attention of the Indian Government towards this issue. "Maternal and child health is a

human rights issue of women and children. It is politically important to care for maternal and child

health and the present situation is unacceptable," Joy Phumaphi, assistant Director-General,

Family and Community Health, WHO said. (The Hindu 8/4/05)



6 months, and abused kids don't have a lawyer (14)

MUMBAI.APRIL 8: IT has been six months yet Maharashtra has not managed to find a public

prosecutor to represent four abused children in a fast-track court. The alleged abusers are

Duncan Grant (61) and Allan Waters (57), former British Royal Navy sailors, both of whom

worked at the Anchorage Shelter in Colaba. On Friday, the the Sewri sessions court judge R

Bhandurge wrote to the Law and Judiciary Department over its persistent failure to find a special

prosecutor in what is now called the Anchorage Shelter child-abuse case. Four prosecutors were

appointed thus far, but citing varied problems, they have not appeared in court. So the trial has

been repeatedly adjourned over the last six months. Child-abuse charges against Grant and

Waters were filed in 2001, but it was only with Waters' extradition from New York to Mumbai in

September 2004 that the case was committed to trial in November. Grant was arrested in

Tanzania last year after a report by a Tanzanian paper and The Indian Express alerted the

Tanzanian police to his presence at a children's home there. (Indian Express 9/4/05)



43 juveniles rescued one held for trafficking (14)

New Delhi : IN A well coordinated operation, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police rescued 43

juveniles and arrested a person involved in the child trafficking. DCP, Special Cell, Ashok Chand

said that a police team under the supervision of ACP, Norbu Tsering, swung into action after

receiving a lead that children from Bihar were being brought to Delhi with enticing them an

employment in the garment industry, situated at Shaheen Bagh, Sarita Vihar in south Delhi.

On further investigation, it was discovered that the children were forced to work, at a place which

was cramped and had a poor ventilation, for long hours, he further said. Abid Hussain, owner of

one of such premises was arrested for violation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act-

2000. It was also revealed that he procured the children from far flung areas of Bihar. Even they

were forced to work for long hours without any remuneration, Mr chand added. (Pioneer 9.4.05)



83 children rescued from serfdom, 3 arrested (14)

NEW DELHI, APRIL 10. As many as 82 children, who were working under inhuman conditions in

embroidery units running at Badarpur, were rescued by the South Delhi police on Saturday.

Three men have been arrested in this connection. The police received a tip-off that juveniles were

being employed in embroidery units at Badarpur. Subsequently, they raided the place and

rescued the children from two buildings in which they had been kept. According to the Deputy

Commissioner of Police (South Delhi), Pravir Ranjan, almost all the children, who are 10 to 12

years of age, were trafficked from Bihar and the accused had given some money to the parents of

each of the children for the same. He informed that three men, identified as Jeevan, Ram Naresh

and Inder Singh, were arrested during the operation. The police are trying to identify others who

brought the children to the Capital. Earlier on Wednesday, the Special Cell had rescued 43

children from an embroidery unit running at Sarita Vihar in South Delhi. In that case also, the

juveniles were trafficked from Bihar, mostly Sitamarhi. The unit owner, who was from Sitamarhi,

disclosed that he had brought the children on the pretext of imparting them training in embroidery.

Several of these children were working in that unit for the past three years against a meagre

salary of about Rs. 300 and three-quarter meal. (The Hindu 11/4/05)



Child Labour: Unfortunately, here too girls ahead of boys (14)

New Delhi: DESPITE THE Government's rhetorics, child labour in the country is growing. Ans so

is the gender divide within child labour, with female children being the real sufferers. The latest

annual survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), the 59th round,

has found that the number of female child labourers per thousand worker population is growing

both in rural and urban areas. The survey reveals there are 41 female child labourers per

thousand worker population in rural areas as against the previous figure of 34 per thousand. In

percentage terms, the rise in female child labour is from 3.4 to 4.1 per cent of the total employed

persons in the rural areas. The picture is no different in urban areas, where the number of female

child labourers has increased from 15 to 18 per thousand worker population. In percentage terms,

this comes out to be an increase from 1.5 per cent of the total urban workforce (as per NSSO’s

58th round) to 1.8 per cent (as per the 59th round of the survey) In fact, in urban areas while the

number of girl children joining the workforce has increased, there has been considerable fall in

the employment rate of female workers in the age group of 15-29. As per NSSO's latest survey,

the female workers in the age group of 15-29 account for 15.4 per cent of the employed persons

in urban areas as against 16 per cent recorded by the previous 58th round. While the incidence

of female child labour has worsened, that of male ones has continued to remain more or less

stagnant. According to the 59th'round of the NSSO, there are 31 male child labourers per

thousand employed persons in the urban areas. The 58th round, too, had recorded exactly the

same figure. (Pioneer 14/4/055)



HC rules out maintenance for step-children (14)

New Delhi: THE DELHI High Court has held that a man cannot be held liable to pay maintenance

to his step children if he decides to call off a relationship. Laying down this rule in its recent

judgement, the court said, if a man decides to divorce his wife who has issues from her previous

marriage, in no manner can he be made responsible to pay for her children since such category

as 'step-father' or 'step children' does not exist in the law regarding order on maintenance.

Considering the modern trend of divorces and live-in relationships prevalent in society, this

judgement is set to raise valid questions about the legal rights of divorcees and their issues. The

court further held that if a man legally wed a divorcee, and further decided to divorce, in such

circumstance, he would not be liable to pay for the children, though his name may have used as

father in official records. The issue came up for consideration before the court in a case

pertaining to one PC Chopra who was directed by a lower court to pay maintenance to the

daughters of his illegitimate wife. After he announced the decision to separate ways from her, she

had approached the court seeking maintenance for her and her children alike. Ms Jyoti, who

approached the Metropolitan Magistrate, could not prove that her marriage was legally valid, and

on this ground she was rejected maintenance. However, her two daughters Bindiya (12) and

Manshi (11) found favour with the court which directed Mr Chopra to pay maintenance of Rs

2,000 per month to the children. (Pioneer 14/4/05)



80 held for bizarre burials (14)

Madurai, April 13: The Tamil Nadu police has booked cases against 80 persons for

participating in the bizarre ritual of burying infants alive as a means of fulfilling their vows, near

Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar district. The age-old ritual Kuzhimattru, which literally means

changing pits, was performed on Monday as part of the annual festival at the Muthumariamman

temple at Chatrapatti Ayyanapuram near Rajapalayam. The Keelarajakularaman police registered

cases against 80 persons on Tuesday for participating in it. The ritual is performed in the

southern districts of Tamil Nadu, particularly in the Mariamman temples, by people from different

communities. It is done by couples who take a vow to bury alive their firstborn if they are blessed

with a child. To fulfil the vow they bury children who may be less than a year old in two-foot-deep

pits which are then covered with neem leaves and a sprinkling of earth in the courtyard of

temples. The priest performs certain ceremonies and steps across the pits. It is only then that the

children are taken out and laid prostrate before the deities. As reports filtered in that a similar

ritual would take place at M. Pudupatti village in Yirudhunagar, the police proceeded to the village

and warned the people against performing it. The ritual was consequently abandoned. The police

suggested to the villagers that if the parents wanted to fulfill their vows, they could lay the infants

on the floor and walk across them. (Asian Age 14/4/05)



Moon schools to abolish child labour a success (14)

Madurai, April 17: The "Nila Pallis" or "Moon schools" that were started with an aim to abolish

child labour and bring the children into the mainstream, have today several success stories to tell

and the Virud-hunagar district administration is organising a programme to ensure that the

children keep going up the ladder of success. These schools are arranged once a month on

full moon days in 150 places in Virudhunagar district in open air classrooms. The children take

out rallies as a part of social mobilisation. Songs and cultural programmes are organised.

Innovative learning methods are demonstrated, including book reading. The schools were started

in a move to step up measures to curb child labour about three years ago. The concept was

taken from the Indian culture of mothers feeding their children under the moonlight while telling

them stories. They are attended by the children as well as parents and are expected to generate

the same level of interest and enthusiasm among both. Moon schools also serve as a platform for

children to exhibit their innate talents in front of their parents and also other rural folk These

schools don't just involve the students and teachers, but also industrialists who employ child

labourers, the formal school and members of the community, including the NGOs and elected

representatives. So, they also serve as a forum to talk about school dropouts and enrolment

issues, besides factors like economic conditions. (Asian Age 18/4/05)



Primary trouble continues to dog India’s children (14)

New Delhi: Primary education and gender disparity in education continue to be problem areas in

India, according to a UNICEF report on girls' education released on Monday. India accounts for

as many as 26.8 million of the 115 million children not in primary school globally, a little over 23%.

South Asia as a whole accounts for 42 million. Further, India's record in gender parity isn't

enviable. With a primary education gender parity index (GPI) of 0.91 — 91 girls in school for

every 10 boys — India ranks 147th out of 181 countries globally, well behind neighbours Sri

Lanka and Bangladesh, who have already achieved gender parity in primary education. African

countries accounted for as many as 28 of the 34 that fared worse. On the bright side, rapid

strides are being made globally towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) charted by

the UN. The total number of students not going to school is projected to reduce to less than 100

million this year, a big step towards the second MDG of ensuring primary education for all by

2015. However, even this isn't going to be enough to ensure universal primary education by

2015. The world has to maintain an average annual rate of increase of 1.3% in the enrolment of

children, up from a current growth rate of less than 1% annually. The regions that are farthest

from the goal need considerably higher growth rates — 3.2% in West/Central Africa, 2.8% in

Eastern/Southern Africa and 1.9% in South Asia. (Times of India 19/4/05)



NCW launches campaign against child marriages (14)

NEW DELHI, April 19. — The National Commission for Women today launched a campaign

against child marriages, which will cover six states. The campaign was launched as a prelude to

Akha Teej or Akshay Tritiya, which according to the astrological calculations is an auspicious date

for marriages. Falling on 11 May, it is also the day when mass child marriages are held in various

remote villages in Delhi's neighbouring states. The team led by the chairperson, Mrs Girija Vyas

kick-started the tour with a visit to Lucknow today. The team will visit Bihar, Jharkand, Chattis-

garh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Surprisingly, even after years of campaigning against

child marriages, the administration of either state is not aware about the prevalence rate.

"We have been trying to get figures pertaining to each state and zero in on the most sensitive

areas but none of the administrative officers have a clue to it," said a senior official at NCW.

The commission has suggested a few amendments in the Child Marriages Restraint Act. The

commission has been campaigning for appointment of child marriage prevention officers. They

further demand that even the guests visiting such an event should be penalised. The campaign

will involve a visit to remote villages. The message is to be spread by the. skits, dance dramas

and films. The commission has written to the chief secretaries of all these states. On it's visit, it

will also interact with all the concerned authorities right from village Panchayat officers.

(Statesman 20/4/055)



200 Child marriages stopped this year (14)

Rajnandgaon: Young girls, who have formed the "Kishori Vahini"in Chattisgarh to stop child

marraiges, have sought protection from their parents and co-villagers. District Magistrate G S

Mishra directed the sub-divisional magistrates concerned to help the girls. Around 200 such

'probable' marriages have been prevented this year, said Mishra. Rajnandgaon is one of the four

districts in Chhattisgarh notorious for mass child marriages during April-May every year. Last

year, 135 child marriages were prevented in the district and a priest was sent to jail.

Sunil Kuzur, secretary of the child and women welfare department, said while the oath signed by

the 1,000 girls did not have any "legal sanctity" as the signatories were minors, it would have

"social sanction" against child marriages. Amita's campaign gained support from other minor girls

of Supra village in Khairagarh block. Amita's father gave into pressure and said he would not

arrange her marriage now. The panchayat secretaries, anganwadi workers and gram panchayat

members helped identify the minor girls and issued certificates to them. Village-to-village surveys

were launched to identify minors. The girls themselves organised rallies in every block to raise

awareness. The administration has also issued 91,000 birth certificates for girls in the 14-18 age

group, making it difficult for parents to make false claims about the age of their wards.

National Commission for Women (NCW) member Anusiya Uike, who visited Rajnandgaon to

make arrangements to prevent child marriages this year, told TNN that Rajnandgaon, Kawardha,

Durg and Dhamatari in Chhattisgarh were known for mass child marriages. (Times of India

22/4/05)



Child marriages on the rise in Andhra: NCW (14)

NEW DELHI, APRIL 24: AS IT grapples with the practice of child marriages in the Hindi

heartland, the National Commission for Women says the problem is on the rise even in southern

states. Commission member Nir-mala Seetharaman told The Indian Express child marriages are

common in at least two Andhra Pradesh districts, Warangal and Nizamuddin. "The problem of

child marriages is far more serious than female foeticide," she said. Claiming such marriages are

on the rise, she said the phenomenon is linked to rising levels of poverty in rural areas, which is

forcing more women to work. "They feel insecure about leaving their girls at home and the easy

way out is to secure the child's life by marrying her off," she said. For now, the NCW will focus on

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand, where child marriages are

common during Akha Teej festival, on May 11. The National Human Rights Commission has

directed the Centre and state governments to act in time to prevent child marriages during the

festival. "The focus is on spreading awareness by involving village heads and law-enforcing

agencies in the most vulnerable areas," said NCW chairperson Girija Vyas. (Indian Express

25/4/05)



Naxals using children as shields (14)

Wadrafnagar (Chhattisgarh): " Naxalites moving to expand their cadres are increasingly recruiting

children, some as young as 14, as foot soldiers for their battle to create a Marxist haven.

Children from schools in tribal districts of Chhattisgarh are being kidnapped to be trained both as

frontline combatants and as shields during operations against security personnel. Girdhari Nayak,

IG of police of Bastar range, told TOI that police spotted children in school uniforms with the

naxalites in encounters in Kapasi and Basaguda recently. The children were leading the attack,

forcing the police to retreat as they did not want to harm the children. According to Nayak, 50% of

the members of some of the dalams of the extremists consisted of school children. The Naxalites

are closing down schools and forcibly taking away tribal children, both boys and girls, to training

camps where they are taught how to use weapons and deal with explosives. He said using

children as frontline combatants by Naxalites contravened the Geneva convention on human

rights. Nayak said he had appealed to the teachers of schools in the area, mostly in Bastar and

Sarguja regions, not to allow the Naxalites to take the children away from the schools. It was

clear that children were kidnapped from schools since many of them were still wearing uniforms,

he added. In Rajnandgaon district's Chhuriya and Wagh areas, Naxalites visited villages and

asked parents to send at least one boy or girl from their family to the jungles for training.

Umesh Chaudhury, deputy SP of another Naxalite-infested area of Wadrafnagar in Surguja, also

said he knew of school children among the Naxalites in his area. He said children in the age

group of 14-18 were being recruited forcibly by the Naxalites and trained in the jungles for attacks

against policemen. (Times of India 26/4/05)



Six minors wed in a day in Salem tribal hamlet (14)

SALEM, APRIL 27: IN A remote tribal hamlet atop Sheveroy Hills here, nine weddings were held

on a single day last week — that six of the brides were minors hardly put a damper on the

celebrations. It was only last month that the parents of a 13-year-old were arrested from

neighbouring Vellore for marrying off their minor daughter. But that hardly deterred the Malyali

tribals at Kondaiyanoor from holding child marriages on April 22. Only three days before the mass

marriage here, a police team had raided the hamlet for illicit liquor. While the age of some of the

girls could be verified from primary school records, it was difficult to ascertain the exact age of the

rest. Even their parents could not recall the dates of birth, as the tribals were not used to the

system of registering births or deaths. But village sources said, only three of the brides had

completed 18 years. Sources in the village and school records revealed that six of the brides

were certainly minors. According to school records, Madhu is just 13. She married Govindan,

aged 19 years. Her friend, Govin-damma (16) married 20-year-old Palanisamy. And 17-year-old

Lakshmi was married to Ramasamy (22). Shantha's mother said she was 18 but sources claimed

otherwise. The other brides — Sakun-thala is 16 and Vennila is 15. The grooms were all from the

same village. They tied the knot in the presence of 70-year-old Madhaiyan, the natanmaikarar

(priest). Later, the couples returned to their respective homes to continue other rituals. While

three brides were from neighbouring villages Kolagur and Sonappadi, six were from

Kondaiyanoor itself. (Indian Express 28/4/05)



Minor won’t marry, calls up cops (14)

FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL Motim Sahu rebelled against her family's decision and challenged

the age-old practice of child marriage by not only refusing to enter into a wedlock but also seeking

police help to pressurise the near and dear ones to get her marriage put off. It was scheduled for

April 27. Catching up with the "modern day girls'" attitude of not to buckle under pressure for

carrying out traditional customs, Motim wasted no time and informed the local police that she was

14 years old and that her relatives had decided to marry her off against her will. Motim, who hails

from Umraon Nagar village of Saja development block in Durg district, is a class VIII student. Her

parents had finalised her marriage despite her protests. When she realised that her attempts

to convince her family to cancel the marriage had failed, she wrote to the Thankhamaria

police station informing about her parents' decision. She complained to the police station in-

charge that she was being forced to get married. She also pointed out that marriage of a minor

puts a girl's future in the dark. The matter was also communicated to the district literacy mission.

On receiving her complaint, the local police immediately swung into action and got her marriage

cancelled. The police detained her parents and later let them off with a stern warning. "On

receiving her complaint, the police promptly went to the village and got the marriage cancelled,"

Senior Superintendent of Police of Durg Ramesh Sharma told The Pioneer. Girls in Chhattisgarh

are rebelling against child marriage. In a similar case, the district administration in adjoining

Rajnandgaon prevented more than 400 child marriages, district Collector Ganesh Shankar Mishra

pointed out. (Pioneer 30/4/05)



Bill to protect children's rights welcomed (14)

JAIPUR: The introduction of a Bill in the Lok Sabha the other day to facilitate the setting up of a

national commission and State commissions for the protection of children's rights has been

welcomed by CUTS (Consumer Rights and Trust Society). "If the introduction of the 'Commission

for Protection of Child Rights Bill 2005' is an indication of the United Progressive Alliance

Government's commitment, then the commissions would be in place soon," CUTS noted in a

statement here on Tuesday. The State Governments should take immediate steps to constitute

commissions and also to adopt their State-level Child Policy, it said. The introduction of the Bill,

pending from 2001, showed India's commitment to the United Nation's Convention of Rights of

the Child, ratified by it in 1992, CUTS pointed out. The Bill would enable setting up of courts to

carry out speedy trial of offences against children. Such courts, separate from juvenile courts

would come up in each district to look into cases of violation of child rights. The Bill has provisions

empowering the Commission to examine and review safeguards provided for protection of child

rights and suggest measures for their effective implementation. It will also look into factors that

violate the rights of children affected by terrorism, communal violence, riots, natural disasters,

domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, trafficking and any kind of exploitation. CUTS noted that the

proposed Commission is also empowered to probe matters relating to children with special

needs, including children in distress, marginalised and disadvantaged children, children in conflict

with law and children of prisoners. (The Hindu 4/5/05)



Social worker's arms chopped off (14)

BHOPAL: Shakuntla Verma, an Anganwadi supervisor in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh was

brutally attacked and wounded by a villager on Tuesday. The attack is apparently a direct fall out

of her recent attempts to convince and stop the villager from marrying off his minor daughters.

The incident took place at Dhangarh village in Dhar district. According to information received

here, the Sub Divisional Magistrate, acting on a complaint filed by one Gopal, younger brother of

the accused, had asked Ms. Verma to contact the accused and dissuade him from getting his

minor daughters married on Akshaya Tritiya on Wednesday, considered an auspicious day for

child marriage. On Tuesday, the accused visited her house and gave her a piece of paper with an

address written on it. While she was reading it, he slashed both her arms with a sharp edged

weapon and fled. She was immediately rushed to Gokuldas hospital in Indore where she

underwent a marathon operation last night by renowned cardio-vascular surgeon, Anil Garg. In

the past 24 hours, she has been given about a dozen bottles of blood and the team of doctors

attending on her was trying its best to save her arms. The State Minister for Women and Child

Development, Archana Chitnis rushed to Indore on Wednesday. When contacted, the Secretary

and Commissioner, State Women and Child Development Department, S.R. Mohanty, told The

Hindu that what happened at Dhangarh village on Tuesday should be treated as a criminal act

committed by a criminal and no leniency would be shown. The police would do its job and the

culprit punished, he said adding that child marriage is going on for centuries and this evil has

some degree of social mandate. Legislations against child marriage have existed for 76 years but

it is now being realized that only societal action can fight this problem, he added. (The Hindu

12/5/05)



Orissa minister in child sacrifice row (14)

Bhubaneswar, May 11: SENIOR BJD leader and state finance minister Prafulla Ghadei, notorious

for his penchant for tantra, is in the spotlight again: over an alleged child sacrifice. The father of a

missing child in Ghadei's Bhubaneswar residence has charged in an affidavit that the boy may

have been sacrificed. Haldar Mahant, father of the missing Bholeswar, sent a copy of the affidavit

to Manmohan Praharai, additional DGP in charge of intelligence, who forwarded it to DGP BB

Mishra. Mishra told HT, "I have asked the Jaipur SP to investigate the allegations and report at

the earliest. After that, we may lodge a formal complaint and may interrogate the finance

minister." In the affidavit, Mahant claims that Bholeswar was taken from his house in Kaliapani in

Jaipur district to work in Ghadei's residence — in Mahant's absence — on February 6. A few days

later, Mahant visited Ghadei's Bhubaneswar residence to find out about his son. He was informed

that Bholeswar had already left for his native place with one Samrat Gupta. "Later I came to know

that my son has been sacrificed," Mahant says in the affidavit. Ghadei termed the allegation a

'blatant lie'. (Hindustan Times 12/5/05)



Chennai adoption racket busted (14)

Chennai: Malaysian Social Service Agency. Does the name sound strange? In any case, strange

were the deeds of this agency. And those who suffered were the parents of an estimated 350

children. It is an unauthorised child adoption agency which had a nexus with a gang of

kidnappers who prowled around a Chennai locality posing as beggars and made a profitable

business of it. "We estimate that about 350 children were sent to European countries, the US,

Australia and other states in India. The kidnapping gang has been operating for the last 15 years.

So far, 30 to 40 parents have come to us since I took over the case on May 5 and seven children

have been identified from photographs. It would be a long process to first investigate the case

and then identify the children," said the Central Crime Branch (CCB) assistant commissioner of

police Augustine Daniel. The nexus was exposed earlier this month with the Pulianthope police

arresting a five-member gang on May 3 in Pulianthope, a northwestern area of Chennai.

The gang; headed by Varad-harajan of Otteri, operated not only in Pulianthope but also in

neighbouring Otteri rnd Washermanpet. Posing ;S a beggar, Sabeera of Pulianthope would alert

the gang if any child was loitering around alone. A gang member would lure the child and take

him to Oterri. Varadharajan would get him admitted to the Malaysian Social Service Agency in

Thiruverkadu, through stand-in parents pretending that the adoption was voluntary. The gang

operated in the slums and ,would collect between Rs 10,000 and Rs 25,000 from the agency. The

agency is said to have collected money from the couple who adopted the children. (Times of India

13/5/05)



Just 24 and mother of 7 children (14)

New Delhi: Child labour may now acquire a whole new meaning for you. Close to 300,000 girls

under the age of 15 are not only married but have already borne children at least once, according

to census figures just released. Of these, just over 1.7 lakh have borne two kids, and another

1.25 lakh have had one child. That means more than 20% of the over 15 lakh girls married under

the age of 15 — in itself a disturbing figure — have been mothers. While most of these girls —just

under 1.5 lakh—are from rural areas, as many as 74,082 are from urban areas, with 43,151 two-

child urban mothers below the age of 15. Amazingly, almost 2.7 lakh women under the age of 24

already have had 7 or more children, 86,500 have had 6 children, more than 2,25,000 have had 5

children and over 8 lakh have had 4 kids. Even as the average number of children born to

married women in India has fallen a wee bit to 3.03, from 3.07 a decade back and 3.38 in 1981,

this fine print on underage mothers makes for startling reading. The average number of children

born to each married girl below the age of 15 has increased dramatically to 0.31 from only 0.09 a

decade back and 0.02 in 1981. There is, however, a caveat to the comparison with figures from

the earlier censuses. The figures for 1991 and 1981 census were based on samples rather than

total figures, but the 2001 figures are the actual population totals that leave no doubt, showing an

average of close to one child for every three married girls under the age of 15. (Times of India

13/5/05)



NCW drive against child-marriage (14)

NEW DELHI, MAY 12: THE National Commission for women (NCW) is planning a year-long

campaign against the menace of child-marriage as it feels the existing annual ritual of mini-

campaigns on the eve of Akha Teej—a festival linked to the practice of mass child-marriages— is

ineffective. Girija Vyas, chairperson of NCW, told The Indian Express, "It is not sufficient for the

authorities and NGOs to raise an alarm before Akha Teej and then sleep over the issue for the

rest of the year". Vyas, who has been camping in Jaipur to oversee the authorities' preparedness

for checking child-marriages around Akha Teej—which was on Wednesday— said that in spite of

a sustained campaign by the NCW and others starting three months in advance, child marriages

were still taking place. "We have been receiving reports from Ameru and other places about child-

marriages," Vyas said. She claimed that government officials have been rushed to investigate

these cases. Vyas said the NCW is shocked by the bra/en participation of a Minister of the

Chhattisgarh government in a mass child-marriage ceremony. 'Although the Chhattisgarh Chief

Minister had pledged his support to the anti-child marriage campaign, he is yet to respond to our

notice on the Minister and the administration's role in the event," she said. The National Human

Rights Commission has also asked the government of Chhattisgarh to explain the role of the

Tribal Affairs Minister in solemnising the mass marriages of children in a tribal belt. (Indian

Express 13/5/05)



RS erupts over child marriage (14)

NEW DELHI, May 13.- Cutting across party lines Rajya Sabha members today expressed

anguish at the violent attack on social activist; Ms Shakuntala Verma, in Madhya Pradesh as her

hands were chopped off for campaigning against child marriage. After the issue was raised by

CPI(M) member Ms Chandrakala Pandey during Zero Hour, all members joined in to condemn

what they called a matter of shame and sought legal action. As the Chairman, Mr Bhairon Singh

Shekhawat, promised agitated women members preference in voicing their protests, Ms Sarla

Maheshwari of CPI(M) spoke of how the Madhya Pradesli Chief Minister had declared his

helplessness in an issue where even Mahatma Gandhi had failed* She also claimed a state

minister was present at a mass child marriage on the occasion of Akshaya Trithi, a day

considered auspicious for marriage. The social activist, Ms Shakuntala Verma, who is a

supervisor in the women and child development department was attacked on the night of 10 May,

for trying to educate residents of Rajgarh village in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh against the

traditional practice of child marriage. Both her hands were chopped by the attackers, the House

was informed. (Statesman 14/5/05)



Lakhs of children employed in State mines: report (14)

NEW DELHI: Several lakh children are working in the mines at Hospet, Sandur and Ilkal belt of

Karnataka in violation of child and labour laws. A large number of children, starting from the age

of five, working in the most hazardous conditions are leading a horrible existence, HAQ — Centre

for Child Rights — has said in its report Our Mining Children." It has demanded that the Centre

should immediately conduct an enquiry in all mining areas and come up with a country report on

child labour. Although it is difficult to accurately estimate the number of children working, it can

roughly be said that at least a few lakh children are illegally forced into mining activities. Children

are used for digging, breaking stones, loading, dumping, transporting and processing of iron ore

with no safety equipment, wages or working hours, the report points out. Prepared by the Mines,

Minerals and People, Campaign Against Child Trafficking and M.V. Foundation along with several

other organisations, the report has demanded that the Centre and the Karnataka Government

accept the prevalence of child labour and enquire into the magnitude of exploitation of children.

Legal action should be taken against miners and their mining leases cancelled for employing child

workers. The organisations have suggested that local bodies such as gram pan-chayats or gram

sabhas must be given the power and mandate for monitoring the child labour situations in their

jurisdiction. The report blames the shift to privatisation and open market economy after the new

economic policies that led to pushing women and children into informal labour, as the foremost

reason for child labour. In the mining sector, deregulation of laws for attracting foreign direct

investment and private investment have led to mechanisation and retrenchment of workers and

have diluted legal protection towards labourers and the marginalised section. (The Hindu 16/5/05)



NHRC directive to Karnataka on child labour (14)

NEW DELHI: The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognisance of a news

item quoting an NGO report, which claimed that lakhs of children worked in mines in Karnataka.

The HAQ-Centre for Children Rights, alleged that children, from the age of five, were employed in

the mines at Hospet, Sandur and the Ikal belt in violation of child and labour laws. They were

forced to carry out digging, breaking stones, loading, dumping, transporting and processing of

iron ore with no safety equipment, fixed wages and working hours. They handled a high-level of

toxic wastes and were exposed to mine dust, which was above the permissible level. They were,

therefore, susceptible to chronic health problems. The report said the mine-owner was blatantly

violating labour laws by employing children and making them work under exploitative and

inhumane conditions. The school dropout rate in the region was high as the children had been

sucked into the labour market. The NHRC has directed that a copy of the news item, published in

a national daily on May 16, be sent to the Chief Secretary, Karnataka, and the Secretary,

Department of Women and Child Development, New Delhi, to look into the allegations and submit

their comments within two weeks. (The Hindu 27/5/05)



465 child workers rescued (14)

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police on Wednesday rescued 465 children who are suspected of being

employed in various industrial units in Madanpura, central Mumbai. An early morning raid was

conducted with the help of 46 NGOs working for child rights. The children will be identified and

sent back to their native States or handed over to their parents after Juvenile Justice Court

Magistrates scrutinise the papers. The children sat huddled together in the Byculla police station

while a Task Force, comprising members of child rights NGOs, collected information from them

about their native place, age, place of work or school, employer's treatment and whether they

wanted to go back. While the children aged 14 and above seemed bored and eager to leave,

those under 14 were visibly worried and scared. Ten-year-old Mohammed Sheikh kept repeating,

"I was reading the Quran when they brought me here. I am staying with my uncle. But I want to

go home." His friend said the same. Other children gave more confident and almost identical

answers. "We do not work. We only study. We have come for vacation to our relatives place,"

said one. Another added: "I even have my results from the school. My uncle runs a shop, I only

go there sometimes." One of the few who admitted that he was employed was Okil, 15, from

Nepal. He said: "I came from Nepal in search of work. I work in a bag-making unit in Jogger

chawl." Sandeep Shinde from the NGO, Bal Prafulta, said there were thousands of children

working in this city. "These children were rescued from 226 units. The owners and employers

know everything. Very often, the people who pose as parents are fake parents. They give some

document to prove that the children are not working and are related. But today, the local people

helped us to identify these units and children." The units included leather-based industries,

buffing and zari embroidery units. (The Hindu 2/6/05)

Nobody’s looking for runaway kids (14)

MUMBAI, JUNE 3: TWENTY-FOUR hours after 24 child workers rescued from 226 Madanpura

sweatshops scaled the wall of Bal Kalyan Nagari, a remand home at Mankhurd, and fled, the

Mumbai police don't seem to be in any hurry to locate them. "The remand home has not given us

the children's names," said Senior Police Inspector Raja Tambad of the Trombay police. "Without

that it's impossible to trace them." Tambad claimed the Nagpada police were entrusted with the

responsibility of looking for the runaways. But Deputy Commissioner of Police Santosh Rastogi—

the Nagpada police station falls under his jurisdcition—insisted that the onus of tracing the

children was on the Child Welfare Committee (CWC). We will only provide assistance. They are

not criminals who have escaped." CWC member Varsha Tawde, however, said that they were

clueless. "We don't about the runaways. That's for the police to look into, not us," she said Varsha

Tawde, CWC member. "Now, we are collecting data on the other children." Buck stops here?

Inside the sprawling premises of the remand home, Superintendent Bhaskar Avare admits that he

does not have a list of the rescued children. "144 boys came into our care, it wasn't possible to

collate their names and other details in 24 hours," he said, adding .that he had informed NGO

members that it would be difficult to handle such a large number, of boys with the limited staff at

his disposal. (Indian Express 4/6/05)



17. Andhra child adoption in jeopardy (14)

Hyderabad, June 3: The state government's move to permit inter-country adoption of 48 children

with special needs through its agency Shisu Vihar doesn't even sound good in theory. Seven of

the children are HIV positive and foreign countries like the US don't allow entry to HIV positive

children. And this belief that caring foreigners will come forward and adopt these children doesn't

hold tight as CARA statistics show that in the past six years, 98 per cent of the children adopted

by foreigners were healthy toddlers below the age of 2. Only 1.6 per cent of the adopted children

were either mentally challenged or disabled. Also Shisu Vihar doesn't show any of its older or

disabled children to Indians. This presumption that Indians are not interested in older or non-

healthy children is wrong. When a news channel ran a story on an HIV positive child at the Asha

home the channel had eight Indian callers who wanted to adopt her. Sometimes older couples too

want older children. When this correspondent rang the Director of Child and Women Welfare,

G.D. Aruna, the authorities said she was on leave but the principal-secretary, Child and vvuincii

Welfare, Prabhakar Thomas would answer all queries. When Mr Thomas was contacted he said,

"Speak to Aruna she is the concerned person." (Asian Age 4/6/05)



18. Minor maid rescued from captivity (14)

New Delhi: A SEVEN-YEAR-old girl was kept confined to a dingy kitchen in a government quarter

for 10 days on the UFA campus by her employers while they went on a vacation. She survived on

stale food and leftovers. Though the place was a stone's throw from the Delhi Police

headquarters, the cops had no inkling of it. The girl, Kunti Roy (name changed) was locked in the

kitchen by an Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) employee, who is in Kolkata now.

The girl was brought by Mr VK Banerjee, an IIPA electrician, to work as a domestic help. The

child was rescued by the Delhi Police after The Pioneer informed them about her captivity on

Friday night. She was saved at 11 pm from the quarter H-II/11 on the IIPA campus. The police

team reached the spot and 'broke two locks, one at the main entrance and the other at the

second door, leading to the kitchen where she was sitting huddled on the window ledge.

The girl told the police that she was locked in the kitchen for the past 10 days and was sustaining

on food cooked by her employers 10 days ago. The rice that was being cooked was stale. The

cooked food was stashed in the refrigerator, that was switched off. During interrogation the girl

revealed that her "masters" were away on holiday. She said she was brought to the capital by Mr

Banerjee about five-six months ago and since then she was being tortured and not allowed to

step out of the house. The child even showed the burn injuries to the police inflicted on her by Mr

Banerjee's wife and son, a Class VII student. Strangely the neighbours were tight-lipped and said

the family was out of station and the maid was in the house. (Pioneer 4/6/05)



19. Ever heard of child divorce? (14)

Hyderabad, June 5: Child marriages are common news but it's now the turn of child divorces as

14-year-old Chenigalla Suseela is all set to divorce her 19-year-old husband on June 12, two

days before her school re-opens. Instead of going to court to get the marriage dissolved, it will all

be over when her thali will be removed in the presence of village elders. Suseela, a native of

Aluru in Chevella Mandal, was married to a distant relative M. Narsimhulu of Rangareddy district

in April 2003. But the marriage did not last for more than seven months. She literally ran back

home in January 2004 as her husband was a drunkard who beat her everyday. He also had

another wife. Instead of blaming fate or her parents this girl has proved that one can always count

on oneself during their hour of need. She didn't give up her studies.She passed her 7th class final

exams this April. Career minded from the beginning, she joined the local M.V. Foundation Camp

(school) in her village. Her father, an agricultural labourer, admitting he committed a huge mistake

by getting her married, says, "1 will support her education till she finishes her SSC."

But, the camp has come forward to offer her free education till class X. In the meanwhile, Mr T.

Ramesh, an advocate has been examining the possibilities of a maintenance settlement for the

girl. (Asian Age 6/6/05)



17. 29 kids rescued from zari export workshop (14)

NEW DELHI, JUNE 6: TWENTY-NINE children being forced to work in a zari workshop were

rescued today in a raid in Janakpuri, west Delhi. The raid was organised by the police, Labour

Department and an NGO. The police learned about the workshop in Raghunagar after a seven-

year-old ran away. The boy said, "We weren't beaten usually, but after I had a fight with one of

the other children, mullaji beat me. So I ran away and met a hotel owner who asked me if I would

work for him and gave me food. Later, when I was taken to the police I told them what we were

doing." "We worked for about 20 hours, from 9 am to 3 pm and after our lunch we would work till

3 in the night. For this we got paid Rs 10 per week and Rs 20 per week for senior workers," said

11-year-old Shamshad, who was rescued in the raid. Most of the children are from Sitamarhi

district in Bihar and have been employed for the better part of a year. The workshop mainly

producedzan work for export. Kailash Satyarthi, the director of NGO Bachpan Bachao An-dolan

said, "We coordinated between the various agencies so that the house could be raided ... It's

important that the children should be rehabilitated as soon as possible and given good education.

(Indian Express 7/6/05)



Freed child labourers try to get on with life (14)

NEW DELHI: About 30 children rescued from a zari workshop by an NGO, Bachpan Bachao

Andolan, on Monday night have been sent to rehabilitation homes. The shifting was carried out

under the supervision of the sub-divisional magistrate and the labour department. The process of

sanctioning rehabilitation benefits to the children, who belonged to Sitamarhi district in Bihar, is

under way. According to Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of the NGO, "The parents have been

informed and they would reach Delhi by Thursday. Since these children have been declared

bonded labour, they can avail rehabilitation benefits and stay in Prayas observation homes in

Jehangirpuri for six months." Meanwhile, the rescued children appeared both happy and

melancholic. Happy, because they would finally bid adieu to the subhuman existence they were

subjected to. Sad, because they might be back to their village with no meals and electricity.

Explaining the procedures factory contractors adopt for trafficking children into Delhi and Mumbai

from poverty-stricken areas, Satyarthi said the employers keep in touch with locals who know the

villagers personally. Taking advantage of their illiteracy and ignorance, the parents are lured into

sending their children to bigger cities "to study and earn". Upon reaching the city, however, they

are made to work 15 hours at a stretch and not paid even a single penny. Masina Khatoon, a 10-

year-old among the rescued lot, said she used to cook meals for everyone there. The beastly

behaviour meted out to them is evident from the fact that about 30 children worked, slept and ate

in a small room. They usually worked from 9 am to midnight, but didn't get paid anything apart

from accommodation and meals. Munna Ansari, a 16-year-old, said, "I worked for 12 hours a day.

As my father does not work, I am the sole earning member of the family." Saddam Hussain, 10,

who has studied up to class I, said, "I used to work as an apprentice with a tailor, who beat me

everyday. I came to this place, but it turned out to be no better." Most of these 30 children came

to Delhi as either they were the only earning members or could not continue school. "I was forced

to take up a job since there was no teacher in our village. But here I had to work 16 hours a day

and was beaten when I made the smallest of mistakes," said 13-year-old Dabbu. (Times of India

9/6/05)



Migration of children increasing (14)

NEW DELHI: An increasing number of children are migrating or being trafficked to major cities to

be employed as domestic workers in middle and upper class households. They often face

exploitation of various kinds and there is no law that directly covers the labour aspects of child

domestic workers. "The concerns with child domestics are manifold including psychological and

physiological abuse and sexual violation as well as restraining the opportunities to learn and

develop," Brian Heidel, Programme Director of Save the Children, a U.K.-based voluntary

organisation, told mediapersons here on Wednesday. Amendments recommended Basing his

assessment on a study conducted by Save the Children along with other local non-governmental

organisations in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Delhi, Mr. Heidel sought a legislation

abolishing domestic labour by those below 18 years that would also make employing them a

punishable act. He recommended amendments to the Child Labour Act to bring it within the ambit

of hazardous forms of labour. Giving details of the study, aimed at ascertaining the reasons

behind child migration, D. Lakshmi Rani said that child domestic workers here had mainly come

from tribal areas of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal where the per capita

income was also low. As more girls are available now for employment there is a greater demand

for them, and greater is the risk of sexual exploitation. While 73 per cent of the samples studied in

New Delhi - the largest employer - stated that the income of the family was not enough for

sustenance, the associated reason is the spread of social networks which provide access to work

to these poor families. Most respondents knew persons, either from the same village or nearby

areas, who were involved in this work. And, finally there was a mushrooming growth of

unauthorised placement agencies that supplied domestic helpers. (The Hindu 9/6/05)



Child labourers want rights (14)

New Delhi, June 11: "I am not a thief," shouted ten-year-old Hazra, a rag picker who lives in

Lajpat Nagar with her family. Picked by the police and manhandled many times, she longs to go

back to her school. Sadhna is a twelve-year-old rag picker, who lives under a flyover with her

family and has to leave her schools as her family has to return Rs 1,000 which they had borrowed

for her little sister's treatment, while 15-year-old Deepak works in AC shop to support his family

as his father spends all his money on drugs. These are just few of the capital's child labour whose

number is estimated to be around five lakh and have been working when the Constitution allows

them to study.On the eve of International Anti-Child Labour Day, hundreds of such children

gathered in the city to submit a charter of demands to authorities concerned. Their argument with

policy makers is that when there are ministries to look after other issues, why not constitute a

ministry which looks after matters solely related to them. As per the official data, India has around

17 million child labours, mostly working in agriculture, bidi-factories, zari and carpets units and

hazardous places like bangle making units. "I am not a thief. Why the police picks us and harass

us. Why don't they arrest robbers and other bad people," said Hazra who said that she is not the

only minor who works. The charter of demands also states that employment opportunities should

be provided in small towns and cities so that a family doesn't have to migrate to big cities like

Delhi. (Asian Age 12/6/05)



"Children robbed of childhood'' (14)

NEW DELHI: "I make my living by picking rubbish which is okay, but the problem is that

shopkeepers demand money from me to take away the rubbish,'' says 12-year-old Hazra. "The

men trouble me. Please tell the police I am not a robber, only making a living,'' she pleads. Hazra

- one of an estimated 12.5 million Indian children in the age group of five to 14 years who are

exploited for labour day in and day out - was speaking here on Saturday at a function organised

on the eve of Anti-Child Labour Day and to celebrate the silver jubilee of Child Relief and You

(CRY), a non-Government organisation committed to eradication of child labour. She was joined

by a15-year-old Saurabh, who when asked what he wanted to do, beamed: "Become an airplane

pilot.'' In reality, Saurabh sells cold drinks at India Gate to repay a loan his father took for his

sister's medication. Twelve-year-old Kishan wanted to be a pilot too, but he says: "I can't,

because I repair air-conditioners to support my mother and three sisters.'' He did not reply when

asked where his father was.

"These children are in fact robbed of their childhood,'' said CRY member Nikhil Verma. "And the

numbers are rising.'' The problem, according to Mr. Verma, is twofold: "First, child labour exists

because we employ them. And why do we employ them? Because they are cheap and can be

excessively controlled, especially the girls.'' Secondly, child labour begets child labourers. "These

children are useless to employers as adults because they have been so weakened and deformed

by disease or injury. Their children therefore have no option but to become child labourers

themselves to support the parents.''

(The Hindu 12/6/05)



Zari workers packed off to home (14)

NEW DELHI: In the wake of the recent rescue of over 450 children working in zari units in

Mumbai by the police, their employers have packed off hundreds of such children to their homes

in Bihar. Non-government organisations here in the Capital now fear that many of them might get

re-trafficked to the city to be employed in small illegal units here. Soon after the Mumbai police

mounted raids on about 226 units, hundreds of children working in other such units fled the city.

Most of them, who belonged to Sitamarhi in Bihar, reportedly went back home in large groups.

Several units -- in which they were forced to work under inhuman conditions and for long hours --

were being run by people who were also from Sitamarhi. Now that they are back home, Rishikant

of non-government organisation, Shakti Vahini, has expressed concern that the children might get

re-trafficked to Delhi due to pressure mounted by the police on zari unit owners in Mumbai. Citing

the example of women working at dance bars shifting their base to places like Gurgaon in

Haryana after the bars were banned by the Maharashtra Government over a month ago,

Rishikant said: "Due to the campaign against zari units in Mumbai, their owners would in all

likelihood try to shift base to Delhi where they can get bulk orders from fashion houses." As per a

rough estimate, there are already about 5,000 small and big embroidery units across the Capital,

employing over 20,000 children. Most of these children are also from Sitamarhi and almost 60 per

cent of the unit owners come from the same area. During a raid mounted at a zari unit at Dabri in

South-West Delhi this past month, a joint team of an NGO, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, and the

police, rescued 29 children, all of whom were from Sitamarhi. (The Hindu 13/6/05)



Child labourers rally to protest in Bangladesh (14)

Dhaka, June 12: Hundreds of underage workers who toil in the sweatshops of Bangladesh's

tannery, welding and chemical industries rallied in the impoverished nation's capital on Sunday to

demand an end to child labour, organisers said. Clad in red T-shirts, they carried banners and

placards that read "adults will work, children will go to school" and "we want child-labour-free

Bangladesh", in commemoration of the world day against child labour. About five million

Bangladeshi children aged 5-17 work to support their families, according to the UN's international

labour organisation. One of them is Nazmin Akter, 10, who has been working at a plastic

manufacturing factory in Dhaka for six months to support her parents who live at a slum. Akter

has no weekly holiday and works at least 10 hours a day, earning just 250 takas a month. The

owner of the factory or her senior male colleagues sometimes beat her if she makes a mistake. "I

hate to work, but I do that just to help my parents," Akter said at the rally. Her mother works as a

maid and her father pedals a rickshaw on the streets of Dhaka, a city of 10 million people. Now,

Akter studies for two hours each day at a centre run by Ahsania mission, a Bangladeshi charity

organisation that organised Sunday's rally with the support of the international labour

organisation. Akter attends the school in the morning before going to work. "I don't want to work

in this factory in future, I want to study in high school," Akter said. (Asian Age 13/6/05)



1 M children still working in mines, says ILO report (14)

New Delhi: The ILO, which observed the World Day against Child Labour on Sunday, estimates

that there are one million children aged between 5 and 17 currently toiling in mines and quarries

all over the world. While observing the day, ILO's focus this year is on elimination of child labour

in small-scale mines and quarries. ILO says that the a majority of these mines and quarries are

not mechanised and operate without adequate tools or safety measures for the workers. The

work exposes children to the risk of death and injury from tunnel collapse, accidental explosions,

rock falls, exposure to toxic substances such as mercury and lead, and chronic health conditions

such as silicosis, say ILO experts. In some mines, children work in mines as deep as 90 metres

with only a rope with which to climb in and out, inadequate ventilation and only a flashlight or

candle for light. In many small mines, child workers dig and haul heavy loads of rock, dive into

rivers and flooded tunnels in search of minerals, set off explosives for underground blasting and

crawl through narrow tunnels only as wide as their bodies. In quarries, children dig sand, rock and

dirt, transport it on their head and back and spend hours pounding large rocks into gravel to be

used for construction material for roads and buildings. Since these mines and quarries are mostly

located in remote areas, the sites are difficult to regulate, ILO sources told TOI. (Times of India

13/6/05)



Six arrested for negligence (14)

NEW DELHI: Six persons, including the programme director of non-government organisation,

Save the Children, have been arrested for alleged negligence due to which 20 children sustained

burn injuries when a bunch of gas balloons they were carrying for release during a candle light

procession organised on "World Day against Child Labour" exploded at the India Gate lawns on

Sunday. According to the police, they have arrested Brian Heidel, the NGO programme director,

along with D. Lakshmi Rani, Jagriti Sharan, Srinivas Vardhan, Utpal Moitra, and Manvendra Nath,

who were also involved in organising the procession. All of them were later released on bail. The

incident occurred around 7-30 p.m. on Sunday when the procession was about to conclude at

India Gate. The children were releasing the balloons when they exploded after one of them

apparently came in contact with a candle held by a child. As several balloons exploded in quick

succession, the children standing nearby sustained burn injuries on their faces and hands. The

NGO volunteers rushed them to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital from where they were discharged

after first-aid. In all, over 200 children from Delhi, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, had

gathered under the aegis of the Save the Children to observe the day. (The Hindu 14/6/05)



`Homeless' children wait for adoption (14)

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Council of Child Welfare's adoption home `Palna' has been turning away

`prospective' parents for several months now. The reason: the Council has not been able to get

enough members on its selection board to hold a meeting and clear the registration applications

of prospective adoptive parents. To be sure, `orphaned' children requiring a home haven't left the

adoption centre since November 2004. Yes, the credit for pushing up adoption figure in the

Capital and also educating Delhiites about the merits of adopting a girl child goes to the Council.

But this development has hit `homeless' children badly. "It is true the Council had some trouble

about new registration for adoptive parents late last year as we did not have the stipulated

number of members required to constitute the board and hold meetings to clear the list of

adoptive parents. It is nothing out of the ordinary for an organisation of our capacity to register a

slowing down due to some technical problems. Things have been working well and we are sure to

be back in action,'' assured Delhi Council of Child Welfare head, A.V. Kumar. According to the

figures available, Palna has seen 113 adoptions in 2001, 138 in 2002 and 122 in 2003. And with

50 per cent of these adoptions being local, the Council has worked well in encouraging childless

couples to adopt children within Delhi. But besides the trouble with constituting a clearance

board, the Council head explains that they are now trying hard to find homes for `disadvantaged

children.' (The Hindu 20/6/05)



Consultation on child labour (14)

BANGALORE: A consultation on "Child Labour: International Scenario" was organised here by

the Makkala Sahaya Vani Child Help Line of the Bangalore city police, the Child Rights Trust,

Campaign Against Child Labour-Karnataka and the Concerned for Working Children. William E.

Myers, who is a visiting scholar at the Department of Human and Community Development in the

University of California, spoke about the international interest in combining education and work

and modes of linking education with productive work. He answered several questions regarding

the feasibility of mixing work and education in the present scenario, the manageability, the

demands and the meaningfulness of such an experiment. (Ref: The Hindu 23/6/05)

291 children rescued in Mumbai (14)

Police raid jewellery-making units "If we had not reached them, the children would have choked

to death" MUMBAI: In the third rescue operation conducted along with the Labour Department,

the Women and Child Welfare Department and NGOs this month, the Mumbai Police on Saturday

rescued 291 children. Most of these children work in different jewellery-making units in Mumbai.

The rescue operation started at 10 a.m. and several labour inspectors, social workers and the

police went to Vitthalwadi, Pokalwadi, Teligalli and Phul Bazaar areas. "Most of the children are

from West Bengal and are working in jewellery-making units. They will be handed over to the

Child Welfare Committee and then after investigation they will be sent back to their homes," DCP

Pratap Dighavkar said. The police have registered cases against the employers and the

supervisors under Section 374 of the IPC and various sections of the Child Labour Act and

Juvenile Justice Act. No arrests have been made so far. At the L.T. Marg police station, the

rescued children sat in different rooms. Personnel of the Labour Department, the police and the

NGOs were trying to collect information from the children who refused to talk. At the same time,

the alleged employers or members of the Bengali Association were distributing food to the

children. The police asked them not to interact with the children. Activists of the "Say No to Child

Labour Task Force" asked them not to bring food or tea inside the premises and told them that

the Task Force would take care of it. (The Hindu 26/6/05)



291 child labourers opt for work over freedom (14)

Mumbai: Sanjay Mallik sat silently at the L.T. Marg police station. When a few journalists asked

him how old he was, he mumbled that he was 16. Mallik, who kept asking for water to drink, said,

"I want to go back to work, I don't know why we have been brought here, they haven't given me

my lunch till now." On further questioning by the journalists, Mallik revealed he was just 12. After

being rescued from the gold units in Bhuleshwar most of the 291 children instead of being

relieved were more frightened and wanted to go back to the units from where they had been

rescued. Most of the children were from West Bengal and had been working for a long time in the

gold units. Almost all the children who were rescued claimed to be 18 years old, which most of

the rescuers said that they had been taught to say if they were ever rescued. Owners of the units

visited the police station to check on the condition of the rescued workers. Some of the NGO

volunteers said that the owners even sent some of their men in to tell the children to claim their

age was 18 so that they would be released quickly. When asked about a burn scar across his

face, Mallik said it was just a scar and was of no importance. He said that he earned Rs 1,000 per

month and was happy with the amount since it was a lot of money. Zia Mohammed, an 18-year-

old was more amused than anything to have been rescued. "My owner will come and take me

back, I want to go back and I don't know why they have brought us here," he said. Zia added that

he did not think there was anything dangerous about the work he did and did not want to be taken

back to Kolkata, where he hails from. (Asian Age 29/6/05)



Rehab centres indifferent

New Delhi, June 29: While the number of drug addicted children on the city streets is on the rise,

the social welfare department of Delhi have turned blind eye towards the growing need to set up de-

addiction centres for effective rehabilitation of the juveniles. Incidentally, Tihar jail has been

efficiently running a de-addiction centre in its premises for de-addiction of adults while such children

are left on their own on the street. Taking serious note of this, a city court has rapped the

department for not taking the problem seriously. In fact what is more shocking is that, the

department did not even bothered to comply with the court's earlier direction to set up de-addiction

centres at all juvenile observation homes in the city. The magistrate gave the direction on May 2

after the mother of a minor boy addicted to smack and who was facing trial in a theft case told the

court that his addiction had worsened after his stay at a juvenile observation home for six months as

there was no reformatory facilities there. "Nothing can be more unfortunate. The basic function of

the department is to work for the welfare of the children, women and weaker sections. Bureaucratic

approach on such issues will only hamper effective rehabilitation of the juveniles," juvenile justice

board principle magistrate, Santosh Snehi Mann said. What irked the court was that instead of

taking steps to comply with the directive, the department's joint director Rashmi Singh said "It is a

policy matter. If our position is not acceptable to the board, we may be given an opportunity to file

appeal against the order." "In the absence of an effective de-addiction treatment, juveniles with the

history of drug abuse will always be vulnerable to come in conflict with the law," the magistrate

pointed out. Last week The Asian Age had also reported the plight of a group of street children

eager to join de-addiction programmes, who were sent back by a children welfare committee.

(Asian Age 30/6/050)



Child abuse under scanner (14)

CHENNAI: A study on sexual abuse of schoolchildren in Chennai is being undertaken by Tulir, a

charitable organisation. The 9-month study has a grant from Save the Children, Sweden. Any

behaviour committed for sexual gratification by an older or powerful person is defined as child

sexual abuse (CSA). The results of the study will be published and 3,000 copies of the report will

be distributed across India. It will be the first published study that deals with children in south

India and one of the four published studies in the country. Studies in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata

suggested prevalence rates between 46 and 71 per cent, suggesting India might have the highest

CSA rate in the world. Without enough information, especially in south India, it is easy to overlook

this issue, says Vidya Reddy, Tulir executive director. "People are using the lack of information to

sweep the entire issue under the carpet. Indians do not want to discuss sexual issues. They know

what is going on, but they would like to believe otherwise. Once the results of this study are

released, the issue is out in the open and it is harder for people to deny it," she says. Tulir's

research targets XI standard students and involves an awareness session on the CSA and the

purpose of the study, followed by an anonymous, self-conducted questionnaire. Students will be

given booklets on personal safety. Tulir hopes to show the extent of the problem and plans to use

the feedback to create awareness and design effective prevention and intervention programmes.

"Hopefully, schools will see their responsibility here and help us with this project," says Alankaar,

a project facilitator. (The Hindu 4/7/05)



Child labour to be eradicated in Tuticorin district (14)

TUTICORIN: : The district administration has chalked out an elaborate action plan in consultation

with various departments to eradicate the menace of child labour from industrial units in the

district before the end of this year. Accordingly, it has been decided to set up a committee before

July 11 to plan the course of action (month-wise) to be taken for the rest of the year. Collector V.

Chandrasekaran will be its Chairman and Superintendent of Police Sandeep Rai Rathore will be

its vice-chairman. Deputy Chief Inspector of Factories, Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Revenue

Divisional Officers, Deputy Superintendents of Police, Joint Director of Health Services, and

Project Director of National Child Labour Project ITS will be its members. Mr. Chandrasekaran

told this reporter that the members would be assigned different types of responsibilities. The

Deputy Chief Inspector of Factories and the Deputy Commissioner of Labour would be entrusted

with the job of informing the committee about the number of hazardous units and their locations.

The committee would meet periodically to discuss the issues pertaining to administrative, legal

and logistical requirements for improving the enforcement. Meanwhile, inspection teams

comprising officials from departments of revenue, factories, labour, medical and police should

inspect hazardous units periodically and frequently whether there was any complaint of

employment of child workers or not. The committee would monitor the functioning of the teams

closely, the Collector said. If the team found any children below the age of 14 years working in a

hazardous unit, criminal action would be initiated against its management under Child Labour

(prohibition and regulation) Act, 1986. (The Hindu 6/7/05)





Five child labourers rescued in district (14)

KOCHI: Childline rescued five child labourers from different parts of the district on Thursday.

Satheesan, 10, hailing from Salem was brought to Childline from Thammanam where he was

employed as a helper at a home and a store run by one Basheer. Three children, Swami (11),

Easwaran (12) and Supraj (13) were rescued by Childline from a eatery run by a Tamil couple.

The children were rescued with the help of the police. In another case, Manju, a girl of 14-15

years from Orissa, who was found locked in a house on Mother Teresa Lane, Thripunithura, was

rescued by Childline activists with the help of the police. However, the owners of the house

claimed that the child was not a minor and that her uncle had brought her here, said Father Jose

Koikkal, Director, Childline. He said the owner of the house from where Manju was brought to

Valsalya Bhavan, Vaduthala, said the girl's father had earlier worked as a gardener there. "We

have asked them to prove the age of the girl," said Father Koikkal. She will be produced before

the Court on Friday. Another child, 10-year old Gautami, was rescued by Childline on

Wednesday, from a house in Kadavanthara. Father Koikkal said that the organisation would file a

case against Muthuswani from Paniyathoor, Ladaloor, Mavattam in Thuthukudi village, who had

brought three girls, Gautami and her two sisters, to employ them at various homes. (The Hindu

8/7/05)



Child labourers rescued in Mumbai begin their journey back home (14)

MUMBAI: After three major raids on informal sector units in June, during which more than 800

children were rescued and over 100 cases registered, the `Say No to Child Labour' task force has

managed to persuade employers to send 13,000 children working in Mumbai, back to their

hometowns. The children were working primarily in Zari, shoe-making, bag-making and buffing

units in Madanpura, Bhuleshwar, Gowandi, Patelwadi and Kurla. The task force comprises a

network of 46 non-governmental organisations, and the Labour and Women and Child Welfare

departments. Confirming this news, Kishore Bhamre of the task force said: "We have been

working in these areas for months. We told the employers several times that the children should

not be working and should be sent back. After the June raids, they knew we were serious about

the issue. An NGO, Pratham, sent a bogie with 100 children and accompanying volunteers to

Patna. Our volunteers checked the train and kept a record. This is how 13,000 children, mostly

from Zari units were repatriated." (The Hindu 8/7/05)



Seven children rescued (14)

DAVANGERE: : The Davangere police have rescued seven children working in various puffed

rice factories, under Azadnagar police station limits on Friday. The police said they found 17 boys

working under hazardous conditions. Of the seventeen boys, ten were above 14 years, while

seven boys were below 14 years. The seven children who were rescued have been admitted to a

special residential school for child labourers, Vimochana, run by St.John's Institute under the

Unicef-Norad child labour project. The names of the children rescued by the police are Adam

Shafi (10), Sanaulla (10), Mohmad Imran (11), Khaji Moiddin (13), Ismaila (14), Samiulla (9) and

Salman Khan (11). The Department of Labour has booked cases against the owners of the

factories under the child labour act. The Davangere Tahasildar has penalised owners of the two

garages Rs.20,000 each for employing children below 14 years. (The Hindu 10/7/05)



Children turn reporters in Orissa (14)

BHUBANESWAR: With no roads, little water and no basic amenities, the tribal people in interior

Orissa are caught in a vortex of poverty. Children from Koraput district have decided to tell these

stories of poverty a little differently. Their reports fill the pages of the first issue of Ankurodgam

(regeneration), a monthly journal launched by Ankur, a joint initiative of the Koraput district

administration and the Orissa branch of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). They are

training children, mostly tribals, from classes III to VII from 10 villages under the Dasmantpur and

Pottangi blocks as cub reporters. Though the eight-page magazine talks about issues such as

drinking water shortages, the lack of roads, and the absence of doctors in hospitals and teachers

in schools, there is freshness in the approach. The reports are unmistakably angst-ridden and

show a desire to correct the flaws. "Our village has a large number of children. But half of them

are not going to school. Their parents make them graze cattle. The children who refuse are

beaten up," wrote Kumar Muduli, one of the child reporters from the Upper Primary School at

Murkar village. "There are many liquor vends in our village. The people of our village are blowing

up their day's earnings by consuming liquor at these vends. Many people are suffering from

different diseases by consuming liquor," said a report by Sabitri Panda. (The Hindu 10/7/05)



Child workers put into mainstream win prizes for topping in SSLC (14)

SALEM: Nearly 4,500 children, who were once child labourers, have been brought into the

mainstream in the district so far. Disclosing this the National Child Labour Project's Smile Director

P. V. Viswanthan told The Hindu that to achieve the objective of eliminating the scourge of child

labour within the deadline, the State Government, to encourage the teachers who had done

yeomen service in eradicating the child labour and educating them in the `Smile' special schools,

had asked the district administrations to honour them with best teacher awards. Accordingly

among the 80 teachers working in 40 special schools in the Salem district, four of them had been

identified for receiving the honours. P. Hema of Ponnammapet special school had helped 34

children to reach VI and above classes in various regular schools. She was instrumental in

releasing 40 children from labour by admitting them in special schools. C. Thenmozhi of

Tholasampatti special school, V. Rukmani of Komarapalayam Narayana Nagar special school

and K. Pushpalatha of Komarapalayam East Gandhipuram special school also did such

commendable services in the filed of child labour eradication and educating them. The Collector

A. Sukumaran honoured these teachers by awarding the best teacher awards and distributed

prizes to two released child labourers, K. Mohana and K. Ganesan of Government HSS,

Tholasampatti for passing SSLC examinations. Those present at the function included District

Revenue Officer T. P. Rajesh and Smile (NCLP) Director P. V. Viswanathan. (The Hindu 12/7/05)



Rescued child labourers get a new lease of life (14)

ERODE: From an economically weak family, and with parents who are labourers, she was forced

to collect wastepaper from roads. But not anymore. Seven-year-old Nathiya of Periyarnagar slum

is happy and now working hard on her lessons. She wants to be a doctor some day. "I want to

treat those in my slum," she says. She was one of the child labourers rescued by the district

administration and admitted in the special school for such children in Periyarnagar, run by the

National Child labour Programme. Her parents have assured to send her to school regularly and

not force her to work. Collector D. Karthikeyan, also Chairman of the programme, said 28 such

schools were formed in the district and each school had at least 10 children. The children were

provided with free education, food and clothes, and their parents an incentive of Rs. 100 every

month. The Centre had given Rs. 36,88,600 to run the special schools. A survey conducted under

Education For All revealed that there were 2,299 child labourers in the district. Before 2007 all

these children would be rescued and the district declared child labour-free, he said. (The Hindu

15/7/05)



PIL points to loopholes in child labour law, want amendment (14)

NEWDELHI, JULY 15: CIVIL rights organisations in the Capital today called for abolition of child

labour in all forms, as they launched a campaign to amend the "retrograde" law against child

labour. Activist Swami Agnivesh chaired the campaign against "bonded" child labour and

emphasised the need to repeal the existing Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986.

Lawyer Ashok Agarwal said the existing law legitimises child labour as it prohibits child labour

only in "hazardous" industries. He said that ironically, 98 per cent of the children are engaged in

other forms of labour, which is not illegal, ac-

cording to the law. Enakshi Ganguly from HAQ, Centre for Child Rights, said the law against child

labour permits labour, which keeps children away from school. A PIL has been filed in the

Supreme Court urging the abolition of child labour in all forms. Filed by the MV Foundation, HAQ,

Centre for Child Rights and Social Jurist, the PIL alleges that the existing law on child labour

violates the fundamental right to education. The petition also says the minimum age of

employment cannot be lower than the compulsory schooling age. As per Article 21 A of the

Constitution, all children in the age group of 6 to 14 have the right to free and compulsory

education. The petition urges the court to declare that the article completely prohibits child labour

and also asks the government to prohibit child labour and to ensure all existing laws conform to

the right to compulsory education for children. Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Campaign Against

Child Labour and Action Aid are also participating in the campaign. (Indian Express 16/7/05)



Survey: Child labour goes unpaid (14)

New York, July 15: When people in the developed world think about child labour in poor

countries, they rarely picture girls fetching water or boys tending livestock. Yet most of the 211

million children, ages 5 to 14, who work worldwide are not in factories. They are working in

agriculture — from 92 per cent in Vietnam to 63 per cent in Guatemala — and most are not paid

directly. “Contrary to popular perception in high-income countries, most working children are

employed by their parents rather than in manufacturing establishments or other forms of wage

employment,” two Dartmouth economists, Eric Edmonds and Nina Pavcnik, wrote in ‘Child

Labour in the Global Economy’, published in the Winter 2005 Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Their article surveys what is known about child labour. Research over the past several years, by

these economists and others, has begun to erode some popular beliefs about why children work,

what they do and when they are likely to leave work for school. When he started working on child

labour issues six years ago, Mr Edmonds said in an interview, “the conventional view was that

child labor really wasn’t about poverty”. Children’s work, many policy makers believed, “reflected

perhaps parental callousness or a lack of education for parents about the benefits of educating

your child”. So policies to curb child labour focused on educating parents about why their children

should not work and banning children’s employment to remove the temptation. (Asian Age

16/7/05)



These minors work as 'half constables' (14)

New Delhi: Officially, they are called "half constables". They earn half of what their colleagues

get. They spend half the time on the job. They are minors but are very much a part of the

Chhattisgarh police. The state police has employed 42 "bal arakhyaks" aged between 10 to 17 to

work as orderlies at the police stations. Once they are 18, they start working as full-time

constables. While activists term the employment as inhuman and against the spirit of the

Constitution, the police say they have employed them on humanitarian ground. "There is no

exploitation. We have given jobs to all those who have lost theirfa-thers. As compensation we

employ one child of the family. If he is a minor he gets half the salary of a constable. We also

bear the cost of his education till he becomes a matriculate. But once he is 18, he works as a full-

time constable and draws full salary," defends DGP O P Rathor. However, Kailash Sat-yarthy of

South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude says this practice of recruiting children goes against the

Constitution. "Though the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 does not ban

employment of children in non-hazardous occupation the government should not exploit them.

Children of senior police officials are not employed like this. It is only the children of constables

who are employed as half constables. This was the practice during the British rules and some

states are still following it. The best way to compensate the child is to put him in a good school so

that he becomes a police officer," says Satyarthy. (Times of India 17/7/05)



Child Labour Project school inaugurated (14)

CHENNAI: As many as 3,250 school bags and writing materials are being distributed to street

children, transit school children and students affected by the tsunami in Kasimedu, Tondiarpet

and New Washermenpet, N. Paul Sunder Singh, director, Karunalaya, said. The Centre for

Street and Working Children on Monday organised the inauguration of the National Child Labour

Project (NCLP) special school and distributed the education material to a few hundred residential

and transit school children at its premises in Tondiarpet. The NCLP-Special School, intended to

let children stop working and provide them education for a year and prepare them for enrolment

in a formal school, in the next academic year of June 2006. The special school would cover 50

children with activities for creative learning, the Director said. Karunalaya implemented the Sarva

Siksha Abhyan (SSA) programme, supported by the Corporation of Chennai, during the academic

year of 2003-04 when 80 children from Kasimedu were covered and 90 in the last academic year

of 2004-05. Out of the 90, 16 were covered under the residential school programme and the rest

under the transit school programme of the SSA. (The Hindu 19/7/05)



LTTE frees 9 child soldiers (14)

Colombo, July 18: Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels on Monday said they released nine child

soldiers to their parents amid mounting international criticism for recruiting underage combatants.

The rebel LTTE said the nine children had joined the militants ranks after giving "false

information" about their age and were later identified during screening. The nine children were

handed over to their families on Sunday in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi, they said in a

statement posted on their website. Child rights activists have said the Tigers recruited fewer child

soldiers this year after coming in for criticism from international rights groups. The United Nations

Children’s Fund claims the LTTE recruited 137 children in the first four months of this year while

freeing 37. Among those recruited were nine children displaced by the tsunami. The recruitment

this year compared with 368 boys and girls enlisted during the corresponding period in 2003 and

259 last year, UNICEF spokesman Geoffrey Keele said. London-based Amnesty International

said a split in the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Elam in March last year saw the deployment of child

soldiers, both boys and girls. (Asian Age 19/7/05)





Child mortality rate still too high in India, says UNICEF (14)

New Delhi : Despite tall claims by the Government, the cases of child mortality remain alarmingly

high in India. In a communication to the Women and Child Development Department (WCDD),

the UNICEF India representative Cecilio Adorna said on Wednesday, "caught in the vicious cycle

of malnutrition more than 50 per cent young child face death." According to the UNICEF India:

"Young child malnutrition level in Indian remains persistently and unacceptably high. Thirty per

cent babies are born with low birth weight while 47 per cent of children under three years are

underweight or stunted..." These figures, revealed during a function of Women and Child

Development Department on release of training manuals on Infant and the Young Child Feeding,

paint a grim picture. Speaking on the occasion, Reva Nayyar, secretary, WCDD under Human

Resource Development Ministry, admitted high child death rates due to malnutrition. She said the

department was trying hard for promotion breastfeeding since early '80s. The UNICEF report

strongly pleaded for promotion of breastfeeding the child for first six months, which it said was the

single most effective way to reduce the high child mortality rate in the country. Ms Nayyar said

her department, working with NGOs like Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) in

collaboration with the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFANI) and others would help the

country in dealing with the inappropriate feeding practices effectively and would impart skills and

training to the health care workers so that they can counsel mothers. The training course includes

inputs received from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, where the training initiative was

launched in collaboration with the UNICEF, India and the State Governments. (Poneer 4/8/05)



ICDS to get more focus, curbing child marriage on agenda (14)

New Delhi : In view of the failure of existing policies, the Union Government is contemplating a

new agenda to curb the practice of child marriage which is prevalent in several states. The

existing projects on adolescent girls aren't enough nor adequate and the Women and Child

Development Department is set to evolve a more focussed planning on the issue. Disclosing this,

a senior official told The Pioneer that the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) project,

as it exist now, cannot adequately take care of the multi-dimensional problems of adolescent girls

in both rural and urban India. He stressed on the need for Kishori Shakti Yojana, specially

devoted to this purpose, to be expanded. The official pointed out that even after 30 years, there

were irritants in the ICDS which was launched in 1975. These irritants have persisted to the peril

of the adolescent girls in the country, he added. "In the new format, we will take care of

empowerment and their education in a more focussed way so that they (the girls) don't fall prey to

child marriages which are still prevalent in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and a few other states,"

said a senior official. He, however, admitted much planning needs to be done before a final

shape is given to the new format. What seems to have given the Human Resources Develop-

ment Ministry its newfound inspiration has been the recent clearance by the Union Cabinet for the

expansion of the ICDS. The expansion would mean more than 2000 blocs would be taken care

of, said the official. The official said the new campaign would be firmed up on this specially

focused line, which involves a socio-economic backing as well as a psychological training for

adolescent girls so that they can resist evil social pressures, he added. (Pioneer 10/8/05)



TDP for Central law on adoption (14)

New Delhi, Aug. 18: The TDP on Thursday demanded Central legislation on international child

adoption, in view of the rackets in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. A series of scandals rocking

Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in recent times has brought the issue in the spotlight. Raising

the issue in a Special Mention in Parliament, Telugu Desam Party MP N.P. Durga said, "To plug

the loopholes in guidelines and in the absence of legislation with regard to adoption, I request the

Centre to bring forward a comprehensive legislation on inter-country adoption of children." Ms

Durga said, "Trade in inter-country adoption appears to be a roaring business for the

unscrupulous agencies in India. These agencies made India an international baby shopping

centre. In the absence of legislation to cover inter-country adoption, we are only following the

guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court." The problem starts from the voluntary agencies in

states, which are supposed to ensure that children are first offered for Indian adoption and if it

failed to happen in 30 days, it will give the child for Central Adoption Resource Agency for inter-

country adoption. By putting this spirit on the backburner, Ms Durga said, private adoption

agencies are using coercive, illegal, unethical and clandestine methods such as abduction of

babies, identifying vulnerable mothers, falsely informing biological mother that her baby was

stillborn or died, buying children from poor families and also by producing fake letters and are

getting children for inter-country adoption. (Asian Age 19/8/05)



Sex abuse at orphanage (14)

Gurgaon, August 23: tHE DEEPASHRAM orphanage at Gurgaon - for mentally and physically

challenged children -has found itself in a controversy after an Italian neurologist complained to

the Vatican Embassy about sexual abuse of children at the home. The neurologist, Dr Franco,

had worked as a volunteer at Deepashram, established by Mother Teresa in 1995, for six months

a couple of years ago. Brothers Contemplative - the male wing of Missionaries of Charity -

manages the home which has 66 boys aged between 12 and 26. Dr Franco registered his

complaint at the Apostolic Nunciature, Chanakyapuri. Second secretary of the Apostolic

Nunciature, Father Tomasz Grysa, said they received the "communication from Dr Franco" in

February this year. The case has been referred to the hierarchical superiors of the Missionaries of

Charity Brothers, Father Grysa said. At the orphanage, the volunteers did not rule out the

possibility of sexual abuse of the younger inmates by the older ones. Brother Benedict, a

volunteer from Rome, said: "If any case of this kind is reported to us, the guilty boys are

punished." Abdullah, a 15-year-old inmate, said it was "common" for the older boys to sodomise

the younger boys at night when no one is on guard. He named a 24-year-old of sodomising a 12-

year-old. "Bahut se bache yahan par ganda kaam karte hain," he said. Brother Benedict and

other attendants at the orphanage, however, dismissed the allegation. Abdullah was shifted from

the children's home at Majnu Ka Tila to Gurgaon as he was a trouble maker, Brother Benedict

said. (Hindustan Times 24/8/05)



HC upholds right of Muslim girls to reject child marriage (14)

Jaipur : In a landmark judgement, the Rajasthan High Court has upheld the right of Muslim girls to

reject the marriages, solemnised in childhood by their parents, after attaining the age of 15 years,

but before turning 18. A division bench of the court, comprising Justices Rajesh Balia and Dinesh

Maheshwari, has accepted the petition of Khurshida, a resident of Nagauri in Jodhpur, who had

challenged her childhood marriage with Mustafa. The judgement said that Khurshida had the right

to reject the marriage after attaining the age of 15 years. The petitioner said that under the

Muslim Marriage Act of 1939, this marriage could not be considered consummated and therefore

she has the right to reject it. The judges ruled that under the law applicable to both Hindus and

Muslims, women have the right to reject such marriages. (Pioneer 29/8/05)



Rajasthan HC allows Muslim girl to annul child marriage (14)

JODHPUR, AUGUST 29 : Upholding a family court order, the Rajasthan High Court today

allowed a Muslim girl the right to annul her marriage solemnised without her consent when she

was seven. A division bench comprising Justice Rajesh Balia and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari

ruled that any girl married before attaining 15 years of age had the right to annul the marriage

before she turned 18, provided it had not been consummated. One Mustafa of Jodhpur had

moved the HC against the family court’s decision to annul his marriage to Khurshida. In May

2002, after she turned 17, Khurshida moved the family court. In her petition, Khurshida stated that

she was only seven years old in 1992, when Mustafa, who was also a minor then, married her.

The court allowed her to annul the marriage, saying that the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act,

1939 gave Khurshida the right. (Indian Exp 30/8/05)



Teenage 'solution' addicts are sexually molested by coolies (14)

New Delhi: Aslam, 15, a ragpicker goes through each day encircled in a solution-induced daze.

He lives on the platforms of the New Delhi Railway Station and makes an income of Rs 50 per

day, out of which he spends Rs 40 on his addiction to solution. "Solution" is the term used for

diluters that are available in the stationery shops with whiteners for a minimal Rs 20. There are a

hundred children who live on the platforms of the railway station, where every day begins with

whiff of the previous nights' empty diluter bottles. These children are entrapped in a tumultuous

periphery of violence and drugs. Aslam says, "I ran away from home almost ten years ago and

ever since, I have been living on the platform. Inhaling solution was not something that I

consciously took to, it just grew on me and before I knew, I was hooked on to it. I started off with

inhaling up to 10 to 15 bottles a day. If I feel hungry and don't have enough money to buy a meal

for myself, a bottle of diluter proves to be a good substitute as one doesn't feel hungry after

inhaling it." He adds, "When I don't get to inhale a bottle of solution, the urge makes me

uncomfortable. I feel agitated and get into fights with my friends. So in order to pacify myself, I

have to inhale it. The dizziness it induces is so strong that only when I get back to my senses is

when I realise that I have been beaten up or abused." Mr Tarun Chhabra, a photographer who

has been working with the Salaam Balak Trust, a government funded organisation that has been

working for the upliftment of the children living on railway platforms for the past seven years has

summed up his experiences with these kids through a photography exhibition titled Nobody's

Child - Reality or Myth, presently on display at the India Habitat Centre. (Asian Age 7/9/05)



SHRC chairman comes down on child marriage (14)

TAKES STOCK: State Human Rights Commission chairman S. Thangaraj interacting with

villagers at P. Malaipatti village in Dindigul district on Thursday. Collector S. Murugaia is also

seen. DINDIGUL: Shun child marriages and see to that girls get basic education before they were

married off so that they may be aware of good and bad things in life, said State Human Rights

Commission chairman S. Thangaraj. Interacting with villagers in P. Malapatti village in

Vadamadurai union on Thursday evening, he said the Department of Social Welfare has informed

the Commission that six child marriages had been performed in the village. Describing child

marriage as a sin, he said such a practice would affect girl children mentally and physically. He

said punishment would be meted out not to children who get married, but their parents. Parents

should not marry off their daughter till they attain 21 years of age, he said. During the interaction

session, many villagers pointed out that child marriages were taking place in order to retain

ancestral properties and to maintain family relationship. Some others stated that some minor girls

aged 14 and above have started living with boys on their own without even consulting their

parents. Collector S. Murugaia said change in mindset of parents and intensive awareness

among rural people against child marriage was essential to weed out this social disgrace. The

chairman was also witness to a street play against child marriage, performed at Iyyalur village.

Earlier, talking to mediapersons, the chairman said that while verifying records, of the six child

marriages took place in the village, three child brides did not even attain puberty. (The Hindu

9/9/05)



Ten child labourers rescued (14)

ERODE: The Labour Welfare Department has rescued ten child labourers from eight institutions

in the district during regular check up in August. According to a press release issued by the

Labour Welfare Department, Erode, steps have been taken to admit these children in special

schools run by the district administration with the financial assistance from National Child Labour

Programme. The department will register cases against the eight institutions. It was stated that

during last month 351 cases were registered against shops and business establishments for not

maintaining the labour oriented records, running the institutions on holidays, fire extinguishers

and First Aid kits. Similarly, the department officials inspected 12 petrol outlets and compounding

levy was collected from them for under measurement. Ration shops were also raided and found

some irregularities. (The Hindu 9/9/05)

17% underage girls are abused (14)

Theni, Sept. 10: Seventeen per cent of the girls in the age group of seven to 17 are subject to

sexual harassment in various parts of India. One such atrocity against the girls is giving them in

marriage even before they attain puberty, said the chairman of the State Human Rights

Commission, Mr S. Thangaraj. The chairman was in Theni to probe the marriage of nine-year-old

Amudhamani near Bodi to a man of 30, a relative. Thangaraj met Amudhamani at a child care

home run by an NGO. Later, speaking to the press, he said that awareness should be created

among the public on the evils and consequences of child marriage. A public interest litigation was

filed in the Supreme Court regarding child marriages in India and the apex court sought the

details of the number of child marriages in each state. The order was forwarded to all State

Human Rights Commissions to conduct inquiries about such marriages and submit a report. He

said that according to the social welfare department, child marriages were taking place in Karur,

Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Ooty, Dindigul and Theni districts. (Asian Age 11/9/05)



64 child workers rescued (14)

COIMBATORE: Special teams formed to abolish child labour in the district rescued 64 child

workers employed in gold smithies in the city during raids conducted on Monday. An official

release said that 27 special teams consisting of officials from Labour Department, Inspectorate of

Factories, Revenue Department, Kovai Child Labour Abolition Support Society, Police and Health

Department were formed last month. Of these, 13 teams raided 150 gold smithies in Raja Street,

Karuppa Gounder Street, Idayar Street, Thomas Street, Range Gowder Street, Selvapuram,

Kempatti Colony, Big Bazaar Street and Vysial Street and rescued 64 child workers. Of them,

nine were from West Bengal, eight from Kerala and one each from Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The release added that they would be sent back to their home towns and those from Tamil Nadu

would be enrolled in the special centres run by the Kovai Child Labour Abolition Support Society.

Action would be taken against those who had employed child workers. Kovai CLASS sources

said that five more children were rescued from Pollachi on Monday. (The Hindu 13/9/05)



2,054 child labourers enrolled in special schools (14)

DHARMAPURI: Under the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Programme, 2,054 child

labourers were enrolled in special schools in 2005-06, Collector Sudeep Jain said here on

Monday. Of this, about 544 children were admitted in regular schools. A sum of Rs. 2.44 lakhs

each has been allotted to 36 special schools functioning in the district. Mr. Jain said a monthly

stipend of Rs. 100 was deposited into the account of each child. In addition, Multi Grade

Teaching and Learning Methodology was being implemented in six NCLP special schools with

the support of UNICEF. To have a good rapport with children of regular schools, NCLP children

were sent to regular schools every week. Educational materials worth Rs. 30,000 were being

given to mainstreamed NCLP children by the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW). In

addition, free bus passes were provided to 420 children by the Transport Department. Bank loans

to the tune of Rs. 10,000 were also provided with 100 per cent subsidy to 67 parents of child

labourers till date. The Collector said anti-child labour squads in the district conducted 87 raids.

(The Hindu 13/9/05)



23 child workers died in 2004: CACL-K (14)

UDUPI: C. Narasimhamurthy, State convener of Campaign Against Child Labour in Karnataka

(CACL-K), on Monday said that 23 child labourers died in 2004 in Karnataka. Addressing

presspersons here, Mr. Narasimhamurthy said all the 23 children who died were girls. There are

a number of working children in Bangalore district. CACL-K had approached the National Human

Rights Commission (NHRC) on the issue of employing children as workers and their brutal

treatment by their employers, Mr. Narasimhamurthy said. A number of children are employed in

the mines in Bellary district, he added. The CACL-K will also file a Public Interest Litigation in the

Supreme Court. The Government should implement the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and

set up children's welfare committees in all districts as per the Act, he said. Keshav Koteshwar,

head of Spoorti and Harish Jogi, State Coordinator of CACL-K; were present. (The Hindu

13/9/05)

Workshop on sexual abuse of children in TN (14)

Chennai, Sept. 12: Aarthi, a mother of two, wants to understand what child sexual abuse is and

teach her children so that they can protect themselves from being abused. Attending a workshop

on sexual abuse of children and how to respond to it, attended by parents, psychologists and

child rights activists on Monday, she said, "My children are constantly interacting with people and

so they are vulnerable to abuse. I need to teach them how to figure out when they are being

abused and how to deal with it." The workshop was organised in the city by Tulir-Centre for the

Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse, a non-governmental organisation. Tulir is

conducting a series of workshops for parents, teachers, lawyers, child-rights activists,

psychologists, college students and education counsellors through the week on the prevention of

CSA through personal safety education and the introduction of therapeutic interventions. Aarthi

said that the workshop has taught her to take her sons seriously whenever they complain about

an over-friendly neighbour, instead of brushing them aside. Valentina, another participant in the

workshop, was sexually abused when she was a 10-year-old. Seventeen years later, she has not

forgotten the trauma that she went through after being sexually abused by a relative and is

determined to create awareness so that other children do not suffer in silence like her. The young

woman with an advertising job wants to make a difference in society by making advertisements

that create awareness about child sexual abuse. (Asian Age 13/9/05)



Concern over problem of child labour (14)

NEW DELHI: To delve into the growing problem of child labour in the country and to take a look

at the lessons learnt over the years, a three-day workshop on "Responding to child labour -

Learning to do it better" was inaugurated in the Capital on Tuesday by senior Delhi police officer

Kiran Bedi. Organised by World Vision India, a relief organisation focusing on children, the

workshop is aimed at examining some of the best practices adopted in different parts of the world

to deal with the problem and look at what needs to be done for those still forced to do underage

labour. With participatory inputs from working children and former child labourers, the work-shop

hopes to evolve a better understanding of the problem and ways of dealing with the issue at a

grassroots level. While the first day of the workshop saw the concerns of working children being

brought to the fore, there was also a look at the market place and the emerging issues of

concern. Wednesday will see a panel discussion on child protection by the UNICEF, a children's

parliament, mitigation on the effects of child labour and also a special discussion on the lessons

learnt from child labour projects in Cambodia. Discussed on Thursday will be the concerns of

street children and concurrent sessions by various non-government organisations. (The Hindu

14/9/05)



Indo-US child labour project under scanner (14)

New Delhi: A special Rs 200-crore project on child labour elimination—in addition to the existing

National Child Labour Elimination Programme (NCLP) — being implemented jointly by Union

labour ministry and US government, has been fuelling controversy and fears about whether

there's a subplot behind the move. Called NCLP Plus or Indus, the project targets elimination of

child labour in over 10 strategic industries in 21 districts across five states. It is the selection of

districts and industries that has caused raised eyebrows. The project is focussed on districts

housing industries with huge export potential. With Indian industry smarting from the suspicion

that the proactive approach of West on child labour was just a ruse to eliminate competition to

their industries from developing countries enjoying the advantage of cheap labour, many are

already screaming foul. For instance, the Indus intervention has been on in leather industries in

Kan-pur (UP); glass industries in Firozabad (UP); brass in Moradabad (UP); silk in

Kancheepuram (TN); matches and crackers in Sivakasi (TN); and beedi in Satna and Sagar

(MP). Other states involved are Delhi and and MP. (Times of India 20/9/05)



71 child labourers rescued (14)

ERODE: As many as 71 child labourers were rescued by officials in a single day in the district. To

the media on Friday, Collector D. Karthikeyan said that officials from Revenue, Labour Welfare,

and Education Departments and doctors formed three major groups, headed by Revenue

Divisional officers R. Gajalakshmi, Venkatapriya and Sub-Collector C. Samayamurthy and

conducted simultaneous raids on 283 institutions in the district. Officials rescued six child

labourers from 27 shops, three from seven hotels, 11 from 126 automobile workshops, 10 from

14 brick kilns, seven from 28 powerloom factories, 25 from 46 spinning mills and nine from other

industries. Steps were taken to admit all the rescued children into special schools run for them.

Labour Welfare Department would initiate take action against 50 institutions, the Collector said.

(The Hindu 24/9/05)



Two child labourers rescued (14)

RAMANATHAPURAM: In a major crackdown on child labour menace in various industries and

business establishments of the district, officials rescued two child labourers, who were below 14

years age, at Paramakudi. Officials, who were divided into three groups, carried out the surprise

raid at three different locations simultaneously on Thursday. The Collector, K. Sellamuthu, led a

group of officials. The second group, led by Archana Patnaik, Sub-Collector, Paramakudi,

conducted a raid in Paramakudi division. They inspected hotels, teashops, Indian-Made Foreign

Liquor Shops run by TASMAC, grocery shops, brick manufacturing units, weaving centres, textile

mills, and other business establishments in Ramanathapuram, Paramakudi, Manjur and other

towns of the district. The officials surrounded many suspected child labourers throughout the

district. Government Doctors, who accompanied the searching teams, verified the suspected child

labourers' age claims through various tests. In the process, the officials found that two persons,

namely S. Babumuthu and G. Sarathbabu, employed at Paramakudi, were below 14 years of

age. Subsequently they were rescued and ordered to enrol in school. The Collector said

instructions were given to the official concerned to take action against the employers, who

employed the child labourers. The officials would continuously monitor employers. (The Hindu

24/9/05)



Uttar Pradesh scores poorly in checking child labour (14)

ALLAHABAD: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has criticised Uttar Pradesh

government for failing to put a check on child labour through effective enforcement of Child

Labour (prohibition and regulation) Act. In its report for the year ended March 31, 2004, the CAG

has noted with concern that in the State, famous the world over for its carpet industry that is

heavily dependent upon child labour, there was no systematic survey for identification of working

children. In fact, the data on child labour in the State also appeared to be grossly understated at

66,000 as of March 2004, against 19.28 lakh working children as per the 2001 Census report,

says the CAG. Besides, there appeared to be laxity on part of the State labour department in

implementing the provisions of the Child Labour Act. Cases involving penalty of Rs 7.28 crore for

employing child labour in hazardous industries were either withdrawn or cancelled by the labour

department till December 31, 2004. Besides, there were stay orders in cases involving Rs 9.86

crore till the above date and this indicated inadequate or defective documentation of cases for

initiating legal action and recovery of penalty, the CAG report said. The State has also fared badly

in terms of rehabilitation of children withdrawn from various industries. The report pointed out that

many of the NGOs selected to run national child labour project (NCLP) special schools

discontinued the work after receiving grants-in-aid. (The Hindu 24/9/05)



SC notice to govt on adoption (14)

New Delhi: Should the right to adopt a child, currently restricted to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and

Sikhs, be extended to Muslims, Christians, Jews and Parsis as well? Taking this to be a pertinent

question raised in a PIL, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Union ministries of

law and justice, as well as social justice and empowerment. A Bench comprising Justices Y K

Sabharwal, S H Kapadia and C K Thakker also issued notice to the women and child

development ministry on the PIL filed by Shabnam Hashmi pointing out that there was a huge

gap between the number of orphaned children and those adopted every year. The enormity of the

issue was fathomed quickly by the Bench, as counsel for the petitioner pointed out that there

were over 12 million orphaned children in India but on an average only 3,000 get adopted every

year. However, since the issue is sensitive in nature, the court asked counsel to also make those

bodies a party in the PIL who could inform it about the impact of such a general adoption law on

the personal laws of communities which did not at present have adoption rights granted under the

Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act, 1956. "What will be necessary is to implead other parties

who can address the court on the issue. It is a larger question. Protection of rights of the

minorities will come in. It is not an easy question to answer," the Bench said. When the court said

that it was for Parliament to enact a law on this issue, the petitioner contended that was seeking a

direction from it to the Centre "to enact a special law which would be optional, while not impinging

on the religious sentiments of any faith". (Times of India 27/9/05)



Spurt in crimes against children (14)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The number of crimes committed against children is on the increase

in Kerala, a trend which Social Welfare Department (SWD) officials now consider as "alarming."

The department is trying to combat the trend by putting in place a system for giving adequate

care and protection to children who find themselves in crime-related distress. According to Police

Department figures, as many as 361 children became victims of crime in the State last year. Of

this, 102 children were murdered, 159 raped and 74 reported kidnapped or abducted. There were

20 cases of procurement of minor girls, two cases of infanticide and one case registered under

the Child Marriage Restraint Act. In 2002, 240 cases of crime against children were reported.

Between 2002 and 2004 there has been a nearly 50 per cent increase in crimes committed

against children in the State. The highest increase was seen in rape cases. There were 64 rape

cases in 2001, 148 in 2003 and 159 in 2004. The number of cases registered on the charge of

procuring minor girls increased from four in 2001 to 20 in 2004. A senior SWD official said

children in difficult circumstances appeared to not get adequate protection from the State. (The

Hindu 2/10/05)



UP governor seeks report on children who fainted (14)

Lucknow, Oct. 4: UP governor T.V. Rajeswar has sought a report form the state government

regarding the incident in which about 42 children fainted in Kanpur on Sunday and were

hospitalised when they were made to stand in the sun for almost five hours for a cultural

programme. The governor, according to Raj Bhavan sources, is "perturbed" at the incident and

has asked principal home secretary Alok Sinha to furnish a detailed report on the incident. The

state government has also ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident while the state education

department is conducting another inquiry at its level. The Congress, on the other hand, has

demanded a judicial probe into the incident and stern action against those responsible for the

"inhuman treatment" meted out to schoolchildren. In a statement, UPCC spokesman Akhilesh

Pratap Singh said that the district officials in Kanpur were apparently more interested in pleasing

their political bosses than in showing concern for schoolchildren who had been kept standing in

the sun for five hours without food and water. He said that his party wanted action to be taken

against the guilty officials. "What is even more appalling is the statement issued by Kranti Shah,

head of Yuvak Biradari, a Mumbai-based organisation that organised the Ek Sur Ek Taal

programme. Mr Shah told a TV channel that if farmers could till their land in the sun throughout

the day without falling ill, why the children couldn’t withstand the sun for five hours. This shows

the insensitivity of the government and the organisers," he pointed out. (Asian Age 5/10/05)



Domestic child labourer rescued (14)

HYDERABAD: A 10-year-old boy, employed as a domestic labourer in a schoolteacher's house in

Mehdipatnam was rescued on Thursday by a group of NGOs and Government officials. "My

employers told me they would educate me. But I was tortured and made to work as bonded

labour. Please do justice," complained P. Adinarayana, son of a farm worker from Cuddapah in

writing to local community volunteers, who alerted NGOs Asha Foundation and others. At the

Asif Nagar police station, where the rescue team brought him, the badly bruised boy showed

wounds on his hip, and other parts of the body. While his parents sent him in February 2005 with

Asha, a teacher and her husband, Murali Mohan Reddy, a lecturer, hoping he would be provided

education, Adinarayana said, "I was working from dawn to dusk sweeping floors, cleaning toilets,

washing clothes and even cooking meals." A nearby STD booth worker who noticed the inhuman

treatment meted out to the boy alerted the anti-child labour organisations, which swung to action

on Wednesday. The boy was sent for medical examination and Asifnagar police arrested the

teacher and her son, Sai Srinivas Reddy, studying engineering . (The Hindu 7/10/05)



Child labour eradication programme reviewed (14)

VIJAYAWADA: Krishna district Collector Navin Mittal has suggested closer cooperation between

various Government departments and voluntary organisations to end the problem of child labour

in the district. Reviewing the progress of child labour eradication programme with village-level

volunteers on Wednesday, the Collector expressed satisfaction over the initiative taken by a large

number of voluntary organisations in the district to set up 80 bridge schools for children who were

withdrawn from work. He acknowledged differences between the statistics provided by the

Education Department, as per which only 10,000 children were out of school in the district, and

those of the voluntary organisations that contend that it ranges between 30,000 and 40,000. Mr.

Mittal pointed out that the Government was considering even those children, who were not in

school and stayed at home to take care of domestic chores as child labourers, and accordingly

trying to bring them back to school by admitting them first to bridge schools. He said a penal fee

of Rs. 15,000 would be levied on those who employed children in works specified under law. The

Hindu 7/10/05)



15-year old girls can marry (14)

New Delhi, Oct. 6: The marriage of a minor girl above 15 years of age is neither illegal nor void if

done at her own discretion and free will, the Delhi high court has ruled. Such newly-wed minors

are not to be sent to the remand homes against their wishes but to their husbands' homes, the

court has further ordered. A division bench of Justice Manmohan Sarin and Justice Manju Goel

said, "The marriage is neither void nor illegal on account of the spouse being less than 18 years

of age and being Dver 15 years of age." The order came in connection with three separate cases

wherein minor girls above the age of 15 had eloped and married men of their choice and the girls'

parents had lodged kidnapping cases against their son-in-laws. The bench quashed the FIRs and

ordered the release of the their husbands, saying the essential ingredient of the offence of

kidnapping were absent in such cases. "The taking away or enticing away of the minors was

missing in these cases," observed the bench. The court also ordered for the release of the girls

from the remand homes and allowed them, one of them pregnant, to accompany their respective

husbands. "The girls, having reached the age of discretion, had of their own volition accompanied

the men of their choice," the court said, noting that "evidence suggested that the initiative came

from them and they got married of their own accord and were desirous of living with their

respective husbands." Relying upon an top court judgment, the bench said, "When a girl who,

though a minor, had attained the age of discretion and was on the verge of attaining the age of

majority, accompanied a man with the desire of being his wife, the man cannot be held guilty of

kidnapping as the law does not cast upon him the duty of taking her back to her father's house or

even of telling her not to accompany him." (Asian Agee 7/10/05)



130 kids freed from zari units (14)

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 7: AT THREE in the after noon, it's pitch dark in the zari embroidery

unit in Pilanji, Kotla Mubarakpur. Around 30 children are huddled over wooden frames, in the light

of a few candles. Around 130 of their counterparts from four such units were rescued today but in

the rest of Kotla, it's business as usual. When the Newsline team stepped into these units, posing

as "boutique buyers", suspicion hung in the air. Most of these children, the oldest among them

not into their teens, are from villages along the Bengal-Bihar border. There are almost 1,000 of

them in 500 units in the area, between 30 to 40 of them packed into 12 feet-by-30 feet rooms with

no window. From 9 am to midnight, they embroider lehengas, kurtas and salwars, with or without

light. And after midnight, the frames are put away so they can sleep on the floor. The youngest is

eight years old. He is ordered to duck under the frame as soon as we start clicking photographs.

The boys, karigaars. The only wage they get during their "learning period" of more than two years

is a measly Rs 100 per week. Says Umesh, (name changed), all of 10 years; "We eat after work

at one in the night. In the afternoon, the maalik feeds us. We try and save whatever we can to

send home." "We initiate action when we get a complaint," says DCP (south) Praveer Ran-jan,

"We are empowered to take action on our own, but you have to realise that we have to coordinate

with other agencies so that we have a place to keep these children." The NGO 'Bachpan Bachao

Andolan' under whose initiative the raid was carried out along with the labour department and

local police, say the owners make money both ways, on labour and the product. "Its cheaper for

these factory owners to employ these kids. Where they would have to pay a Rs 120 to an adult

kaarigar, they get away by paying Rs 20-25 to a kid," says a volunteer. And while the children

earn not more than Rs 100, every piece of what they make sells not less for a few hundreds.

(Indian Express 8/10/05)



Andhra has over 50,000 blind kids (14)

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: There are 50,000 visually challenged children in the state, including about

10,000 in the state capital, of whom about a third can be treated. Doctors say that about 30 per

cent of the cases are caused by refractive error, which can be repaired through surgery. Including

adults, there are about 14 lakh fully blind people in Andhra Pradesh. These figures will haunt the

state health officials when they will launch World Sight Day celebrations from October 13 till

October 20. The theme is "Sight for Kids". Congenital eye disorders among children are about 24

per cent of the 50,000 cases. The major reason continues to be consanguineous marriages, or

marriages between blood relatives. (Asian Age 11/10/05)



Child marriages India fares poor fourth in UN list (14)

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 12: OVER 50 per cent of India's girls are married before they turn 18.

India ties with Bangladesh for fourth place on a list headed by Niger, where 76 per cent of mar-

riages happen between un-der-18-year-olds. The Democratic Republic of Congo is a close

second at 74 per cent and Afghanistan is third at 54 per cent. These and other grim figures are

presented in the UN Population Fund report on the State of the World Population 2005, released

yesterday. The report sounds an alarm for efforts in the fight against poverty, naming gender

discrimination as one of the greatest factors hampering international attempts to eliminate world

poverty. The report—which coincides with the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Charter

where equal rights of men and women have been enshrined—said that a lack of access to family

planning and reproductive health are closely linked to poverty and productivity. In India's case,

the report quotes a survey conducted in Madhya Pradesh in 1998, according to which, 14 per

cent girls in India are married between the age of 10 and 14. The report goes on to emphasise

the negative impact of child marriage on reproductive health. "Married adolescent girls have

limited power to influence child-bearing or contraceptive decisions, with implications for infant

health and survival, maternal mortality, HIV, high fertility and poverty reduction," it said. According

to the report, girls in the age group of 10 to 14 years are more likely to die in pregnancy or

childbirth than women aged 20 to 24. Girls aged 15 to 19 are twice as likely to die—the vast ma-

jority of maternal deaths take place in this age group. (Indian Express 13/10/05)



Child workers rescued from zari unit in Kotla (14)

New Delhi: He left a job in his village and decided to go to Delhi with his brother to look for more

lucrative offers. But little did he know that that there was another ordeal in store for him. Meet

Sheikh Haider, an 11-year-old boy, who was rescued alongwith 129 other children from a zari unit

in Kotla Mubarakpur. A resident of Mahadilbagan village, near Kolkata, Sheikh was forced to quit

school and support his family. "Initially, I joined a car garage, where I used to work for more than

15 hours a day. Our owner made us do all sorts of work and tortured us physically, if we failed to

deliver," he recalls. However, Sheikh escaped the torture only to face another one and this time

at a zari unit. With no pay all he got was a 20-minute lunch-break. "We were addressed as chotu,

and the seniors, who had one-year experience, were referred to as the karigars. While they got

their monthly wages, we were only given meals," explains Sheikh. According to Sheikh, they were

made to work in dingy rooms cut off from the rest of the world. All the 129 kids, between the age

of 8 to 14, were released following a raid by an NGO, Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (BBA),

alongwith the labour department and the local police. The NGO got to know about these kids

through a tip-off by the children who were recently rescued in another raid in Dabri. "Almost 30

kids were rescued in a similar raid conducted in Dabri, on June 6. They told us about the Kotla

unit and our team started investigations till we found them, informs Rakesh Singhal, the

coordinator, BBA. The NGO is now urging the government to help the children with an aid of Rs

20,000, a home under the Indira Awas Yojna and a monthly stipend of Rs 150 for each child.

(Asian Age 14/10/05)



Quake Orphans forced into sex trade (14)

Six-year-old Aisha loves the orange blouse and jeans given to her by the kind woman who

rescued her from the chaos of the Kashmir earthquake. She snuggles up to her, trying to forget

the devastation of her village home and the deaths of her parents 15 days ago. What Aisha does

not know is that the woman, Kausar, is a prostitute who has bought her from relatives for Rs

50,000 and plans to put her to work in the sex trade as soon as she reaches puberty. Aisha is not

alone. According to welfare agencies, many of the hundreds of girls and boys orphaned by the

earthquake are being targeted by gangs intent on turning them into prostitutes or street beggars.

Other children are being sold for adoption by their parents in acts of desperation prompted by the

destruction of homes and livelihoods. The Pakistani government is so alarmed by the threat to

vulnerable children that it has placed armed guards at all hospitals and ordered that no child is

released to anyone until proof of kinship has been verified. A complete ban on adoption was

announced after hospitals and emergency shelters were besieged by people offering to take

Kashmiri orphans. Staff at the PIMS hospital in Islamabad say a number of people posing as

relatives were caught trying to abduct children. But according to Manan Rana, a child protection

officer working for Unicef, the United Nations children's fund, in Muzaffarabad, near the epicentre

of the earthquake, local government in Kashmir has collapsed and officials are unable to provide

protection. (Times of India 24/10/05)



Officials focus on child budget at meet (14)

New Delhi, Oct. 26: How much of the Centre’s budget for children’s health and education actually

makes a difference on the ground? Officials from the Centre and the states and representatives

from voluntary organisations debated the idea of "Child Budgeting" at a day-long conference here

on Wednesday. At one level, the concept means keeping better tabs on government spending to

ensure that it shows results. naugurating the workshop, human resources development minister

Arjun Singh admitted that the government’s intentions often translated into the "dismal picture"

seen in reality. He blamed the "faulty delivery system". "We should be very ruthless in seeing that

this system does not falter, and whenever it falters someone pays for it," he said. Minutes earlier,

an official of the department of women and child welfare had presented a slideshow highlighting

"low" spending and bad numbers relating to the state of the country’s children. Dr Singh said

looking for "excuses" was a way of avoiding responsibility. He also talked about everyone being

experts at "finding fault with others" and seldom looking at themselves. It was not clear if the

sharp words were directed at HRD officials, particularly those in the women and child

development department, or at the political, policy-making level. The minister hoped that a bill

setting up a national commission for children would be passed in Parliament during the session

beginning next month. Among other issues, the workshop discussed low contribution of funds by

state governments, who often can’t — or don’t want to — raise matching amounts for Centrally-

aided schemes. (Asian Age 27/10/05)



‘Adopt a child’ this Diwali (14)

New Delhi, Oct. 26: "Adopt one of us and brighten our Diwali" was the message given out by

hundreds of children in the capital who participated in a "Human Chain Walkathon," a week

before the festival of lights. The aim was to spread awareness about the urgent need to help

children in distress and encourage people to sponsor these children to have a home and a life of

happiness this Diwali through SOS India. "It is a great opportunity for the Delhiites to do

something extraordinary, to demonstrate support for a cause, and to make a difference," said Mr

J.N. Kaul, president of SOS Children’s Villages of India. "The walkathon, celebrates the spirit of

Delhi, the spirit of sharing, giving, and the joy of togetherness. Sponsoring a child will light up the

child’s festivities and give immeasurable satisfaction to the donor," he added. "I love lights and

want to light a diya on Diwali. I will celebrate with other children who stay here," said 8-year-old

Anjali, who lives in a shelter home. "I want to live in a home where children get gifts on festivals,"

added her 11-year-old sister Sunita. Walking hand-in-hand with the homeless and the deprived

children, were 5,000 children from 100 schools in Delhi who participated in the walk. The young

souls embodied the spirit of the "Human Chain Walkathon." (Asian Age 27/10/05)



CRY stresses need for tighter child labour laws (14)

New Delhi, November 13: THE need for an effective judicial system for child labour was one of

the pressing issues raised at a conference on various aspects of child rights and the legal

system. The three-day conference, which took off today at the Jamia Hamdard University is being

organised by Child Relief and You (CRY) and saw participation of CRY workers from across the

country and members of other NGOs from different regions, including Mumbai, Tamil Nadu and

Manipur. Today being the first interactive session, activists focussed on issues that needed to be

highlighted both on the field and at the policy-making level. Topics discussed included child rights

and Constitution, child rights advocacy, requirements for special children and those in institutions,

and, significantly, the role of information dissemination in these processes. Since the conference

is coinciding with Children’s Day, a Baal Natya Utsav will be held tomorrow evening at Delhi Haat.

‘‘Children participating in the programme are mostly those with whom the organisation has dealt

with extensively ’’ CRY representatives said. (Indian Exp 14/11/05)



485 child labourers rescued (14)

NEW DELHI: In a major crackdown on employment of child labour, a joint team of the State

Labour Department, the Delhi police and the non-governmental organisation, Pratham, rescued

close to 500 children from illegal zari units in northeast Delhi on Monday. The operation began

around noon and four teams conducted simultaneous raids in the Gonda, Noor-e-Ilahi, Arvind

Mohalla and Usmanpur areas. As news of the raids spread, the zari unit owners tipped off one

another and fled the scene, threatening the children with dire consequences if they revealed

anything about them. To ensure that they remained untraced, the employers locked several

children in abandoned houses, underground workshops and even on the roof of an abandoned

government building. Some were sent to schools in the area to mingle with students, said Junned

Khan, head of the Pratham Child Labour Team, which spearheaded the operation. Ravi Kant of

the NGO Shakti Vahini, said "A zari unit was operating from the first floor of a school building.

The unit owner had school identity cards issued to the children to show them as students. In

another unit we found that several children had been hidden under heaps of quilts, while scores

were sent to parks in the area to evade detection." Nevertheless, during the five-hour operation,

the team rescued 485 minors. They were taken to the HUDCO's August Kranti Bhawan in Bikaji

Cama Place where arrangements for their stay were made. (The Hindu 22/11/05)



Efforts on to send back rescued kids (14)

NEW DELHI: Even as close to 500 children rescued on Monday from zari units operating in

North-East Delhi have been kept at HUDCO's August Kranti Bhawan in Bhikaji Cama Place,

efforts for their repatriation to their respective villages in Bihar have been stepped up. While the

State Labour Department officials were engaged in meetings in this regard, it is learnt that due to

shortage of manpower about 30 teachers and volunteers of non-government organisation

Pratham -- who had extended their help to take care of the children during their stay there -- were

on Tuesday finding it difficult to handle the situation. "We have asked the Government officials to

provide security," said one of the volunteers. On Monday night some children began complaining

of bad health and were provided treatment. By Tuesday evening, the situation almost went out of

control when some children began indulging in mischief. "We are doing whatever we can to keep

them busy in creative works," the volunteer added. Stating that more rescue operations were in

the offing, the State Secretary (Labour), Narendra Kumar, in a press statement said this July, he

had received a letter from Firoz Numani, an advocate and coordinator of INTUC Child Labour Cell

in Bihar, informing him that many children from there were working in the embroidery units here in

the trans-Yamuna area. "Acting on that tip-off, the Labour Department along with non-

government organisations like Prayas rescued 98 children on July 21 and restored them to their

parents. Their employers were also booked," he said. (Pioneer 22/11/05)



NGO abandons 'rescued' kids (14)

New Delhi The climax was on expected lines. As feared, the 477 children "rescued" amid media

hype by Mumbai-based NGO Pratham, in coordination with the labour department of Delhi

Government, have landed up in juvenile homes. Failing to put together a rehabilitation plan for the

children and unable to bear the cost of food and lodging, Pratham on Sunday sent the children to

11 observation homes spread across the city. These homes mainly house juvenile delinquents.

But in the case of these unfortunate 'rescued' children, there is neither a first information report

(FIR) against them nor their employers from whose premises they were rescued. They have been

sent to Sewa Kutir run by the Delhi Government, Prayas and Deepalaya, run by NGOs. These

children would now be in the company of those incarcerated there on various criminal charges

under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In a related development, Pratham has sacked its volunteers

who were assigned the task to carry out the rescue operation. The step has been taken, sources

said, following adverse media reports. The Pioneer had carried a report in its front page titled-

Lure of UN funds drives NGO to rescue kids- which revealed that rather than concern for the

rehabilitation of the children, utilisation of UN funds prompted the raids. The report also pointed

out that neither the government nor the NGO that carried out the raids had an answer about the

rehabilitation plan of these children. Sources in the labour department said that the government

had already placed a task force under divisional commissioner GK Marwah to carry such raids.

"In this case, the labour department and NGO did not consult the task force prior to the raids. The

entire exercise was done without proper planning," said the source. "The rescued children would

now be required to depose before the child welfare committee of the Delhi Government after

which a decision would be taken on their rehabilitation," said a Delhi government official. (Pioneer

28/11/05)



Panel moots compulsory registration of marriages (14)

NEW DELHI: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and

Justice has recommended inclusion of a provision for mandatory registration of adult marriages

and recording of child marriages in the Prevention of Child Marriage Bill, 2004. In its 13th report

on Bill, tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the committee has said that the provision would

go a long way in preventing child marriages. It has pointed out that there had been a reduction in

child marriages in Sri Lanka after registration was made compulsory in that country. Marriage

registration had been made compulsory in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tripura and Goa.

Registration process must involve a careful scrutiny of the age of the parties to the marriage and

it should not be done casually or mechanically as prevention of child marriage was possible only

when there was an effective system for verification of age of the marrying parties at an early

stage, the panel has said, adding that a-minimum period from the date of solemnisation of

marriage should be specified within which the parties should be required to get their marriage

registered. The responsibility for registration of marriages or recording of child marriages should

be entrusted to the functionaries at the panchayat, tehsil and district levels with a clear provision

for fixing accountability of such functionaries in case of failures in their duties, the report has said.

Pat for panel Putting on record its appreciation for the commitment shown by Shakuntala Verma,

a supervisor of the Integrated Child Development Scheme in Madhya Pradesh, the committee

has suggested that a national level survey be carried out promptly by the Government to gather

data on the prevalence of child marriage and its impact. Calling for strict enforcement of the

legislative measures along with awareness programmes at various levels, the panel has pointed

out that it was aware of the fate of the Dowry Prohibition Act, which has been virtually dead so far

in achieving its objects. (The Hindu 30/11/05)



Court notice on rehabilitation of rescued kids (14)

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to the Delhi Government asking it to ex-

plain how it plans to rehabilitate the 425-odd child labourers who were rescued from 150 zari

factories in the Zafrabad area of Delhi last month. Asking the Government to give its response to

a public interest litigation filed by social activist and lawyer Ashok Agar-wal by February 8, the

High Court also permitted the petitioner to visit the rescue homes to find out the condition of the

children. Questioning the Government's failure to ensure suitable rehabilitation measures for all

the child labourers rescued on November 21 from the Jaffarabad area, the PIL alleges that the

Government has not taken enough steps to protect these children. The petition submitted that

following their rescue, the Government kept the children in August Kranti Bhawan till November

25 under the control and supervision of a non-government organisation, Pratham Delhi Education

Initiative. "During the said period of five days, the children had undergone torture and mental

agony. There was no proper sanitation arrangement. There was no one to provide medical care.

The clothes of the children were not at all changed and there were no proper bathing facilities.

Due to unhygienic atmosphere and absence of basic amenities, several children fell sick and

remained unattended," the petition states. It further alleges that when things went out of hand, the

NGO requested the Child Welfare Committee on November 25 to shift the children, following

which they were shifted on November 26 to five juvenile homes.While complaining that these

children were being simply handed over to their parents or relatives without ensuring they are not

recycled as child labour, the PIL submits that "it is a common experience that once these children

are simply handed over to the parents/relatives without rehabilitation package, all these children

are seen again in the factories to work as child labour." (The Hindu 4/12/05)



NGO rescues 14 minor girl servants (14)

New Delhi, Dec. 10: Fourteen minor girls have been rescued by the NGO Bachpan Bachaon

Andolan after they were reported "missing" in the capital. The girls in the age-group between 12

to 14 years, from West Bengal, were lured by a placement agency from their native village and

never sent back home. Munjal placement agency in Lajpat Nagar was raided by the police

late on Wednesday night and 11 girls were rescued. Three other girls were rescued from homes

where they were forcibly sent to work as maids. The mothers of three girls — Preeti, Minati and

Rupa, came to Delhi looking for their daughters, who were missing for the past one year. "Despite

repeated pleas to the placement agency and visits to Delhi I was not told the whereabouts of my

daughter, forget about meeting her," said Kalpana, the mother of 14-year-old Preeti. Ms Kalpana

cursed the day she was lured by a dalal called Basu, working for the placement agency, into

sending her daughter to the big city to earn good money. "He told us she will earn Rs 1,500-2,000

per month, get three holidays in a month and will visit home every six months. But they were lies,"

she added. "I was sick and did not want to work anymore. Every time I went back to the agency

they beat me up and forced me to work. They took my salary every month and did not let me go

back home, said Preeti who is relieved to see her mother’s face (Asian Age 11/12/05)



Parliamentary forum on children launched (14)

New Delhi: When Unicef executive director Ann Veneman came to the heart of the world's largest

democracy Friday to ask MPs to champion the cause of children, just about 50 war-weary

Volckergate veterans were waiting to hear her plainspeak on the situation in India. On an issue

which tends to get pushed off the floor of the House. That was the tally by the end of the lecture,

organised in the Parliament premises. Friday's a bad day, said Jairam Ramesh, one of the MPs

present — several MPs would have left town to head back to constituencies for the weekend.

There were few Rajya Sabha MPs; the high-profile young MPs were represented only by Sachin

Pilot. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee wasn't "very happy" with the score either — but believes the

number of listeners is growing. On the brighter side, Friday morning marked the launch of a

Parliamentary forum on children in a country which is home to one in every five of the world's

children. It's apparently only the third such forum, and can hopefully move beyond the "narrow,

constricted, departmental" world of standing committees to become an advocacy group.

Veneman's message was a reality check to a country with ambitions of becoming a global

economic and political player: 47% children are undernourished though food production is

adequate. And, there's a lot of work to be done to provide a "continuum of care" for mothers and

children, with interventions that include immunisation, nutrition, education, access to clean water

and preventive health measures. Education, particularly of girls, is key. (Times of India 11/12/05)



Notice issued to Centre on plea against child labour (14)

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre on a public interest

petition seeking enforcement of the right to education of every child in the age group of 6 to 14 by

abolishing child labour in all forms. A three-Judge Bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal, Justice

A.R. Lakshmanan and Justice Dalveer Bhandari issued the notice on a petition filed by Prof.

Shantha Sinha of Hyderabad University; HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, through its executive

secretary Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, and Social Jurist, a civil rights group, through its coordinator

Ritu Jain. The petitioners submitted that Article 21-A of the Constitution mandates compulsory

education for every child in the age group of 6 to 14 years. Even after 57 years of Independence,

out of 200 million children in this age group, nearly 100 million were estimated to be out of school

and engaged in labour. The failure of the existing laws on child labour to completely prohibit such

labour was causing continuous violation of all human rights of children. They sought a declaration

that child labour in any form up to 14 years was unconstitutional (The Hindu 13/12/05)



2 child marriages prevented at Greater Noida village (14)

New Delhi, December 14: As the Centre is contemplating enacting laws to curb child marriages

still prevalent in many parts of the country, a small village in western Uttar Pradesh has shown

that people are ready to give up traditions in favour of law. It happened in village Kulsera located

in the upmarket township of Greater NOIDA, where the police and National Commission for

Women (NCW) today intervened and prevented the marriage of two minor girls — one 14 and

another 16— without inviting the wrath of the villagers. An anonymous fax message received at

the NCW had led the commission on the trail of three child brides of the village. Janesh Tyagi, a

middle-class farmer, had fixed marriages of his three daughters for today. However, his plans

were upset when police, at the behest of the NCW, took the girls for medical examination last

evening and found two of them were under 18 years of age. Tyagi and entire village community

were shocked at the turn of events as the three baraats had started off for Kulsera. However,

NCW member Malini Bhattacharya reached the village early morning and held consultations with

the entire community. Bhattacharya told the Newsline that ‘‘although the villagers kept on saying

that marrying off girls at a younger age was their tradition, they also said they were not ready to

break the law on this.’’ In fact, Bhattachrya felt that womenfolk were more angry on this spanner

in the marriages. The villagers led by the sarpanch agreed to put off the marriage of Tyagi’s two

minor daughters, Preeti, and Rakhi. ‘‘The villagers said they would extend the hospitality to all

the three baraats but send off the two grooms without marriage,’’ Bhattarcharya said. The village

community also gave an undertaking to the NCW that they would see that Tyagi’s second

daughter, who had dropped out from the school for getting married, is sent back to school. The

youngest daughter is already going to school. (Indian Exp 15/12/05)



Millions of children lead invisible lives: report (14)

NEW DELHI: Hundreds of millions of children suffer from severe exploitation and discrimination

and have virtually become invisible to the world, according to a United Nations Children's Fund

report on the State of the World's Children 2006. The report, "Excluded and Invisible," released

on Wednesday, says millions of children disappear from view when trafficked or forced to work in

domestic servitude. Others, such as street children, live in plain sight but are excluded from

fundamental services and protections. The report finds that children who lack vital services are

more vulnerable to exploitation. Every year, over half of all births in the developing world

(excluding China) go unregistered, denying more than 50 million children a basic birthright and

recognition as a citizen. Street children's plight An estimated 143 million children in the

developing world — one in every 13 — have suffered the death of at least one parent. For

children in deep poverty, the loss of even one parent, especially the mother, can take a lasting toll

on their health and education. More than one million children live in detention, the vast majority

awaiting trial for minor offences. Many of these children suffer gross neglect, violence and

trauma. The report points out that hundreds of thousands of children are caught up in armed

conflict. In spite of laws against early marriage in many countries, over 80 million girls across the

developing world will be married before they turn 18. Close to 8.4 million children work in the

worst forms of child labour, including prostitution and debt bondage.Nearly two million children

are used in the commercial sex trade (The Hindu 15/12/05)



50m children denied basic birthright: Unicef (14)

New Delhi, Dec. 16: Millions of children are becoming virtually "out of sight," "out of mind" and

"out of reach" to the world, says the annual Unicef report The State of the World’s Children 2006:

Excluded and Invisible, released in London on December 14. Participating in the launch was 14-

year-old Guriya Khatoon from Bihar, whose biggest battle in life has been to convince her parents

to allow her to study. With girls in her impoverished Muslim community excluded from a formal

education and her father not earning, she overcame many obstacles in her quest for learning.

"These children are growing up beyond the reach of development campaigns and are often

invisible in everything from public debate and legislation, to statistics and news stories," said the

report. The report reveals that every year, over half of all births in the developing world (except

China) go unregistered, denying more than 50 million children a basic birthright: Recognition as a

citizen. "Children who are not registered at birth do not appear in official statistics and are not

acknowledged as members of their society. Without a registered identity, children are not

guaranteed basic needs like education and healthcare," it said. Exploring the causes of child

exclusion and abuse, the report says that children disappear from view when trafficked or forced

to work in domestic servitude. Other children, who live on streets are in plain sight, but are

excluded from fundamental services and protections. Not only do these children endure abuse,

most are shut out from school, healthcare and other vital services. (Asian Age 17/12/05)



Child labourers rescued (14)

JAIPUR: About 40 children of tender age from Rajasthan, working as child labourers in a leather

goods producing zone in Murabai, were rescued in a special operation by the Maharashtra

Government's Task Force and brought here by train over the week-end. All the children will soon

be reunited with their families. The children of the age group of 6 to 14 years were subjected to

appalling working conditions at Thakarbappa, a slum colony, and were reportedly exposed to

physical, verbal and sexual abuse. The majority of them had been taken from the villages in

Rajasthan and did not have proper contact with their parents. The first batch of the children,

which arrived here on Friday, has been put up at Kishore Grah here. With the process for

repatriating the rescued children to their homes having started, Pratham Rajasthan — a non-

Government organisation — has undertaken the responsibility to do educational follow-up for

them. The head of Pratham Rajasthan, K.B. Kothari, said the State Government had agreed to

organise residential educational camps at various locations as a post-rescue operation for these

and other children. Pratham will ensure that the children get a good quality of education. Mr.

Kothari said the enrolment of rescued child labourers in the bridge courses of six to nine months

would facilitate their return to the mainstream schools. The introduction of pre-vocational training

components in the bridge courses would inculcate income-generating capabilities among older

children, he added. (The Hindu 18/12/05)



Child labourers walk to freedom (14)

Hyderabad: The recently launched Child Labour Helpline is proving quite effective. Based on

complaints received on it, district officials swung into action and rescued seven children, including

a boy, from bonded labour after raids on several houses in Durga Bai Deshmukh colony on

Tuesday. The children, who are in the 7-10 age group, were later admitted to the Residential

Bridge Camp, a hostel-cum-school, at Saidabad. The children were working as domestic help for

different periods varying from three months to three years. Cases under the Bonded Labour Act

were booked against their employers in the Amberpet police station. The rescued children are:

Baleshwari (Ethammula village, Jadcherla), Suvarna (Yadi Reddypally, Kalwakurthy),

Ramulamma and Laxmi both sisters of Yellakonda, Nalgonda district, Shyamala (Uppal), Kala

and Narsimha of Angadipeta in Nalgonda district. The children were engaged on yearly payment

of Rs. 3000 to Rs. 8000. The money was paid to their parents, said Sirajur Rahman, project

director, National Child Labour Project. Three girls -- Suvaran, Ramulamma and Laxmi -- were

found working in the house of a contractor, Veera Rdddy, while others were rescued from

different houses in the Durga Bai Deshmukh colony. The raid, which was carried out at 8.30 a.m,

was coordinated by the RDO, Hyderabad, the NCLP project director, the MROs of Amberpet,

Bandlaguda and Nampally. (The Hindu 21/12/05)



Anti-graft fiat gives UP child labour a fillip (14)

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 22: The order was meant to stop corrupt officials from harassing

factory owners in Uttar Pradesh, but it has ended up giving child labour a fresh run in the state. A

National Human Rights Commission report says that the number of child labourers in UP has

seen an increase, the first since around 70,000 bonded children were freed at the behest of the

Supreme Court in 1997. Based on the survey of bonded labourers, mostly children, in the

districts of Varanasi, Bhadoi, Mirzapur and Allahabad, the report said that the ‘‘detection of child

labour in the state has totally stopped because of the one-line directive by the government

declaring the end of the inspector raj.’’ The directive, issued by the Mulayam Singh Yadav

government on August 29, 2003, said, ‘‘Henceforth there will be no inspections of factories by

state officials’’. The order was meant to weed out the petty corruption indulged in by a large

number of officials in charge of inspecting establishments to oversee labour law implementation.

The NHRC claims that after the order was implemented, officials stopped their inspections of

factories and other work places. And although the UP government later modified its order under

pressure from NGOs and allowed inspections on specific complaints, the officials concerned had

stopped being proactive about keeping a strict vigil on the illegal employment of children. This,

said the report, had resulted in a substantial increase in the employment of children in hazardous

and non-hazardous categories of labour after 2003, till when only 28 cases had been detected.

(Indian Express 23/12/05)



2.5 million children die in the country every year, says report (14)

NEW DELHI: The very survival of the Indian child seems to be at stake as 2.5 million children die

in the country every year, accounting for one in five deaths in the world, according to the "Status

of Children in India Inc,'' a report brought out by HAQ: Centre for Child Rights. The report says

that 87 of every 100 children born have the probability of dying between birth and exactly five

years of age. The state of India's newborns and the health challenge faced by them is bigger than

that experienced by any other country. Although India's neo-natal mortality rate (NMR) witnessed

a significant decline in the 1980s (from 69 per 1,000 live births in 1980 to 53 per 1,000 live births

in 1990), it has remained static since then (only dropping four points from 48 to 44 per 1,000 live

births between 1995 and 2000), the report says. Also, one in every three malnourished children in

the world lives in India. Child malnutrition is generally caused by a combination of inadequate or

inappropriate food intake, gastrointestinal parasites and other childhood diseases, and improper

care during illness, the report says, while pointing out the incongruity that in a nation with soaring

Gross Domestic Product rates and Sensex indices, children continued to die of malnutrition and

starvation. The major cause for such a tragedy is the lack of public health services in remote

regions, poor access to subsidised health care facilities, the declining state expenditure on public

health and the lack of awareness on preventive child health care. Warning that the very existence

of the girl child was under threat, the report says that defying the normal male-female balance,

and the higher survival capacity of girl babies and greater life expectancy of women to men

prevalent in human populations, the female to male balance in India has been adverse to females

for at least the past 100 years. Sex selective abortions, more commonly known as foeticide and

what appears to be a re-emergence of infanticide, are taking a toll, while neglect of the `survivors'

of this weeding out also persists. (The Hindu 26/12/05)



They say no to child labour (14)

SALEM: Behind the enticing charm of silver anklets and jewellery lies the tale of sorrow and

sufferings of tender hearts. The industry, an exclusive preserve of Salem, has been thriving on

cloak of trade secrecies and bad labour practices till recently. As the intricate designing of silver

jewellery at various stages demands delicate and nimble fingers, child labourers are found to be

working in hundreds in these anklet units despite stringent enforcement drive. Surprise raids and

awareness campaigns rarely deter the manufacturers from employing these children in their units.

The enforcement agencies in Salem district, known for its high prevalence of child labour in Tamil

Nadu, decided to tackle the menace differently. They met the manufacturers of silver industry and

asked them to refrain from employing children as labourers in their units. On instructions from

Collector A. Sukumaran, Inspector of Labour G. Mahalingam and `Smile' Project Director P.V.

Viswanathan explained to them the inhuman practice of employing children. They asked the

manufacturers to come forward to denounce the social scourge voluntarily. Responding to it,

about 500 silver jewellery manufacturers assembled at a marriage mandap here recently and

took the `Child Labour Eradication pledge'. Salem District Silver Chain Manufacturers Association

president I. Sengoda Gounder and Secretary A. Venkatesan administered the oath. The

participants gave an assurance in the open forum that they would not engage children in their

factories and units. And the highlight of the event was six children were released by their own

masters and admitted in the `Smile' special schools. (The Hindu 28/12/05)



HC tells govt to check NGO facts (14)

SRINAGAR, DECEMBER 27: In the controversial adoption of the 500 orphans of the quake-hit

Uri and Tangdhar case, the J-K High Court (HC) today directed the state government to verify

credentials of the Pune based non-governmental organisation (NGO) that has adopted them. A

division bench of the HC has given ten days to the the state government to submit its report. The

court issued the order while hearing a petition challenging the government move to send the

orphans to Pune. Five hundred orphans from Uri and Tangdhar were shifted to Bhartiya Jain

Sangathan after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that the Centre would send them to

a children home in Pune, and deposit Rs 5 lakh in account of every child for their benefit. Local

and national NGOs working in the quake-hit regions resented the government move and filed a

Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the decision. A separate PIL was filed by the Jammu and

Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JKHBA). The government should explain the reason for the

move, observed the Chief Justice. The government has to also explain that how the children were

shortlisted, he added. The court also directed the Deputy Commissioners of Baramulla and

Kupwara to be present in the next hearing on February 9. The defence lawyer informed the court

that the children were taken to Pune after the Social Welfare Department identified the

beneficiaries in Uri and Tangdhar. Arguing on behalf of the petitioners, JKHBA President Mian

Abdul Qayoom accused the government of exploiting the situation after the quake. “When the

tsunami hit Tamil Nadu, its government strictly banned shifting of orphans. Similarly, the

Maharashtra brought back some children shifted to Pune; in Bhuj no orphans were shifted. Why

only Kashmiri children were taken to Pune?” he asked. “The government conducted the operation

of selection and shifting of the children clandestinely. A team of lawyers should be sent to Pune to

find facts. We want to see how the children are being brought up? What is being taught to them?

Every one among us wants to know. Every lawyer in the Valley is ready to adopt a kid,” he added

(Indian Express 28/12/05)