“Child labour and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labour of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, You will have both poverty and child labour to the end of time.”- Grace Abbott
Privilege works in mysterious ways. To think that since the origin of the human race, a sad evil, could not make its way out is a crucial thought. When one thinks about society, the first thought within our minds should be ‘stand united’ but it continues to echo ‘segregation’. Poverty in India has always had a drastic effect on the country’s economy and social well-being. The primary causes of Poverty most popularly are believed to be a large population and evidently, unemployment. When a citizen is born into a poor household, his only option through conventions and substitutes is instantly labour. Within the wrecks of the Pandemic, children are the worst hit group during the pandemic. All the progress that was made to decrease child labour till 2016, has been reversed by the pandemic. The cases of child labour have increased by 8.4 million and the downward trend in the number of child labourers has turned. As per the reports published by UNICEF more than 10 million children in India are in some kind of servitude.
The pandemic has forced children to indulge in labour work. The condition of working children and children in forced or bonded labour has only gotten worse since the pandemic. The cases of child abuse and violence have also increased significantly during this period.
In India, the reason for the massive increase in child labour is the economic crisis faced by financially weaker or vulnerable families. The pandemic wrecked a large number of homes. As a result, it forced children to indulge in labour work. The ones who were fed every day, even though with the utmost difficulty, are now starving. With the sole earners of the family gone, they are left with nothing but voids, emotional and financial. Many children dropped out of school in this period and started working. These children might never rejoin schools again. It also seizes their opportunity to engage themselves in developmental and meaningful activities. Most importantly, The pandemic took away their childhood. A report by UNICEF also warns that more than 9 million children are at risk of being pushed into child labour by the end of 2022.
There is a need to make changes in the child labour laws as children between the ages of 15 to 18 are exploited. Efforts at both district and state levels are also required to ensure that children from marginalized families do not drop out of school. The Government has been working on providing for the families who lost their sole earners, or worse, both. Although their work is commendable, it is very limited. Not everyone is still noticeable for this fund policy because their family was too poor to even admit their covid struck guardians to the hospital. They deserve to be offered a sensible livelihood so they do not miss out on their childhood and growth. Education is a fundamental human right, and no one should be robbed of it. The only hope left for the eradication of poverty and child labour is Education. Even the citizens of the country can step forward and make a change. If only two families decide to help even a single child to go to school and acquire an education, those children in return will only help educate more like them. Conditions can only be changed if there are proper laws in the country and Society does not shy away from its social responsibilities. A united front and an empathetic good deed go a long way.