Burden of labour kills childhood dreams

NEW DELHI: Kailash Satyarthi's relentless fight against child labour has definitely shown positive results, but there are thousands of kids in Delhi whose rights are violated on a daily basis because of their engagement in various forms of activities. And the number of such children is increasing by the day, say activists.

From landfill sites to small factories and zari units to roadside eateries, children in the age-group of 11-15 are seen doing manual jobs, which are usually meant for adults. TOI went around a few bus terminals and railway stations where young children were seen selling toys or working as helpers at nearby eateries.

Twelve-year-old Fayaz doesn't remember how long he's been in Delhi working for his employer. He works 12 hours a day, from morning 10am to 10pm, cleaning dishes and helping his employer Anant Nath run his food stall outside the Nizamuddin railway station. His job requires him to wipe clean his master's shop in the morning, then deliver food, pull a rickshaw to a public toilet from where he fetches water to clean the utensils and do other manual work till the vendor shuts his shop at 10. "I have come from Bihar. My stepmother sent me here to work. I earn Rs 2,500 a month," Fayaz says in broken Hindi.

Ram, aged around 15 years, runs an eatery at the Sarai Kale Khan bus terminus. Being the eldest child of his family, Ram has been earning some amount from this small business where all the workers are children. Ram, a native of Uttar Pradesh, says he does not have any option but to work to support his family. "I have two school-going siblings. My father is a labourer and mother sits at home," says Ram.

Sanjay Gupta of Chetna, an NGO that works for the rights of street children, mostly around Nizamuddin area, says that the number of child workers in the city has been rising substantially over the years. "I remember around five years ago we rescued around 100 children in Nizamuddin area, who were working at various small establishments. Last year, the number rose to 1,000. While there has been no survey of street children working as bonded labour in Delhi, according to our estimates, around 50-60 children enter Delhi every day who end up becoming bonded labourers."

(Names of children have been changed to protect their identities)

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