Save the girl child

Education – The Right to Learn

“Educate a man, you educate one person, educate a woman, you educate a complete family.”

Reports estimate that more than 50 percent of girls in India fail to enroll in school and those who do are likely to drop out by the age of 12.As in a series of other aspects, the girl child is also discriminated against extensively in the right to education, even basic at times.Lack of education denies the girl child, the knowledge and skills needed to advance their status. Education enables the child to realize her full potential, to think, question and judge independently; to be a wise decision-maker, develop civic sense and learn to respect, love his fellow human beings and to be a good citizen.

Figures also report that there is discrimination even in the field of higher education. At least a 40% of girls are not allowed to pursue higher studies, due to the conservative familial ideologies.

Initiatives

In 1994, the Government of India passed a universal female education bill that offers parents incentives for access and punishment for keeping a girl out of school.

In another important initiative, the government also announced free and reduced cost education for girls. The program has been designed with the aim to offer free education at high school level to all girls of single child families.

The offer also includes provisions for fellowships of US$ 45 per month for those undertaking post-graduate studies.  

Child marriages

“Child marriage is a gross violation of all categories of child rights.” 

A report by the UNICEF revealed that 82 percent of girls in Rajasthan are married before they are 18, 15 percent of girls in rural areas across the country are married before 13 and a major 52 percent of girls have their first pregnancy between 15 and 19.

By the Indian law, it is illegal to allow or facilitate marriage of a boy under 21 and a girl under 18. Amongst all the states in India, it is Rajasthan that tops the list with the average age of a girl at marriage being 16.6 years, closely followed by Bihar (17.2 years) and Madhya Pradesh (17 years).

Defying the law right in the eye, hundreds of children tied the knot in Rajgarh, 65 miles northwest of Bhopal in May 2005. According to sources, hundreds of children, some even as young as seven years old were married over a period of one week.

As if to mock at the law, the ceremonies were held at the same time as the ‘Akkha Teej’, a summer festival believed to auspicious for weddings. Meanwhile all the officials could do was to record the names of the children being married.

Despite the existence of legislation banning child marriage since 1929, the practice continues to be a social reality in the present India.

Causes and Consequences

Laments Girija Mewada, a police constable posted at a Hindu temple in Rajgarh, “The law to stop child marriage is not powerful enough.” In fact, a recent survey revealed that there were never more than 89 attempted prosecutions across India in any one year pertaining to child marriages.

Experts point towards the weak norms of law. The police do not have the authority to arrest anyone about to take part in a marriage, and the bureaucracy involved is so complicated, that most weddings are already materialized by the time papers are ready.

Willingness of the girl’s family to pass on the ‘burden’ of a daughter’s expenses and hope of early adaptation to the in-laws’ house adds on to the gruesome list of causes.

In India, one woman is reported to have died every seven minutes from a pregnancy-related cause, with the situation getting further aggravated by early marriage.

A recent survey revealed that 56% of adolescent girls in India in the age group 15-19 years are anemic. Child support agencies present the following as the dire set of consequences:

1. Child’s education is sacrificed
2. Girls become more vulnerable to domestic violence
3. Early pregnancies weaken the mother
4. Babies born to girls under 17 are 60 percent more likely to die in their first year of life

 Conclusion

“Nobody should expect the evil of child marriage to be eradicated overnight or just by launching an awareness drive”, states Archana Chitnis, State Minister for Women and Child Development.

According to Renuka Chowdhury, Minister for Women and Children, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill, passed in 2006, is likely to provide protection to scores of children forced into marriage every year.

One surely wonders what is it that is likely to wake up the authorities to some real, constructive and result-oriented action.

A set of even more startling research reports and studies, coupled with a genuine outcry from the child welfare organizations and the public perhaps!.

Child laborers

Child laborers – The Cheap Commodity of India

Shiva, an eight-year old orphan was reported dead on June 29, 1993, after he was caught escaping and then beaten and scorched to death by his employer.

In another incident, 446 children were rescued from over 200 zari shops in the glamorous city of Mumbai, while 25 children were rescued from an ill-lit small room converted into a zari factory in the national capital, New Delhi.

The 1991 Census carried out by Government of India states that there are 11.28 million working children under the age of fourteen years in India. Advocacy groups suggest the real figure could be as high as 60 million.

With figures from varied sources giving verdict, India is known to have the largest number of working children in the world. A research carried out by Save the Children, shows that 74 percent of child domestic workers in India are between the ages of 12 and 16, most of them working at measly wages.

Toiling in the heat of stone quarries, working in the fields for long hours, picking rags in city streets or stashed away as domestic servants, these children are sentenced to a life of misery, suffering and horrors.

In most of the Indian industries, girls are recognized as unrecognized laborers because they are seen as Help & Supporters and not workers. Hence, this section remains almost totally unprotected by law.

The Background

Welfare organizations define a child laborer as a child who has to work everyday, sometimes for more than 14 hours a day and is not paid as per norms.

The International Labor Office reports that children work the longest hours and are the worst paid of all laborers.

The Child Labor Act of India prohibits employment of children less than 14 years of age in 13 occupations and 57 processes. The law also lays down penalties for employment of children in violation of the provisions of this Act and regulates the employment of children with respect to working hours, number of holidays, health and safety in workplace.

Nevertheless, the menace continues to grow unbridled. No doubt, the industries and the families of such children share the blame, but the onus lies first on the lawmakers and watch-guards of our society and nation.

Child labor presents itself in a series of forms of labor involving children. These include:

1. Domestic servants
2. Forced and bonded labor
3. Commercial sexual exploitation
4. Industrial and plantation work
5. Street work
6. House hold work

Experts point out towards the following as being the root cause of the rampant child labor scenario in India:

1. Poverty
2. Family debt
3. Administrative attitude
4. Easier and cheaper availability of child laborers
5. Social mindset

In a prominent uproar, the National Human Rights Commission also (NHRC) issued notices to the Delhi government over reports of continuing instances of child labor in the Capital despite the ban.