Bangalore: "We
want access to education, but we do not want to be separated from
our families," said the children who had gathered at the
State-level convention of the Bhima Sangha Working Children
Committee organised in collaboration with the Concerned for
Working Children, a child rights organisation, here on Sunday.
Children from
the committee voiced their protest against the raids and rescue
efforts initiated by the Government to help child labourers, and
said, "Raids only worsen the situation for the child as they are
forced to work in worse conditions and in secrecy."
They handed
over a memorandum of their demands to the Director of Women and
Child Welfare, Monappa, and said that the Government should be
more sensitive to the needs of working children.
Poverty, the root cause
"Many of these
children are working because the conditions at home are bad and
the parents are not able to make ends meet, and not because they
want to work. After raids, the rescued children are put in a
children's home or a school and no efforts are made to find out
what they are going through," said Manjunath, a 17-year-old, who
is working as a carpenter and is a member of Bhima Sangha.
Rajeshwari,
State Committee President, who is a rag picker and is studying in
the 8th standard, said the Government and officials concerned
should allow children to give their view and make them part of
discussions before formulating a policy or rule that affected the
children.
In the
memorandum, child labourers have demanded that the Government
ensure that children rescued through raids were followed up and
their families given benefits. They urged the Government to deal
with the issue of child labour sensitively as children who were
taken out of their work and put in schools, could get worried
thinking of their families.
A Makkala Panchayat should be
established in Bangalore, they said.
From The Hindu Online Edition.
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