Children of a lesser law

EAR TO THE GROUND

Arti is 15 years old. She is a fine cook. She can manage a house well, mind children. She has been doing this since the age of five.

Her mother taught her to sweep the floor much before she was five and lived in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh. Her father, who owned a shop, decided to send her to Delhi to work, along with her two elder siblings.

Arti's father Lalji Halwayi had a brother in Delhi who used to take girls from the village and from Nepal and find them work in homes.

Arti's first employer was a minister in Faridabad. That was ten years ago. She recalls he had several servants and she was asked to stay there to learn work. She gradually learnt to swob the floor and knead the flour.

Azad used to place her in homes with other servants so that her burden was light, she says. He would ensure that the three children got to take a break together and stay with their mother for a month each year. The three children sent money home and their mud house was turned into a pucca structure recently with their earnings.

Arti doesn't complain about her life, but now, she wants to study and have a regular job. Her employers want to help, but helping her study is an uphill task.

The notification banning employment of child labourers in homes does not offer any solution to Arti or the 12.7 million children in 5-14 age group who have to work for a living.

The labour ministry runs the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) in 250 districts and plans to cover all the districts in the 11th Plan period. These are bridge schools for children who missed school. In fact, one NCLP school is right there in Arti's home town of Azamgarh!

Getting in is not easy. One has to be below 14. Even if Arti had been 14, she could not have got admission unless someone complained to police. That would mean her uncle and her parents would get arrested. Her employers, too, would be in trouble.

The director in the labour ministry, Shaheed Mizaan, who deals with child labour, has an advice: Call up the child line at 1098. The service comes under the women and child development ministry. He says they might not involve police, but he is not sure.

In the case of Arti, who is 15, and who cannot hope to get into the NCLP schools, will the child line service admit her to a Sarva Siksha Abhiyan school, alternative schools whose location is always the best kept secret in most states?

Arti's employers can send to an open school or for private tuition classes. But what about Raju, who was sent to work in a house in Indirapuram in Ghaziabad by his parents, who are construction workers? He is just seven or eight years old. Neighbours watch helplessly. They don't want to call police and don't know about the child helpline. Has Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes bothered to tell people that they can call up the service, which comes under Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chaudhury? And has she (Chaudhury) told the service to link up with kids in alternative schools or the open school system, which comes under the education department of HRD Minister Arjun Singh?

By the way, when did Fernandes, Chaudhury and Singh last meet for a chat on child labour? Did they ever?