Bachpan Bacho Andolan
Since time immemorial, India and the entire world has been plagued by Child Labour. Even after 65 years of Indian Independence, tens of thousands of children could be helplessly seen working on farms, in the mines, at hotels, in the factories, shops and homes selling their childhood and trading off their future for pittance. Treating Child Labour as a way of life, no one has taken serious cognizance of this social crime and aberration. Governments, society, media, judiciary and sociologists have conveniently turned a blind eye towards this contentious subject. In 1980, Kailash Satyarthi along with a few like-minded people through a first of its kind initiative, not caring about the risks that their lives were exposed to, started rescuing bonded child labourers against all odds. This awakened media, judiciary, parliament and society. Today child labour has become has caught international attention.
Today, Bachpan Bachao Andolan is actively working in upholding the rights of the child in 15 states and over 200districts across the country. Nearly 70,000 activists are actively associated with the Organization while tens of thousands are passively connected to the mission. Till date Bachpan Bachao Andolan has successfully rescued over 80,000 children from the scourge of slavery and child labour with the help of the labour department and Judiciary. Raising social awareness and by sensitizing employers and parents, waging consumer awareness campaigns, setting legal deterrents for errant employers and fostering school enrolment drives the number of liberated children has now run into several lakhs.
Short term recuperation centre and long stay rehabilitation centres like Under the aegis of Bachpan Bachao Andolan at Mukti Ashram, Bal Ashram and Balika Ashram nearly 4082 children so far have received the much missed love, compassion, bridge education, vocational training, leadership skill enhancement, medical treatment and legal services that has benefitted them multi dimensionally. Each year Bachpan Bachao Andolan proactively ensures that through the statutory compensation schemes that are run by the Central and State Governments, crores of rupees are released towards the benefit of children and their families.
The Organization has played a significant role in getting the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 enacted and amended at regular intervals in the best interest of the children. Not only was Bachpan Bachao Andolan the first organization that sought amendment in the Constitution for making Right to Education a Fundamental Right, but it also convened Shiksha Yatra (Education March) across 15,000 kilometres spanning through 20 states gaining the necessary momentum by bringing together over 150 Parliamentarians in support of education creating quite a stir from roads to the Parliament of India. This resulted in a constitutional amendment paving way for a new law to ensure free and compulsory education for all children. Bachpan Bachao Andolan organized various marches across the country and globe in the years, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2007 and 2009.
Bachpan Bachao Andolan strongly believes in the triangular paradigm that has been established by the founder of the organization. According to this paradigm, child labour, illiteracy and poverty chair a chicken and egg relationship with it becoming absolutely difficult to claim as to which precedes the other. Today, there are about 60 million child labourers in this country with almost an equivalent number of unemployed youth mostly being parents of child labourers themselves. Children are preferred over adults by the employers because they are docile and are willing to work without any qualms for very low or no wages at all. Children cannot unionize and exert pressure on the employers to accede to their demands, nor can they bargain for their rights and challenge their employers. Child Labour for sure erodes the employability and negotiation capabilities of adults. Child Labour results in physical and mental exploitation of children. These children are bereft of education, self-respect and dignity and remain trapped in the vicious circle of poverty and illiteracy.
JOIN BACHPAN BACHAO ANDOLAN AND HELP RE-INSTATING CHILDHOOD • Sensitize all and sundry about the harms of Child Labour. Make them aware about the work that Bachpan Bachao Andolan and other organizations are doing in re-instating child hoods. • Do not employ children at your homes, offices and shops. • Boycott goods and services produced by children. • If you come to know about any person employing child/ren, immediately file a complaint to the relevant authorities and also keep us informed. • Spend your available time, energy and resources in eliminating child labour and steering children from exploitation to education. • Ensure that every child in your vicinity attends school. • Treat other children like your own.
IF YOU ARE EMPLOYING CHILD LABOURERES, YOU CAN BE JAILED; CHILD LABOUR IS A CRIME
• Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. According to this act, if bonded labour is extracted out of a child or an adult, one could be sentenced for a jail term extending to 3 years with a fine up to Rs. 2000/-.
• Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. According to the provisions of this act, employing a child (in hazardous processes and occupations) who has not attained the age of 14 years could result in imprisonment for a year and can also lead to a legal penalty of Rs. 20,000/-.
• Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 Any person who employs a child who is yet to attain 18 years of age, for hazardous occupation / processes, he/she could be liable for rigorous imprisonment for 3 years coupled up with a fine.
Education for liberation ---- Liberation for education
- http://www.bba.org.in/
Rugmark (brainchild of Mr. Kailash Satyarthi) (now known as Goodweave) is an international consortium of independent bodies from a dozen carpet exporting and importing countries, which take part in a voluntary social labeling initiative to ensure that rugs have not been produced with child labor. This initiative gives positive alternatives to responsible businesses, protecting them from any possible boycott and sanctions and gives an ethical choice to consumers worldwide. He is pursuing the industries and other stakeholders to adopt a similar system for knitwear, sporting goods and the other international common products.
The GoodWeave label is the best assurance that no child labor was used in the making of your rug. In order to earn the GoodWeave label, rug exporters and importers must be licensed under the GoodWeave certification program and sign a legally binding contract to:
1.Adhere to the no-child-labor standard and not employ any person under age 14 2.Allow unannounced random inspections by local inspectors 3.Endeavor to pay fair wages to adult workers 4.Pay a licensing fee that helps support GoodWeave’s monitoring, inspections and education programs To ensure compliance, independent GoodWeave inspectors make unannounced inspections of each loom. If inspectors find children working, they offer them the opportunity to go to school instead, and the producers lose their status with GoodWeave. To protect against counterfeit labeling, each label is numbered so its origin can be traced to the loom on which the rug was produced.
GoodWeave also sets contractual standards for companies that import certified rugs. Importers agree to source only from GoodWeave certified exporters in India, Nepal and any other country in which GoodWeave rugs are available. In the United States and other rug-importing countries, only licensed importers are legally permitted to sell carpets carrying the GoodWeave label.
Importers and exporters also help support GoodWeave and its commitment to provide rehabilitation and schooling for all rescued children. Exporters pay 0.25 percent of the export value of each rug, and importers pay a licensing fee of 1.75 percent of the shipment value. Licensing fees go toward monitoring, inspections and educational programs that are part of the GoodWeave program.
GoodWeave's certification standards are set by GoodWeave International, an associate member of the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling Alliance (ISEAL), which leads the world in setting norms and good practices for certification. GoodWeave's national offices in producer countries implement and enforce the standards.
Soon, the GoodWeave label will mean even more. In order to further the mission to end child labor by addressing the root causes of the problem, GoodWeave's certification standard will include other environmental and social criteria, guided by ISEAL’s Codes of Good Practice. Licensees will be required to demonstrate that their employees are working under safe conditions for a reasonable wage, among other requirements. GoodWeave certified rugs will become greener, as licensees work to identify negative impacts of production as well as ways to mitigate them. Each producer will work with GoodWeave to develop a plan for improving working conditions and environmental impacts over time.
- http://www.goodweave.org/home.php
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