Kahoni Y Yeptho
3rd Prize
St. Paul School, Dimapur
Child-Labour is the employment of children of less than a specified legal age. The movement to regulate the child labour first began in Great Britian at the close of 18th century. The word Child-labour has become very common all over India including Nagaland. If we look around we can find children under the age of 4 years working in agriculture, garage, hotel etc.
The word education is a must and priority for all. True education is one of the basic rights of every individual, yet the irony is that many are denied of these basic rights. When we analysis the facts of how a child is deprived of these right, reason are many but one factor which plays a major obstacle in the society is poverty. Poverty is one of the most wide spread reason for the child-labour system in Nagaland. Children are often force to work out of necessity. Poverty forces children into the work place. Many children wish to continue education but must work for survival. Child-labour problem rest upon the burden caused by the large family, which, in itself an underlying cause of poverty. Everyday few hundred of children are born in Nagaland. What should be done to check these abnormal growths of population in Nagaland! The family welfare scheme started by the Government should be properly implement in rural areas. Villages should be made to realize the gains and advantages of having a planned and limited family. A small family is a happy family. It is better to have two children well-feed, well-clad and semi-educated. There are still many children who can only dream of what we consider a boring daily routine life.
Illiteracy is another factor for the high birth rate resulting to child-labour in the state education of women is very important. It has been found that the families of illiterate women have more children. As poor parents are unable to feed and educate their children they neglect and abandon them to face the cruel world on their own.
The most common form of child abuse in Nagaland is neglect. Physical neglect involves parent’s failure to provide adequate feed, clothing, shelter or medical care to a child. It may also include neglect which involves in failing to meet a child’s basic education needs by failing to enroll a child in school or by permitting a child to skip school frequently.
Physical abuse is under form of child abuse which includes deliberate acts of violence that injure or even kill a child. Unexplained bruises, broken bones, a burn marks on a child may be the sign of physical abuse. Due to insurgency problem various people come to Nagaland leaving their place and poverty forces them to give away their children to work in houses and hotels where the children work in cramped atmosphere and are often abused by their owners. As there are no industries in Nagaland children physically work at houses and private hotels.
The constitution lays that the children under the age of 14 years should be employed in factories and mines. They should not be put into dangerous jobs. In Nagaland women and children are employed in various works as they accept less wages and work harder than the man folk. Constitution put ban over forced labour but still children are exploited. The states have endeavored to provide free and compulsory education for all the children until they complete the age of 14 years. In Nagaland, no doubt many NGOs have set up school and have cropped up draining to be the guardian of such under privileged children but have failed to yield satisfactory result. Among the few who have contributed towards social change in the state include World Vision that has been working to bring the community together for social and moral justice. We observed 22nd April as child labour day but not much success has been achieved, though the NGOs in India have been doing laudable work in this area.
Children are the assets of the society when they are young they should be allow to get education and have happy childhood. Every child has the right to receive the best the community and society has to offer. Any other social status should not prevent him from enjoying these right the Government of Nagaland should make development for all the children who are the future citizen. So according to my opinion, this evil practice should be stopped.
