Moa Jamir
Nagaland has thousands of ‘invisible children.' This is an open secret and consequently, seldom discussed, debated or delved into thoroughly as necessitated. After a couple last year in Kohima, the arrest of another in Dimapur last week on alleged charges of “physically abusing a domestic helper” must serve as the harbinger to bring the issue out in open.
Else, apart from momentary reflection after such incidents, it is business as usual. In a news feature entitled, ‘A peek inside the lives of child domestic helper in Nagaland,’ on June 12, 2017, The Morung Express reported, “Every year, hundreds of children … leave their homes, parents and siblings to migrate to the urban towns in unfamiliar surroundings and households to work as domestic help in exchange for basic human needs such as food, shelter and education.” Reason enough to understand how the issue of push and pull factors determine such migration.
The report further added that ‘agents’ or relatives take the children away from their homes and leave them at the employers’ homes with little or no contact with their parents. The children usually engaged in all sorts of household chores, including ironically, taking care of other children.
Nearly four years after, the reality is more or less the same. However, it does not imply scrutinising the issue from a single lens but holistically analysing the complex and multifaceted issue of child labour as such cases continue to surface despite existence of various legal measures.
For starters, understanding the concept of child domestic labour is crucial.
In every household, children lend a helping hand—a positive experience where they learn to accomplish simple tasks and master basic skills as well as the feeling of contribution to the family, which is usually encouraged and valued. This is not child domestic labour, noted the International Labour Organization (ILO).
However, children performing domestic tasks, not in their own home, but in the home of a third party or ‘employer’ under exploitative conditions is child domestic labour, stated ILO, implying such actions to be illegal.
The United Nations’ specialised agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognised human and labour rights termed the cohort as “invisible children”— possibly the most vulnerable group of child labourers as they work in the privacy of other people’s homes almost totally unseen with little or no pay and even fewer rights or protection under the law.
This lack of visibility greatly increases the potential for exploitation and abuse, a circumstance verifiable in Nagaland.
After the Kohima incident last year, an activist working with rights of domestic workers maintained that it was just the ‘tip of the iceberg,’ adding that the National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM)-Nagaland Region encounters similar incidents on regular basis. Lack of recognition of domestic workers as workers and their works as works by the State Government was cited as one reason for such occurrences.
In September 2020, the NDWM Nagaland Region laid down four demands for the State government - recognition of domestic workers as workers, protection against all types of harassment, social security and access to benefits and inclusion in the schedule of employment and thus ensuring minimum wages entitlement. Hopefully, the State Government examines the demands and set the priorities straight.
Whether under the purview of labour law or not, children working in different homes as domestic helps is not bartering for any circumstances, humanitarian or otherwise. The issue of ‘invisible children’ must not be confined to seminars, international days or event-based discussion but must be openly discussed in the public domain to make them visible and thereby securing and ensuring their rights.
For any comment, drop a line to jamir.moa@gmail.com
