Child labour: A curse of modern society!!

Labour is a matter of dignity. But child labour is considered a matter of disgrace for a nation, because children are the future of a nation. We are not all rich people in the world. We have many families who live below poverty line. They cannot afford their basic necessities properly. They have low income or less earners than eating mouths. For this reason, they engage their children in various earning activities to supplement the family income. Thus child labour is on the increase. In fact, child labour has become a serious socio-economic problem of the world. It is a curse of our society, a satire to our development programmes.

If childhood is wasted in manual labour, and in shouldering the family need, if the children are deprived of their rights to education and other privileges, they will not be able to lead the nation in future. In effect they become a long-standing burden on the nation.

Child labour is a sad reality of modern urban and industrial society. Children are like flowers. At this age they are to go to school and there will be books and pens in their hands and spend their free time with playing.

But the tough and cruel reality force many children to leave school or not to go to school at all. Instead they take up hammer, basket, and handles of rickshaw or van in their hands, remain unfed, half-clad, and bare-footed. Thus, their sad and heart-rending condition highlight only the distressed condition of the nation.

There are certain causes of child labour. Poverty is the root cause. As poor people can hardly maintain their family and educate their children, the education of the children is stopped at an early age and they are forced to do various manual labour to support their family. Low pay is another cause of child labour. Often employers offer low pay for certain jobs which the grown ups do not do.

Child labour a abuse of children. Child labour destroys the sweet period of childhood and face the children with the stark realities of life. Wherever children are employed either it is domestic work or factory work, either it is rickshaw pulling or working in a shop or hotel. they are abused, maltreated, paid low and deprived of their due rights by their employer. Children work for longer period, suffer various mistreatments, work in unhealthy and unfavourable condition, and what is sorrowful, they are not given due wages. Child labour is cheap labour. Many children do the work of the adults, and other do risky and dangerous work, but they do not get any sympathy or love from anybody.

How child labour problem can be eradicated from society and country is as follows:

1. Govt. and NGOs should work together to root out this evil from society.

2. Poverty alleviation programme must be strengthened and widened.

3. Govt's social security network should also be extended.

4. Strict laws should be enacted and enforced against employing children in manual work.

5. Govt. must ensure that children do not drop out from school and get the rights of education.

6. The rich and able persons of society can also come forward in this regard.

However, Children's work should never be desired in a society. We must try to maintain and ensure peaceful, carefree, and secured world for our children.

Otherwise we will have to suffer in the long run caused from this social problem.