What are the rights for the child of a migrant laborer ?

Apparently in the esteemed IIT Kanpur, 'Right to life' is not one of them.


"A Tragic Death at IIT Kanpur

Students of IIT Kanpur were shocked to receive a mail on Monday
forwarded by the President of the Students' Gymkhana. The mail is
attached below and a brief description of the later developments are
given after the mail.

This is to share an incident which reflects the state of affairs for the
disenfranchised in our Institute of excellence. I suspect this incident
could not be reported by anybody in authority in the Institute and hence
would not reach most of us. In this case too we got to know of it just
by chance, as would be evident from the account, which makes us believe
that occurrence of such incidents may not be a rarity after all, but
that is just not shared with the community. A similar incident happened
a month ago and the sequence of events are much similar. This account is
to inform the community of this incident, acknowledge a feeling of
collective shame that this could occur in an Institute which claims to
be the best, and hopefully to evoke some collective action to prevent
such occurrences in future. I am sure of the facts, as I got to know of
it from a first person account and yet would not name anybody to avoid
unnecessary personal vilification. This is the system and not the
individuals involved.

On Sunday morning at about 4.15 am one of the canteen owners of one of
the Halls was going back after work when he chanced upon a crowd of
migrant workers at the security crossing near the Motor
Transport/Air-Strip road. Apparently a boy, whose family had been
employed in the construction site of the Environment Engineering
building had been bitten by something poisonous (they were not sure
whether it was a scorpion or a snake), in his sleep. The workers
including the family consisting of the father a brother and a younger
sister (his mother is no longer alive) had come to the SIS (institute
security service) for help. The boy who was around 12-13 seemed to have
been bitten around 3 in the morning and was alive though unconscious.
The SIS guards (there were around 20-25 of them there) kept urging the
workers to take the boy to the city hospital but refused to extend any
help. The group of migrant workers did not know anything about the city,
and this is usual because they are brought from far of places like Malda
and Chhattisgarh by the contractor and are herded back at the end of
their term. The canteen owner requested the SIS to lend their jeep for
transporting the boy to the Health Center. The SIS guards refused to ask
for their jeep (though several of them had their walkie talkie) and
instead told this man that the boy would not be treated in the institute
Health Center and hence has to be taken to the city. At this point the
Canteen Owner decided to take the boy in his motorcycle, along with
another worker to hold the inert form, to the Health Center.

At the Health Center, the person at the desk refused to entertain the
case, when he came to know that the boy was not related to an Institute
employee and was neither a student. The canteen owner tried to impress
upon the person that the case was very serious and the boy may just
survive if only the hospital intervened and the formalities and the
expenses could be handled later. He also volunteered to get the health
card of his father who is an Institute employee, as treating guests is
routinely done in the HC. The attendant at the desk refused to comply
but conceded to give the phone number of the doctor on duty. He told the
canteen owner that he may call up the doctor to check if she would treat
the boy, but not to mention that he was calling from the HC, but tell
her that he was calling from one of the hostels.

The canteen owner called the doctor, who when she realized that it
involved the child of worker, was extremely annoyed and said that this
facility was not available to them. When the canteen owner pleaded that
the case was serious and may turn fatal she apparently shouted 'which
language do you understand?' and slammed the phone down. After that the
canteen owner decided to take the child to the city and requested the
hospital attendant to provide the services of the ambulance so that he
could be taken as soon as possible and anyway it is extremely difficult
to negotiate the GT road with an unconscious person. But he was refused
even that. The boy was still alive till that point.

The rest of the story in short - the canteen owner took the boy to a
nearby nursing home in Kalyanpur (about 2 kilometers from the institute)
but that setup was not equipped to handle snake bites. Then he drove
with the unconscious boy all the way to the Hallett (medical college) -
the doctor on duty was much more prompt and immediately attended to the
boy, but unfortunately he had already died. Then this canteen owner
drove all the way back to the campus with a dead child in the pillion.
As he ended his account 'bilkul kuch achcha nahin lag raha hai tab se -
health centre hote hue ek chote se bachche ko marne de sakten hain -
kyun ki woh ek mazdoor ka bachcha hai sirf isiliye?'

Students have investigated the reported event and their representatives
are in possession of the names of all the people who are involved in
this incident. The students arranged a condolence meeting yesterday
evening and marched to the Health Center to demand an explanation from
the Chief Medical Officer. After a long standoff and hours of
deliberations with the authorities the CMO met the students but failed
to answer many of the questions students had about the issue. Students
are presently planning to get the whole campus community involved in the
protest. What saddens the entire student community and me is the
reluctance of the institute administration letting the entire campus
community know and the tax-payers know about the incident. The reasons
they give are beyond any sane argument. Witnessing a few incidents
during my stay at IIT Kanpur has led me into thinking that this time
too, the incident and related issues shall be buried to bask into what I
feel is vacuous feeling of glory. "

Where then the promised freedom? 60 years and counting...

Sixty years to our independence today, as India awakes to a new president who, when running a bank, took money from the women depositors, distributed most of that money amongst her relatives as loans and, according to RBI, did nothing to recover that money, thereby causing that bank to shut down. A president who can talk to spirits. A president who, during emergency envisioned an India where people with hereditary diseases were to be forcibly sterilized. And yet, a president who is a woman too. In any other mature democracy, our president would be in jail for fraud, not in Rashtrapathi Bhavan. Today, India celebrates its sixty years of independence and its first woman president! The two represent the cornerstones of the evils in our social, economic, and political systems -- a resting on the laurels of past actions (we are an ancient civilization), and an apathetic acceptance of our curtailed personal freedom.

The story of our freedom struggle, was not the story of a Gandhi here and a Nehru there -- it was about millions of people who wanted to be master of their own destiny. The British empire was a natural target, and the relief is palpable in the speeches made on that historical day, three score years ago. The tragedy is that for most Indians, political freedom was enough. An oppressive regime gave way to an oppressive state, and we did not protest. Lack of economic freedom continued to keep India poor, and we did not protest. Corruption was rife, and we accepted it as a way of life, and did not protest. Personal freedom was routinely denied to us, and we did not protest. In parts of our country today, people are treated worse than the British treated us, and we do not protest. We have come to accept mediocrity, and we do not protest. As a nation, we stopped caring for freedom once we gained independence.

Take economic freedom, for instance. At the time of our independence, the Indian economy was very different - it was much poorer and less industrialized, and government was less important - revenue was just 5 per cent of the gross domestic product. But our governments introduced industrial licensing, and later used it to create government monopolies in a series of industries, including heavy machinery, fertilizer, coal, shipping and aircraft, and prevent new private entry into industries such as steel. Traditional, liberal (in the traditional sense of supporting freedom) Congress-party workers protested, some even left the Congress and started their own political parties, but as a nation we allowed our freedom to be curtailed, little realising the fact that in this lay the seeds of gross economic inequality we were to see sixty years later.

Take trade, for example. When two people make a transaction, they only do so because both are better off. Prosperity is the result of a chain of such win-win transactions between people profiting by fulfilling each other's needs. But Jawaharlal Nehru once described profit as a "dirty word" and gave in to the fatal conceit, to use Friedrich Hayek's phrase, of imagining that the economy, and the lives of people, could be planned.

The benefits of economic freedom are largely unintuitive, and rarely has lack of that freedom been protested by the masses in any society. But what about personal freedom? The Indian Penal Code, drafted by our imperial overlords in the 19th century to keep us natives in place, and tailored on Victorian morality, is filled with archaic laws that should have been repealed 60 years ago. Section 377 effectively outlaws homosexuality. Section 295(a), that makes it illegal to "outrage religious feelings", routinely used by bigots, from all religions, to stifle free expression. It is filled with laws that criminalise the act of giving offence, outlaw victimless crimes and treat women as the property of men.

What about our education system? The British empire set up an education system which guaranteed to generate a body of clerks to serve the Queen. Not once did we think about reviewing the system. Nor did we think about spending money to guarantee education to all our children. When Gandhiji asked for compulsory eight years of education for all children of free India, he was silenced by saying there is no money to do that other than by supporting the sale of liquor. Till date, despite the 86th amendment of the constitution which makes primary education a fundamental right of every child, the government drops the Right to Education bill on false excuses of lack of funds. We, the citizens of India, all these years, accepted this lack of freedom, not just for ourselves, we let this visit our children and the future generation of a nation.

Milton Friedman, a prime proponent of local governance, once said -- "There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you're doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I'm not so careful about the content of the present, but I'm very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else's money on myself. And if I spend somebody else's money on myself, then I'm sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else's money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else's money on somebody else, I'm not concerned about how much it is, and I'm not concerned about what I get. And that is a government."

Dr. Ambedkar, deified today as the demigod of Dalit politics, rejected the word socialist in the preamble of our constitution and remarked thus -- "What should be the policy of the State, how the society should be organized in a social and economic sense are matters which must be decided by the people themselves according to time and local circumstances. It cannot be laid down in the constitution itself, because that is destroying democracy altogether".

Freedom for a country should mean every person being free to live their lives as they please, as long as they do not interfere with the similar freedoms of others. These past sixty years, India's democracy has not matured into a participatory republic but has only remained symbolic by allowing an orderly transfer of power through the ballot box. Instead of participating in the governance and demanding our freedoms, for long we have allowed our mai-baap sarkar to treat us as subjects, not citizens, and continue to deny us our freedoms.

In the Hindu culture, the 60th anniversary is an important milestone, amongst other things an occasion to renew marriage vows. Sixty years ago, our nation married democracy, and this anniversary is an opportunity to renew those vows. Today is an opportunity to think about the freedoms we dont have; the freedoms that have been denied to us; the freedoms that we so easily didnt care for. There is an age old political adage that we get the leaders we deserve. Today, as India celebrates its sixty years of independence, let us be the leaders we
deserve to have.

The Work An Hour 2007 Challenge.

Shivani is 7 yrs old. Her parents are agricultural laborers in Jhumritalaiya, in erstwhile Bihar. They struggle to make ends meet as they are not paid even 50% of the minimum wages that they are legally entitled to. They did think about sending Shivani to the government school in their village, but decided against it because they believed Shivani's extra income would help support their family of six. They also feel that Shivani being a girl would no matter what, one day get married and help with the household chores. Besides, the government school in their village only exists as a building with no teacher having shown up there for years.

Rising debts forces the family to go in search of better jobs during the hot summers. The family moves to Kanpur for 6 months a year to work at the brick kilns. The entire family works in the hazardous conditions of the kilns for over 8 hours a day with a small break in the afternoon. Though this job pays more it is still well below the minimum wages that Shivani's parents are entitled to in Kanpur.

Suppose you are visiting Kanpur, and you witness Shivani fainting at the brick kiln she works for. As any concerned person, you help revive her. As you converse with Shivani's parents, you want to know more about her and why their family is in such a predicament. Once you learn about the issues involved, you decide to help her and other kids at the brick kiln. You want to empower the kids so that they can live a life of economic and social dignity. With a group of friends you start an effort to provide education for the children.

How would you go about achieving your goal? What hurdles would you have to face ? How would you handle the challenge of providing basic education to Shivani year round and pull her out of the vicious cycle of poverty and child labor ?

You can post/discuss your response here or email it to us at wah@ashanet.org

Selected responses will be posted on this website with due acknowledgment. Sixty years to this day, we won our independence. Today, lets try to win the freedom of our children. Start thinking how and bring about the change we all wish to see!

Bal Vikas Bank (Child Development Bank)

Bal Vikas Bank(as called in India) or The Children's Development Bank (as referred internationally) is an innovative concept conceptualized and initiated by the global NGO Butterflies, as a vehicle to empower street and working children.

According to the Butterflies' website --

CDB is a natural development and evolution of Butterflies’ saving and credit union schemes, working on banking and co-operative principles. Any street and working child can save money with the bank which is their own and is run by children like them, under the guidance of adult facilitators. Implemented as part of life skill education, CDB enables its members to earn an interest on their deposits and its adolescent members to access advances for initiating small economic enterprises or cooperatives.

The Children's Development Bank is managed by Butterflies nationally and internationally. Butterflies networks with grassroots NGOs across states and countries for partnership for this initiative. It interacts with partners and provides technical support to them, sets up and implements a monitoring and evaluation system against which the milestones are tracked, conceptualizes and implements several innovations within the project.

The National Foundation for India gave the initial seed money to initiate this bank. At present the CDB initiative is in Six countries- India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Srilanka and Nepal and within India in Leh (J&K), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Mujaffarpur (Bihar) and Kolkata (West Bengal) reaching out to around 5000 child members in the region.

More details can be found at:

• The Butterflies' website http://www.butterflieschildrights.org/bank.htm
• The Bal Vikas Bank website http://www.childrensdevelopmentbank.org/
• A recent Rediff article on the same http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/aug/13bank1.htm
  

Question then is, do you prevent child labor, or do you provide a better life for the kids, within their context of rag-picking and beggary-filled lives? Please comment.

A formidable challenge?

August 15, 1947. Freedom. India was finally free from the long and dark era of the British rule. There was great hope for a new and prosperous India and the people were full big dreams and aspirations for an improved and better way of life where all citizens could exercise their fundamental rights and have their basic needs met.

2007. Where are we today? India has made great strides towards economic prosperity by encouraging foreign investment and allowing our software industry to flourish. Today you will find all brand of American, European and Asian products in the average Indian store, foreign made cars on the roads and even American and European stores in the big cities. But where are we in regards to taking care of India’s children – the children who will lead the country tomorrow? Has all this economic prosperity touched them in anyway? Today there are still nearly 300 million children without education in India. 49 million children are still working as child laborers instead of exercising their fundamental right to education. Just walk into an average home in India and chances are you will see a young boy or girl doing the household work. Walk into a restaurant and you will see school age boys cleaning tables and taking orders. Walk on the street and you see little boys and girls selling magazines and other items.

However, the middle class and the rich have gotten richer with greater disposable incomes because of the BPO & software industries. They can now afford the foreign cars and American products. And more of them can now afford to employ these children to do their chores for them. It’s almost as if two different Indias exist and the gap between them is only growing.

What is wrong with us? Is it the enormity of the task of eradicating child labor that we choose to ignore it? Or have we grown so accustomed to seeing child laborers that we have become insensitive to the situation? Eradicating child labor seems like a formidable challenge, but if each one of us did our bit no matter how small, we can decrease the incidence of child labor and help to ensure the future of our nation’s children and in doing so, our own.

Disaster, Displacement and Child Labor.

There are often assumptions made that child labor is a demon created by the 'attitude' of parents and ignorance. But, is that all to it ?

Now, lets assume that its true for a moment. Given a choice how many parents wouldn't think in the true interest of their children ? Are parents in India predominantly ignorant and don't believe in giving the best for their children ?

The problem is probably deep rooted in the word "choice". What are the reasons for it or rather the lack of it ? Why did SSA fail ? Does just free education in government schools alone mean "choice" ? What happens when the child goes back to home -wait only if there is a home ...

Disaster and displacement have resulted in unaccounted no. of child laborers in the country. In most cases the displacement could be state sponsored. Does the state even recognize that ?

In a two part series, Ammu joseph disects the media coverage on the GoI's 'widened ban' - Missing Links

Asha for education concentrated on retention of children in schools during the Tsunami relief and rehabilitation effort. Retention in schools was an important factor along with rehabilitating the families of the children. This was critical to fight the other fearsome effect of the disaster - more child laborers.

Asha's Tsunami efforts
Article on AfE's work with Urur Olcott kuppam .

Sacrifice?

What's your take on this news clip? Please leave your thoughts as comments.

Where is India on the World Map (Of Literacy Rates)? ...

The above color-coded map from the Wikipedia article on literacy shows India's true position in the world map of literacy. India and Africa hog most of the orange color in this map, meaning that the literacy rate is just above the 50% mark.

This is a stark reminder of the fact that access to education is far from universal in India. Although India is generally considered a developing country in terms of per-capita income and other measures, it lags behind other developing countries like Brazil and SriLanka in terms of literacy rates.

Should we downgrade India's state of development from the proud "developing & future economic super-power" label to the more modest "under-developed" label ?

Because as far as a child born in India is concerned, in terms of having a shot at a well-rounded education, she/he might just as well have been born in Africa. Despite 60 years of independence, stable government, and a currently prosperous economy, it seems that the best India can do for the child is to give it the same chance of education as it would have in a continent ravaged by genocide and dictatorship.

Thanks to Nandini for pointing out the map to me!