Why childhood is not “roots to grow and wings to fly“ time for millions of children?

A shocking 160 million children world over are not playing or attending schools as they ought to be doing. There small hands and feet , in fact, are labouring away in some industry, some farm, some trade or worse in some illegal activity. The figures indicate that 1 out of every 10 children is subject to hazardous work, violence and human rights violations. 

Nelson Mandela ,once said, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children “. If the development of our society is measured by this barometer, even the 21 st century society would rank as a complete failure. 

Child maltreatment is a malady that the society has turned a blind eye to because it is age old and requires complete overhaul of the social mindset. In poor households children are just thought of as an extra pair of hands to add to the family kitty and not as individuals requiring physical and emotional nurturing . 
Child labour is not just a social issue with economic roots, it is an outcome of lack of political will too. The governments conveniently skip addressing this issue under the pretext of urgently addressing more serious issues. The policy prohibiting minors from working exists in every country, but the implementation and enforcement of these laws routinely hits road block .A complete lack of access to free education, a namesake labour law enforcement, barely practiced women empowerment combined with poverty and lack of support for the poor has turned it into a pandemic which refuses to subside. In fact, it has become acceptable as “regrettable necessity”.

The Sustainable Development Goal of abolishing all forms of child labour by 2025 was given an extra impetus in 2021, the International Year of Child Labour Elimination. United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights puts the onus of correction on the accomplices themselves. It encourages the  “assess and address” strategy where the farmers and businesses not only address the underlying issues leading to child labour, but also monitor, identify and correct incidents. An issue of this complexity can only be tackled by collaboration of all the parties involved and the solutions have to be context-sensitive. Imposing sanctions without addressing the root cause can be destructive for farming families.
The Declaration of the Rights of the Child would complete a century of existence (first adopted in 1924 by the League of Nations), but even now it can not be honorably relegated to Hall of Fame; the violations of children’s rights are universal and seemingly unmindful of the social change.

Some pointers indicate that strict implementation  of compulsory education can bring about the eradication of child labour as it did in nineteenth-century Europe, Japan and US. This issue can only be handled and settled by building a strong universal social fibre which celebrates childhood and is ready to take strong measures to let it blossom.