A Peep Through A Keyhole Into Child Domestic Work-The Unnoticed Social Evil
Dear friends, do you know anything about Child Domestic Work(CDW)?.If not don’t feel bad .I would like to talk to you about CDW in the light of attending an ‘Orientation Course on Child Labour – Awareness and Action’ which was organized by “Save the Children (UK) and ‘All India Association for Christian Higher Education (AIACHE) at Kristu Jyothi College Bangalore. I was one of the two N.S.S. volunteers from our college who attended this program. Since both of us were in the final year of our course , we couldn’t do much to plant these ideas into the hearts of our fellow Teresians. As we all know ‘The Teresians Magazine’ is the platform for us Teresians ,to propagate the ideas that are sown in our hearts.
We live in a world of selfishness, not bothering to care for our fellow countrymen. But we do at the same time know and learn that “Service to man is service to God.” So at least from now onwards, we should try to know the evils engulfing our family and the society at large and should work to eradicate it.
Child Domestic Work(CDW) is one such grave yet unnoticed social issue. Child domestic works as the term implies, are children below 18 years of age who work in other people’s homes. They are children working for a wage, in cash or kind, and not for commercial purposes. This definition includes all those children who run errands for the employer and offer support to homemakers for a wage.It does not include those children who stay out of school and help their mothers and those who support the employers in the commercial ventures such as catering and laundry (although they are extensions of domestic chores).These children are more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation than those in other sectors due to the nature of their work.They are within the household of employers and thus are invisible to public scrutiny. They are cloistered within the four walls of the employer’s house, which gives rooms to all kinds of exploitation found in the unorganized sector. The International Labour Organization (I.L.O) recognized child domestic work as one of the worst forms of child labour (Convention 182).
To fight against this social evil, it is important to know the legal provisions existing in our country. India has ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child in 1992, to restore childhood to its citizens below the age of eighteen.The Government of India implements a number of projects and programmes to meet the physical,mental,moral and socio-emottional developmental needs of all its children.But most of these children do not receive the entitlements.Right to free and compulsory education up to the age of fourteen, is a fundamental right of child domestic workers as well.The Goveernment of India brought out an order in 1996 prohibiting employers from engaging children as domestic help.This is one of the personnel rules but beyond the there seems to be no check on this practice.
Now that we read about child domestic workers and the plight that they face,it is our duty as citizens of this democracy to eradicate this social evil. We the warm-blooded citizens of the world should create awareness among the uneducated people about hazards of child domestic work and make and make them understand the value of education in the life of a child. We should make them understand that ‘knowledge is wealth’ and imparting knowledge to a child is the greatest wealth that a parent can provide to his/her child.Thus ,we can light a new lamp in the life of many child domestic workers in India.
Dear friends, do you know anything about Child Domestic Work(CDW)?.If not don’t feel bad .I would like to talk to you about CDW in the light of attending an ‘Orientation Course on Child Labour – Awareness and Action’ which was organized by “Save the Children (UK) and ‘All India Association for Christian Higher Education (AIACHE) at Kristu Jyothi College Bangalore. I was one of the two N.S.S. volunteers from our college who attended this program. Since both of us were in the final year of our course , we couldn’t do much to plant these ideas into the hearts of our fellow Teresians. As we all know ‘The Teresians Magazine’ is the platform for us Teresians ,to propagate the ideas that are sown in our hearts.
We live in a world of selfishness, not bothering to care for our fellow countrymen. But we do at the same time know and learn that “Service to man is service to God.” So at least from now onwards, we should try to know the evils engulfing our family and the society at large and should work to eradicate it.
Child Domestic Work(CDW) is one such grave yet unnoticed social issue. Child domestic works as the term implies, are children below 18 years of age who work in other people’s homes. They are children working for a wage, in cash or kind, and not for commercial purposes. This definition includes all those children who run errands for the employer and offer support to homemakers for a wage.It does not include those children who stay out of school and help their mothers and those who support the employers in the commercial ventures such as catering and laundry (although they are extensions of domestic chores).These children are more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation than those in other sectors due to the nature of their work.They are within the household of employers and thus are invisible to public scrutiny. They are cloistered within the four walls of the employer’s house, which gives rooms to all kinds of exploitation found in the unorganized sector. The International Labour Organization (I.L.O) recognized child domestic work as one of the worst forms of child labour (Convention 182).
To fight against this social evil, it is important to know the legal provisions existing in our country. India has ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child in 1992, to restore childhood to its citizens below the age of eighteen.The Government of India implements a number of projects and programmes to meet the physical,mental,moral and socio-emottional developmental needs of all its children.But most of these children do not receive the entitlements.Right to free and compulsory education up to the age of fourteen, is a fundamental right of child domestic workers as well.The Goveernment of India brought out an order in 1996 prohibiting employers from engaging children as domestic help.This is one of the personnel rules but beyond the there seems to be no check on this practice.
Now that we read about child domestic workers and the plight that they face,it is our duty as citizens of this democracy to eradicate this social evil. We the warm-blooded citizens of the world should create awareness among the uneducated people about hazards of child domestic work and make and make them understand the value of education in the life of a child. We should make them understand that ‘knowledge is wealth’ and imparting knowledge to a child is the greatest wealth that a parent can provide to his/her child.Thus ,we can light a new lamp in the life of many child domestic workers in India.
I hope that this piece of information is an eye-opener to many of you.As we believe , ‘Unity is Strength’,with the encouragement and support of the student community, we can surely work successfully for this noble cause and thus brighten the lives of many poor hapless,helpless children.
By: G.Ramalakshmi
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