New Delhi: Coronavirus pandemic forced institutions to shut down, businesses to halt and life to slow down. As a result, students, mainly the ones belonging to the economically weaker section, had to turn towards child labour, suggested NGOs working for child rights and attendance data from online classes.
For these kids, online classes wasn’t an option due to the digital divide and lack of financial assistance. So, to support their families, most of the children living in slums and nearby areas here are now working full time.
A joint report published by the Unicef and International Labour Organization (ILO) on June 12, had said that the Child labour has declined by 94 million since 2000, but job losses and rising poverty because of the lockdown and sickness is likely to force more children to seek exploitative and hazardous jobs as families use every available means to earn some money and survive, reported Hindustan Times.
CHETNA (Childhood Enhancement Through Training and Action), a Delhi-based NGO, says at least 55 per cent or 325 of the 586 children in their contact in the east and north-east districts of Delhi have been engaged in some sort of work ever since the schools have been shut in view of the pandemic.
These works include waste picking, domestic work, selling vegetables, fruits, or other items with parents, and cutting threads from readymade garments and peeling wires.
With things starting to get back to normal, will these kids’ lives be on track again remains a big question!