There are many reasons why child labour is normalised in India, the primary being that it is often done with the aid of poor parents in desperate need of money.
Soni Kumari was chopped into 12 pieces and dumped into a drain for demanding her salary. She worked as a maid in Delhi. She was 16.
This is not the first time a heinous murder in Delhi has prompted a conversation about children’s safety and vulnerability. The infamous Nithari serial murders of 2006 raised the very same question – where are the missing children?
When thinking of #JusticeForKumari, it is hard to not remember the ‘chotuus’, children who work as domestic worker, we have encountered at our friends’ houses.
Even the self-proclaimed philanthropists who make it a point to mention that they have rescued a child from a life of destitution on the street, perhaps, never bother to enquire whether s/he has been reported missing. Soni went missing from her home when she was 13. Despite the fact that the family reached out to the authorities to help locate her, she remained ‘unfound’. She came from a small village in Ranchi, and was lured with a promise of a high-paying job.
According to the Women and Child Development Ministry, close to 2.4 lakh children were reported missing between 2012 and 2017. A closer look at the statistics shows that four children go missing in India every hour. Nearly half of them are never found and reunited with their families.
Missing children, who are assumed to be abducted until proven otherwise according to Indian law, are often trafficked into child labour or prostitution. Girls are normally at a greater risk than boys. Soni worked in a businessman’s house in East of Kailash. The money she earned went to her alleged handler/trafficker/murderer Manjeet Singh Karketa. Police have since found that Karketa runs an illegal maid service in Delhi. The pattern remains familiar; a person abducts or lures children and pockets the money they earn. ‘Handlers’ such as Karketa are not uncommon in India.
Some steps taken, long road ahead
In January 2015, the Ghaziabad police launched a targeted recovery programme for missing children called Operation Smile. The programme helped rescue 227 children in a month. The success of the operation led the union home ministry (MHA) to direct other states to replicate the example. Within a few months, Delhi police followed suit and launched Operation Milaap. Considering the high rate of abduction in and around railway stations, railway police with specially trained officers to combat child trafficking launched Operation Muskaan the same year.
Close to 70,000 children were found and rehabilitated under the MHA drive as of September 2017. However, these initiatives are still limited to metropolises and often use high-end facial recognition software. What is perhaps lacking is a national, integrated database that can help agencies find missing children from any corner of the country.
Our apathy towards how domestic workers are treated and the lack of any legal regulations create a gap which is ripe for exploitation. When it comes to children who are domestic workers, the peril intensifies. They lack the understanding needed to make informed decisions. All Soni Kumari wanted was the money she earned so she could go visit her family back home.
There are many reasons why child labour is normalised in India, the primary being that it is often done with the aid of poor parents in desperate need of money. A consistent and targeted effort is needed to counter this dismal social reality. Empowerment, social and economic, access to education, jobs are the obvious answers to check this problem.
This Friday, 25th May, is International Missing Children’s Day. When you read those contrite and moving pieces (or their headlines), remember, justice is not only a function of the state. A lot depends on us too.