Date:06/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/06/stories/2007120661230400.htm

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Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Chinnara Habba’ gives them much-needed break

Staff Reporter

Nearly 100 girls working as domestic help participated in the event

– Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

All smiles: Children who participated in ‘Chinnara Habba’ at Bal Bhavan in Bangalore on Wednesday.

BANGALORE: Away from the grinding routine, it was a day of fun and frolic for many girls who had remained confined to homes as domestic help.

The toy train and the entertainment area in Cubbon Park provided a perfect outing for these adolescent girls, and an opportunity to interact with other children.

Nearly 100 girls still working as domestic help participated in the “Chinnara Habba” on Wednesday that saw around 200 children rescued from work places along with students of various government schools and non-governmental organisations (NGO) residential programmes where the child rights clubs had been established.

Mimicry and magic shows had been organised along with cultural programmes to entertain children, who had turned up in large numbers.

“We are trying to rehabilitate these adolescent girls, who are working as domestic help,” Suchitra Rao, project coordinator of Domestic Child Labour Elimination Project told The Hindu.

Chinnara Habba is part of a series of programmes that had been organised as part of Child Rights Month being observed from November 14 till December 15 for sensitisation of people and civil society.

A release said that these children had acquired knowledge on the Child Rights Club (CRC) and are actively participating in ensuring the rights of children in various ways. The Domestic Child Labour Elimination Project initiated by the UNICEF, the State Government and NGOs had already started CRCs in over 50 schools through APSA, Paraspara Trust and Stree Jagruthi Samithi.

The NGOs involved in rescue and rehabilitation of domestic child labour have identified around 1,200 children working as house maids in six corporation wards located in Jayanagar, Yashwanthpur and Koramangala, while they had succeeded in rescuing 450 children.

“The process of identifying is still going on and the survey has revealed that nearly 80 per cent of employers are well educated with some of them being IAS officials,” Executive Director of APSA Lakshapathi said.

He said that although it was difficult to identity domestic child labour, they were employing different means to identify them.