Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Speakers stress the importance of secondary education for children

— Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

Serious note: Children who participated in the Tamil Nadu State Consultation on the Right to Education and Abolition of Child Labour, which began in Chennai on Thursday.

CHENNAI: The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 does not cover children between 15 and 18 years of age. Does this imply that children above 14 years can be allowed to work? This question was answered with a resounding ‘no’ at the inauguration of the Tamil Nadu State Consultation on the Right to Education and Abolition of Child Labour, a two-day event that began here on Thursday.

“If children are not taken care of between 15 and 18, how can we expect progress?” asked K.M. Ramathal, Chairperson, Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women, who delivered the inaugural address. It is not sufficient to ensure children are enrolled in schools, she said, adding that the educational system needs to be revamped such that different abilities of children are honed. “We need to remind ourselves that education is different from literacy,” she said.

Discussing various issues resulting out of the absence of compulsory education beyond 14 years, R. Revathi, film maker, said that many children end up getting stuck in a vacuum. As they lose the skills that helped them find a livelihood before entering school, some children “end up going from nowhere to nowhere,” she said.

Many children who do not continue their education belong to SC/ST category. As these children do not obtain secondary education, even the benefits of reservation cannot reach them, said Ms. Revathi. “Right to equality does not mean anything if there is no equal opportunity,” she said. Though, the situation on the ground may not change by modifying the law to raise the age criterion, it would be a step in the right direction, she said.

“Those who create laws, come from the same society,” said Aruna Rathnam, Project Officer – Education, UNICEF, talking about the need for society to change as a whole.

“Do we boycott a shop because children are employed there?” she asked, stressing the need for everyone to realise that rights of children are not negotiable. Till then, she said, “childhood is a luxury.”

Society will continue to employ child labourers, said T.R.S. Mani, Secretary, AITUC, as they are a source of cheap labour. Only with political will can child labour be abolished completely, he said.

The conference was organised by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in collaboration with UNICEF and ILO, supported by Campaign Against Child Labour, Tamil Nadu and Campaign against Child Trafficking, Tamil Nadu, and KALVI, a non-governmental organisation.

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