NGO keeps check across city to prevent child labour

If you happened to enter a city shop which adorns a blue and white sticker 'child labour free shop' do remember to thank the shop owner and pat yourself on the back for not supporting child labour in Mumbai. In its recent campaign, Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children, an NGO, has been going around the city checking all small establishments, shops, restaurants to make sure the owners do not employee children below the age of 14.

Pratham employees went on a week long hunt in different areas of the city and checked over 2.05 lakh shops. Kishore Bhamre, director of Pratham whose idea it was to thank people says, "While we keep a check on the city's shops that employees children below 14, spreading gratitude was also important."

Employees were picked from over eight lakh shops registered under the shops and establishment act.

"While a lot of them were obviously plush shops where the chances of finding children was almost nil. We chose budget restaurants, pan and grocery shops, smaller factories etc. We walked through the smallest bylanes of Kamathipura, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai Central, Dharavi among others which have smaller factories,” Bhamre added.

“While it was important to communicate in order to break the ice, the idea was to keep a check, in a smart, two-fold initiative. The stickers would not only give a feel good factor to the owner but to those who read it will also get aware of the law. Besides an immediate word of mouth was stricken with those who were present at the shop at that point of time. On the other hand we could make a database of shops which do employ children below 14 and up to 18 years,” Bhamre further said.

Kalpana, an employee with Pratham shared her experience with DNA, "People were extremely curious to get the stickers, it was a sense of pride for them. However, a couple of them who employed younger children found ways to get away with it. They made excuses like, we’ve come only a couple of days ago, it is our family business or my father has kept me here because he has gone out.”

Those who had employed children had been given an appeal to send them back to their hometowns and put them in schools. A follow up would be done after a couple of weeks to know the status. Those children who are not sent back will be rescued and a report will be given to the nearest police station.

While these were only one-third of the over eight lakh registered shops they had visited, the numbers revealed that, 551 children who are below 18 had been employed and 167 were who were below 14 years. This gives us an estimate that approximately 700 children below 14 years have been employed across Mumbai.”

Pandurang Arne, 35, a restaurant owner at Elphinstone Station said, “Although we know the law does not allow us to employ children so we haven't. But it is also important to understand that if a child is not in school and is going to be loitering around might get into the wrong habits and sometimes a child might genuinely need money.”

However, Kalim Sheikh, 39, a barber shop owner, said, “I have four children, if at this age children are employed, their mental growth will be affected.”