When I was a kid, I love to explore things. I only had a few memories of my childhood. For most of us, childhood is the Wonderland from the story, “Alice in Wonderland.” More we strive to travel along with the mysterious land, more we gain our consciousness towards reality. But what if that strange land becomes a dungeon with endless darkness within. 

  All of us had a fair share of the fun of our childhood playing weird games, the most fun part was to play with our friends and never had tension for anything. However, The truth is some kids get mechanical tools to play with not friends. When they had to think of not getting scold by their mother, they were getting scold by their “SAHAB.” We ignore them as we don’t know the cause for their situation, That’s a lie. 

  Once a wise person stated- “Robbing children of their childhood is a criminal act, and our society must weed this malaise out from the root. But where does the root lie?” As we speak, many children are working as a rag picker or a chayewala or selling newspapers on street/intersection. We can think of the cause of Child Labour. Parents who are working as low/daily wage labourers and don’t have the potential to send their child to school make their child a dropout and make them work to get money. A decent share of children is either orphan or raised by a single parent. Come to think of it, people use this vulnerability to bypass the law and get the freedom to exploit them as physically and mentally.

  Physically and mentally children are weak compared to adults, and the strain and stress at the workplace is not right for those budding flowers. In return for their struggle, what they get is only pain and misery. It’s the age where there are supposed to play and interact with society. Instead, they are being sent directly into the race, which might cause them to struggle a lot. What if they win that race, then what??? That struggle took their childhood from them. “The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act“, an act imposed by Govt. of India in 1986 and amendment was made in 2016. This act states “A ‘Child’ is defined as any person below the age of 14, and the CLPR Act prohibits employment of a Child in any work including as domestic help (except helping own family in non-hazardous occupations).” This means the law is there, but implementation is what lacking.  

  Let us vow on World Day Against Child Labour to ourself to spread awareness, help the children to bring back their piece of happiness, their part of childhood by whatever we can!!!

"Child is meant to learn, Not to earn"