#GoodNews: Former Child Labourer From B’Lore to Address Parliament

A Bengaluru girl, who was forced to undergo child labour, has been selected to address the Parliament on 20 Nov.

UNICEF is organising an event on 20 November, where children across the world are being selected to speak at the Parliament.

(Photo courtesy: Twitter/@UNICEF)

Kanaka V, a 17-year-old girl from Bengaluru, who is currently in her first year of private college, will be addressing the problematic matter of child labour to the Parliament on 20 November, which marks the event of Universal Children’s Day. The impact of her message will be powerful because Kanaka, herself, was forced to undergo child labour for 12 long years.

The event, which is organised by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), is a first of its kind, where children across the world are being selected to speak at the Parliament.

Hailing from the slums of Bengaluru, Kanaka’s mother, who would work as a domestic help in several houses, managed to string together enough money to send her daughter to school till class four. But with her father being disabled and her mother soon being diagnosed with cancer, Kanaka was forced to drop out of school.

Soon after her mother passed away, Kanaka was placed in the care of her relatives, who not only forced her to spend the best part of her growing years as a domestic help in a few Bengaluru houses, they also made her undergo intense physical, mental and emotional abuse.

But things were going to get a lot better. During one of her shifts at a wedding hall in Yeshwantpur, she came across a few members of SPARSHA, an NGO that fights against child labour. Kanaka was rescued in 2011, and not only did she manage to score a commendable 80 percent in her class 10 boards, she was determined to focus on her academic progress and become a scientist one day.

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Kanaka’s inspiring story managed to make the right turn, and today, she is one of the 30 children from across the world who has been selected to address the Parliament on 20 November. She will be speaking for eight minutes, where she is determined to speak about the problem of child labour in the country.

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I feel that though there are several laws to protect child rights, nothing is enforced effectively. I am going to stress the same in Parliament.

Kanaka, as reported by <i>The Indian Express</i>

She also added that children hailing from rural areas, who are subjected to child labour, have it much worse off than their urban counterparts, because they have no kind of system or organisation to reach out to.

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There are thousands of children like me who have faced various kinds of abuses. Children in urban areas at least have people they can approach. However, there are children like me who suffer in slums and rural areas.

Kanaka, as reported by <i>The Indian Express</i>

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Kanaka is the only candidate who was selected from Karnataka, to address the Parliament.

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With inputs from The Indian Express.