Mahatma Gandhi used to say, "Whenever you are in doubt, recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him.”
India is home to the world’s largest child population. Around 442 million children or 37 percent of the country’s total population are below 18 years of age. This latest budget and the upcoming two budgets are our opportunities to harness the dreams and potential of the generation that will shape India's future.
Educated and healthy children of today are the country’s assets of tomorrow. As India marches to become a Vishwa Guru, we ought to take along children on this journey. Prioritising children in budgetary allocations is not a matter of choice but a prerequisite for prosperity.
However, it appears that the Union budget 2024-25 is a missed opportunity for the overall development and protection of our children from trafficking, bonded labour, and exploitation.
Child bonded labour in the informal sector, the worst manifestation of trafficking is an unfortunate reality of our times, despite the fact that trafficking in persons is prohibited as a punishable Fundamental Right under Article 23 of the Constitution of India.
When such cases come to light, the Magistrate or the Sub-Divisional Magistrate conducts an inquiry to ascertain whether the person was actually a bonded labourer or not. After this verification, the child is declared as a bonded labourer and a ‘Release Certificate’ is issued to him or her.
Once the court has convicted the accused, such a child is entitled to a compensation of up to Rs three lakh if he or she has been rescued from ostensible sexual exploitation such as a brothel, massage parlour, placement agency, or trafficking, according to the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourer.
Between 2017 and 2024, 3341 children were found to be working in conditions of bonded labour and issued with ‘Release Certificates’ by various state governments. They are entitled to a compensation of more than Rs 100 crore. This compensation has to come from the Union budget.
Unfortunately, the amount allocated for the Scheme which would disburse the compensation for these child-bonded labourers has been reduced from Rs 20 crore in the Union budget 2023-24 to only Rs 6 crore in the Union budget 2024-25.
This means, that in the best-case scenario, the allocated amount is sufficient to cater to the rehabilitation needs of only 200 child-bonded labourers, presuming that convictions take place and Rs 3 lakh each is awarded to 200 child-bonded labourers.
The remaining 3141 rescued child bonded labourers would be deprived of justice guaranteed to them in the Constitution.
In Neeraja Chaudhary vs. State of Madhya Pradesh (1984), the Supreme Court held that the failure to rehabilitate freed bonded labourers violated their fundamental rights and that mere release from bondage without rehabilitation does not fulfil the objectives of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.
The 41st report of the Lok Sabha’s Standing Committee on Labour, Textiles, and Skill Development (2022-23) underlines a lack of progress in efforts to eradicate bonded labour, despite repeated advisories from the Ministry of Labour and Employment to State/UTs.
In the absence of holistic rehabilitation, the children will eventually return to poverty, illiteracy and bondage from which they were rescued. There is no place for this cycle to continue in India in the 22nd century.
As the rehabilitation and all other efforts for the elimination of child labour and bonded child labour come under the purview of the National Child Labour Project and the Central Sector Scheme, the massive cut in the Union budget in these schemes will make redundant the huge strides India has made towards child protection, including the elimination of bonded labour and bonded child labour.
The reduced budget will also prove detrimental in fulfilling the Union government’s vision of identifying, releasing, and rehabilitating approximately 18.4 million bonded labourers by 2030.
For implementation and timely compliance with the above-mentioned goal, the National Human Rights Commission has issued two advisories to identify, release, and rehabilitate bonded labourers.
The policy framework to eliminate child labour in India is one of the most holistic in the world in terms of its categorisation of children, list of industries and penalties. This is supplemented by the Right to Education Act, 2009, enacted with the intention that children should go to schools and not indulge in any form of labour.
The government’s capacity-building programs for law enforcement agencies, police officers, judicial officers, and prosecutors help them stay updated about the modus operandi, use of technology and emerging hotspots of those indulging in child trafficking for bonded labour. However, this Constitutional mandate needs additional support from the exchequer to translate the spirit of laws and policies into deliverables on the ground.
Thus, I urge the Union government to revisit the allocation made to the Central Sector Scheme for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourer and such additional schemes as it will accelerate our march to Vision 2050 and will also help us in ending child labour in all its forms by 2025 as envisioned of the Sustainable Development Goals.
(Bhuwan Ribhu is a lawyer, activist and author of When Children Have Children: Tipping Point to End Child Marriage)
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