Rally on World Anti Child Labour Day
June 12 is observed as Anti Child Labour Day all over the country and an awareness drive is organized to stop engaging tiny tots in the job market. Children are the foundation of the future. Childhood is the innocent stage of an individual and it is the time to learn, play and concentrate on academics but children from lower background & less privileged turn as an earning member of the family at their tender age due to financial constraints and illiteracy. Parents engage their children in job market for paltry sums of money as they are totally unaware on the merits of education.
Child labour is a major deterrent in the nation’s growth. Employing a child who is under the age of 16 is illegal. To reach out to the common public greater awareness about child rights has become mandatory and AROH being the organization working at grass root levels in the areas occupied by poor and downtrodden always makes it a point to observe such causes and involves in every aspect possible to aware the masses.
To protest against the child labour, a rally was organized at all PAB clusters on 12 June, 2013. Tiny tot beneficiaries of PAB who are being brought under the fold of literacy took to the streets on anti child labour day raising slogans and holding placards to ban child labour in unorganized sector.
At East Delhi Cluster
Beneficiaries of PAB along with their educators and team members assembled at the venue which is MCD Primary School, kalyanpuri Delhi 91 by 9 AM. Mr Raj Kumar- Counselor of kalyanpuri was invited as the chief guest and after the welcome speech he flagged off the rally. Beneficiaries walked in the bylanes of the community raising slogans like ‘Stop engaging children in work’, ‘Children are the future of society’ ‘Say no to Child labour’ & ‘Say yes to education’. Seeing the tiny tots marching ahead with smile brimming on their faces; drew every one out and they all lent their ears to understand the need of the society. After an hour of protest the rally culminated at the starting point. To boost up the energy level of the beneficiaries refreshments were distributed which made their tiredness wear away.
Rally by beneficiaries to create awareness on anti child labour is a wonderful event and I personally would extend my support for social causes that can bring a change in the lives of the less privileged – Raj Kumar
At South Delhi Cluster
With compulsory quality education being made available to all children up to 14 years of age by the government, the Foundation ‘s initiative PAB in association with GAIL India Ltd, hopes that number of working children would reduce and lead to 'children at school' not 'children at work'.
Keeping the view, an anti child labour rally was flagged off by the coordinator of the cluster by 8 AM. Beneficiaries walked past areas like Krishna Park, Deoli Road, Raju Park and crowded market areas and raised their voices against the abolition of child labour.
The event saw the presence of employees from GAIL India Ltd as well. They too participated in the rally and asked the parents of the community to extend their support in the welfare of their own children
En route a Nukkad Natak on penalizing the child with labour job was also organized. Community people came out to watch the tale of the natak which acted as an eye opener for them to take preventive measures and stop sending their children to work. The rally came to an end by 11 AM. Coordinator of the centre thanked all the benefciaires for their wonderful work and wished them a bright future.
Similarly at other clusters too beneficiaries took out a rally on anti child labour day