Abdul Sattar
I belong to a generation of people who have seen the world change radically. Many transformations to count but what hasn’t yet changed is the condition of the poor kids in my country and across the globe. Their status has been relegated to mere an instrument of the global gigantic capitalist machine with a burden on their body and imagination to feed them and their family. The world is lurching from one crises to another. It has become even harder to survive for those on margins of society. Who could be more marginalized and vulnerable than working kids? Millions in this so called civilized world are out of school and are forced to carry burden of global capitalism.
What a civilized world it is where child labour is recognized as an inevitable sin! Millions of kids across the world and in my country can only see the stunning school buildings with amazingly creative paintings on the walls of schools. The paintings may reflect creativity but they haven’t been able to paint the pain of those kids. They can helplessly stare at the kids of their age going to school in luxury vehicles, with fancy bags, immaculate uniforms, and delicious food Tiffin. Even if they cry that remains unnoticed in deafening climates of factories and industrial units. They endured their pain in silence and their dreams die before they are born.
And in the world where poverty is an inborn mental concept, they in their deepest of their imaginations, with the simmering ambitions and desires to be treated like rest of their privileged fellow beings, might well have persuaded their soul that this is their fate. There faded faces question whether humanity is still alive. The sleepless eyes are searching for the dreams in the darkest of the darks. Their frail bodies are forced to carry the burden of so-called development which no way is meant for them. They can’t even afford to experience the dividends of the development which have been erected on their fragile shoulders. Their pale faces are the testimony that the world does not have enough for them. It does not! They are at risk, yes at risk of maltreatment, bigotry, and emotional and sexual violence. They are the worst victims of sexual violence. And this is the lived reality of the most of the working kids. Their future is thrown into chaos.
Clichéd as it might sound that state is like a mother and it is by any definition responsible for the well-being of its citizens. That is the fundamental responsibility of the modern states. This is the prime rational of their existence. Unfortunately, in the existing economic order where neo-liberalism is a new normal, let alone the state being a mother, it has been forced to kneel down unto the international monetary institutions and their uncontrolled lust for capital and profits. This development perhaps is a big challenge for the modern states across the globe. How in such a deteriorating situation where state is only concerned about the macroeconomic indicators, the working kids could be the priority of the states. But that isn’t a justification anyway, state will have to perk up and protect the fundamental rights of the citizens more specifically the citizens on the margins of society. Along with many humanitarian issues, child labour should remain in both political and policy limelight. It is the prime responsibility of the states to ensure a safer, healthier and brighter future of the children. Both states and society will have to make it happen that the kids will have the toys and books in their hands instead of working instruments and bouquets to sell. Bouquets in their hands to sell, how ironic it might sound! The states and society together will have to resolve that they won’t let capitalism leach out blood of the innocent children whom the future of this planet belongs. They won’t allow dreams of kids die in dark.
And let me say it loud enough that the issue can never be resolved through monetized NGOisation which has relegated it to merely a tiny social issue. It will not be settled through a few elitist awareness walks, posters and some attractive optics. This is a structural issue and of course is a question of political economy and can only be fixed when the states will realize their inherent obligations which is to take care of the citizens! Together states and societies can make it happen.
—The writer is a University Teacher of History and Modern Politics.
