A Sensitization Campaign against Child Labour by Smile Foundation
Mumbai: On the eve of World Labour Day, Smile Foundation, a national level development organisation organised a sensitizing campaign at major locations like bus stations and public utility spaces to sensitize the privileged people and send an appeal to empower underprivileged children through education. Children and volunteers in Nagpur, Mumbai, Bhavnagar and Goa took out rallies, recited slogans, hoisted placards and banners to make people aware of the cause.
Although June 12th is celebrated as Anti-child Labour Day, Smile Foundation feels that when the attention of the whole world is focused on May 1st which is celebrated as Labour Day, there could be no occasion to raise the issue of childhood, and future, being wasted in the form of child labour.
Statistics reveal that India has 17 million child workers, the highest in the world owing to poverty, lack of equipped schools and growth of informal economy. Over half of the working children (54%) are in agriculture, and most others are employed either in construction (15.5%) or in household work (18%). About 5% are in manufacturing jobs, and the remaining (about 8%) are scattered across other forms of employment. Lack of awareness about the basic rights of a child leads to easy violation of laws meant to protect and empower children. Today Smile Foundation children and volunteers campaigned to fight against the practice of child labour and advocated for sending children to school.
“Smile Foundation feels that there is no better tool, but education to end child labour in the country and work towards providing basic school education to the less privileged children in the country. Through this sensitization effort, Smile Foundation wants to create awareness on the vulnerability of the underprivileged children in our society. Smile Foundation would like to appeal to the privileged individuals – Say NO to Child Labour, Say YES to School,” said Mr. Suryakant Narvekar, Smile Foundation’s Regional Head – West (CFC).