Silvester D’Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Apr 25: The action of the officials of the department of labour in branding a student, who has been doing his best to support his poor family, as a child labourer, and whisking him away for violating labour laws, has come in for all-round criticism.

The boy’s mother is faced with the responsibility of running the family, as her husband is no more. Determined to bring her children up in life, she had given her nod for the continuance of education of her two daughters beyond SSLC, although she earns only a little by working on daily wage basis, and has the responsibility of looking after her aged father. The boy, who sincerely wanted to be of some help to his mother and mitigate her hardships to some extent, has now been robbed of the opportunity of providing some succor to his mother.

The boy in question, Vikram (name changed), lost his father when studying in third standard. When his father, who also was a coolie, was alive, he and his elder sisters did not have much of a problem. Because of the determination of his father to educate his children, the three children got admitted into schools. Vikram, who is about to complete 14 years of age, had appeared for the ninth standard examination recently. As he has already crossed the stage at which facilities under compulsory education scheme are extended, he does not have money even for daily needs. As he did not want to put stress on his mother by placing demand for money, he joined an ice cream shop in the town for two months, to work during summer holidays.

A lady, who observed the boy working in the shop, conveyed this information to a voluntary organization. The organization, which conducted a raid on the shop along with officials of the labour department, took the boy into custody. The boy’s requests and pleadings fell on deaf ears. As the mother of the boy was in Manipal on some work, his aunt produced his birth certificate and other documents to the officials. The officials, who remained adamant, took the boy away from the shop and admitted him into rehabilitation centre.

A voluntary organization with presence at international level, which came to know of the incident, took the issue in all seriousness and took the officials to task, and demanded his release. The officials of the labour department, under immense pressure, agreed at last to give a letter to the rehabilitation centre to release the boy. The family brought the boy from the centre the next day.

This behavior of the labour department, which was witnessed by the people in the town on Tuesday, gave rise to lot of anger and resentment among the general public. Some are preparing to approach the courts to teach the officials a lesson.

‘I know how much my mother is struggling to make both ends meet. She has to look after the family and educate me and my two elder sisters. The two pairs of uniforms the school provides do not last even for the full year. As I found it unjust to approach my mother for money for my expenses, I voluntarily went to the ice cream shop to work and earn. It was not at all a difficult job. But I was forcibly whisked away from there, and I suffered mental torture at the hands of the concerned,’ said Vikram, recalling his ordeal.

‘How can one term the initiative undertaken by the boy to continue to study, and at the same time, lessen the burden of his mother by doing jobs that do not pose any hazard to him as wrong? Will the officials and the department do something to improve the financial condition of the poor family? In what way this violates human rights?’ asks Amir Pasha, a social worker from Kandlur near here.

The mother of the boy, who hails from Herikere village in the taluk, insisted that her son remains a student, and wanted to work during summer holidays. ‘He was working happily at the shop. The government never supports me or my family during the times of crisis. Who gave the officials the right to rob our mental peace?’ she asked angrily.

Tilakraj, a social activist from Balkur village, questions what is wrong in acquiring professional skills, and whether it is crime for the students to get some vocational training during their spare time. Observing that the government, which did not take any responsibility to mitigate the problems of the family or attend to their personal problems, is using laws to unnecessarily harass the citizens, he expressed the opinion that amendments need to be brought to the act to give it a humane touch.