Six million preventable child deaths - the biggest child rights violation...a silent

[Communist]

SILENT VICTIMS

SILENT VICTIMS

ASHA KRISHNAKUMAR

Sexual abuse of children is a very real problem in India, and the situation is aided by the absence of effective legislation and the silence that surrounds the offence.

I am filled with shame, disgust, guilt and low self-esteem. What I thought all along was affection, I realise now - after 12 years of sexual relationship with my uncle - was sexual abuse.

- Anjana, 15 years.

SHOCKINGLY, over half the children in the country share Anjana's anguish. India has the dubious distinction of having the world's largest number of sexually abused children with a child below 16 years raped every 155th minute, a child below 10 every 13th hour, and one in every 10 children sexually abused at any point in time. These figures resoundingly break the silence that surrounds sexual abuse of children and perpetuates the evil.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one in every four girls and one in every seven boys in the world are sexually abused. But Lois J. Engelbrecht, a researcher working on the problems of child sexual abuse, quotes studies showing that over 50 per cent of children in India are sexually abused, a rate that is higher than in any other country (see interview). Huma Khan of the Kanpur-based Centre for the Study of Human Rights terms child sexual abuse as one of the least documented violations. But studies made across India, documented in Grace Poore's resource book The Children We Sacrifice (which accompany the documentary on sexually abused girls) show the wide prevalence of the problem.

The Delhi-based Sakshi Violation Intervention Centre in a 1997 study that interviewed 350 schoolchildren, found that 63 per cent of the girl respondents had been sexually abused by a family member; 25 per cent raped, and over 30 per cent sexually abused by the father, grandfather or a male friend of the family. A 1999 study by the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences revealed that 58 of the 150 girls interviewed had been raped before they were 10 years old.

RAHI, a Delhi-based organisation that provides support to victims of sexual abuse, reports that of the 1,000 upper and higher-middle class college students interviewed, 76 per cent had been abused as children, 31 per cent by someone known to the family and 40 per cent by a family member, and 50 per cent of them before the age of 12.

"It is time we acknowledged the problem and did something about it," says Dr. Preethi Menon, a Chennai-based paediatric psychiatrist dealing with child sexual abuse. "Very simply," she says, "sexual abuse is when a powerful person uses a vulnerable person for sexual gratification." It can take several forms - from verbal, visual, tactile, exhibitionist and pornographic offences and fondling to anything that sexually stimulates the offender. The strategy of the offender can vary from tricking, luring, forcing and pressuring to threatening the victim. According to Dr. Preethi, it is an abuse of power and a violation of the child's right to a normal and trusting relationship.

The main cause of the high prevalence of child abuse in India is the way children are perceived - virtually as properties of adults. Says Lois: "It is also important how boys are treated as over 90 per cent of the abusers are men." Also, says the Bangalore-based child psychiatrist Dr. Shekar Seshadri, often, in protecting the family structure, decisions and judgments are based on the concept that the individual derives strength from the family, and it, in turn, from the community, and the community, from the country; this tends to drown the needs and trauma of the individual.

Says Radhika Chandiramani, coordinator of the Delhi-based TARSHI, an organisation that deals with reproductive and sexual health issues: "In India, children are expected to respect and obey adults. This is a major problem that perpetuates child sexual abuse." As Radhika points out, the children, taught to obey adults implicitly are abused only by adults and that too, from within the family. "How can the child say `no'?" she asks. "Yes" has no meaning when the child has no option to say "no". Yet, every child that is abused suffers from guilt and shame throughout his/her life.

According to Dr. Preethi, no child is safe; every child is vulnerable to sexual abuse. In her documentary "The Children We Sacrifice", Grace Poore calls sexually abused children the victims of a culture that prioritises family harmony, honour and duty more than individual trauma and pain. The "silence about sex" culture forbids parents from talking to their children about sexuality, and frowns upon any non-sexual intimate relationship with the opposite gender. The problem, according to the Chennai-based psychiatrist Dr. S. Vijayakumar, does not appear big simply because it is suppressed. These factors contribute to a high rate of child sexual abuse in India.

There are, according to Lois, primarily four driving factors that lead to child sexual abuse - the need to abuse a child sexually; convincing oneself about the act; building a good relationship with the people around the child; and gaining the child's trust. "There is thus," she says, "much time and a number of ways to stop child sexual abuse." Prevention, a recent report by the Delhi-based Voluntary Health Association of India argues, is easier especially as over 85 per cent of the offenders are those whom the children know and trust. Invariably, the familiarity and the trust they enjoy with the children - usually built over time - make them abuse the power over the children.

Prevention can be focussed at three levels. At the primary level, the focus can be on removing the causes, strengthening the child's competence to recognise and react, increasing parental awareness, strengthening social vigilance, and bringing in effective and punitive penal policy. At the secondary level, the emphasis should be on early detection, quick intervention and provision of a supportive environment in schools and families. Tertiary intervention should involve coordination among the police, courts, counsellors, doctors and social workers.

The offenders generally fall into two broad categories - paedophiles or fixated persons, and regressed individuals. While the first category plans the incident well and is more dangerous, the latter, which is more common in India, comes mostly from within the family. According to Lois, while sex abusers in general are clever, intelligent and manipulative, paedophiles are even more so - they fix their target and plan and execute the act meticulously. The regressed offenders usually abuse children to relieve the stress they are unable to cope with. Hence the victims of the regressed are usually children from within the family who are accessible and over whom they can exert power. Paedophiles, on an average, have 300 victims in their lifetime - though some are documented to have had over 1,000 - and the regressed five to seven victims. Anita Ratnam of the Bangalore-based Samvada, which supports victims of sexual abuse, says that sexual abuse episodes are the results of opportunistic, calculated and rational moves.

According to Lois, boys are equally affected by sexual abuse. She argues that it may be worse for them when men abuse them sexually. Many sexually abused boys develop the fear that they are homosexuals themselves or have been infected and have to become homosexuals. Also, Indian families do not protect boys as much as they do girls. This may also be responsible for over 90 per cent of sexual abusers being men.

Says Dr. Preethi Menon: "Sexual abuse has immediate as well as long-term effects on the child, from emotional and behavioural problems to abnormal sexual behaviour and psychiatric disorders. Suicidal tendencies and drug abuse are common long-term effects."

According to Dr. Vijayakumar, sexual abuse leaves a deep emotional scar in children primarily because the act is done secretively. He says: "There is a clear behavioural and emotional pattern in the abused." To begin with, the child hardly talks about the incident. And, even if the child does, no one takes her seriously. The child then begins to feel that there is something wrong with her and develops a low self-esteem. This pushes her into a guilt trap. As she grows up, her compulsive behaviour further reinforces her guilt. Several adult problems, according to him, have their roots in abuse in childhood.

The report by the Department of Women and Child Development on the implementation of the Convention of Child Rights in India, prepared for the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, has identified child sexual abuse as a priority issue for immediate action.

Although child abuse is rampant, India has no separate legislation to deal with it. The legal remedies available include the laws on rape (Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code), sexual molestation (Section 354 of the IPC) and sodomy (Section 377 of the IPC). But rape laws only recognise sexual crimes involving penile penetration, and are totally dependent on medical evidence. Such evidence is very difficult to get, as child sexual abuse is usually not one isolated incident but a series of incidents; it even involves episodes in which the offender does not touch the victim. The sexual molestation law covers all sexual offences "that outrage the modesty of the victim", other than penile penetration. However, these two are bailable offences and attract only punishments of a maximum of two years in jail and/or a fine of few thousand rupees. Only Section 377, which criminalises sodomy, is harsh. Though this section can be used in the case of child sexual abuse, its reference to "unusual sexual offences makes it difficult for child victims to use this option as a legal remedy. As there is no clear definition of sexual abuse, the victims are largely at the mercy of the judiciary's discretion, says Chennai-based lawyer R. Rajaram.

According to the VHAI report, a child victim suffers four times - at the time of the offence, when narrating the incident, during medical examination and if brought to the court. According to the study, the silence about sex-related matters and the lengthy and cumbersome legal procedures perpetuate the problem in India. The average time taken for a sexual abuse case to find its way from the lower courts to the higher courts is 10-15 years. Between 1992 and 1994, 48 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in the newspapers. The children affected were in the 8-10 age group, barring one who was six months old. The VHAI report argues that if and when the cases come to the courts for hearing, the children would have become adults and may want to erase the nightmare of their experiences from their consciousness. Dragging the children and their mothers to court for years, the report argues, is "secondary victimisation", and is often worse than the offence itself.

Child sexual abuse seems to be pervasive because, as Lois says, it is hardly spoken about, and even if it is, there are hardly any legal measures to deal with it. Court proceedings, if things come to that level, are a long-drawn, traumatic process. This, she argues, is what the abusers take advantage of.

Most often, sexually abused children make no noise about their traumatic experiences. It is this that encourages offenders. Dr. Preethi agrees that "this secrecy has to be broken"; for this, she lays stress on talking to children about sexual abuse, listening to them, believing them, and recognising symptoms such as physical complaints and behavioural and psychological changes. She says: "Silence does not mean all is fine with the child." A child's silence can be eloquent. Only, if we care to listen.

 

[ptldM3]

Alot of clowns in this thread

 

[Communist]

Hidden Darkness: Child Sexual Abuse in India

Asia Sentinel - Hidden Darkness: Child Sexual Abuse in India

Written by Neeta Lal
WEDNESDAY, 02 MAY 2007

An overwhelming number of India’s children face unwanted attention from sexual predators.



After a brilliant 16-year-old New Delhi girl repeatedly complained last month that her mathematics teacher was “touching and fondling her private parts,” the upshot was a long way from what anybody bargained for. When the girl’s parents complained, the principal called them “regressive” and blamed them for damaging the school’s reputation. The girl now stays at home to help cook and clean, her school bag lying in a locked cupboard, her scholastic career over.

The story of the girl, referred to only as Seema, is depressingly familiar, resonating across large parts of India, where abuse is a a startling everyday reality for as many as half of the country’s children, according to a just-released 13-state National Study on Child Sexual Abuse conducted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, UNICEF and Save The Children.

It is a long-hidden issue that India is finally beginning to wrestle with. The government moved recently to establish a National Commission for Protection of Children's Rights and plans are afoot to present an Offences Against Children (Prevention) Bill in the Parliament. The proposed document has specific sections dealing with various crimes against children, including sale/transfer, sexual assault, sexual/physical/emotional abuse, commercial sexual exploitation, child pornography, grooming for sexual purpose, incest, corporal punishment, bullying and economic exploitation.

The scale of abuse, according to the national study, is far worse than anybody had thought. It reports that 69 per cent of all Indian children are victims of physical, mental or emotional abuse, with New Delhi’s children facing an astounding abuse rate of 83.12 percent.

The survey, which involved interviews with 12,447 children, also highlights that it is usually family members (89 percent) who perpetrate such crimes and that more boys face physical abuse (72.61) than girls (65 per cent). Overall, Indian children were found to be victims of a slew of sexual crimes -- rape, sodomy, exposure to pornographic material, fondling, forcible kissing and sexual advances, among others.

The study also notes that child sexual abuse in India begins as early as five, ratchets up dramatically during pre-pubescence and peaks at 12 to 16 years. Some 21 percent of respondents acknowledged experiencing severe sexual abuse like rape, sodomy, fondling or exposure to pornographic material. Ironically, 71 per cent of sexual assault cases in India go unreported.

Nor is the study an aberration. As long ago as the mid 1990s, Samvada, a non-governmental organization in Karnataka, surveyed girls aged 15 to 21 from 11 schools and reported that 47 percent of the respondents were molested or experienced sexual overtures, 15 percent of them under the age of 10. Another 15 percent said they had experienced serious forms of sexual abuse including rape – 31 percent of that group were under the age of 10 when the abuses took place.

India is home to more than 375 million children, comprising nearly 40 percent of the country’s population, the largest number of minors in any country in the world. Despite its ethos of non-violence, tolerance, spirituality and a new trillion-dollar economy, India hosts the world's largest number of sexually abused children, at a far higher rate than any other country. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in every four girls and one in every seven boys in the world are sexually abused, hardly encouraging, but still far below India’s totals.

Worse, child abuse is one of the least documented violations in the country, records author Grace Poore in the book, The Children We Sacrifice, which deals with the wide prevalence of child sexual abuse in India.

The reasons are manifold. In India, much like the rest of Asia, children are expected to respect and obey authority figures such as teachers, guidance counselors and principals and not question their actions. Rebellion is perceived as a sign of a bad upbringing. This sensibility perpetuates a culture of abuse by encouraging sexual predators.

Also, Indian adults often exercise a near-feudal hold over their children, demanding complete and unquestioned obedience. A culture of silence and shame also swirls around cases of sexual violence against children. Unsurprisingly, the notion of shame is the single largest culprit in perpetuating sexual violence against India’s children.

Ironically, despite the magnitude of the problem, Indian courts offer little panacea to victims. In fact the only legal recourse available to such victims is the extensions of “rape laws”, which apply to women and are stretched to apply to children as well.

But, as authorities point out, rape laws only recognize sexual crimes involving “penile penetration” and are totally dependent on medical evidence. Such evidence is difficult to procure as abuse is usually not one isolated case but a whole series of them. It may even involve episodes in which the offender doesn’t even touch the victim. Worse, the sexual molestation law covers all sexual offences “that outrage the victim’s modesty,” other than penetration. However, these two are bailable offences and only demand punishment of a maximum of two years in jail and/or a fine of few thousand rupees.

Though this law can be used in child sexual abuse cases, its reference to “unusual sexual offences” makes it difficult for child victims to use this option as a legal remedy. Since the definition of sexual abuse is nebulous, victims are largely at the mercy of the court’s discretion. On rare cases when abusers are booked after a cumbersome legal procedure, India’s conviction rate is so abysmal (despite the country’s sophisticated and complex set of laws), it seems like a Pyrrhic victory.

Apart from the legal dimension, child sexual abuse also has pronouncedly psychological and emotional elements. Worldwide surveys point out that such abuse negatively impacts a child’s physical, emotional and mental well-being, leading to severe behavioral and psychiatric disorders. Suicidal tendencies and drug abuse are common long-term effects.

A World Health Organization survey also points out that there is an unambiguous behavioral and emotional pattern in the abused. Usually the child hardly talks about the incident. And, even if he or she does, no one takes it seriously. That in turn triggers feelings of self doubt and guilt, exacerbating the child’s feeling that it is his or her fault. As the child matures, compulsive behavior reinforces this guilt. Small wonder that many adult sexual problems, according to psychoanalysts, trace their provenance to childhood abuse.

Charol Shakeshaft, a statistics professor in the School of Education and Allied Human Services at Hofstra University, New York, notes in her report, “Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature,” that “child sexual abusers, including educators and priests, use similar patterns of ‘grooming practices’ to break down a child's defenses. Often popular and well-regarded in their field, abusers engage in ‘systematic and premeditated grooming’ where they lavish special treatment on their intended victim buying presents or sharing secrets, for example and then advance to pornography.”

Where then, does the solution lie? Educating and enlightening kids about such issues, helping them distinguish between “good” and “bad” touch, is a partial answer, authorities say. Children also ought to be made aware of impulsive decisions they may make under pressure from peers, bullies and abusers. Sex education in schools is also productive. The Netherlands, a country where teenage pregnancy rates plummeted from 60 per cent to about 25 per cent through aggressive sex information campaigns in schools, is an example.

However, in India the issue of sexual abuse is still wedged between legal and policy commitments to children on the one hand, and the fallout of globalization on the other. A nationwide furor resulted after the government’s recent decision to introduce sex education in schools. The subject has divided opinion between camps who felt such a step would lead to unnecessary experimentation by curious teenagers and others who believed it would help whittle down cases of sexual abuse by creating widespread awareness.

In the meantime, with child sexual abuse attracting so much scrutiny and public debate, the government has the added impetus to adopt strong and unequivocal measures to contain such crimes. For a country with nearly 40 per cent of its populace comprised of children, such measures are overdue.

 

[grey boy 2]

India, China Must Boost Spending to Cut Child Deaths, UN Says - Bloomberg.com

See, here another article addressing the serious issues "Child deaths"

in China and India no need to hide your head in the sand.

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- India, China and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region must boost public health spending by at least 2 percent in order to reduce the number of children dying before their fifth birthday, the United Nations said.

In 2006, 2.1 million children under five years old died in India, one-fifth of the world's total, and 415,000 died in China, the UN Children's Fund, Unicef, said in a report.

Poor neonatal care, pneumonia, diarrhea and malnutrition are among the major causes of child deaths in the region, according to the report. Public health spending in the Asia-Pacific is on average 1.9 percent of gross domestic product, compared with the world average of 5.1 percent, Unicef said.

China and India are the world's two most populated countries, with 1.3 billion and 1.1 billion people respectively. China is the world's fastest-growing major economy, expanding at 10.1 percent in the second quarter, followed by India, whose economy grew 8.8 percent in the quarter ended March 31.

Both countries have made ``great strides'' in tackling infant mortality, according to the report.

China reduced the under-five child mortality rate by 80 percent between 1970 and 2006, to 24 per 1,000 live births from 118, the UN said. In India, the rate dropped by 60 percent, to 76 per 1,000 live births in 2006 from 236 in 1960.

Widening Gap

Nevertheless, the countries must make more progress, as their economic booms have led to a widening gap between the rich and poor and millions of women and children are unable to access proper health care, Unicef said.

In India, a child born to a family in the wealthiest fifth of the population is about three times more likely to receive all the basic vaccinations than a child born in the poorest fifth, Unicef said.

South Asia is the only region in the world where female life expectancy is lower than male life expectancy and where girls are more likely to be underweight than boys, according to the report. The under-five mortality rate for girls in India was 79 per 1,000 in 2005-2006 compared with 70 for boys.

In China, there are ``wide disparities'' in maternal and child health between rural and urban areas and across population groups. For example, while the percentage of underweight children in Beijing and Shanghai is close to zero, the ratio rises to almost 6 percent in other provinces, Unicef said.

Many poor and rural Chinese are unable to afford or access quality health care, because of the switch to the market-oriented system more than two decades ago, according to the report.

Government Spending

China's 2005 public spending on health was 155.25 billion yuan ($23 billion), 0.8 percent of China's 18.9 trillion yuan economy that year, according to the latest available figure in the 2007 Statistical Year Book.

Government spending on health in India is about 0.9 percent of GDP, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The report covers a region spanning 37 countries from Afghanistan to Mongolia and Tonga in the South Pacific. More than half of the world's inhabitants, about 3.5 billion people, live in the region, according to Unicef.

Because almost 2.5 billion of those come from China and India, the two countries complicate efforts to judge the region's progress in tackling infant mortality as their rates ``tend to dominate and skew regional trends.''

The Asia-Pacific has experienced a 34 percent reduction in its under-five mortality rate since 1990, to 59 per 1,000 live births in 2006, or about 4 million deaths.

In Afghanistan, a quarter of all children didn't reach their fifth birthday in 2006, according to the report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net.

 

[DesiGuy]

@ Communist.


right now you are just flaming by sending news about India negative things.

Now if i send some negative thing about china as well, this thread will become useless.

So, it's not only Indian, it's all including chines and Pakistanis who sometimes post useless posts.

i know this topic is important, but that does not mean you should keep sending old news from internet.

 

[super_star]

Six million preventable child deaths - the biggest child rights violation...a silent emergency

World Vision launches five-year global campaign to end massive "child rights violation" of child and infant death Every 3.5 seconds a child under five dies: 24,000 deaths a day; almost nine million a year - India shares the highest burden of 1.95 million under five deaths.

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, November 17, 2009 /India PRwire/ -- A new World Vision report - Child Health Now - Together We Can End Preventable Deaths" finds that the vast majority of these deaths are preventable if governments spent more on simple health interventions, recommitted themselves to reducing child and infant mortality and targeted health care at the most vulnerable .

Launched on Monday, November 16, the Child Health Now report calls on governments to bolster family and community health interventions, some of which cost as little as Rs.15 (USD 30 cents.)

Life-saving health measures for children are as simple as:

◦Providing basic vaccinations, oral rehydration sachets for children with diarrhoea, and vitamin and micronutrient supplements to boost immunity and growth

◦Exclusive breastfeed children in the first six months and prevent childhood malnutrition by feeding infants from six months with nutritious foods from cheap locally available sources
◦Improving access to basic community level maternal, neonatal and infant care services

However, World Vision's report found that despite the solutions being well known governments in the developed and underdeveloped world were failing children, especially the poor and marginalised.

"This is more than just a problem facing the developing world. It's a 'silent' emergency. And it is, I believe, the greatest child rights violation of our time," said Kevin Jenkins, World Vision International President.

Mr Jenkins added, "It is politics, not poverty that is killing these children. The politicians have made many promises, but the truth is that saving mothers and children from death is simply not a priority."

Speaking at the launch of the Global Child Health Campaign in New York, Dr. Jayakumar Christian, National Director of World Vision India said - "India is one of the countries that is highly unlikely to meet the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. India spends only 1.04% of GDP on health, which is 2.2% of the country's total budgetary expenditure."

"In World Vision's work with children in drought affected Rajasthan to the flood affected Karnataka, we see these invisible citizens of our nation on the verge of extreme vulnerability being exposed to hunger, under nutrition and water borne diseases. But we've also seen through our work with over 5000 poor communities across the country that progress is possible: But much more must be done by the government to meet their promise to cut child and mothers deaths by 2015," Dr. Christian added.

Dr. Sri Chander, World Vision's health advisor for the Asia Pacific, said: "Health spending is not targeted at the biggest killer diseases for children, or on things like clean water, sanitation and nutritious food. At least half of these preventable deaths have malnutrition as an underlying cause"

World Vision, which works with children and communities in almost 100 countries, is recalibrating its own development work to push US$1.5 billion into health programmes over the next five years. The agency also aims to ensure that government leaders deliver on their commitments to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015 - equal to six million children's lives being saved a year.

World Vision's report - 'Child Health Now - Together We Can End Preventable Deaths" points to the experience of several low income countries that, through a mix of high-level political commitment and focussed policies, have made substantial cuts in child deaths, demonstrating that progress can be made, even in the most resource-constrained contexts.

With the hunger crisis, droughts and flood threats facing India, addressing life-or-death issues of children's health is even more urgent for government.

Chinese don't have any hunger/food problem because they eat everything. Any animals, grass whatever you can name it they will eat.
May be thats the reason chinese children don't get sick. BTW please supply good milk to you kids. no lead toys to play.

It is not case for majority of india. remember Tiger will not eat grass even if hungry!!

 

[grey boy 2]

Chinese don't have any hunger/food problem because they eat everything. Any animals, grass whatever you can name it they will eat.

It is not case for majority of india. remember Tiger will not eat grass even if hungry!!

Please don't troll, stop polluting the forum by doing this;
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=aErNiP_V4RLc&pid=20601109

 

[feifanke]

oh, india is a super__S H I T

 

[Communist]

Alot of clowns in this thread

Yes, right,

Russian TV or RT is also a clown.

Click below:

Indian child laborers: no escape from the vicious circle - RT Top Stories

Indian child laborers: no escape from the vicious circle
Published 11 January, 2010, 08:33

It has been three years since the Indian government banned the employment of children. However, it is still disturbingly widespread, and UNICEF says millions of them are working in extremely dangerous conditions.

India has the largest population of child workers in the world, with an estimated 40 million to 100 million children forgoing education to earn money.

“The child labor problem in India is of a scale that is often not even acknowledged, because it is so invisible. We can look at factories where children work, but we don’t look at agricultural labor. We don’t look at domestic labor to the extent that India should be looking at,” says Meenakshi Ganguly, Senior Researcher from Human Rights Watch.

“There’s a sense of almost justifying it by saying that these children would otherwise be starving and therefore it’s fine to employ them – except that the conditions of that employment are dangerous.”

India has laws in place to protect children and bans the employment of anyone under the age of 14 in several industries, but the law remains ineffective. Often it is sheer poverty that drives children to work.

“I want to study but we have no money,” says little Feroz smiling. He sells coconuts in the street and looks no more than seven years old. “That’s why I work, and help run our household.”

Poor families see their children as breadwinners. Instead of sending Arjun to school, his mother Parvati sets him to work. He may earn a mere two dollars a week, but for the family it is a question of survival.

“We can’t get two meals a day. We earn barely enough the whole day to feed ourselves, how can we educate our children? At least they help me. With more hands to work we can earn enough for dinner. If the children didn’t work, they’d just waste their time, and I’d have no one to help me,” says Parvati Devi.

Meenakshi Ganguly says using child labor is not only harmful for their health but also traps them in a vicious circle of unemployment and poverty:

“Health issues are the primary concern. The fact that a lot of these are hazardous industries and therefore children’s health becomes impaired. The other is: a child does grow up. And then he’s out of a job because another child comes and takes that job. So you’re not creating a workforce, you’re essentially limiting that workforce to a capacity to work for only a few years.”

A non-government organization “Bachpan bachao Andolan” has rescued over 77,000 child workers from sweatshops in the past three decades. They are rehabilitated at special schools. But this is just the tip of the iceberg – homelessness is another problem.

“Every month 100 more children come here, and we would like them to go back to their homes at the same rate. They do. But there are around 50 children here who have no home address, and no knowledge of their families’ whereabouts. We try to trace their families. We also educate them further so that, by the age of 18, they can stand on their own feet,” explains Parmanand Choudhary from Apnaghar children’s home.

Once freed from the shackles of work, child workers have some hope of reliving their childhood. However, charity workers admit that most of the children rescued are likely to find themselves forced back into a life of bondage.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Here is the video version of the report from Youtube:

 

[Communist]

Chinese don't have any hunger/food problem because they eat everything. Any animals, grass whatever you can name it they will eat.
May be thats the reason chinese children don't get sick. BTW please supply good milk to you kids. no lead toys to play.

It is not case for majority of india. remember Tiger will not eat grass even if hungry!!

Post reported for racist ranting and deliberate attempt to mislead members without any evidence.

Everyone please report the post of this poster.

 

[toxic_pus]

No, we actually want to help you improve your social condition from which millions of helpless indians suffer.

By telling us what we already know, how exactly are you 'helping' us to improve our 'social condition'?

Pray tell.

We just try remind you of your own drawbacks as you often deliberately forget your own drawbacks. Please do not get misunderstood.

The grouse is not with your attempt to 'remind' us of our 'drawbacks', but with the fact that you, and some of your friends, actually enjoy poverty, malnutrition and deaths of the unfortunates.

It is one thing to post a news piece about our 'drawbacks', and it is another to enjoy the unfortunate incidents that make up these news pieces.

Your schadenfreude is truly nauseating. But then again, that's the whole point. Isn't it.

But the irony seems to be lost on you. That, while trying to somehow get back at Indian posters - by posting news pieces which you think will tick them off - you actually end up celebrating the freedom that Indian society, particularly the press, enjoy.

Carry on with the good work.

 

[Communist]

Chinese don't have any hunger/food problem because they eat everything. Any animals, grass whatever you can name it they will eat.
May be thats the reason chinese children don't get sick. BTW please supply good milk to you kids. no lead toys to play.

It is not case for majority of india. remember Tiger will not eat grass even if hungry!!

I can make harsh replies that can pose a fatal blow to your heart.

But for the sake of maintaining civility of this forum, I am not saying anything this time.

But everything has a limit, any further racist BS if you post, you will see the consequences.

My life's philosophy is an eye for an eye.

 

[DesiGuy]

Post reported for racist ranting and deliberate attempt to mislead members without any evidence.

Everyone please report the post of this poster.

Will you do same about feifanke post????

or you will say it's defending?

if so, i disagree with you.

 

[grey boy 2]

Did You Know? Statistics on Children in India

On a macro- level there is an urgent need to protect the girl child. In Mumbai, numerous shelters exist for boys with hardly 10% of space and funds being allocated to the girl child. Most NGOS shy away from setting up girl shelters due to the “added responsibility” they have to undertake when looking after girls.

Culturally, working with the girl child presents many challenges, such as getting them married, providing a dowry, supporting the girls after graduation from school or helping them become sustainable on their own (which can be difficult due to job placement issues for women), as well as dealing with an increased risk of sexual exploitation. Thus the existence of the Sharanam Centre plays a vital role within the NGO sector.

Some of the harsh realities faced by children in India are presented below:

Less than half of India's children between the age 6 and 14 go to school.

95 in every 1000 children born in India, do not see their fifth birthday.
Only 38% of India's children below the age of 2 years are immunized.
Amongst married women in India today, 75% were under age at the time of their marriages.

58% of India's children below the age of 2 years are not fully vaccinated. And 24% of these children do not receive any form of vaccination.

More that 50% of India's children are malnourished.
More than 50 per cent of girls fail to enroll in school; those that do are likely to drop out by the age of 12.
CHILD LABOR

19% of children employed work as domestic help.

25% of the victims of commercial sexual exploitation in India are below 18 years of age.

Large numbers of children work simply because there is no alternative - since, they do not have access to good quality schools.

Poor and bonded families often "sell" their children to contractors who promise lucrative jobs in the cities and the children end up being employed in brothels, hotels and domestic work. Many run away and find a life on the streets.

The situation of the girl child in India is even worse:

1 out of every 6 girls does not live to see her 15th birthday.
Every sixth girl child's death is due to gender discrimination.

1 out of 4 girls is sexually abused before the age of 4.
Death rate among girls below the age of 4 years is higher than that of boys. Even if she escapes infanticide or feticide, a girl child is less likely to receive immunisation, nutrition or medical treatment compared to a male child.

53% of girls in the age group of 5 to 9 years are illiterate.

 

[Communist]

Will you do same about feifanke post????

or you will say it's defending?

if so, i disagree with you.

Whose post came first?