RURAL CHILDREN IN DISTRESS

Madhav is a tribal child whose father committed suicide due to the impossibility of repaying his debts. Now, Madhav spends his days tilling his small plot of land or working on the farm of the person who lent money to his family. At an age when most children play and go to school, Madhav is a small adult who works tirelessly. Will he meet the same fate as his father?

Twelve years old and nervous, Madhav is a shadow of himself, a silent victim of hardships that have attained disastrous proportions in the entire Vidarbha region in the state of Maharashtra, India. Madhav is just one of thousands of children who, like him, have lost their parents to the agrarian crisis that ravages the country. Almost without exception, the children in the area seem desperately hungry. In many homes, suicides have worsened poverty. Discrimination based on caste and class aggravates the situation.

Having left school, a peasant child has no skills apart from the trade that has become a terrible nightmare for over 60% of India's population, especially for those who practice subsistence agriculture that depends on rainfall. Most children from homes devastated by suicide are forced to be farmers and embrace the same system that has swallowed up their parents.

So what does the future hold for rural India? A very bleak one, if the experiences of thousands of farmer adults and children are not ignored. Although farmers put food on other people’s plates, most can barely feed their own children. Girls are the most vulnerable; many also live with the guilt that when they marry, their parents will have to pay a dowry. In rural Amravati, a 18-year-old’s neatly written suicide note said that if she did not die, it was almost certain that her father would.

While various political and social initiatives come to naught, farmers in Vidarbha are going from bad to worse in terms of income, agricultural techniques, diversity, food security, health and social status. In recent years there have been about 5,000 farmer suicides in Vidarbha alone. Those who keep on trying have little hope of surviving.

Despite some government interventions, structural abnormalities have not been properly addressed, nor have the human dimensions of the agrarian crisis been fully understood. Data from the National Crimes Records Bureau show that there were over 40,000 farmer suicides in the state of Maharashtra between 1995 and 2007. The number of families and children affected by these suicides is staggering.

Viewed in the context of children's rights, the tragedy of children in the countryside raises the question of how to defend children's rights to survival, protection, development and participation if the problem has not yet been acknowledged.

When Rahul Gandhi toured the area, he asked a boy what his dream was. A farmer who was standing nearby said, “Don’t ask them to dream, ask them to face reality. They have no right to dream”. A surprised Gandhi politely suggested that he not be so pessimistic. The farmer insisted that it was better to face reality than to dream, because former would help them understand and overcome the problems.

Source: infochangeindia

CHILDREN IN DOMESTIC SERVICE

Two girls, barely 14 years old, were taken to New Delhi by a neighbor to work as maids. A month after leaving home, both girls died. Another 13 year old, also a domestic servant, was rescued from the home of a couple who went on vacation and left her locked up at home without food.

There are countless such stories of abused children throughout the country. In 2012, after years of relentless struggle by child's rights organizations, the Union Cabinet approved an amendment to India’s Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act. The bill proposed a ban on all forms of child labor, in particular the employment of children under 14. However, it has some important gaps as it still allows children to work as domestic help.

According to Thomas Chandy of Save the Children, “Engaging children in any form of labor and exploiting them is one of the worst forms of violence against them. It is important that the violation of the Anti-Child Labour Law become a non-bailable offence”.

Millions of children are denied their constitutional rights, and millions of employers violate Indian laws. ILO has set 2013 as the year to combat child domestic labor, which is a growing social threat in India. The demand for child domestic workers is at an all-time high. Only in Delhi, there are more than 100 employment agencies and thousands of child domestic workers.

Surprisingly, in many cases, employment agencies do not give any money to the parents of the children they recruit. There are no special laws to control these agencies. “Police take action against employers when a case is reported, but the law needs to be strengthened to act as a deterrent against child employment”, added Chandy.

Another important and often overlooked factor is the reason why children work. If these children did not live in extreme situations -abandonment or extreme family need- there would not be a case for more stringent punitive measures. A society free of child labor is not an impossible dream. It can also be achieved in India if the government and society come together to invest on the material and cultural resources that will educate all strata of society so that no one is left without the tools and means to live with dignity.

LET US PROVIDE THE MEANS

Source: savethechildren.in

HIV AND NEGLECTED MINORITIES

According to the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), “HIV has been treated in India for over 20 years, but not enough attention has been given to the needs of women and children”.

Women living with HIV/AIDS face great challenges: in-laws that refuse to give them their share of property or assets, hostility from society, almost no support networks and, sometimes, HIV+ children of their own. WINS, funded by ActionAid, has organized about 25 women's networks in Chittor district in Andhra Pradesh, where there are about 800 families with at least one HIV-positive family member.

“Infected women contemplate suicide; they must find a way to rebuild their lives," says R. Meera, from WINS. Women living with HIV have ignorance, rejection and destitution as common denominators. If they have support, some fight for their rights; many others accept their tragic fate and just give up when the pressure is too great.

Usually, says Meera, a girl gets married around 14 to a man twice her age. She is not told that her future husband is HIV positive. At the age of 16, she is a widow and may already have two children. She has no home to call her own, no food, no self-esteem. The villagers do not want to talk to her. Being an abandoned woman, she becomes vulnerable to sexual overtures.

If her case comes to be known by an NGO such as WINS, “We approach her and tell her that HIV is not the same as AIDS, that she can live, and live well”, says Meera. She begins to attend the meetings and can assess the possibility of getting back the goods that her mother gave her at the time of her marriage. She has the right to do so, but is afraid to ask for her share; she will not even have her own mother's support.

According to Meera, “To avoid confrontation, she may not claim what is hers, but ask for it to be transferred to her children”. Her in-laws assure her that it will be so, but reality will be otherwise. If she insists and there is a confrontation, her in-laws will see her as demanding and ambitious. She may be told to leave and take her children with her, with no money and no one to turn to.

“There are some lawyers that help women without means”, says Meera. “We try to find good lawyers and cover some costs. A rural dweller cannot fight without outside help.” However, women often risk their lives fighting for their property rights. A case in point is "Vidya's", who married a farmer. A year later, he had died of AIDS, Vidya realized that she was HIV positive, and her in-laws had driven her out of the house. She went to court to claim her property. The district court ruled in her favour and so did the high court. She died in 2008... killed by her in-laws.

LET US INFORM AND SUPPORT VULNERABLE MINORITIES 

Source: hivaidsonline