Dear Editor,
Although child marriage cases have decreased, the incidents of child abuse have witnessed a sharp rise. Young girls are the worst sufferers, who face sexual assault. The National Crime Bureau record shows that 1,451 children were murdered in 2011. The number of crimes and extreme cruelty against children stands at 33,098. Child labour is the worst form of exploitation. Nearly 87 per cent of the total population of child labourers works in farms, plantation, fisheries, factories, cottage industries, fire cracker industry, tea stalls, restaurants, mines, Dhabas and in upper and middle-class homes. Corporal punishment in the form of beating, threatening and whipping given to children is shocking and inhumane. There is no awareness at the grassroots level about child or domestic labour. Though the government has made laws to ban child labour, the implementation is weak and perfunctory. Social activists, politicians and celebrities should come forward to abolish child labour and to improve socio-economic condition of the poor.
Dr H Kumar Kaul
via-e-mail
