As the nation marks World Day Against Child Labour on Sunday, the city has something to cheer about. According to a survey done by Aide et Action South Asia, children of migrant workers in Hyderabad had the best access to anganwadis. The situation is much better in comparison to cities like Bhopal, Chennai and even New Delhi with nearly 85 anganwadis accessible to children near work sites and 179 near their temporary shelters.
For the survey, 50 worksites each in Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Patna were identified. Five sectors – brick kilns, stone crusher units, building construction sites, road construction sites and pipeline projects — were targeted for the survey because they employ large number of migrant families. Stratified random sampling method was chosen to collect the data.
Away from the number crunching, is a school run by the NGO where children of migrant workers are given an education that is the best possible under the circumstances.
It is a classroom of 30 students into which Sujatha walks in every day and begins a lesson of life. “As soon as the children come in the morning we give them water, oil and comb their hair and then make them recite a prayer. Then the children aged up to 6 years are made to sit in U shape and we make them do multiple tasks,” says Sujatha.
This unconventional teaching approach keeps the children away from trouble and danger giving a ray of hope as the world celebrates.
But this rosy picture changes in the streets of Hyderabad as the number of children who are made to beg under duress. To root out the problem, the GHMC has called for a meeting on June 23 at Kukatpally to chalk out a plan.
The Mayor Bonthu Rammohan disclosed that only 2 per cent of beggars are genuine while the others are part of a criminal enterprise that nets Rs. 2 crore per month and Rs. 24 crore a year. As per a study about 14,000 beggars are on the city roads.
However, the flip side of the survey was that 90 percent of seasonal migrant children are out of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) net which is precisely aimed at helping children of disadvantaged, and 80 per cent of children in school going age do not have access to education near worksites.
