Newmai News Network
Kohima | May 29
IT HAS BEEN observed that in the last few years there has been a growing trend of employing local children below the age of 14 as domestic helps in Nagaland. A survey conducted by the Department of Labour, Government of Nagaland, on the number of Child Labour cases in the urban areas, mainly Dimapur, Kohima, Mokokchung and some district headquarters, showed an astounding figure of more than 9000 cases of child labour; and the demand for child helpers/labourers is growing everyday.
One reason for this is the growing number of working women in the state which has given rise to the need for cheap labour to complement the household chores, and to take care of the needs of children in the absence of both parents.
The survey conducted by the Department of Labour, Nagaland, also revealed that the supply sector for domestic helps has changed from illegal migrants from Bangladesh and neighbouring states to local children from Tuensang and Mon districts. The probable reason for this change could be because the employers felt more secure with local children and moreover, with locals one needs not be bothered with the nuisance of renewing the Inner Line Permit (ILP) every now and then.
This overwhelming demand for household helps has resulted in increasing cases of child trafficking in Tuensang and Mon districts, it has been reported.
Children from remote rural areas were earlier said to be brought to towns with the promise of providing education to them while they “help out” with the house-works after school. In those cases the main reason for the children moving to towns are believed to be the desperate need for education, which is still somehow not fulfilled in the far flung areas due to various reasons, such as, absenteeism, or lack of teachers, infrastructures etc.
A great number of children trafficked into the towns are still believed to be promised education; but once the children are taken away from the families, there is no one to monitor them and see if the children are truly being given education. And in the few cases where these children have actually been sent to government schools, most of them are reported to be unable to keep up with their classmates in the town, or balance their school work with the never-ending household work dumped on them. Eventually, it has been observed, the children voluntarily give up their education and find themselves totally at the mercy of their employers, without any education, life skills or anyone else they can depend on.
It has been predicted that these under-aged children employed as domestic help are left with very little option for their future. Though they are overworked, toiling from dawn till late at night, they do not acquire any livelihood skills during their time with their employers. The employing families also do not prefer to keep these children once they grow up and cross a certain age. So, in the end, the children have nowhere to go; they are unable to go back to the slow village life and return to cultivation after living in the town for many years, and neither are they prepared for life in the town as they have no skills other than mopping floors, cleaning compounds, washing clothes, running errands and in some cases cooking.
