India: Effectively combating child labour: Misereor

Whether on tea plantations, as domestic helpers or in the jewellery industry: children and young people in India are still often forced to contribute to the family income.

With your donation, you can help children escape exploitation and poverty and support Misereor’s global work to ensure fair opportunities in life.

Continent

Asia

Thematic focus:

Protecting human rights and facilitating peace

Child labour often takes place behind closed doors. Around 160 million girls and boys worldwide are affected by it. They often work in hazardous conditions, for many hours a day and for a fraction of a fair wage. Most are at the mercy of their employers, with no protection. They do not work voluntarily, but because their families cannot survive otherwise.
Take twelve-year-old Ariz, for example: he saved every rupee for the school enrolment fee, which his parents could not afford. Yet he never gave up on his dream: at the SPAN organisation’s learning centre, he continued to study, made friends and found new courage. Between study sessions, he even found time to play cricket high above the rooftops of Kolkata.

Child labour often takes place in secret. Parents often work as day labourers and the children help their parents.

Some children look for a job to fulfil very banal wishes: like credit for the latest mobile phone game.

Ariz wants to go back to school. He works for a tailor and saves his wages for the enrolment fee.

To make sure he doesn't lose touch completely, however, he visits the SPAN Learning Centre. This is also where he meets his best friend.

And often a round of cricket is played high above the rooftops of Kolkata.

12-year-old Amira also attends a learning centre. Here, she gets help from Shahina early in the morning before school starts, who helps her practise the subjects that are important or where she needs help.

It is particularly important to her mother that she and her siblings attend school. She herself knows exactly how important it is. As a child, she had to help her mum at the fish market. Amira is allowed to help sort paper, but only if she has completed her homework and other tasks.

In addition to the learning centres run by SPAN volunteers and social workers, SPAN has developed Jeevhan Path, a special programme in cooperation with primary schools. Learning content is taught twice a week in a playful and everyday way.

If the children understand what the learning content has to do with their own lives, their motivation immediately increases.

In the SPAN centres, children can do more than just learn. Here they can be children and play.

If the parents earn a sufficient income, the family's survival and the children's school attendance are assured.

The children playfully learn how to treat each other in a friendly and respectful way.

Helping children and parents to understand just how crucial school is for their entire lives is the core mission of Misereor’s partner organisations, Vikas Sansthan and SPAN. Their approach is holistic: children need schooling and vocational training to secure a sustainable future; at the same time, families receive support in finding alternative sources of income so that children no longer have to toil to ensure their families’ survival.

Twelve-year-old Amira also attends a SPAN learning centre. Her parents had to work themselves as children and for a long time did not know how to inspire their child to take an interest in education. Today, her mother, Sana, is strict about this: Amira is allowed to help sort paper – but only once all her schoolwork has been carefully completed. A noticeable change in everyday life.

In addition to its permanent learning centres, SPAN runs the ‘Jeevhan Path’ (Path of Life) programme with the help of volunteers and specialist staff. In partnership with primary schools, the curriculum is taught in a practical and child-friendly way. When girls and boys realise how education empowers them in their personal lives, their enthusiasm for learning grows naturally.

In addition, the partner organisations raise awareness amongst village communities about the serious long-term consequences of child labour. Mothers play a key role in driving this process: they discuss health, children’s rights, business ideas and funding opportunities with a view to achieving financial independence.

Around 2,000 children were given access to continuous education.
102 youth leaders are actively campaigning for children’s rights at a local level.
184 cases of exploitative child labour were documented and dealt with by the authorities; 116 children now attend school regularly.
3,720 families were supported in successfully claiming their entitlements to state social benefits.
196 women took on leadership roles in local self-governing bodies.

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13 euros is a typical price for basic packages of learning and practice materials at our support and education centres.

When making a donation by bank transfer, please quote the reference ‘S63703 India: Combating child labour’ in the payment reference field. This lets us know which project is particularly close to your heart; your contribution will be used as a general donation towards this work and Misereor’s overall global mission.

To ensure that your donation has an impact in the long term, Misereor uses a small proportion for important administration an related tasks. This way, we make sure that projects are selected carefully and implemented responsibly and that their effects are regularly monitored. Should it not be possible to use your donation as planned, we will use it where it is currently needed most.

Our local partner organisations

Vikas Sansthan

In the fight against child labour and its consequences, Misereor works in India with the partner organisation Vikas Sansthan, among others. The organisation has been committed to combating child labour since 1994. The employees carry out measures to rehabilitate former child labourers from the glass and jewellery industry and actively campaign for the observance of children's rights.

SPAN

SPAN ("Society for People's Awareness") is a non-profit organisation founded in 1989 that campaigns against child labour and for the poor in the Indian state of West Bengal. Most of the children who are forced to work in exploitative conditions come from the West Bengal region.

Miriam Thiel

Donor Communications

Telephone: +49 241 442506
E-mail: miriam.thiel@misereor.de

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By working closely with parents, we have created economic opportunities that discourage them from employing their children in the glass and bangle industry.

Dilip Sevarthi
Director of Vikas Sansthan

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