NATIONAL
COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN INDIA: PRESS
RELEASE
PROGRAMME ON ‘Child Labour
and Child Rights’ held
A programme on Interfaith Dialogue on Child Labour and
Child Rights was jointly organised by United Evangelical Lutheran Churches
in India (UELC) Conflict Transformation and Peace-building Programme and
the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) Commission on Justice,
Peace and Creation recently at the NCCI Campus, Nagpur, on the occasion of
International Day against Child labour.
The Programme was chaired
by the National Secretary of All India Progressive Forum, Dr. Yugal J. Rayalu, while Dr. Roger
Gaikwad, General Secretary NCCI, gave the keynote address. Mr. Samuel Logan
from United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India, was present on the dais.
At the beginning of
the programme, Mr. Samuel Logan, welcomed all the speakers and the dignitaries
present in the programme. He told the gathering that the main aim of this
programme was to develop a platform where people of different faith can come together
and work towards the rights of Children.
In his Key Note, Rev. Dr.
Roger Gaikwad said that the welfare of children concerns all of us, including
the NCCI. It’s focus on poverty, justice and liberation
theology involved concern for children. Its engagement with Feminist theology
also addressed the plight of girl child, Dalit Theology also included concerns
about Dalit children, and so till date, for different Commissions and
Ministries of NCCI, children are still an important part of NCCI. As challenges
for children are increasing, it is important for us to learn from one another
how religions address the issue of child rights and child labour.
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Rev. Logan speaking at the programme.
Rev. Dr. Roger Gaikwad and Dr.
Yugal Rayalu seated on the dias.
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Opening the discussion,
Advocate P.K. Sathianatham, Public Persecutor and social activist, spoke from
the legal perspective on how the Juvenile Justice Act looks at children. He
brought to notice through various instances on how Juvenile laws have undergone
changes and have evolved in the past years keeping in mind the concerns for the
children who were victims of sexual abuse, marital conflicts and so forth. In
connection to this, he highlighted the new law for children on Protection of
Children from Sexual Act 2012 which enforces change of procedure and use of
sensitive words during proceedings with the children. He suggested the NGOs and
the churches to see that such laws are being implemented. And that if such laws
are found not being implemented or violated, to bring it to the notice of the
court. He also shared on how the court takes help from the NGOs to solve marital
disputes being brought to Family court, and that this kind of work the NGOs can
also do for a child.
Islamic scholar, Mr.
Ghaffoor Parekh, brought out from the Quran that, working for personal gain,
bribery, economic exploitation are sins and are answerable to God. Keeping this
context in mind, he brought out the point that poverty is the main cause of
child labour in India. Poverty, according to him has kept children away from
schools as they have to earn their daily bread. Most importantly, since child labour can’t be
stopped due to poverty, he came up with the suggestion of giving jobs to
children with fair wages along with education.
The third speaker of
the day was Prof. Vikas Jambhulkar, from Deptt.
of Political Science, Nagpur
University. Dr. Jambhulkar spoke on
Child rights from Buddhist perspective. He started off by locating children in
Buddhism. According to him, Buddhism basically doesn’t speak of a child nor
does it deify the child. But it sees childhood as in a process of attaining Buddha.
So in this sense it identifies a child as “an independent persona” to attain
rights as well. He pointed out that though Buddhism is a monastic religion it
is not against family. But it preaches that, an adult doesn’t have right to
procreate unless they can provide for children. In interdependence to attain
Buddha, a child is seen as a career of values and culture. For self realisation
of a child, however it is encouraged not to constrain a child but to expose
him/her to other values and culture and allow him/her to choose. This according
to him, tells us that Buddha saw children as the biggest wealth and their
possibility of getting enlightened was acknowledged.
The fourth speaker was
Mrs. Parvati Joseph, school co-ordinator, St. Ursula School. She spoke from the Biblical Perspective. She
drew out the comparison of the killing of the innocents by King Herod as found in Mathew 2: 1-23 with the
present context. King Herod was an ambitious, vicious, heartless “madman”. He killed innocent children in his quest to
kill Baby Jesus. She stressed on the fact
that this Herod though dead, still exists in our society today. Today many
children’s lives are under threat of sickness, death, abuse etc. Therefore, we
need to act and intervene. For that she encouraged that adults should be
sensitive to children and to have a heart for them. She drove home this point
through instances from her life experiences with children in slum and red light
areas. She also stated that care, compassion and love can transform even street
children.
The last speaker of
the day was Professor J.T. Thakare. He
spoke from the Bahai faith perspective. According to him, the problem of child
labour and child right was a common problem of all faiths. And so if we look
from sectarian perspective alone, we cannot solve the problem. However, we can draw
from various symbolisms, parallelism, parables from various religions on
childhood. He stresses therefore on the “fundamental unity of religions” as to
solving this problem.
Summing
up the discussion Chairman Dr. Rayalu, opined that the problem of child labour
is connected with our socio-economic structure. Unless there is overall
development that touches each and every section of the society, problems like
child labour can’t be solved. Only when
the state takes care of basic amenities like Health and Education can we
imagine a society free of child labour he concluded.
At the beginning of
the programme, Ms. Sweety Helen, the Youth Executive Secretary of NCCI said a
prayer for the welfare of all the children of the world. Rev. Samuel Logan
presented the vote of thanks.
Rev. Christopher
Rajkumar
Executive Secretary
Commission on Justice,
Peace and Creation
National Council of
Churches in India.
Rev. Samuel Logan
Rathanraj
Project Manager
Conflict
Transformation and Peace-building Programme
United Evangelical
Lutheran Churches in India
