NGOs hail Nobel for Kailash Satyarthi, hope for awareness on children issues

When Shobha Murthy, the founder of a low-profile Navi Mumbai-based NGO, needed help enrolling slum kids in private schools under the RTE, she turned to Kailash Satyarthi for help. The electrical-engineer-turned-child-rights-activist quickly tackled the problem by putting Murthy in touch with the relevant officers in Maharashtra. “Thanks to his guidance, we could enrol about 17 to 18 kids in school,” said Murthy, who has worked in the sector for 25 years.
On Friday, she was all praise for the Delhi-based Nobel laureate, who won the peace prize along with 17-year-old Malala Youzsafzai, a vocal advocate of women’s education in Pakistan. “It couldn’t be given to a more deserving person,” she said.
Vrishali Pispati from Mumbai Mobile Creches expressed similar sentiments. “We are very happy that the Nobel peace prize committee has chosen to highlight Satyarthi’s efforts to improve child welfare, giving his work the international platform it deserves,” she told TOI. “We heartily congratulate him.”
Childline’s Nishit Kumar hoped the prestigious prize would “boost awareness” of child rights in India and increase support for those working in the field. Currently, 37% of India’s population or roughly 450 million people are below the age of 18 but only 5% of the urban budget is allocated to child welfare, said Kumar. “Childline estimates that nearly 180 million children can’t access their rights because they are marginalized by destitution, abuse, exploitation, natural calamities, and disease,” he added. Kumar also pointed out that despite signing a United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, Indian law still allows children, below the age of 14, to work in non-hazardous industries. This despite the fact that the RTE provides “free and compulsory education” to kids between six and 14 years. “It’s a complete contradiction,” said Kumar.
Additionally, agricultural work is not considered hazardous though it exposes children to toxic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.
By honoring Satyarthi, the Nobel peace prize committee is highlighting the fact that civil organizations are filling in for government agencies, said Vinod Shetty, honorary director of the Acorn Foundation. Many of the kids Acorn caters to work in Dharavi’s recycling industry. “Their job is to sift through construction debris or burn toxic dumps of plastic in order to retrieve the metallic parts,” explained Shetty. “Sometimes their cuts and scratches get infected, other times, the dust and fumes give them respiratory infections.”
However, Shetty pointed out that problems like child labour can’t be seen in isolation but have to be understood within the context of a society where adults can’t make minimum wage. He said girls find it even harder to escape the drudgery. “We face a tough time convincing parents to send girls for our programmes because they are always needed to cook, clean and take care of their siblings,” said Shetty.