Monthly Archives: March 2019

This 8-Year-Old Chess Champion Will Make You Smile

Overcoming life’s basic truth: Talent is universal, but opportunity is not. Meet Tanitoluwa Adewumi, the 8 year old Nigerian refugee, who has just won his category at the New York State chess championship.

Killed, orphaned, sold: Afghan war takes brutal toll on children

In a country where half the population is younger than 15, Afghanistan’s 17-year war has arguably hit children the hardest.

Some 927 children were killed last year, the most since records have been kept. Aid workers say they are seeing a growing number of children orphaned or forced to work in the streets.

Italy bans unvaccinated children from school

Italian children have been told not to turn up to school unless they can prove they have been properly vaccinated.

Boy, 10, writes viral letter asking Qantas CEO for advice on how to start an airline

Taking what children say seriously. Quantas Airlines CEO writes back to 10 year old boy’s letter, who had questions about starting an airline.

Greta Thunberg, schoolgirl climate change warrior: ‘Some people can let things go. I can’t’

“I overthink. Some people can just let things go, but I can’t, especially if there’s something that worries me or makes me sad. I remember when I was younger, and in school, our teachers showed us films of plastic in the ocean, starving polar bears and so on…”

Happy Holi

10 Amazing Children’s Books to Inspire Youngsters for Women’s History Month

“10 children’s books that will inspire young readers, no matter their age, to advocate for themselves, stand up for women’s rights, and follow their dreams, whether that involves a pair of ballet shoes, a calculator, or a seat on the Supreme Court.”

India’s Poorest Women Benefit Less From Public Health, Nutrition Services

“Despite a four-fold increase in the number of women and children receiving supplementary nutrition under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme in the 10 years to 2016, a large proportion of the poorest have not benefited, a new study has found.”

Here’s how Instagram exposure could ruin children’s eating habit

The study was conducted with the aim of examining the effect of social media marketing of snack foods (healthy and unhealthy), via vloggers’ Instagram pages, on children’s snack intake.

Child marriage widespread in Bihar, Rajasthan and Bengal: Unicef report

“Although child marriages in India have declined, a few states like Bihar, West Bengal and Rajasthan continue to carry on with the harmful practice and there is nearly 40 per cent prevalence in these states, the Unicef said.”

Wildly popular app TikTok has a child privacy crisis that Indian cyber laws just can’t tackle

“One of the world’s most popular smartphone apps has a child-safety problem that India isn’t prepared to deal with.”

The Evolving Role of Race in Children’s Lit, From ‘Harry Potter’ to ‘The Hate U Give’

The Evolving Role of Race in Children’s Literature, From ‘Harry Potter’ to ‘The Hate U Give’.

The Makers Of Oscar Winner ‘Period’ Violated Child Rights, Used Wrong Data

“The film clearly violates international and national guidelines on reporting on children and uses unsubstantiated data.”

Riccardo Melzi

From Ganesh Chaturthi, Janmashtami, Parsi new year, Paryushan, Eid to Raksha Bandhan, the month of August brings to life the religious and cultural diversity of India. We see almost everyday, children in and around temples and churches, agiyaris and mosques…Sometimes dressed up for early morning prayers, selling flowers to devotees passing by, other times dressed as gods begging for alms, participating enthusiastically in religious activity or simply obeying conventional demands of a faith, passed down. While religious freedom is a fundamental right in India, the relationship between children and religion is nuanced and convoluted.

Here’s Riccardo Melzi’s visual narration of children in diverse and distinct religious settings across the country, illustrating his passion and love for photography in the culturally colourful land of India. From Nandgaon, Vrindavan, Barsana to Varanasi, Riccardo was drawn to the pivot of religious grandeur accompanied by his camera.

Children Of God

From Ganesh Chaturthi, Janmashtami, Parsi new year, Paryushan, Eid to Raksha Bandhan, the month of August brings to life the religious and cultural diversity of India. We see almost everyday, children in and around temples and churches, agiyaris and mosques…Sometimes dressed up for early morning prayers, selling flowers to devotees passing by, other times dressed as gods begging for alms, participating enthusiastically in religious activity or simply obeying conventional demands of a faith, passed down. While religious freedom is a fundamental right in India, the relationship between children and religion is nuanced and convoluted.

Here’s Riccardo Melzi’s visual narration of children in diverse and distinct religious settings across the country, illustrating his passion and love for photography in the culturally colourful land of India. From Nandgaon, Vrindavan, Barsana to Varanasi, Riccardo was drawn to the pivot of religious grandeur accompanied by his camera.

Where Children Play Cricket

Every child in India will have remnants of their childhood linked to the game of cricket. Along the banks of the ganges, during the shutdowns in Kashmir, across the open fields in Bihar, in the narrow bastis of Dharavi and Chandni Chowk, and during monsoon in Mumbai, the culture of cricket is inherent in every corner of India. In a game, almost synonymous to a religion in our country, there are no boundaries of gender, age or caste… the only boundaries that matter are the sixes and fours. 

For the children of India, this Sunday morning ritual calls for – dividing players into teams, setting up make-shift wickets at the batting end, segregating the colony or basti into boundaries for the ‘sixers’, using local lingo picked up from the older players, tossing with a one-rupee coin and finally, playing a long, passion-filled game of cricket. 

This IPL season, don’t miss this photo-essay, that exuberates in every frame, the joy children find in playing their favourite game despite no place to play.

Any empty space is a cricket pitch…

Picture Credits : Mahesh Kumar

Be it in narrow alleys

Picture Credits : Unknown

Across railway tracks…

Picture Credits : Danish Siddiqui

Or on sandy beaches..

Picture Credits : Unknown

Perfectly acceptable substitutes for stumps are…

Picture Credits : Unknown

Bamboo sticks, tires, bricks, stones or even firecracker boxes..

Picture Credits : Getty Images

Tin pieces from demolished rooftops

Picture Credits : Mukhtar Khan

Police shields …

Picture Credits : Basit Zargar

And empty liquor bottles..

Picture Credits : Unknown

Discarded chairs or Chalk drawings on walls… 

Picture Credits : Unknown

Card board boxes, leaves and cloth pieces act well as knee pads…

Picture Credits : Reddit

Boundary walls are…

Picture Credits : Vivek Prakash

Entrances to temples…

Picture Credits : Sanjay Austa

Rocky Mountains sides…

Picture Credits : Matthew Lewis

The insides of a truck

Picture Credits : Unknown

Thatched roofs and mud walls…

Picture Credits : Unknown

Or even riversides and lakes

Picture Credits : Anupam Nath

But nothing stops children from finding ways to play their favourite game

Picture Credits : Unknown

Adolescent Girls Of Madhubani

A Re-Look At India’s Child Labour Issue

Children make up 40% of India’s total population, yet, state-level social protection and child care policies have often remained of lesser priority. While employment rates are dwindling in the country, the number of child workers in India are alarmingly high, and the demand for the employment of children continues to rise. 

The consequences of child labour are severe and irreversible, with millions of children not having access to education, care and protection and facing damaging forms of exploitation and abuse through the work they are made to do. It is through a serious concerted effort to address and tackle child labour, with both preventive and responsive mechanisms, that India will inch closer towards realizing the rights of children. 

This article takes excerpts from an insightful piece published by Mint, “Where is Child Labour Most Common?” to re-iterate some important thoughts, and facts about child labout in India. 

1.  HOW MANY CHILD WORKERS ARE THERE IN INDIA?

“According to the latest available census (2011), there were 10.1 million child workers under the age of 14—with significant disparities across states. The government also seeks to address child labour through the National Child Labour Project which identifies and rehabilitates child workers. In 2017-18, around 50,000 child workers were rescued or rehabilitated from child labour—but it is still a small fraction of the overall child labour force.”

Though the official figure tells us there are only 4.3 million child labourers in India, the data according to census 2011 tells us there are 10.1 million children at work. The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016, claims to ban all forms of child labour till the age of 14, What is really does is legitimize child labour by allowing children to help in ‘family-based enterprise’ and permits the employment of children in many hazardous occupations like tanning, zari work, carpets, domestic work, e-waste, making it difficult to count right.

We hope that Census 2021 will give an honest appraisal of children at work in different ways.

2.  WHERE IN INDIA IS CHILD LABOUR MOST COMMON?

“Mint’s district analysis of census data suggests that while children are employed everywhere across India, some states have significantly higher child employment rates and the nature of employment is changing drastically. Across India in 2011, 3.9% of children under the age of 14 were engaged in child labour. The proportion was, however, much higher in some states such as Nagaland (13.2 %), Himachal Pradesh (10.3%) and Sikkim (8.5%).” 

Furthering the above observation, just five states in India account for 58.25% of the total number of child workers in the country. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh top the list. 
3.  WHAT IS THE MOST COMMON FORM OF EMPLOYMENT FOR INDIA’S CHILD WORKERS?

“In India, the number of child farmers has come down as an increasing number of children are doing non-farm work. Between 2001 and 2011, the share of children engaged in non-farm work doubled to 40%. According to UNICEF, child labour in India has merely shifted from factories to employee homes and children are still engaged in harmful industries such as bidi production and fireworks production. This shift to informal home-based sectors makes it harder to detect child labour.”

This masking of child labor makes it difficult to detect, address and act against it. With the recent modified definition of child labour, is the problem multiplying? 

4.  HOW DOES THE CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION & REGULATION) AMENDMENT ACT 2016, WORSEN THE SITUATION OF INDIA’S CHILD WORKERS?

“The Union government seeks to address this through a range of measures…in 2016, it raised the minimum age for work to 14 years but retained caveats that allowed younger children from underprivileged families to work in family-based enterprises. Activists believe these definitions are prone to exploitation with employers hiring child workers under the guise of being related to them and ensuring child labour is prevalent across the country.” 

The recent amendment to the child labor law banned all forms of child labor up to 14 years of age, yet, it allows children under 14 years to help their parents after school, and during vacations in fields, home based work or forest gathering. The government envisages that this provision will help impoverished families earn a living and give children an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’. India has 10 million children who work. There are no systems or services to monitor, rehabilitate or assist in obtaining justice for children who have been exploited at their work places. Such an amendment has allowed millions of children to become child workers. In the Indian context where definitions of family are ambiguous (everyone is an uncle and a nephew), the provision in the amendment denies children who are being forced to work the right to legal recourse.

5.  WHAT MUST BE DONE?

“Globally, the International Labour Organization and UNICEF recommend a multi-pronged strategy to tackle child employment that involves better enforcement of laws, increasing awareness and strengthening education systems—India will need to do the same.

Targeting campaigns in the states where child labor is most rampant, implementing existing policies, strengthening child protection mechanisms at all levels and increasing public engagement and participation for a stronger voice against the labour of children – an overall investment in the protection of children. 

 

rap - Hip Hop Art

India’s Young Gully Boys & Gully Girls Mainstreaming Social Issues Through Rap

For many young people, the only means of expressing themselves in this harsh world is through rhymes. There is a growing movement of these young people, in every gully of India, changing the narrative of deep-rooted social issues, through the medium of rap. Influenced by socially conscious hip-hop artists, and the release of the film Gully Boy, the work of underground rap artists has come to the fore, putting a spotlight on children and youth of India taking to this evolving art form to tell their own stories, and the stories of others.

Meet the gully boys and gully girls of India, rarely missing a beat, to mainstream issues of casteism, safety, gender and misogyny amongst others in India.  

1. KHADAR KI LADKIYAN

Yeh shahar humara, aapka, nahi kisike baap ka,” rap the girls of Madanpur Khadar, dissing the smart city façade, that excludes girls and women from society. Coming from a slum resettlement colony in Delhi’s urban peripheries- The Madanpur Khadar, a group of youthful and zestful girls have taken to contemporary hip-hop culture to address their personal and common issues in society. They have written, enacted and sung a power-filled rap song bringing to light their personal struggles of mobility, poor infrastructure, gender-based violence at home and in the city. From sexual harassment to misogyny, their fearless lyrics are a clear stand out, knowing well that they will connect to the youth and society at large, and drive change, towards an equal society.

2. DEE MC   

Meet Deepa Unnikrishnan, better known as MC Dee, in her hip-hop circle. This Gully Girl Deepa Unnikrishnan in collaboration with Simi Talsania and Nanhi Kali launched “Rise Up”, an anthem for the girl child, to illustrate how education empowers girls to rise in unconventional careers like dance and rap, aimed to change the meaning of the #LadkiHaathSeNikalJaayegi. Having faced gender parity at home and in society, this cause is close to her heart. Through her rap, she rebels against traditional norms in society and breaks barriers, inspiring many girls like herself. This 22-year-old Mumbai girl has been rapping since 2012 and has been a performer since she was barely 5. “Ladka ladki mein antar, yeh purani reet hain,” she raps in her swift-treaded lyrical narrative, reaching out to many young girls in the hope that they shall be fearless in the pursuit of their unconventional careers.

3. BOYS OF SAIDPUR SLUMS

Under the mentorship of Aaron Edwards, a Filmmaker at the Asian Centre of Entertainment Education, 5 boys from the Saidpur slums in Patna, Bihar, created The Story of Kachrapur, a hip-hop song and music video based on a fictional place called Kachrapur. Using the power of rap, upbeat music, and hard-hitting lyrics to talk about the pitiable sanitation and hygiene conditions in their neighbourhood, the young rappers convey the importance of waking up to the reality of an unhealthy, choking environment. Making news world over, the story of Kachrapur is a wake-up call to all Indians.

4. SUMIT KUMAR

There is no paucity of talent across the remotest bylanes and alleyways in India, exemplified by a 14-year old resident of the Kusumpur village in Delhi- Sumit Kumar. A migrant from a neighbouring state, the difficulties in which Sumit lives is synonymous with the lives of many families like his own. Inspired by his role model, Ikka Singh, Sumit uses a medium he is most passionate about – rapping, to create awareness and change in his community for issues like open defecation, lack of cleanliness and lack of access to water, hygiene and proper sanitation. Also, taking on issues like child abuse and patriotism, his rap songs motivate the residents of his community to adopt habits that promote better health and cleanliness.

5. SUMEET SAMOS

You made me question my parents, my birth, my human existence. My appearance, my food, my clothes, my smell, etiquette, mannerism.” A post-graduate student of JNU, Sumeet Samos, uses rap to protest against caste discrimination faced by the Dalits in India. As a tribute to a dalit boy, Rajni Krish, also a fellow student at CHS, JNU, Sumeet mobilises the dalit movement using powerful lyrics to question the very premise of casteism and highlight the atrocities faced by many youth like himself.

Substance abuse in children is assuming epidemic proportions

“Substance abuse in children is assuming epidemic proportions”-
HAQ: Centre for Child Rights

India needs to focus on averting crimes against children – The Sentinel

It’s high time for all stakeholders to rethink strategies which can lead to ‘no child sexual abuse’. The focus must be on averting such crimes by drawing time bound plans ‘on a war footing’ with adequate budget and skilled manpower.

Yuwa’s Laureus award is more proof that sport can drive social change and India needs more of that

The government has its own programs to use sports as a vehicle for social change but given India’s size, there is a need for many more individual initiatives. #playmatters Yuwa

The invisible women and girls who make your clothes

“For more than two decades, journalists and researchers have reported on the unsafe and low-wage working conditions in garment factories in South Asia, many of which involve varying degrees of forced labor and child labor. These “Tier 1” factories in major cities like New Delhi and Dhaka fill orders for major Western apparel brands at cut-rate prices, allowing consumers to enjoy the cheapest wardrobes possible.”

Through Her Lens II: 5 Female Photographers To Follow This Women’s Day, Capturing The Plight Of Children In India

In India, photojournalists are on the rise, especially women. Their visual narratives tell remarkable stories of social issues, raising their profiles and bringing it to the much-needed attention of people across the world.

With their ability to change mindsets through powerful images, the collective voice of these girls turned photographers is a testament to positive social change that lies ahead.

This Women’s Day, meet the inspiring, bold and passionate women who are telling stories of injustices towards children (and others) in hard-hitting, sensitive ways.  

 Don’t miss Through Her Lens I from last year.

1. RANITA ROY

Photograph of a kid in flooded area

She was one of the 30 under 30 women photographers of 2018 and also comes with major achievements and mentions for her work – Category winner at UNESCO on Climate change, Top 10 Finalist of International Women Photographer Award 2017, A photo story on child education system in India Published in Private Photo View, amongst others. Ranita Roy comes from West Bengal, documenting a lot of her work from her hometown. The fragments of her many fictional stories and narratives are drawn from the real work, through the facsimile or aesthetic composition that hints at a larger story. Ranita’s bent towards social issues reflect in almost every frame. Her recent coverage of the deluge and backwash of floods in West Bengal, and its impact on the lives of children illustrated her empathy and realness towards the incident, also acting as a harsh reminder to act on children’s issues.

2. SMITHA TUMULURU

A graduate of New York Institute of Photography (NYIP), Smitha travels frequently to India to work with non-profits and social enterprises on documentary projects. I Having spent more than a 12-years in the development sector, with a focus on education, her work takes her to villages and small towns in Tamil Nadu, India, to document lives of people and communities in tribal areas, her lens takeing a keen interest in the lives of children. From images, documentaries and workshops, Smitha has worked with organizations like Aid India, Eureka School and English Language Foundation, to narrate stories of the education system. On assignment with Aid India, running an integrated development program across 28 tribal villages (supported by NSE), populated by the Malayali and Irulu tribe, one of the Scheduled Tribes (ST) of Tamil Nadu, she documents a day in the life of these tribal children as they take on their journey to school, waiting for that single autorickshaw that will take them to school.

3. CHEENA KAPOOR

Known as myshotstories on Instagram, photojournalist Cheena Kapoor is an engineer turned photojournalist from Delhi, India who begun to document a space that not many others have had the foresight and courage to. Teamed with her camera, Cheena took to the streets to document India’s red light districts and the corridors of mental asylums in India. As a photojournalist, she has spent time with women involved in commercial surrogacy and young female drug addicts, some who are as young as five. With humility and respect, she presents their lived experiences to those who would otherwise never get a glimpse of this world.

4. SUJATA KHANNA

By a woman photographer

This award-winning social documentary photographer, has also to her credit solo exhibitions across the world. Having worked at leading organizations like British Red Cross and Save the Children UK, the depth that she brings a distinct lens to her work. With a focus on child rights and protection, and stints at Family for Every Child, Railway Children UK and CARE India, her knowledge and understanding lend themselves quite naturally to her work in photography. Her interests lie in the areas of children’s and women’s issues, human rights and the environment. Sujata’s work on ‘Being a teenager’, brings attention to a highly polarized group of people – troublemakers for some, and typical teens for others, exemplifying a culture unique to them, riddled with distinct interests, behaviours and styles.

5. SHUCHI KAPOOR

This self-taught documentary photojournalist, Shuchi Kapoor aka Girl in the galli is also the founding member of #chennaiphotobiennale and a fellow of Dart Asia-Pac. From human rights, juvenile justice, dalit rights, gender and sexuality, environment and human impact to women’s rights, Shuchi’s visual narratives and humanistic stories has covered a range of highly contentious and contemporary issues. Shuchi’s work is not only visually aesthetic, but also emulating of the rawness of human emotion, a strong stand-out in her every frame. Her photo story of a Delhi remand home unveils the dichotomy of the new juvenile justice law, a territory not many have explored.

Why parents are choosing to unschool their children

“Tired of the conformist educational code in the country, some parents are now taking the path less travelled and choosing to homeschool and even unschool their children.”