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‘Parents should reach out to their kids, become their friends’

News‘Parents should reach out to their kids, become their friends’

New Delhi: On the eve of Child Labour Day 2021, The Sunday Guardian reached out to Nobel Laureate Dr. Kailash Satyarthi, founder of the Bachpan Bachao Aandolan, to seek his sentiments on the prevailing situation around children in society. The pandemic has given birth to new and more complicated issues for children as they are stuck at home and have no option to go out and interact.

This is a challenge for parents as well as kids too, it needs a special approach from guardians to douse such frustration in kids’ minds, the Nobel Laureate said. Following are the transcripts from the conversation:

Q: You have done some incredible work for the welfare of kids. When you started Bachpan Bachao in 1980, the era was different, but now things have changed so much. What do you have to say about it?

A: When I started this mission of welfare for kids with ”Bachpan Bachao”, this subject was not a matter of discussion anywhere, neither on streets nor in Parliament. There were no private or government bodies to tackle the issue of kids. It was very difficult to make others understand that kids go through a lot of issues, including mental, social and physical. I would like to quote Gandhiji here; once he said, “First they will ignore you, then stand against you, attack you and eventually you will be victorious.”

So, I would say that we are still far from victory but we have come a long way and our fight is still on.

Q: According to the NCPCR report, more than 3,000 kids have unfortunately become orphans, lost either of their parents or both. What must government bodies do for the welfare of such kids?

A: Indeed, it is an unfortunate situation, but I would like to welcome some revolutionary steps taken by the highest institutions like the Supreme Court, the Central government and other state bodies. But I believe the numbers are higher, instead it goes to lakhs. Such kids are forced into child labour, prostitution, begging, slavery etc. In my understanding, Bachpan Bachao has assisted state bodies to rescue more than 11,000 kids from trafficking during the pandemic period.

Q: You earlier wrote a letter to the Prime Minister highlighting a similar issue. What were the major points which you mentioned in the letter?

A: Yes, we have got information that many kids are being forced into child labour in rural areas; so I wrote letter to the honourable Prime Minister urging stringent action to curb the situation as kids are the basic units of our future generation. I also demanded to form task force of experts from child welfare bodies to discuss various issues like child labour, home isolation and its affects etc. We are discussing how to prepare basic arrangements at child welfare committees so that kids don’t have problems.

Q: What’s your response to kids who are trapped at home due to the pandemic and not able to go out and invest their potential physically?

A:  There are a lot of people and parents who do not take this matter very seriously and think it does not exist, but it’s a prevailing issue at this time. I have raised this matter several times on different occasions to tackle these issues for the welfare of kids.

I would also suggest parents to reach out to their kids and become their friends instead of imposing parenthood on them.

 

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