World day against child labour has no meaning for kids and labour department of Aligarh

World Day Against Child Labour is observed every year on June 12 as a day dedicated to creating awareness about the menace of child labour and human trafficking. The theme of world day against child labour, 2022 was “Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour.” But in Aligarh 15000 children including 5000 working on Dhabas, 3000 street children and others are engaged in lock and hardware industry out of which 80% are muslim children who are deprived from education as well. Despite of the fact that world day against child labour was celebrated all over the world, the children of Aligarh working in lock and hardware industry have no hope for the betterment of their life. These children lost their childhood due to poverty and the circumstances as they were forced to do child labour by their own parents.

Despite the right to education being a fundamental right under Indian Constitution. Yet we know of many underprivileged children forced into child labour by their own parents due to certain circumstances, stripped of their childhood and their right to education.

Aligarh is the town historically famous for the Aligarh Muslim University and is world famous for its education. But at the same time, the surrounding areas like purani chungi gate, shamshad market, dodhpur, zakariya market etc are all sprawled with a number of tea stalls, or dhabas where a lot of children works. These tea stalls and dhabas operate from 8:00 am to 11:00 pm. The owners of these tea stalls and dhabas pay only Rs100 to Rs120 per day to the children and make them work for more than 12 hours a day.  Not only this, Aligarh is a hub of education, which has 3 main universities including AMU, Mangalaytan University and Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh university. Apart from this there are many graduate and post graduate colleges present here. Despite of this fact many children in Aligarh are deprived of education and are engaged in child labour. Majority of them are willing to go to school if an opportunity is given.