"Owing to this drought and the on-going water crisis, children are
becoming increasingly vulnerable. In the coming months, there is an
increased risk of lakhs (hundreds of thousands) of children becoming
victims of these circumstances."
Nobel laureate urges Modi to curb child slavery as India reels from drought(Reuters)
Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi has appealed to the prime minister of India
to prioritise children and ensure they are not trafficked, forced into
marriage or put into bonded labour as the country reels from its worst
drought in decades.
In a letter to Narendra Modi,
the child rights activist urged him to declare the drought a national
emergency, saying that the lives of more than 160 million children were
at stake.
"Reports of children being forced
into child labour, trafficking, child marriage, and the devadasi
(dedicating girls to service in temples) system are coming to light with
children increasingly dropping out from school ... and large scale
migration due to this crisis," Satyarthi wrote.
The letter was circulated to the media on Tuesday by his office.
"Owing
to this drought and the on-going water crisis, children are becoming
increasingly vulnerable. In the coming months, there is an increased
risk of lakhs (hundreds of thousands) of children becoming victims of
these circumstances."
The government
estimates more than 330 million people - almost a quarter of India's
population - have been hit by the scarcity of water in states such as
Maharashtra in the west and Karnataka in the south.
As
crops wither and livestock perish, ten of thousands of people are
migrating in search of food, water and jobs, leaving behind women,
children and older family members who are vulnerable to exploitation by
traffickers.
Figures given by Satyarthi's office
showed the number of children dropping out of school in the ten
drought-affected states had risen by 22 percent, while child trafficking
cases had increased by 24 percent.
Satyarthi, who
was awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Pakistani
schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, ended his letter calling upon Modi make
children "a top priority" in the government's relief and rehabilitation
efforts.
إرسال تعليق