Child labour is a universal phenomenon but Meghalaya’s case is that it is over the top. An NGO has reported that there are some 70,000 children working in the coal mines of Jaintia Hills alone and in very dehumanising conditions. The NGO works on what it terms as a “rights-based approach.” Sometimes government appears to be working in an ivory tower quite unaffected by allegations of grave misdemeanours. But such allegations tend to erode the credibility of the government. Very often the attitude adopted is that of nonchalance. It’s like saying the Government draws flak from one quarter or another every single day so how many such allegations can it respond to. Well there are allegations and there are allegations. Some are of a general nature and may not affect the government this way or that. But to be pointed out that the State Government is presiding over a regime that allows 70,000 children to toil in the deep, dark dungeons called the coal mines is to be blasé. This is a very serious allegation that has drawn the attention of the whole NGO world in India and overseas, more so since the research was carried out for an international body based in Nepal.
The report came out in 2010 October and according to the NGO, the Govt was informed about the outcome of the research. So why was the Social Welfare Department silent? Why was an immediate study not carried out to test check the credibility of the NGO report and to correct the situation if the study is found correct? The Government’s silence for over a year only makes us believe that it is adopting an ostrich like attitude and hoping that the problem would pass away if it is not discussed. It also means that the Government agrees that the NGO is correct in its findings. So why is the Government only now getting into a damage control mode by asking Tata Institute of Social Services (TISS) to carry out a research on the same parameters? Is it only because it has been told to do so by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that visited the State recently? This is not the way Governments run their affairs. Indifference to allegations of a serious nature followed by an attitude of non-responsiveness are hallmarks of a dictatorship, not a democracy. One is surprised that the Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission who otherwise has his pulse on the affairs of almost all the states, did not put Meghalaya in the docks on the issue of child labour. But other members of the Planning Commission may not be so lenient.