EveryChild - Engal Kural (Our Voice)
The caste system is deeply entrenched in many parts of India with lower caste groups facing discrimination, social restrictions, violence and abuse. The Arunthatiyar are regarded as the lowest of all castes, known as the ‘Dalit among Dalits’ or the ‘untouchables'. They are compelled by their status and extreme poverty to carry out the most menial and shunned jobs such as scavenging, cleaning toilets and burying the dead. Not only are Arunthathiyar children faced with these discriminations, many are forced to enter into bonded labour to help their families make ends meet, pay for their own marriages, help get older siblings out of bonded labour contracts, or pay off their parents’ debt.
TRAID has donated £42,568 to EveryChild to prevent children in India being forced into bonded labour, specifically in textile spinning mills. Increasingly, textile mills prey on families living below the poverty line with a scheme called 'sumangali thittam' which lures girl children into bonded labour with the promise of a marriage dowry at the end of the contract. This is rarely, if ever paid.
Operating in two districts of West Tamil Nadu, the Our Voice project aims to rescue and rehabilitate 150 children in bonded labour every year, with a further 3,000 children per year provided with education and support. Child activity centres, interventions to remove children from bonded labour, and educating the wider community, including employers and supervisors, are some of the ways vulnerable children will be protected.
The activity centres will offer children education and activity-based learning to protect and promote their rights. Volunteers trained in child protection and rights track every child enrolled in the centre to ensure they are not missing school to work in the mills, or worse have been trafficked into the cities. Older children will be supported with skills training, career guidance and counselling to help them leave bonded labour and have the best possible start in their lives as young adults. Additionally, the activity centres run Child Parliaments to encourage participation and development of strong leadership skills.
TRAID will update the website regularly with project news and developments. To find out more visit EveryChild www.everychild.org.uk
