2014, devastating for children

While Kailash Satyarthi receives his Nobel Peace Prize at Oslo, which he shares with Malala of Pakistan, for their efforts to improve the lot of children, United Nations Children's Fund, (UNICEF) stated on Tuesday that 2014 has been “devastating for millions of children.” The irony of it couldn’t be ignored. Satyarthi's Bachpan Bachao Andolan has rescued 80,000 child labourers in India over 30 years, but by his own estimation 60 million children are still at work, with no access to education. Their rights have been violated. In 2010, almost one in every three missing children was untraced, in 2013, one in two missing children was lost forever. One child goes missing every eight minutes in India.
Kidnapped children are often forced into the sex trade, but now an increasing number of children are being pushed into domestic labour — hidden from public view. Here is another ironical aspect of growth-oriented India, as more women go out to work, the middle classes demand cheap, docile labour, supplied through human trafficking from the poorer sates of India. It is a demand-and-supply situation, as the victims mostly hail from poor, marginalised communities, and broken families, they find no one to protect their rights.
Even though India is estimated to have more child labourers than anywhere else in the world, in legal terms, while abducting children is illegal, the law is vague on when they can legally work. Child traffickers take advantage of the vague laws. Child labour law does not allow children under the age of 14 to be employed, but anyone under 18 is legally considered a child. Children below the age of 14 cannot be employed in hazardous occupations, does that mean in non-hazardous occupations, like domestic work, even a five-year-old can be employed?  The Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act is outdated, it is time the government cleared the amendments to the Act that have been pending in Parliament for a long time. If the law changes, it will make the fight against child exploitation a little easier for people like Satyarthi.