Companies can be more alert on how various aspects of their operations impact children, writes Rajni Bakshi.
Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, chess champion Viswanathan Anand and Bollywood stars took to Twitter this week to support a campaign against child labour, using their fame to draw greater attention to the issue. The campaign, launched by Indian insurer Reliance General Insurance and children's rights NGO Child Rights and You (CRY), used the hashtag #DONT_EMPLOY_LITTLE_ONES to urge people to promise not to use child labour. Bollywood stars Soha Ali Khan and Mandira Bedi also tweeted their support. "Every child deserves to chase dreams. Let dreams be chased," Tendulkar tweeted. The former India captain's tweet was retweeted almost 2,000 times and liked nearly 5,000 times. There are 5.7 million Indian child workers aged between five and 17, out of 168 million globally, according to the International Labour Organization. More than half the Indian children work in agriculture, toiling in cotton, sugarcane and rice paddy fields, and over a quarter in manufacturing, embroidering clothes, weaving carpets or making matchsticks. Children also work in restaurants and hotels, and in middle-class homes.