‘Don’t Help Children by Giving Them Work’: CRY Launches 3-Day Campaign Across Southern States
CRY’s findings from its monitoring in the project areas across South Indian states indicate that about 16% of children aged 6-18 were in either full-time or part-time employment, violating their right to education and protection.
Port Blair, June 11: On the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour (June 12, 2025) CRY – Child Rights and You has launched a three-day-long intensive campaign from June 10, titled “Don’t Help Children by Giving Them Work” in the southern Indian states including the Union Territory of Andaman Nicobar Islands.
The initiative spans 16 blocks and 350 villages, targeting communities, schools, and local governance systems with a powerful message: compassion must not be confused with exploitation. The campaign focuses on raising awareness, empowering children, identifying and rescuing children currently in labour, as well as strengthening local protection systems to ensure long-term prevention.
“Child labour is not an act of extending financial help to children. It is rather a denial of a child’s fundamental right to a safe and educated childhood. Too often, we hear adults justify employing children as an act of generosity – to ‘help’ them or their families survive. But the truth is that it snatches away their opportunity to grow, learn, and dream big,” said John Roberts, Regional Director, CRY – South.
Ground Realities
Despite commendable progress in drastic reduction of child labour over the recent decades, CRY’s monitoring across its project areas in Southern States from January to December 2024 reveals that this heart-wrenching phenomenon still persists. CRY’s findings indicate that about 16% of children aged 6-18 were in either full-time or part-time employment, violating their right to education and protection.
Across 20 districts in the four major southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, CRY partners reached 36,887 households with 51,254 children (6–18 years).
Among 37,002 children (6–14 years), 405 were in full-time work and 3,829 in part-time labour. For 14,252 adolescents (15–18 years), 2,075 worked full-time, with 1,903 working part-time in unregulated, often exploitative sectors.
“These numbers are not just statistics – they are children denied a future. And the burden falls disproportionately on poor, rural, and marginalized communities,” the Regional Director added.
Campaign Highlights
CRY’s campaign goes beyond building awareness. It focuses on engaging a broad spectrum of stakeholders:
School Engagements: Interactive school assemblies explaining why child labour must end; student-led pledge ceremonies against child labour; poster-making; and child-led surveys to identify local child labour hotspots.
Community Mobilization: Rallies by children and parents carrying placards with slogans like ‘Books Not Tools’; wall of Commitment for community members to pledge against child labour; parent meetings addressing the long-term harms of pushing children into work; screenings of films on child labour followed by community discussions.
Stakeholder Convergence: Rescue drives in partnership with government agencies including Labour Departments, District Child Protection Units, Child Welfare Committees, and Police. This convergence is not just about rescue operations but it involves conducting convergence meetings with all the concerned stakeholders so that there will be concerted efforts by all departments to address the issue of child labour.
Rebuilding the Ecosystem
“Our aim is not just to remove children from labour, but to rebuild a protective ecosystem around them – through education and community resilience,” John Roberts emphasized.
“The campaign’s core message ‘Don’t Help Children by Employing Them’ challenges widely accepted yet harmful practices. By shifting the public perception from charity-based employment to rights-based empowerment, CRY hopes to build momentum for systemic change. True help is not giving them work. True help is giving them a school bag, a safe home, and a childhood worth remembering,” said the Regional Director.
“CRY calls upon every stakeholder – from parents and panchayats, teachers and traders, and policymakers to the public – to join hands in ending child labour. Together, let us ensure that every child learns, grows, and thrives – never works,” John Roberts urged.