Capturing Indian street performers

[Sunday Guardian Live]

"Violating child rights on the pretext of ‘rescue’ operations`"

"Children who belong to the Nat community are often captured by child-welfare authorities and NGOs on the spurious grounds that their street performances amount to child labour... "

"If, despite active and high-quality legal help from a well-known organisation like MANUSHI, these Nat families face such obstacles regaining their children, readers can imagine what nightmares they go through when facing the system on their own."

"The system sees Nat parents as exploitative. But would Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) or the police ever dare to capture children of well-off families who perform in TV serials or films?"

"The CWCs and NGOs that capture Nat children off the streets term it as `rescue operations`. But neither do the children want to be `rescued` nor do their parents treat them as unwanted. In fact, every time a Nat family loses its children to such `rescue` operations, they work tirelessly, and spend thousands of rupees on lawyers and sundry touts who operate around the `protection homes` of the NGOs to regain their children."

Read more http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/lifestyle/11735-violating-child-rights-pretext-rescue-operations