DIMAPUR, JUNE 11 : The church in Nagaland, irrespective of denominations, must embrace a shift in their understanding of mission work and start adopting “pilot projects” to deal with the issue of child labour confronting Naga society today.
This view was shared on Saturday by Rev Dr Wati Aier, principal of Oriental Theological Seminary, at Elim Hall, Dimapur Ao Baptist Arogo (DABA) during an event to mark the World Day against Child Labour. The program was initiated by the District Child Protection Unit, Dimapur in collaboration with Nagaland Alliance for Children and Women Rights.
“We talk about soul-winning. That is a soul there,” the Reverend said in reference to the daily scene in Dimapur of minor children engaged in labour. Rescuing those children from their daily bondage of hard labour would be no less an act of salvation, he said.
“Salvation is not subjective, it is holistic. Paradigm in mission has to be shifted. We may not solve Dimapur’s problems but at least we are doing something,” Aier stated. The “hungry-looking children” on the streets, according to him, have presented the church with an opportunity to engineer the paradigm shift.
For the Naga people, apart from the church institution, Aier said that any counter-measures must be founded on practicality. “The problem with the Naga society is that it is all in the academics. We talk and discuss a lot. We are dreamers and idealistic. But let us be realistic.”
It is important to understand the “socio-historical” context behind the problem of child labour in Naga society today, he shared.
Similar sentiment was echoed by another panellist, Dr Akum Longchari, editor of The Morung Express. “We need a working, popular definition of child labour which is applicable and relevant to the Naga context,” according to Longchari.
This, he said, would enable us to connect the dots. “Only then we can create the space to identify the various causes of child labour in Naga society.” According to him, the demand for “domestic helps” especially in urban Naga houses could not be reduced unless “we understand the causes that made the child leave the safety of his home in the first place.”
Longchari stated that the “best defence” against the practice of child labour would be “to get more children in school.” He reasoned that once a working definition of child labour relevant to the Naga context was developed, it would automatically bring to the forefront the need for the children’s education.
Also, he suggested that those stakeholders gathered at the event on Saturday could formulate a recommendation to be included in the state government’s Vision 2030 program in the form of a call to end child labour in Nagaland by 2030.
According to the president of Naga Women Hoho Dimapur, Hukheli Wotsa, those who frame policies “should know the limit while setting rules and guidelines” on child labour in the state. “We have to differentiate between domestic help and child labour,” she stated.
She went on to claim that in the case of domestic helps, it was a “win-win situation for both parties” since the workers “receive education” in return for their works. “We must love them as our own child but we love our pets more than our domestic helps.”
According to the general secretary of the “GB Federation”, Shikuto Zalipu, even though there exists no record of “child labour or women discrimination in Naga civilization”, it cannot be denied that there was no child labour.
“But it was not considered illegal because of the time-structure. In fact, since Nagas have always practiced agriculture, it was considered an extra-helping hand.” However “the change in social structure” has presented the Naga society today with a “new social issue” in the form of child labour, he said.
