The Concerned for Working Children

The Concerned for Working Children’s multi-pronged response to COVID – 19 pandemic crisis situations

Posted on April 22, 2020

Responding to COVID-19
The Concerned for Working Children, May 1st, 2020
www.concernedforworkingchildren.org

The Concerned for Working Children (CWC) is renowned for its work in Children’s rights and political decentralisation. It has been thrice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. CWC is also working closely with elected local governments all 29 rural districts of Karnataka, supporting them to be responsive, proactive and empathetic to communities, with a special focus on the most vulnerable. More details about our work are available here: www.concernedforworkingchildren.org.

CWC has worked closely with the following constituencies in relation to Covid-19:

• Children below the poverty line not enrolled in anganwadis or government schools
• Children of migrant communities in transit
• Children enrolled in anganwadis
• Children enrolled in government schools
• Working children and working adolescents
• Children in Child Care Institutions
• Migrant workers (children, women and men) in their place of work & Urban poor
• Migrant workers in transit (children, women and men) to their places of origin
• Workers enrolled under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)
• Rural Communities, with a special focus on the most vulnerable such as Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, persons with disabilities, women-headed households, persons with ailments and elderly above the age of 60
• Gram Panchayats across the state of Karnataka

A brief update on work done so far:

• As of now, we have coordinated with over 2300 elected local government representatives (Grama Panchayat members) of 1047 Panchayats belonging to 23 Districts and 105 Taluks of Karnataka. (Details of the coverage provided below). We have contacted them over phone and provided them with inputs about the colossal responsibility of the local governments in relation to disaster management. We are assisting them to strategise to ensure effective participation of government officials in the Task Forces established by the Panchayats to address Covid-19. These Task Forces have been set as per the Government Order of the Department of Rural Development and further enhanced due to CWC’s facilitation to ensure participation of the constituency members and other stakeholders.
• We are enabling effective communications between community members and the elected members for speedy redressal of concerns. We are focusing on the situation of working children and adolescents to ensure that their immediate concerns are addressed by the local governments in our working areas.
• We are facilitating the Grama Panchayats to access and provide their citizens with the entitlements assured by the State and the Central Government. We are bringing the challenges faced by working children and adolescents and community members to the attention of local elected members and officials. When they fail to respond, we escalate the matter to the attention of senior state-level bureaucrats and elected members, including the office of the Chief Minister of the State and bridge the administrative gaps in a systemic manner. The issues we had raised about Public Distribution of rations during the first two weeks of April have now been resolved to a large extent and the distribution is going on well in many places.
• In the areas where CWC has direct field presence, that is, in Udupi Rural District (65 Panchayats), Udupi Urban area (10 localities), Bellary Rural District (13 Panchayats), and in Bangalore Urban District (12 localities), it is working directly with rural and urban poor communities, migrant workers (those in their areas of work; those in transit and returnees to their villages of origin), children, elderly and other vulnerable communities to provide them with entitlements such as food, subsidised grocery and health care. It is also working extensively to generate awareness on a host of relevant issues including that of Covid-19 and also regarding the provisions that are committed to citizens by the National and State governments. All of these are carried out in collaboration with community members and the local governments.
• The organisation has provided the required information and support to local governments to ensure food, accommodation, health care and such other services to migrant workers who are presently residing in their Panchayats. Where the governance system has been slow to react, the organisation has stepped in to provide the required services, such as food, medicine, transportation etc. as an emergency response, while getting the state machinery activated to provide these services in a sustained manner.
• The organisation, during first three weeks of April, has directly interacted with migrant communities opting to return to their villages to inform them about the difficulties and the challenges they are likely to face during their transit under the present circumstances. They were also informed about the aggravated health risks they may be subjected to, during the transit. Children and women of these communities have been provided counseling. The concerned local governments have been facilitated to provide these communities with proactive support in the rural areas so that they feel reassured of support and care during their continued stay in their place of work – in both rural as well as urban areas.
• After it was announced that movement of migrant workers was permitted back to their districts, we provided them support to accessing that provision in collaboration with the concerned officials in Udupi.
• In the urban programme areas, the organisation has been collaborating with worker’s unions and associations, government officials and donors to facilitate the provision of food, medicines and other essential items to migrant communities residing in the cities in slums and in tents.
• The Organisation, as a Fit Person Institution under the Juvenile Justice Act, provides residential care for about 50 children from most vulnerable communities on its campus, providing them required medical protection in relation to Covid-19, nutritional care, emotional support, opportunities for creative outputs and educative engagements. It has also informed the Deputy Commissioner of Udupi district that if required, a part of the CWC’s Regional Resource Center’s Campus may be used by the District Administration to provide medical or quarantine care for community members.
• In both Bangalore and in Udupi districts, the organisation has shared its 24X7 Help line to provide rapid responses to requirements of communities and individuals in need.
• At the State level, in order to bring about policy related changes, the organisation is in constant touch with senior officials to bring to their attention the pressing matters faced in the communities and also informing them about the concerns that are likely to arise in the near future. As a result of this, the organisation has been able to inform and influence concerned senior officials to come up with responsive state level directions and Government Orders regarding several matters that are favourable to the communities the organisation is working with. Specific mention is to be made of the Government Orders related to distribution of rations for Angawadi going children, supplies of mid-day meal supplies for school going children and the distribution of free rations to be de-linked from use of OTP – in ensuring these, the organisation’s contribution are highly significant.
• Some of these directives and Governmental Orders are yet to be effectively implemented and the organisation is following them up at the ground level systematically. The Organisation has also been facilitating the communities to make good use of the Help Lines set up by certain departments where possible. The key departments collaborated with are the Department of Rural Development, MGNREGA, Department of Women and Child Welfare, Department of Education, Department of Tribal Welfare, Revenue Department and Department of Health.
• CWC has been in touch with representatives of a total of 2057 families living in 24 rural and urban areas in Udupi district. In addition, during this period, CWC has established contact with 335 migrant workers, many of them in transit and provided them support and assistance.
• The organisation has collaborated with the Doordarshan Kendra of Karnataka under the Prasara Bharathi and is providing assistance to their Programme Team to design a wide range of programmes addressed to children, migrant workers, local governments and other special groups to both provide appropriate and timely information as well as to educate and empower children during the time of lock-downs. Phone in programmes with Senior Officials have commenced as part of this process. The  Additional Chief Secretary, the Director of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj and the Chair Person of Women’s Commission have already taken part in the phone in programmes covering issues related to ‘Coordinated response to Covid’, ‘Role of the Panchayats during Covid’ and ‘Addressing increased abuse of women during lock-down’ which were recommendations from CWC. They had excellent viewership and the panelists received inquiries on phone from most districts of the State. These broadcasts have a State wide reach, global online streaming and its video programmes are available for sharing on social media. They have been reached by CWC to all the stakeholders it is presently collaborating with for repeated viewing and sharing.
• Responding to the call from the Minister of Education of Karnataka, the organisation has submitted its 40 video programmes for children to be broadcast on the You Tube Channel by the Department of Education. When broadcast, these will have a state wide reach in Karnataka and are also globally accessible online. These video programmes have been produced by the organisation and most of them have been broadcast as Doordarshan’s Children’s Programme series in the past.
• Deeply concerned about the situation of MGNREGA workers, the organisation is interacting with both the workers and the local governments to identify suitable work options, while ensuring the safety of the workers. Taking note of the looming food and water crisis in the foreseeable future, the organisation is providing inputs to the local governments about the works that can been taken up under the MGNREGA programme regarding water management, agriculture, horticulture, individual asset creation etc.
• The organisation is in conversation with concerned departments to provide required information and guidance to local governments to lead the way to assist farmers to find suitable sale outlets for their produce; and to provide appropriate inputs including seeds and fertilizers for the growing required vegetables and food grains.
• The organisation is engaged with the Integrated Child Protection Project with regard to developing guidelines and good practices in Child Care Institutions in line with the directions of the Supreme Court of India and other good practice examples. It has provided the Department of ICPS guidelines on steps to be taken with regarding to children in care institution as well as those children who have been returned to their families on account of Covid-19
• The organisation is providing assistance and support to other community based as well as civil society organisations working with their constituencies in relation to Covid-19 in terms of sharing relevant information, Government Orders, facilitating their links to concerned officers and service providers etc.
• As there is a rule, that every individual must wear a mask in order to take necessary precautionary measures to safeguard their health during the Covid-19 crisis situation, CWC has facilitated the production and sale of affordable and good quality face masks (for adults and children) and Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). Samples have been created to showcase as models to people who are in urgent need of these masks.
• In order to avoid crowding and violation of social distancing norms during the distribution of ration, CWC has facilitated the maintaining of social distancing in several gram Panchayats.
• Various job activities which can be carried out as part of the MGNREGA Programme to address the challenges posed by Covid-19 have been identified in collaboration with MGNREGA workers. The Panchayat members have been oriented about new possibilities in this regard. The focus is ensure the communities are able to address the food requirement, the water requirement, maintenance of assets that are likely to be affected due to monsoons etc.
• The issues raised by the organisation have resulted in several administrative directives and Government Orders. Two examples are orders emerging from the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj and the Department of Women and Child Development of Karnataka.

The organisation expresses gratitude to those elected members and officials who have responded speedily and with concern to the many challenges and problems faced by the communities. There are several challenges that remain, in addition to which several grave concerns are foreseen for the immediate and distant future. The State government will be required to ensure immediate, mid-term and long term solutions to address, pre-empt and prevent them.

Our detailed submission to the government of Karnataka regarding the challenges faced by the most vulnerable children and communities along with our recommendations to address them can be accessed here from our website:  https://www.concernedforworkingchildren.org/news/2020/04/petition-for-corona-pandemic-response-required-from-the-government-of-karnataka-the-way-ahead/

The key issues CWC has engaged with include:

• Ration supplies for children attending Anganwadi
  Ration supplies for children in school (under the mid-day meal scheme)
• Free rations distribution to both card-holders and those without cards
• Access to essential requirements of the most vulnerable communities
• Food and accommodation of migrant workers and their communities
• General Health services and also protective measures in relation to Covid-19
• MGNREGA implementation related hurdles and challenges
• Safe employment options for children in the age group of 14 to 18, as per the provision of the National Child Labour Act
• Challenges related to Child Care Institution – registered as well as unregistered
• Challenges related to unemployment in rural as well as urban areas
• Lack of access to water and vegetables
• Challenges related to long term food security
• Challenges related to pursuing agriculture, fishing, sale outlets for produce
• Challenges faced by local governments in relation to disaster management.
• Challenges related to increased child abuse and domestic violence during lockdown
• Lack of voice and agency of the most vulnerable including working children and adolescents, migrant workers and members of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes.

A detailed update related to CWC’s work with communities of migrant workers, based in Udupi:

Many agricultural lands in several parts of Northern Karnataka have been transformed into barren lands, unfit for agricultural practices due to repeated spells of drought. Therefore families dependent on agriculture were forced to identify livelihood opportunities elsewhere for sustenance. Many communities from different districts of Karnataka, especially North Karnataka and from other similarly affected districts from other states of the country have migrated to Udupi district in search of livelihood opportunities.  As employment opportunities in the coastal areas are high and the wages compare favorably, they have settled in Udupi with their immediate as well as extended family members.

There are nearly 4,000 migrant families in Udupi district, 12,000 – 15,000 people, including women, children and elderly who dwell in different locations including in tents, huts and private rented lands.  Their primary work areas are construction repairs, tarring of roads, laying pipelines for water supply, earth moving,  installing wiring for electricity and telephones, construction of drainages for sewage, stone quarrying, sanitation works in rural as well as urban areas. Agricultural labour, rag picking, loading and unloading of raw materials and finished goods, fortune telling, singing at events and gatherings, cutting of trees, working as helpers in mills, removal of trees from streams, fishing and transportation of fish, fish/ice factory work – these are also intensive sectors where they are employed.

From CWC, the following facilities have been provided to them for their security and for their livelihood during COVID – 19:

• In Udupi district, especially in the peripheral areas of Udupi city, in and around Kundapur and Byndoor taluks, cooked food, ration, lodging facility, health support and other essential services have been made available to the migrant communities, with a special emphasis on children, through facilitation of Gram panchayats. This has included providing the elected representatives with information and assistance to respond to the needs of these communities speedily.
• The urban poor, elderly, persons with disabilities, intra and inter-state migrants and those persons who have settled in tents, huts and other makeshift settlements in different areas in our programme areas located in Bangalore, Udupi and Bellary districts have been supported with provision of food, food grains, medicines and essential supplies in coordination with different civil society organisations, local and state Government and donors.
• The following areas have been covered during the course of our intervention: Udupi City – Sarala Bettu, Parkala Shettra Bettu-Prabhu Compound, Indrali-DCM Colony, Kapu-Kalya Mohammad Plot, Malpe, Brahmavar-Gandhinagar, Bhirti, Mahesh Hospital, Pandabettu, Huliyaragoli, Beedina Gudde, Aadi Udupi, Kundapur town and Taluk – Nittur, Hosadu, Mullikatte, Gandhi Playground, Hattiyangadi Cross, Kundapur, Siddapura, Thrasi, Kattapadi Agrahara -Near Church and Malpe Kola.
• Several migrant communities were in an urgency to leave Udupi district to return to their home towns during the crisis situation. They have been provided with information about the risks involved in the transit, in terms of both medical safety and logistics. They were made aware of the negative impact of the move under the present circumstances. They were provided counseling as well as given assurances of provisions to address their basic needs during these times, to tide over the lockdown period.

Read the detailed recommendations made by CWC to the Government of Karnataka here: Press Note_Recommendations for State Response to COVID_Concerned For Working Children_April 1