Football fest to show red card to child labour

In a drive against child labour, the Born Free Art School, founded by John Devraj, will be organising a football tournament from June11 to July 12.

The Red Card Tournament gets its name from the last FIFA World Cup that was held in Germany in 2006. The FIFA, which for a long while had been using footballs stitched by children in both the Indian Punjab and the Pakistani Punjab, at the behest of UNICEF and the International Labour Organisation, got players to come to the stadium led by little children, child labourers, in 2006.

The gesture meant, “Show the red card to child labour”. John Devraj, founder of the Born Free Art School, says, “There are many laws against child labour. However, the evil still prevails. The aim of this tournament is to sensitise people to this issue.” 

The tournament will commence on June 11. The first football match of the FIFA World Cup-2010 will also be played on that day in South Africa. “The tournament is an opportunity to bring youth from different sections of society together, especially those belonging to backward sections, so that they have a platform to interact and exchange ideas,” said John Devraj.

The matches will be played between the Born Free Art School team, comprising street and working children, and teams of liberated children from across the world. A special football team of working and street children was formed by the Born Free Art School. Coaching in football is also used as a way to empower children, and to aid them to give up dependence on drugs. While preliminary rounds will be held at school playgrounds across the city, the semi final and final matches will be played at the Stadium.

The first layer of the tournament will be played by children under 14, who have worked as labourers and were liberated by various government child labour schools and NGOs across India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand organisations, schools and colleges. The second layer will include an inter school tournament consisting of boys and girls.

The layer three will have children above 16 years, and layer four and five, called futsol will be a five-a-side tournament for corporate employees and women, respectively. A film festival, a sculpture and painting fest, dance and songs, photography, essay and poetry competitions will also be held in connection with this event.