Archive for the '- Child labour' Category

Working women

charukesi April 10th, 2007

In Ranthambhore, water is everything. Animals big and small, predator and prey gather around the tiny water bodies that dot the forest. It is common to see peacocks and chinkara standing around the lake, their heads inside the water, as if friends gathered together for a drink after a long hard day at work. It is equally common to see the smarter, more discerning langurs drink straight from the tap just outside the forest gates.

And the best sight is that of people, usually men sitting with pots of water (cool and refreshing as only matke ka pani can be) everywhere, handing out glasses o the thirsty. This woman sits just otuside the main gate of the reserve, just off the dusty main road. She has pots of water filled and ready, and fetches them from near her home which is close to the main gate,, when the pots go empty. People give me whatever they wish… She also adds, often they don’t give anything. I just do it…

waterwoman

This woman works at the Dastkari Kendra in Ranthambhore. Dastkar is an NGO working with women’s co-operatives, in this case the kendra was set up as a rehablitation measure to provide income support for those families displaced when the villages they were living in came under the protected national park area. Supported partly by the Ranthambhore Foundation, this Dastkari Kendra in Ranthambhore believes that income from this source means eventually less pressure on the forest land itself. These women are skilled with their hands, and the results are evident in the quality of things they produce. Niti Bahn has a more detailed post and more photographs from Dastkari Kendra Ranthambhore.

working

Working women happy and proud to be doing what they are…

And then this family of local folk artists who perform every night at the hotel we were staying in. Father, mother and daughter and one more male, perhaps the son? or a nephew? on the dholak. The woman’s face is almost always covered with the edge of her pallu except when she sings. And after the first song, the little girl gets up to dance. She dances with complete lack of interest, dead-pan expression on the face, sometimes urging others to join her in the dance. I have seen these performances elsewhere in Rajasthan - and in each place, I have been struck by how listless and even lifeless, the little girl’s dance is. Hand and feet motions that have to be gone through, quick smiles flashed at the right times, a namaste here and all the time, the eyes tired and far far away…

These women earning a living too…

a quick peek

DSC01902

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Related link : 50 million missing on flickr

Also read : On Itchy Feet, notes from a recent quick trip to Ranthambhore - the park and the fort

Children as mine workers

charukesi June 10th, 2005

More than a million children work in mines, says a report from the Science Blog…

“Because the money they earn is crucial to ensuring that they and their families survive, many are unable to attend school at all. These children are digging for survival,” the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) says.

Read on…

Helping the helping hands

charukesi May 30th, 2005

Heartening to read first thing in the morning - Mumbai frees its child workers - On Saturday night, 100 child zari workers from different slums of Mumbai went home to their villages in Bihar in a special bogie arranged by the railways, and more importantly, after their employers volunteered to let them go. Not out of any misguided sense of what is right, but because employers of child laboureres are now clear that the government means business - however, first causes are immaterial in this case.

However, read on… some of the children are not happy at the thought of going back home… what awaits them is what they left years ago when they came to Bombay in search of work…

Some spoke of families of 12 and very little food to subsist. Others told stories of crops destroyed in yearly floods and of dead parents. “I don’t want to go back to school. The teacher used to hit me and he didn’t teach anything,” said Mohammed Alamgir (10).

Which brings me to the real point - is rescuing children and sending them back to their villages and families enough - does the state’s responsibility end there - what about rehabilitation? What happens to these children now back in their own villages will they be forced to go somewhere else in search of labour and income? And what happens to the families dependent on this income?

And before you jump in indignation all ready to tear me to pieces, please think… In the absence of a child-friendly education system and an alternative source of income to the families, in what way is the life of these children better at home?

I was in Kanchipuram last year to document some efforts by a large development organisation working in the area of child labour - and there, much of my preconception about this issue of child labour was turned on its head…

Children were working in the silk looms part-time and going to school in the mornings. I visited their schools and found excellent bridge courses being conducted for children who had dropped out earlier and were now back in school - or children who have not been able to cope with regular school schedules. I visited their homes and saw parents who were so happy their children were back in school - from now I am willing to do anything to make sure he goes to school and gets a good job - en pillai periya aala aavanum - ‘my son should become a big shot’ was a common refrain I heard throughout- I saw parents and school teachers being threatened by a loom owner. ‘enakku enna aanalum parava illai - en pillai school poganum’ (I don’t care what happens to me - my child should go to school)

Ten year old Janaki told me - School has made me better – earlier I never used to be concerned about my appearance – I used to get up early in the morning and go to work even without even combing my hair – now I wash and comb my hair and wash my face everyday – they taught us in school how to be clean

And along with this, women were being mobilised into self help groups - many of them were now earning enough to take their children out of the looms and send them back to school - and they were also paying-it-forward by getting other women into the movement and working as cleaners / helpers at the local school… Read about the INDUS project here… their efforts involve not just mainstreaming efforts and bridge schools but also vocational training for older children…

While this was happening in Tamilnadu, in some other states which my colleague visited, children who had been rescued from work actually preferred to go back to work - their faith in the education system had collapsed.

Child labour in any form is to be condemned - I am NOT in any way speaking for child labour - but there are situations where we must understand it makes sense for the child to be employed in some form of work - when the child goes to school and earns money to support his/her family, is it fair to deny the child and the family this? More importantly, in cases where the child works in the family business - usually traditional hand craft or farming - so long as the child also goes to school, is it fair to condemn this practice in totality? I had written about Invisible Child Labour - about my maid’s daughter who goes to school and helps her mother part-time.

Economic rehabilitation for the family and mainstreaming the child back into the education system are equally, if not more important steps in this process - in their absence, ‘rescue operations’ become meaningless token gestures by the state - here is hoping for a better future for the Bihari children…

Update on June 1st: City cops rescue 446 child labourers - from mid day

Invisible child labour

charukesi February 7th, 2004

I had posted this as a guest post on Debashish’s Hindi blog. For those who have not read the Hindi version, here comes the post on a topic very close to my heart……

I have a simple question : what is child labour ?

Just have a look at this statement…..

With credible estimates ranging from 60 to 115 million, India has the largest number of working children in the world. Everyone knows about those toiling away in Sivakasi’s fireworks factories and the beedi rollers and the carpet weavers… and those working in the stone quarries and in the paddy fields….

What about those working in homes ? Such as yours and mine….

My maid here in Bombay has been getting her 13 year old daughter with her everyday. I assumed that the kid came along to give her company, but slowly she started doing small jobs. Starting with the sweeping. Now she comes fifteen minutes earlier and begins the work, making it easier for her parent.

When I protested, the mom said, didi, woh to sirf mere kaam me haath bata rahi hai (she is just giving me a hand in my work)….. leave her at home from tomorrow, I said. Se said, how can I leave her alone at home, didi. She is so small…..

My maid is not ‘poor’ in the strictest definition of the word. She earns a decent living along with her husband, owns a television set, sends her child to school and so on….. The girl is not being exploited anywhere, nor is abject poverty forcing her to work…… She works with a smile, just as I would while helping my mother in the kitchen….

The girl goes to school, she is studying in Class VII….. Is she a deprived child? Does this constitute child labour? Am I guilty? Then what do I do?

Do I insist on my maid leaving her daughter behind? Can I also prevent her from working in other homes? Or do I simply accept this and make her work and life as easy as I can? Which is what I do now….. but…. how will child labour ever end?

‘A Gun As Tall As Me’

charukesi January 28th, 2004

In a poignant account, Jo Becker writes in The Asian Wall Street Journal about the plight of the child soldiers of Burma. The report says that Burmese child-soldiers account for approximately one-fourth of the 300,000 children currently believed to be participating in armed conflicts around the globe.

These children, as young as 11 years old, are ‘recruited’ by force, threats and coercion and forced to take up arms and lay down their lives for causes they do not even know about or have heard of…..

Read on for more on this….

There is enough one reads about child labour that is shocking and moving…. but this is entirely something else….

The entire report can be found here.