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Migrant Child Labourers of Bihar in Aligarh

- Zoya Zaidi

 

 

Zoya Zaidi

Abstract

After selling their land or simply landless, they migrate in large numbers to the nearby  state of Uttar Pradesh; Living at construction sites where they help and work with their parents by day and sleep at night, or simply squat in empty plots, make shift shanties they never build homes. Visible everywhere in Aligarh, working at roadside Dhabas (eateries) and teashops, as domestic helps, and as car and scooter mechanics, they are the migrant child labourers of Bihar. Case studies of three teashop boys who work 12 to 14 hours a day for Rs.10-20 ($0.20 to $0.40), and three girls who work as domestic help, washing utensils, sweeping and mopping floors for Rs.100 -200 ($20- $40) per month are presented in this article with poems and photographs.

 

Introduction

India is among the fastest growing economies in the world. But this economic growth has led to the increasing divide between the rich and the poor. If, on the one hand, four Indians figure among the list of the world’s 10 most rich, 28.6 percent of the Indian population lives below the poverty line [1]. According to India's first Social Development Report which was released in New Delhi on 26^th January, 2008 about 260 million (193 million in rural and 67 million in urban areas) Indians are classified as poor [2]. India is an agrarian nation with a majority of its population living in the rural areas and involved in agricultural activities for their sustenance. But most wealth is concentrated in the cities. As cities grow they are encroaching farmland. Poor farmers are forced to sell their land due to shortage of water and crop failure, and they migrate to cities in search of greener pastures. This migration has lead to urbanization of the Indian nation. Another factor to influence this internal migration is the unequal distribution of wealth

 

Bihar, arguably one of the poorest states of northern India has witnessed a transmigration of its landless labourers and small farmers to Uttar Pradesh (UP) and other more prosperous states of India. These migrants do not earn enough to build a modest home and can be seen squatting in empty plots, in make shift shanties, or living in buildings still under construction. These are the construction sites where most migrants are employed as labourers.

 

It is not unusual to see young migrant children playing in dirt, bare-footed, mostly naked or scantily clad in tattered clothes and hand-me-downs from homes where their mothers work as domestic helps. These children are often pot-bellied and have golden streaks in their hair, a sign of a mild form of protein-calorie-malnutrition diseases called Kwashwakor or Marasmus. When they grow up a little, the girls, like their mothers, will go to work in the houses as maids, while the boys are employed either in the tea-shops, mostly at road-side kiosks, or as car or scooter mechanics, if they are lucky.

 

In the university town of Aligarh there are plenty of unskilled labour jobs available. Not surprisingly one can see many migrants working in the shops that line the streets of this city. Migrant children are easily recognizable by their dark complexion, typical features, and a language  quite akin to Hindustani, the national language, spoken with a typical sing-song Bihari accent. I have been observing them for the last 20 odd years that I have lived and worked in Aligarh as a rheumatologist, and I haven’t seen any change in their status, economic or social. On the contrary their number has increased, and their economic condition has become worse over time.

 

India is a young nation with a median age of 22 years [3]. With more than a third of its one billion population below the age of 18, India has the largest child population in the world [4]. There are more children under the age of fourteen in India than the entire population of the United States. [5]  India also has the largest number of hungry children; a staggering 60 million (63%) children go to sleep hungry every night.  [6]

 

Poverty, population explosion, unequal distribution of wealth, lack of compulsory education, and myriads of other socio-economic compulsions and parental attitude towards child labourers [7] has lead to an increase in child labour in India. Almost 70 per cent of the children work to supplement their family income. The poor are susceptible, as they have few credit sources such as bank loans, governmental loans, etc. Apart from poverty, inadequate schools or a lack of them, coupled with the expense, force the children to work at a young age. [8]

 

According to International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency, an estimated 218 million children were involved as child labourers in 2004, of which 126 million were engaged in hazardous work. Estimates from a 2000 study suggest that 5.7 million were in forced or bonded labour, 1.8 million in prostitution and pornography, and 1.2 million were victims of human trafficking. In India, 110. 4 million children are working as labourers. Over 1. 9 million child labourers in the 5-14 age group are in Uttar Pradesh (UP). [9]

Children under fourteen constitute around 3.6% of the total labour force in India. Of these nine out of ten work in their own rural family settings, and nearly 85% are engaged in traditional agricultural activities. There are less than 9% who work  in manufacturing, services, and repairs, and only 0.8% employed in factories [5]

Carpet-weavers of Mirzapur and Bhadoi, Tea-plantation workers of Darjeeling, Zari workers of Banaras, embroidery labourers in Delhi, lock factory workers of Aligarh, silver-needle factory workers; matches, fireworks and explosive factory workers in Sivakasi, leather workers in Agra, Kanpur, Drug and Rajasthan; diamond industry workers of Surat; export oriented garment industry workers in Tiruppur; gem polishing export industry employed labourers in Jaipur, and the glass and bangles industry workers of Firozabad  is a short list of the industries that employ child labour. Notably, these children are paid a meager salary, and sometimes they are employed for free under the pretext of being apprentices. [9]

 

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 of India prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 in factories, mines, and other forms of hazardous employment. However this act did not till of late cover the tea-shop boys or children working in homes as domestic helps. The case of migrant child labourers is even worse because they are a part of the invisible population that does not count and has no voting rights as they do not belong to the state of residence. Needless to say that no survey has been done to date to asses the number and condition of these migrant children in Aligarh. This essay attempts to create  awareness about the situation of the young children through some representational case studies of domestic child labourers and tea-shop-boys.

 

Shamsher, the tea-shop boy. Photo © Zoya Zaidi

Shamsher, the tea-shop boy

Shamsher is also just six years old and works in the same market tea-shop, where I have my clinic. In fact he is the third boy, whom I have observed in the long line of boys who come and go over the years. Shamsher has six brothers and sisters; he is fifth in number. Shamsher does not remember his father, a cycle-rickshaw puller, who died of tuberculosis when he was still young and that was three years ago. When he came to work around six months ago, he was very diffident, very quiet with a constant expression of fear on his face. Since then Shamsher has opened-up and become mischievous and chatty, even playful sometimes, for which he is often scolded and beaten. On such days I see him with a gloomy tear-smeared face. But, being a child, he does not remain crestfallen for long and is again cheerful and up to his childish antics the very next day. Shamsher earns twenty rupees a day (less that $1) and is given one meal which comprises of two chapatties (Indian home baked bread of around 20 calories each), a small portion of sabzi (vegetable curry), and some Dal (watery lentil soup).

 

His boss, the tea-shop proprietor, Chaman, was himself a child labourer at the same shop; the only difference being that he was the son of the tea-shop owner Gulshan and used to help his father. He was thirteen then and now that his father is old and diseased, Chaman has become the owner and along with his brother, Chotu, who was seven when they started the shop, innocent and gullible, he runs the shop. Both Chotu and Chaman are married and have children of their own, whom they take care not to employ in the shop and want them to go to school. Chaman is short-tempered and beats Shamsher often. Once I caught him beating Shamsher and told him that if he did not stop, I would report him to the police.

Ansar the tea-shop boy

Ansar is the elder brother of Shamsher. He also worked at Chaman’s tea-stall for many years, from the age of seven to fifteen until he grew up and started to rebel and assert himself. He soon got into drugs, fell in love with an older woman of twenty-five with three children, moved in with her and finally married her. She, after the initial honeymoon ecstasy, soon refused to feed him and threw him out of the hut and asked him to fend for himself. It was during that period he came to me with high fever, gaunt and sick and weary of life. After his treatment, he went back to his wife, but not before he started to earn. He now plies a cycle-rickshaw and works hard to earn his living and some how make the two ends meet. He will die young, just as many of the rickshaw pullers do often from tuberculosis.

 

Child labour is a vexed subject in India. People often think about it with their hearts rather than with their heads. On October 10, 2006 the government introduced a new amendment in Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. According to the amendment, a ban was imposed on employment of children (less than the age of fourteen) in Dhabas, restaurants and hotels, and as servants or domestic help. Any violation of this ban would lead to imprisonment up to two years and / or fine of Rs.10, 000 to Rs.20, 000. However, just after two months, in December 2006, several State Governments detected over 1,670 cases of such violations. It has been more than a year now and only very limited progress has been made to alleviate the plight of child labourers in India. [9]  The law is yet to be fully implemented in Aligarh and not a single raid has been carried out thus far against those who employ child labourers and thereby violate the law.  Interestingly, the tea-shop where Shamsher works is right next to the Civil Line’s Police Station, and it  is one of the dozens of shops that dot the area.

Jehangir. Photo © Zoya Zaidi

Jahangir, the tea-shop boy

Jahangir is the six years old tea-shop boy

Who works in the market, where I have my clinic

The whole day long he keeps running between shops,

Carrying four to six glasses, into the wire contraption

He uses, to carry glasses full of tea to his customers…

He constantly responds with a smile to the shouts of

 ‘Hey, you Jahangir! Get two cups of Tea!’

 ‘Are you getting the tea, or should I give you a slap!’

‘Array*@*-/*#*! Chain na la raa?’ etc. etc…

Every order is punctuated by choicest of abuses…

 

While Jahangir, very amiably complies, never complaining,

 ‘Lata Hoon!’  (Just getting it, Just coming, Sahib!’)

Jehangir. Photo © Zoya Zaidi

 

In the process he crosses the road, lying

Between the shop and the market,

At least fifty to sixty times a day-

Dodging the traffic, precariously balancing

the cups full of tea, and his own gaunt and frail form

through the various kinds of cars, rickshaws, bullock carts,

cycles and even trucks and lorries

that keep plying on the road  the whole day long…

 

The other day he met with an accident!

All his glasses went flying, the hot tea scalded

His tender -not so tender any more- skin!

He lay there bleeding…

And all he got from his employer was:

 Hey, you swine! broke all the glasses!

Now, who will pay for them?’

Wait till I deduce the damages from your salary…

 

I took him to the hospital, after giving him first aid,

This included stitching a three-inch long gash

Right on his forehead…

 

Later when I asked him: why he works,

Don’t his parents look after him, feed him well?

Where were they, and what they did to earn a living?

His reply was: ‘We have left our father!’

 ‘He used to beat up Mother!’

 ‘I took Mother and my younger brother and came…’

 Now, I won’t send her back to my father!’

My mother is unwell; I will look after her myself!

That, from a tiny-tot of six, was like a lesson in itself!

 

Few years later he was chucked out of job

Because he was too old to be exploited-

With only ten rupees a day- for selling

Two to three hundred cups of tea a day…

 

This is just one of the stories of many

Children that I see around me every day

Working and being exploited day to day…

 

 

Domestic Child labourers

These are the hidden labourers, as they were neither recognized, nor protected by law until recently.  Domestic child labourers start off by helping their mothers who work in the houses as domestic workers, washing utensils and helping in the kitchen; cooking, sweeping and mopping the floor, then later branch off as individual workers.

People prefer the Biharies because they are honest, hard working, and most importantly ready to work for pittance- usually half of what the locals would charge for the same amount of work. Children work for even less then their parents and other adults; moreover they are more enthusiastic, can be easily bossed-over and forced or terrorized into working- often much beyond their capacity- so they are preferred over adults in most homes. Child domestic helpers often work in three or four homes before returning home tired and hungry at the end of the day, only to get up early and start work again.

Time passes quickly and they grow up into adults; it is then that they, if girls, which they usually are, get married and boys start to go in search of more paying jobs and more often then not, end up as daily wage labourers at construction sites, where they grow old much before their time, due to hard labour in sweltering summer heat and frigid winter cold.

Aligarh being a university town is fast growing as most of the towns in India are, and there is always work available at construction sites, since the new buildings keep mushrooming every day. Those who are unable to find work in construction ply cycle rickshaws - in abundance in this town- and again hard work with very little earnings, with not enough food to eat, makes them weak in health and many among them contact tuberculosis and often succumb to it.

 

According to the Indian census of 1991, there are 11.28 million working children under the age of fourteen years in India; however, as of 1996, these figures continue to be based on 1981 Indian Census Report (Human Rights Watch 1996, 122) while in the same year UNICEF "cites figures ranging from 75 to 90 million child labourers under the age of fourteen" (Human Rights Watch 1996, 122). [10].  This discrepancy can also be attributed to the fact that the Indian Government "has been negligent in its refusal to collect and analyze current and relevant data regarding the incidence of child labour” [10]. Over 85% of this child labour is in the country's rural areas, working in agricultural activities such as farming, livestock rearing, forestry and fisheries.[9] According to a UNICEF report, World's Children 2006, India has the largest number of working children, and 17 per cent of them are under the age of 15. Girls aged 12-13 are the preferred choice of 90 per cent of households. [9]

 

 

 

 

Nisar Bano. Photo © Zoya Zaidi

Nisar Bano, the domestic help

Nisar Bano, the eldest of the five children, was living happily in her village in Bihar, where her father had a small family land holding. His younger brother, with whom he shared his house, ploughed the field while he, a brick-layer, worked on construction sites, doing the specialized job of laying the roofs of houses.  His two elder brothers lived separately and worked as kiln workers, manufacturing bricks on a battha (Kiln). His most enterprising brother lived in a village on the outskirts of Aligarh and worked at construction sites and plied the rickshaw. Life was fairly comfortable till he got hurt and his foot turned septic. Things got worse when the wound became gangrenous and had to be cut off to save his life, he then took to keeping a provision shop in the village, but fate had something else in store for him. The foot again got gangrenous and probably an undiagnosed diabetic, this time the poison got into his blood fast and he succumbed to it.

 

His young wife with a two month old baby in her arms went crazy out of shock. The family was suddenly left with nothing and started bordering to destitution. It was then that the children of this family were divided between the brothers, the youngest remained with the mother, and she with the brother who was already sharing the house.

 

The five-year-old brother went to the eldest uncle, the seven-year-old sister was taken by the other brother, and the eldest, eleven-year-old Nisar Bano came to Aligarh, where the smart brother promised to soon marry her off with a good match. But his wife was not very happy with the idea of looking after another addition to her already growing brood of four and one on the way. They decided to make her work to collect money for her dowry first. So now Nisar Bano works in four houses, sweeps and mops floors, helps in the kitchen and washes clothes and utensils in homes. But before she starts her daily drudge, she helps her aunt to cook the whole day's food. Recently the burden of cooking the food for the entire family fell on her, when her aunt gave birth to a baby girl. Not very good at cooking, Nisar Bano often either burnt the bread or a dish, for which she was beaten up by her aunt, and if she broke a utensil she was really in for trouble. I once noticed a black eye, when asked, she said, ‘my aunt beat me up last night again’! I suspect a brewing resentment in the aunt’s heart against the girl behind these beatings and not just her ‘mistakes’.

 

Nisar Bano is often sick and is down with either high fever or an upset stomach. On such days, she cannot go to work and money is deduced from her already meager salary often by her employers for her taking the ‘French leave’. She works in four homes earning two to three hundred rupees from each house (the salary is negotiated and fixed depending on the whims and fancy of the employers). She starts off early from home after cooking the whole family’s meal, walks a distance of six miles every day, which takes her a whole hour. After working in one home after another, when she returns home, she is tired and the day is already done. She then settles down to prepare the evening meal for the rest of the family. Otherwise the aunt scolds her. The aunt sends her children to school and Nisar Bano has to dress them up for school every morning, washing and ironing their clothes every day. She is the discriminated one within the family. Recently the aunt threatened to send her back to her village to Bihar and not marry her off, as she was lazy, slow and not hard working enough to make a ‘good wife’. Finally they agreed to keep her, if she took up a job at another house, so now she works in four homes. An amiable cheerful girl by nature, she bears all this up calmly, but sometimes can be seen with tears in her eyes, looking pensive and thoughtful.

 

The case of two sisters

When their mother first came to work for my mother as a domestic help, she was very young and attractive, but already had a nine month old baby girl in her arms and her husband had left her. She lived with her mother in the outhouses, who was always trying to ‘marry her off’. So suitors kept coming and were rejected by her possessive mother. We soon found out that these ‘suitors’ were actually ‘clients’ and terminated her services.

Ten years hence, she again came to my mother’s house to work. This time she had two girls with her. The elder, Shaheen, was eight and the other, Shabnam, only five years old. We learnt that the one she had in arms ten years back, died in infancy due to disease and starvation.

 

These girls at first helped her with the domestic work. Soon the elder one started going and working in other homes. The mother always used to dream about this elder girl- she said, her father was from a good family and she wanted to marry her off to a nice match. I always wondered if the marriage would be of the kind her mother had envisioned for her.  Because both girls were born of different fathers, and despite the stories she narrated of her numerous divorces, I knew she had never married again. There used to be a man who visited her but he was not the father of these girls and was not married to her, though of course she claimed, he was her husband - we knew better. Soon Shaheen, just six-years-old also started working in other houses. The mother left after a couple of years. I wonder where these girls are now; still working as domestic help or are in a brothel.

 

The case of Ahmadi, the domestic help

Ahmadi. Photo © Zoya Zaidi

Ahmadi is a very keen worker. She takes pride in doing her work meticulously and efficiently. She usually scrubs the floor to a sparkling clean and then likes to show off in her childish manner, ‘look how well I have done my job, how it shines’! She also washes dishes, chops vegetables, and she can bake bread and clean toilets. Ahmadi is usually accompanied by her many younger siblings, aged 8, 6.5, 5, and 3.5; she also brings the youngest babe in arms sometimes who is looked after by the other siblings while she works. Sometime they lend her a hand.

 

Ahmadi started as domestic help when she was only eight, earlier she stood in for her mother when she was incapacitated due to pregnancies or deliveries.

 

Later, on turning nine, Ahmadi branched off as an independent worker. Now she is fourteen and an adolescent. Recently she had fallen victim to the roving eyes of one of her employers, who started making sexual passes at her. Ahmadi was quickly betrothed to a boy from her village in Bihar. She still works in houses and will go to her in-laws when she attains menarche. She lives in a make shift shanty on an empty plot just below our multi-storied apartment complex. The hut, built with bricks, laid without mortar and with a straw roof, is covered by a waterproof polyethylene sheet during rainy season and secured by bricks laid on top like paperweights to prevent leakage. Recently the hut was demolished because the owners of the plot objected. Now they are living under a tree in another near by empty plot, and will continue to do so till they are shunted out from there too.

 

Discussion

The incidence of child labour is partly linked to the level of socio-economic development of an area and partly to the attitude and approach of parents of the child labourers as a result of socio-economic compulsions. [7]  One of the main reasons for child labour is poverty. Almost 70 percent of children work to supplement their family income. The poor are susceptible, as they have few credit sources such as bank loans, governmental loans, etc. Apart from poverty, inadequate schools, or lack of them, coupled with the expense, forces these children to work. [8]

Reasons

According to UNICEF, children are employed because they are easier to exploit. Poverty is generally the first answer for why children work at inappropriate jobs for their ages. But there are other reasons as well such as population explosion, cheap labour, non-implementation of available laws, parents unwilling to send their children to schools (they would rather send them to work, so that the family income goes up) and abject poverty in rural areas. And what can one do when child labour is the only means of a family's survival? [9]

The Government of India is determined to eradicate child labour in the country. The world's largest child labour elimination program is being implemented at the grass roots level in India, with primary education targeted for nearly 250 million. In this a large number of non-governmental and voluntary organizations are involved. Special investigation cells have been set up in States to enforce existing laws banning employment of children in hazardous industries. The government had allocated $10 million in 1995-96, and $16 million in 1996-97 toward elimination of child labour. The allocation for the current year is $21 million. [5]   A harsher form of child labour is bonded labour, wherein children work in conditions of servitude in order to pay off a debt. ILO figures place the number of bonded child labourers in India at close to one million in 1992. [8]

All of the 55 bonded labourers were identified and released in 2004-05 -- 15 in Allahabad, 4 in Mirzapur and 36 in Aligarh were migrant labourers who went back to their native districts. Necessary action for their rehabilitation under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme from that end was duly initiated. (11)

In the year 2005-06 (till 31.8.05), 224 bonded labourers have been identified in the State as a result of the surveys carried out using funds released by the Union Labour Ministry. 81 of them were migrant labourers. 143 belong to UP and were required to be rehabilitated in the State. 7 of them have already been rehabilitated.

During the period 1996-97 to 2005-06, a total of 2778 bonded labourers were identified and released in UP. This includes 55 (all migrants) relating to 2004-05 and 224 (81 migrants and 143 locals) relating to 2005-06. (11)

What is being done to eradicate child labour?

To eradicate child labour, 76 child labour projects have been sanctioned under the National Child labour Project Scheme for covering 150,000 children. Around 105,000 children are already enrolled in special schools. The Ministry of labour has asked the Planning Commission for about Rs.1500 crore to cover all the 600 districts under the National Child labour Project (NCLP) as against the 250 districts at present. Children working in 57 hazardous industries, in Dhabas and homes (in the 9-14 age group) would be covered under this project. Government schemes like the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan have been implemented. [9]

 

Coverage under National Child labour Project

What has been done in past?

NCLP Schools
The National Child labour Project was initially extended to three districts of UP viz Aligarh, Ferozabad and Varanasi in 1988-89. It was further extended to Allahabad, Moradabad, Khurja (Bulandshehar), Mirzapur and Bhadoi in 1999. Saharanpur and Kanpur city were brought under this project in 1999-2000 and Azamgarh in 2001. However, the Child Labour schools were actually started in Aligarh and Ferozabad in 1995-96 and at other places from March 1999 onwards after the NHRC started monitoring the Child labour situation. [11]

Indo-US DOL Project
Five districts of UP namely Moradabad, Ferozabad, Aligarh, Allahabad and Kanpur (City) have been selected for the Indo-US DOL Project which aims at complete elimination of the worst form of child labour identified in these districts. The project envisages detection of 4000 children in each district. 1000 children will be identified in the 5-8 years age group and mainstreamed by admission to formal or non-formal school for primary education under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. 2000 child labourers identified in the age group of 9-13 years will be educated in 40 Transitional Education Centres (TEC) run on the NCLP lines. 1000 child labourers identified in 14-17 years of age group will be targeted for Employment Oriented Vocational Training. [11]

The State Level Review of the child labour and bonded labour situation was made in a meeting held in the office of the labour Commissioner, UP at Kanpur on 7th September, 2004. The Review presents the following picture of the child labour and bonded labour situation in UP for the period from 1.1.2004 to 30.6.2005.

The INDUS Child labour Project is being operationalized under the overall monitoring by the State Level Committee headed by the Principal Secretary (Labour). Aligarh Muslim University, Lucknow University and the Govind Vallabh Pant Institute for Social Sciences, Allahabad were engaged for survey in these districts. The State Resource Centre has been established in the Office of the labour Commissioner, UP for the conduct supervision and direction of the project in five districts. The project was operationalised in  September 2004 in Moradabad, Aligarh and Ferozabad and in June, 2005 in Allahabad and Kanpur (city).

In the age group of 5-8 years, a total of 17,985 child labourers have been identified in these districts with girls (7009) constituting 38.97% of the total. 11,618 (64.59%) of these are non-school going children. 6598 out of them have been admitted to the primary schools. In the 9-13 age group, a total of 30,735 child labourers have been identified, 17,893 (58.20%) are non-school going children. The project provides for admission of 10,000 children to TECs (2000 in each district). However, the actual numbers of children admitted to these schools are:

Aligarh - 2685 children in 62 schools
Allahabad            - 2050 children in 41 schools
Ferozabad            - 5459 children in 114 schools
Kanpur (city)            - 1554 children in 40 schools
Moradabad            - 2768 children in 90 schools [11]
Aligarh            - 680800 [estimated population 2002]. [12]

Industry that actively employs child labour stunts the moral, emotional, and physical growth of the child. Moreover, these children are exposed to dangerous infections, are susceptible to fatal injuries,  and are not covered by any medical compensation schemes.

Conclusion

No study has yet been done to ascertain the total number of migrant child labourers employed in road side Dhabas and as domestic helps in Aligarh and neither any detailed assessment of their condition is available. Children work for a meagre salary in homes and in road side tea shops, work hard and earn little, suffer from abuse, physical and sometimes sexual, are unhealthy and undernourished; they grow up earlier then their time. And sometimes these children fall victim to the drug peddlers.

We propose a study should be done and this peculiar and unique, but very common, kind of child labour studied and remedies found to address this problem. Though the government of India recently, on October 10th 2006, passed a law against employment of children below the age of fourteen as domestic helps and in road side Dhabas (eateries), this law is yet to be implemented in Aligarh. Moreover there are no rescue centers and rehabilitation homes for these children where they can be fed and taught to read and write or to be sent to school once they are rescued.

We also propose the creation of a help line for these children with the involvement of NGOs, who can create a watchdog committee for the identification and reporting of these children to the relevant rehabilitation centers. There is a crying need to create awareness against the apathy of the people who employ young children.

I would like to end by sharing a poem ‘Little Beggar on the Street’ that I wrote on the plight of these children. The poem sums the hardships young working children face it their innocent lives.

 

The Little Beggar in the Street

That young boy by the fire,
He begs in the street,
To quench the collective fire
Of his family’s belly.

Crippled -
Sometimes intentionally,
Much against his desire-
To cash in on the pity,
Of the entire world,

He feeds his family
And, much to his ire
Goes to sleep
On a half-filled stomach.

Alone in this world,
He is the child in the street.

And sometimes,
He is picked up
By a peddler of drugs,
who makes him an addict and
Blackmails him into peddling.

His blood filled with the poison,
He sinks into the quagmire
Of disease, addiction, exploitation,
And quenching the desire
Of lusty men, the sire,
To someone debonair
To whom he is catered
On beaches,
In dingy ghettos,
And in bars.   

He doesn’t reach maturity,
He’ll die in the street
On a cold, friendless night,
By some dying fire,
This boy in the street,
Alone in the world.

Note:  Goa's 'Beach Boys' are famous.

 

 

1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty

2.  http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/28/stories/2006012803971100.htm

3.  http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/04/17/stories/2004041700020800.htm

4.   http://infochangeindia.org/agenda8_02.jsp

5.  http://www.indianembassy.org/policy/Child_labour/childlabour.htm

6.   atimes.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1766

7.   http://pib.nic.in/feature/feyr2003/ffeb2003/f260220031.html

8.   http://groups.google.co.in/group/misc.activism.progressive/browse_thread/thread/5700cac11bde5d1d/30932fca11a4c104?hl=en&lnk=st&q=Child+Labour+in+Aligarh+Lock+Factories#30932fca11a4c104

9.   http://www.naukrihub.com/hr-today/child-labour.html

10.  http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Library/9175/inquiry1.htm

11.  http://www.responsenet.org/show.detail.asp?id=33

12.  http://news.daylightonline.com/2005-03/Aligarh.html

 

Copyright©2008 Zoya Zaidi. About the author

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