Child Bondage in India: Sid Harth
Sid Harth
Shame upon such crimes!
Shame upon us if we do not raise our voices against them!
—Samuel Gompers, U.S. labor activist, 1881
My sister is ten years old. Every morning at seven she goes to the
bonded
labor man, and every night at nine she comes home. He treats her
badly; he
hits her if he thinks she is working slowly or if she talks to the
other
children, he yells at her, he comes looking for her if she is sick and
cannot
go to work. I feel this is very difficult for her.
I don’t care about school or playing. I don’t care about any of that.
All I
want is to bring my sister home from the bonded labor man. For 600
rupees I
can bring her home—that is our only chance to get her back.
We don’t have 600 rupees . . . we will never have 600 rupees. —
Lakshmi, nine
year-old beedi (cigarette) roller, Tamil Nadu. Six hundred rupees is
the
equivalent of approximately $17.
With credible estimates ranging from 60 to 115 million, India has the
largest
number of working children in the world. Whether they are sweating in
the
heat of stone quarries, working in the fields sixteen hours a day,
picking
rags in city streets, or hidden away as domestic servants, these
children
endure miserable and difficult lives. They earn little and are abused
much.
They struggle to make enough to eat and perhaps to help feed their
families
as well. They do not go to school; more than half of them will never
learn
the barest skills of literacy. Many of them have been working since
the age
of four or five, and by the time they reach adulthood they may be
irrevocably
sick or deformed—they will certainly be exhausted, old men and women
by the
age of forty, likely to be dead by fifty.
Most or all of these children are working under some form of
compulsion,
whether from their parents, from the expectations attached to their
caste, or
from simple economic necessity. At least fifteen million of them,
however,
are working as virtual slaves. These are the bonded child laborers of
India.
This report is about them.
“Bonded child labor” refers to the phenomenon of children working in
conditions of servitude in order to pay off a debt. The debt that
binds them
to their employer is incurred not by the children themselves, but by
their
relatives or guardians—usually by a parent. In India, these debts tend
to be
relatively modest, ranging on average from 500 rupees to 7,500
rupees,
depending on the industry and the age and skill of the child. The
creditors-cum-employers offer these “loans” to destitute parents in an
effort
to secure the labor of a child, which is always cheap, but even
cheaper under
a situation of bondage. The parents, for their part, accept the
loans.
Bondage is a traditional worker-employer relationship in India, and
the
parents need the money—perhaps to pay for the costs of an illness,
perhaps to
provide a dowry to a marrying child, or perhaps—as is often the case—
to help
put food on the table.
The children who are sold to these bond masters work long hours over
many
years in an attempt to pay off these debts. Due to the astronomically
high
rates of interest charged and the abysmally low wages paid, they are
usually
unsuccessful. As they reach maturity, some of them may be released by
the
employer in favor of a newly-indebted and younger child. Many others
will
pass the debt on, intact or even higher, to a younger sibling, back to
a
parent, or on to their own children.
The past few years have seen increasing public awareness—in India
itself, but
particularly in the international arena—of the high incidence of
child
servitude in the carpet industry of South Asia. As a consequence, the
international public has come to associate “child servitude” with the
image
of small children chained to carpet looms, slaving away over the
thousands of
tiny wool knots that will eventually become expensive carpets in the
homes of
the wealthy.
This attention and the outrage it has provoked are entirely warranted—
the use
of bonded child labor in the production of carpets for export is
extensive,
and conditions in that industry are horrendous. But it is vital that
the
public’s concern for children in servitude not begin and end with
carpets.
More than 300,000 children are estimated to be working in the carpet
industry, the majority of them in bondage. This is a large number, but
it
represents only about 2 percent of the bonded child laborers of
India.
The great majority of the carpet weavers’ bonded brothers and sisters
are
working in the agricultural sector, tending cattle and goats, picking
tea
leaves on vast plantations, and working fields of sugar cane and basic
crops
all across the country. Apart from agriculture, which accounts for 64
percent
of all labor in India, bonded child laborers form a significant part
of the
work force in a multitude of domestic and export industries. These
include,
but are not limited to, the production of silk and silk saris, beedi
(hand-rolled cigarettes), silver jewelry, synthetic gemstones,
leather
products (including footwear and sporting goods), handwoven wool
carpets, and
precious gemstones and diamonds. Services where bonded child labor is
prevalent include prostitution, small restaurants, truck stops and tea
shop
services, and domestic servitude.
The practice of child debt servitude has been illegal in India since
1933,
when the Children (Pledging of Labour) Act was enacted under British
rule.
Since independence, a plethora of additional protective legislation
has been
put in place. There are distinct laws governing child labor in
factories, in
commercial establishments, on plantations, and in apprenticeships.
There are
laws governing the use of migrant labor and contract labor. A
relatively
recent law—the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of
1986—designates a child as “a person who has not completed their
fourteenth
year of age.” It purports to regulate the hours and conditions of some
child
workers and to prohibit the use of child labor in certain enumerated
hazardous industries. (There is no blanket prohibition on the use of
child
labor, nor any universal minimum age set for child workers.) Most
important
of all, for children in servitude, is the Bonded Labour System
(Abolition)
Act, 1976 which strictly outlaws all forms of debt bondage and forced
labor.
These extensive legal safeguards mean little, however, without the
political
will to implement them. In India, this will is sorely lacking. All of
the
labor laws are routinely flouted, and with virtually no risk of
punishment to
the offender. Whether due to corruption or indifference—and both are
much in
evidence—these laws are simply not enforced. In those rare cases
where
offenders are prosecuted, sentences are limited to negligible fines.
Why does India—the Indian government, the ruling elite, the business
interests, the populace as a whole—tolerate this slavery in its
midst?
According to a vast and deeply entrenched set of myths, bonded labor
and
child labor in India are inevitable. They are caused by poverty. They
represent the natural order of things, and it is not possible to
change them
by force; they must evolve slowly toward eradication.
In truth, the Indian government has failed to protect its most
vulnerable
children. When others have stepped in to try to fill the vacuum and
advocate
on behalf of those children, India’s leaders and much of its media
have
attributed nearly all “outside” attempts at action to an ulterior
commercial
motive. The developed world is not concerned with Indian children,
this view
holds, but rather with maintaining a competitive lead in the global
marketplace. Holding to this defensive stance, some officials have
threatened
to end all foreign funding of child labor-related projects.
This nationalist rhetoric has been largely a diversionary tactic. What
the
government has hoped to hide is the news that, no matter how the data
are
analyzed, official efforts to end the exploitation of child laborers
are
woefully deficient. Former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, for
example,
made much of his initiative, announced in 1994, to bring two million
children
out of hazardous employment by the year 2000. Two million represents
only 1.7
to 3.3 percent of the nation’s child laborers; the fate of the other
58 to
113 million children was not addressed. In a welcome move, the United
Front
government, elected in May 1996, has promised to eradicate child labor
in all
occupations and industries, and has stated that the right to free
compulsory
elementary education should be made a fundamental right and enforced
through
suitable statutory measures. It remains to be seen what measures the
government will take to fulfill these promises.
By focusing primarily on child labor in export industries and the
threat of
sanctions on exports, the international community has sent the
unfortunate
message that only child labor in export industries must be addressed.
In
response, the Indian government has accused its international critics
of
protectionism and has adopted superficial remedies designed to assuage
their
concerns while continuing to ignore its legal obligation to identify,
release
and rehabilitate bonded laborers.
Multilateral lending institutions have failed in their obligations as
well.
By neglecting to ensure that the projects they fund do not involve the
use of
bonded child labor, they have exacerbated the problem of bonded child
labor.
These institutions, and their funders should take every measure to
ensure
that aid does not result in child slavery.
This report, based on two months of field investigations, reveals only
a
glimpse of the vast suffering caused by the bonded labor system. This
glimpse
alone, however, is proof enough that it is time for India’s new
government to
accept responsibility for the slavery in its midst, to admit that it
is not
inevitable, and to end it. India is the world’s largest democracy, a
nuclear
power, the world’s second most populous country, and, although a poor
nation,
one of the six largest economies of the world. It is possible to end
child
servitude. The only thing lacking is will.
This report is the result of an investigation conducted by two Human
Rights
Watch researchers from November 1995 to January 1996. More than one
hundred
bonded child laborers were interviewed. Children were chosen for
interviews
on the basis of their willingness and ability to speak freely with
researchers; no interviews were conducted in the presence of employers
or in
circumstances that presented the risk of retaliation. In addition to
the
children, Human Rights Watch spoke with more than fifty government
officials,
employers, social workers, community activists, attorneys, and
religious
leaders. Some of the government officials interviewed requested that
their
comments be kept off the record and many human rights activists
requested
anonymity. These requests, which highlight the sensitive nature of the
issue
of child bondage, have been honored. The investigation took place in
the
states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Uttar
Pradesh.
While India leads the world in the number of bonded child laborers,
debt
servitude is a significant problem in other countries as well.
Regarding
India, a prior Human Rights Watch report documented slavery-like
conditions
in Bombay brothels.
A bid to eradicate child labour in Karnataka homes
Maitreyee BoruahJuly 1st, 2009BANGALORE - Around 50 percent of child
labourers in Karnataka are working as domestic helps in defiance of
law, say activists. But now comes another push to end the practice,
this time targeting poverty-stricken villages that send their young
ones to work.
The Karnataka chapter of CRY (Child Rights and You) has decided to
embark upon a special campaign to end child labour at home that will
involve interactions with rural households.
“Our campaign will be part of the government-initiated step last year.
But our focus will be more at the grassroots, as most of the child
labourers come from poverty-stricken villages,” said Padma Koppa,
member of the Karnataka CRY chapter.
CRY and its partners working at the grassroots have also formed groups
of local residents and workers’ unions to monitor their neighbourhoods
and ensure that no household, apartment or restaurant employs child
labourers.
The state government was the first in the country to prohibit the
employment of children in the domestic sector. Fourteen Karnataka
districts last year opened 42 special schools with 1,855 child
labourers currently enrolled in it.
“CRY’s experience has shown that irreversible change is possible when
children, parents, community groups and local government come together
to identify, address and resolve the issues that constrain children,”
said Koppa.
“Thus in order to deal with the menace of child labour in the domestic
sector, CRY is again planning to take the help of the community to
address the issue.”
India has the largest number of child labourers in the world today
even though there is a law against it that stipulates two years in
jail and a fine of Rs.20,000 for the violator.
According to the 2001 census, there were 12.7 million working children
(age group 5 to 14) in India, with Uttar Pradesh recording the highest
number at 1.93 million, closely followed by Andhra Pradesh at 1.36
million.
Karnataka has 0.82 million of them, making it the state with the
seventh highest number of child labourers - following Rajasthan,
Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. It has been more than two years
since child labour was banned in India. But the practice is still on.
According to NGOs working in the field, children working as domestic
helps in the state are not only underpaid but also endure long hours
of work and physical and sexual abuse.
“The issue of child labour cuts across policy boundaries and is the
consequence of poverty, displacement, migration, illiteracy and adult
unemployment. This implies that child labour cannot be addressed in
isolation and what is important is to address the root causes that
result in child labour,” said V. Susheela, convener of the Karnataka
chapter of the Campaign Against Child Labour.
(Maitreyee Boruah can be contacted at m.bo...@ians.in)
...and I am Sid Harth