It’s 8.15am and there is still no sign of my regular maid who should be coming in by 7.00am. I panic, I wonder if I should get started on the dirty vessels, the sweeping can always wait, or maybe the hubby… All of a sudden the door bell rings and I rush in relief, to open the door. I find a cute little 10 year-old before me. She insists, in a garbled mixture of Telugu and Kannada, that she will do the chores for today, as her mom has had to rush back to the village. I donot know what to do, but I must decide fast, its getting horribly late for office already. Uhmmm, I let her in to wash vessels, helping her carry it to the sink, with the soap, the tap, the little thing that she is, she cannot even reach upto the tap in the kitchen sink. I chat her up, while she is at it, also while I feel terribly guilty about all of it.
Ever since then I have been thinking about child labour and how disgusting it is! I think on a daily basis each of us do end up interfacing with child labour in some form or the other, either directly or indirectly. The kid at the traffic signal selling ear buds and offerring to clean your windscreen, the kid delivering newspaper or may be milk. While its very easy to take a stand on it when seeing a footage of the kids at the fireworks factories of Sivakasi or the kids at local construction sites or the ones at the fast food junctions that trudge by all grimy, carrying that plastic basket, in which they sweep your used plates into, swipe your table with a grimy sponge and carry on to the next table, it is very tough to take a stand on this issue in practice, when you really need them to do a chore for you, with no other alternative in sight.
Say, you do find the grimy kid cleaning plates and tables at this south-indian fast-food junction you frequent, for that nice dosa, or a cup of strong filter kaapi, or khara bath, what do you do? Leave after telling the manager that he ought not to employ that kid? In doing so, will you really aid in changing the situation? Ok, so you might say, if all of us do it, refuse to eat in such a junction, the manager will eventually come around and let go of him. United we stand! But am not so sure the grimy kid will be happy with this arrangement, he’d most likely beg the manager to put him on the washing of plates, behind the curtains, where noone will really see, and hence noone will really object. The manager will most likely have no problems with that at all, something tells me his rules are like, the wages are proportionate to the age till about 20 or so! Younger the better.
There’s another subtle issue with this ‘taking a stand’ idea. Say you are with a bunch of friends at this fast food junction, would you have the guts to convince all your friends that they must leave this place since the manager employs child-workers over there? Would they all agree? Or would they pull you to sit down and simply enjoy the coffee and not look for child-labours in every darned place! In our fast-paced lifestyles, all we are looking for when out with a bunch of buds, is to have a light moment. Would you really bother getting frenzied about this ‘taking a stand’ idea? Err… I might not. I would crib, maybe speak to the manager about it too, but after my snacks.
What then is a better solution? Laws? Stricter Laws? and equally strict enforcement? Yes, that should be the way to go about it. I believe we already have the laws in place, dont we? And the enforcement? It’s not happening. Should we try writing to editors of newspapers? Should we go on little protest marches that, so like butterflies, die their own death, in a day? Should we think of where we can make a difference, may be not let my maid’s 10 year-old daughter do the chores at my place, do it myself? Or should I simply lie down and take solace in the fact that even though she had to wash my dirty vessels, I gave her a cup of Horlicks. That confuses me, that last bit, may be I didn’t really do her any harm by having her wash vessels in my place, I think.
Then, are the Cracker-dudes at Sivakasi justified in employing the little ones, if they also ensure that they get educated? Is that a fair deal? Then, don’t the little boys and girls employed at construction sites have a right to earning money for their own education? That almost sounds fair, doesn’t it? Donot think am trying to present child-labour to you in a whole new package of how it is justified. Nothing justifies the dangerous working conditions of the kids at the fireworks factories, but if made safe, and the kids are educated simultaneously, am wondering if it is such a unfair deal. What do you say?
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This is a result of India not having a social security system in place. We have no right to object child labor when we cannot put food in the mouths of these kids. The best thing the govt can do is to regulate child labor thereby ensuring better pay and working conditions for the kids. Hey, even rich kids do chores for pocket money. Nothing wrong if it happens under the right working conditions. However, they need to be educated simultaneously so that they have a chance to get out of the vivicious circle and make a better future for themselves. Education is the key to most of the ills that haunt this society today.