After School, It's Beedi Rolling Time

Childhood Up In Smoke

Children of the Soil

Domestic Torture and Slavery

New Day Dawns for Child Servants

Child Labour to End in a Decade?

'Child Out of School is a Labourer'

Child Servants of Baba-logs

Girls as Workhorses

Abattoirs also Slaughter Childhood

India
After School, It's Beedi Rolling Time
Ratna Bharali Talukdar

Women and school-going girls, who account for the majority of about 50,000 home-based 'beedi' rollers in Dhubri district of lower Assam, work in extremely hazardous conditions to produce approximately 15 million 'beedis', or indigenous cigarettes made from leaf rolls filled with tobacco, every day. They spend several back-breaking hours rolling the 'beedis', while being constantly exposed to tobacco dust, and all this to earn a paltry Rs 36 - Rs 38 per 1,000 'beedis'. Despite the ban on child labour, girls are engaged in 'beedi'-making before and after school hours because every rupee earned makes a difference to their poverty-stricken families.

'Ruma, a Class VII student, rolls 'beedis' for six hours every day, even at the cost of her studies and health.'

[Photographs Available]

India
Childhood Up In Smoke
Hema Vijay

Strange as this may sound in the 21st century, bonded labour of children is still rampant in rural Tamil Nadu. Young and nimble fingers are put to work to roll 'beedis' (indigenous leaf cigarettes), as the children pay off the loans taken by their impoverished parents with their innocence. A group of determined women of Gudiyatham village have taken it upon themselves to release these young ones from such slavery. Working together under the banner of Kalanjiyam, the women accost factory unit employers to free children. Their efforts have been instrumental in securing the release of 644 children from matchstick and 'beedi' units, so far.

"We just walk up to these unit owners and tell them that child labour is banned under the law... Earlier, we used to collect money to pay off the loan taken by the child's parents to free these kids."

[Photographs Available]

India
Children of the Soil
Nitin Jugran Bahuguna

When it comes to hazardous workplaces, agriculture is one of the three most perilous work sectors. Yet, the world over, more than 132 million girls and boys aged between 5 to 14 years are employed in crop and livestock production. 'Child Labour Facts and Figures: An Analysis of Census 2001", recently released by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Indus Child Labour Project, analyses the child labour situation in India, and, among other shocking facts, indicates an over 200 per cent increase in the number of marginal child workers.

"Agriculture is now an increasingly commercialised activity and new forms of commercial activities will raise new forms of child labour."

Bangladesh
Domestic Torture and Slavery
Ratna Yasmin

About two million children - mostly girls - in Bangladesh work as domestic help, and several NGO studies now prove the vulnerability of these children to sexual exploitation, harassment and physical torture. One survey showed that, in a three-month period, 16 maidservants, mostly minors, were raped and nine were murdered. And when these children become pregnant due to the abuse, they are rejected not only by their employers, but also their families. Clearly, the law must gear up to address these wrongs.

"Although slavery is non-existent, the maidservants work like slaves"

India
New Day Dawns for Child Servants
Mini Sharma

The latest amendment to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act - due to come into effect on October 10, 2006 - prohibits the use of child labour in homes and all kinds of restaurants and hotels. Child rights activists have for long been demanding this to protect the fundamental rights of the child. The provision will also finally give authorities the right to punish those who engage and abuse children in their homes and other 'non-hazardous' establishments. A view from Bhopal.

"The incidents of mental, physical and sexual exploitation of children that we come across would send a shiver up anyone's spine."

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