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?