Media exposure and prompt action by the administration and a voluntary organisation bring freedom to some bonded child workers in Kancheepuram's silk-weaving industry.
in Kancheepuram"I CANNOT believe I am free and can see daylight." These words of 13-year-old V. Manikandan, who was freed from a master weaver in Kancheepuram, a major silk-weaving centre 80 km from Chennai, left most of those gathered at a recent function to mark the release of bonded children with moist eyes. Like Manikandan, over 150 children, between the age of six and 15, from Kancheepuram and Tiruvannamalai districts are thrilled to be out of the loom pits in which they had been working from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year, for several years.
They are free today thanks to the Kancheepuram district administration and the Social Action Movement (SAM), a non-profit, voluntary organisation based in Kancheepuram. The master weavers had kept them in bondage against loans ranging from Rs.1,000 to Rs.10,000 that their parents had taken. Manikandan, for instance, had been in bondage for five years as his father could not repay in full Rs.5,000 that he had borrowed from a master weaver. The district administration and SAM acted after the media exposed the plight of thousands of children like him (Frontline, February 28, 2003).
The district administration released 114 bonded children by means of action taken under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 and deposited Rs.20,000 in the name of each child; started two special schools (at Pillaiyarpalayam and Yagasalai) that would act as "bridges" before the children are integrated into regular schools and sent notices to some master weavers under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act. According to E.P. Annalarasu, Project Officer, Nilavoli Palli (`schools under moonlight'), the district administration has come out with a number of other schemes, which are expected to receive funds to the tune of Rs.5 crores from the National Child Labour Project (NCLP). Eighty per cent of the funds so far have come from the United States government and the remainder from the International Labour Organisation.
Under the NCLP, several measures are to be introduced in areas where child labour is a major problem. The programme proposes to set up over 50 special schools, strengthen regular schools, establish more than 500 self-help groups (SHGs), train women in vocations that could supplement their income, make a monthly deposit of Rs.100 in a nationalised bank for every child taken off work and put in a regular school and book offending master weavers under the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act. Annalarasu says: "We will take all precautions to make sure that every released child remains in school and not at work."
How is the administration going to ensure that the children do not slip back into bondage? According to Annalarasu, the district administration has initiated steps for this. For instance, of the Rs.20,000 that is allotted to the family of every child released under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act only Rs.1,000 will be given to the parents and the remainder will be deposited in a nationalised bank in the name of the child. This amount will be released to the family after the child turns 21. Even the interest on the deposit (Rs.98 a month) will be paid to the family only if the child is in school. The sum of Rs.100, proposed to be given to each released child under the NCLP, will be put in a recurring deposit account only if the child remains in school.
Annalarasu says: "Though the NCLP has been effective in Kancheepuram since 1997, we have not got any funds from the government and the steps we have taken to rehabilitate the released bonded children have been supported only by philanthropic funds." In 1997-98, the district administration released 81 children from bondage under the Bonded Labour Act and gave Rs.10,000 in full (the amount given under the Act at that time) to the family of each one of them. Some of the families took the money but sent the children back into bondage.
On June 3, SAM, which has freed over 200 children in the past three years and put them in special schools, released 27 bonded children from Kancheepuram and Tiruvannamalai districts by paying Rs.72,500 (collected from philanthropists and people who offered help after reading media reports) to the master weavers. SAM conducted a three-week orientation course for the released children before putting them in regular schools. But the real challenge, according to Father P.B. Martin, secretary, SAM, is to prevent them from going back to work.
Parents of many of the released children are not sure if they will be able to keep their wards in school for long. Speaking on behalf of all the parents whose children were released by SAM, Dhanam, Chamundeswari's mother, says: "We know the value of education. We are all keen to send our children to school. But our economic condition is such that the Rs.100 to Rs.250 that the child brings every month from working in the loom is a big help to the family." Nine-year-old S. Sankari asks: "How is it that even after working for so many years the amount of money my parents owe the master weavers remains the same? We want to say goodbye to work and march to school. But how can we?"
Eleven-year-old D. Annamalai laments: "Is there no solution to our misery? We all want to be in school. We know it is the right of every child to be in school. But is that right not applicable to poor children like us?"
Studies show that poverty is not the only cause of bonded labour. The other major reasons include lack of access to credit, the absence of coordinated social welfare schemes, the inaccessibility and the low standards of schools, caste discrimination in schools, the non-implementation of minimum wages for adults, adult unemployment, and historical and economic relationships based on the caste hierarchy and other discriminatory factors. Monthly adult wages are so low - Rs.500 to Rs.1,500 - that the workers are forced to keep borrowing from their employers, who ensure that the loans remain even though the value of the labour performed by the child is enough to repay the debt several times over.
According to Annalarasu, one way of ensuring that the released children remain in school is to provide supplementary income to the families. The SHGs have an important role to play in this regard. He says that the district administration has started over 500 SHGs and has lent Rs.11.32 lakhs in the past eight months. He suggests that the SHGs help in the eradication of child bondage in many ways. They provide additional income to the family, create awareness about the advantages of sending children to school and also help build social pressure to send children to school. This is borne out by the fact that over 20 children in the areas covered by the SHGs have voluntarily joined the special schools without even claiming the Rs.20,000 they are entitled to under the Bonded Labour Act.
WHILE it is important to ensure that the released children do not return to bondage, it is also crucial to rescue thousands of children who continue to be bonded to master weavers. The government has a role to play in this. According to Annalarasu, the district administration has acted to solve the problem by starting 30 schools (for adults and children), which function from 7-30 p.m. to 9-30 p.m., to accommodate those who work during the day. Several children from these schools appeared for the matriculation-level Board examinations as private candidates and have done well, he says.
Night schools should not be seen as a solution to the problem of bondage of children. The children, after working 12 hours a day, find it difficult to sit through the classes. The only way to deal with the issue effectively is to implement the law on compulsory primary education strictly.
But, according to N. Radhakrishnan of the Arivoli Iyakkam (a literacy movement) in Kancheepuram, there are many problems in implementing laws against child labour and bonded labour. The laws vary in the matter of fixing the upper age limit to define child labour: it ranges from 14 years to 18 years. According to Radhakrishnan, the district administration had booked 141 cases under the Child Labour (Abolition) Act (1986) in Kancheepuram but only one came up for hearing. The Act has a number of loopholes. For instance, an amendment has removed the provision for three months imprisonment for master weavers who employ children; now they only have to pay a fine of Rs.10,000.
Says Radhakrishnan: "It is easier to release a child under the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act. The District Revenue Officer is the magistrate under the Act and if he certifies the release of the child, the master weaver has to comply." Thus, according to Radhakrishnan, different Acts are invoked depending on the situation. "The bottom line," he says, "is to see to it that the child is out of bondage and into school."
But asked why only 114 children had been released in Kancheepuram under the Bonded Labour Act while thousands remain enslaved, Annalarasu says that parents have to fill a form giving details such as the name of the employer, the nature of work and the amount owed. Only 114 parents had submitted the details.
Inquiries revealed that parents hesitated to give the details either because they had been threatened by the employers or because they did not want to spoil the chances of getting help from the master weavers in future.
According to T. Raj, project officer, SAM, this amounts to looking at the issue simplistically and shifting the responsibility to poor parents who are compelled to send their children to work. The district administration needs to look at the issue comprehensively without compartmentalising it on the basis of projects, programmes and targets if it really intends to "free the children from bondage and wants them to see daylight".
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