Saharanpur is the district known for its wood carving industry. The district is blessed with the craftsmen who are believed to have magical palm and fingers. The handcrafted workmanship and the incredible designs project this district on the map of the world. Behind this antique presentation of art lies day and night donkey work of minors in the age group of 10-18 years. When one walks in the meter wide streets which cuts at ninety degree and where every turn leads to a workshop, one can see a number of small kids carving beautiful structures out of a wooden blog. And these kids are child labour as the Indian law puts it.
Child labour is defined as an economic activity for children less than 12 years, any work for those aged 12-14 of sufficient hours per week to undermine their health or education, and all "hazardous work" which could threaten the health of children under 18.2 Around 6 am in the early morning one can see number of bicycles moving towards city from the villages and these cyclists are small children who come to their work place and return to their homes after ten hours of rigorous work.
Today this artistic class of rural India is struggling hard to survive in the profit oriented business class. The district has low literacy rate and high density of population. Kids stop going to schools because of low family income and large family size. Therefore to feed the mouth of extra large family, soft hands have to pick up tools. These kids from villages move to the city of Saharanpur in search of jobs. They do not find difficulty in finding job of trainee in handicraft industry. For the first year they receive 5 Rs/day INR and from second year onwards the wages are increased to Rs 25/day INR. Normally they spend an amount of 24 Rs/day INR on travel and food expenses. So the net outflow is 19 Rs/day INR. And in spite of this investment they are not trained to a professional extent. During this period of time the kids are either asked to clean the floor or just stand beside the senior artist. They are expected to learn only by seeing and not by doing.
Therefore we can see that after two years of rigorous hard work, these kids are, actually, at loss. And at the end of training period they find that they are unable to do anything because they were actually trained for sweeping the floor. The number of kids moving to the city from village Patni alone reaches 80. In all there are 1607villages in the district contributing to a total of 10,000 to 12,000 kids working in the city.
This was just an example from a small city, the number for the country as a whole would go beyond imagination.
Child labour is the biggest abuse to mankind. The instrumental use of small kids who don’t even have a world view is beyond expectation from this civilized society.
The instrumental use of small kids who don’t even have a world view is beyond expectation from this civilized society.
