Afzal Ansari, a 12-year old boy from Darbhanga, Bihar, who had spent one year and five months in a zari workshop in Govandi died of injuries and hunger.

Last Month, Afzal Ansari, a 12-year old boy from Darbhanga, Bihar, who had spent one year and five months in a zari workshop in Govandi died of injuries and weakness.

His employers, Alamgir and Jahangir Sheikh, kept him and 10 or 12 other boys in a tiny room in which they worked, for up to 20 hours a day, and slept in the same room.

Neighbours said they never saw the boys leave the room. They were frequently beaten. Last month, Afzal was rescued by his aunt, Zulekha Ansari, a domestic worker from Nagpada, but died two days later of injuries and weakness. Afzal had worked for months without being paid a single rupee. His is not an isolated case- not by a long shot.

Child rights activists estimate that the number of children working in zari workshops in Govandi, Dharavi, Jogeshwari and other areas of Mumbai is close to 60,000. Most of the children come from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand and are sent by their families to ‘learn a skill’. Many are also trafficked. They are made to work for long hours with constant abuse and for little money (Rs 40-50 per week for older children).

Smaller boutiques and fashion designers buy the zari from the workshop-owners and export them. “Most of the zari made in these workshops is exported to the Middle East, the US and Kenya,” says child rights activist Santosh Shinde, whose organisation, “Balprafulta has previously led raids into zari workshops.

“An older child may earn Rs 40-50 per week and the workshop owner, a few thousand rupees per month. But the exporters make lakhs of rupees,” says Shinde. Between them, the children from one workshop make, on an average, one sari in two days. It is 6.5 metres long and the material finally sells at a staggering Rs 1 lakh per metre, adds Shinde.

“Children work everywhere, in hotels and restaurants, in paan shops even as delivery boys for tea stall vendors. Muslim children constitute the bulk of the child labour in India, according to the report of the 4th World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995, Country Paper, India, (A Draft), Government of India 1994. “Poverty reflects social and cultural marginalization. This is indicated by studies of many of the industries where there is a substantial presence of child labour, like the carpet industry, the match industry, brassware, glass, bangle and lock making, slate, gem polishing industries and the tea plantations. These show that the overwhelming majority of children working in these industries come from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes and Muslim communities,” the reports says. “The fact that most of India’s child labourers come from communities whose work largely involves manual labour reveals the wider, complex social factors that contribute to the phenomenon of child labour. These communities are the victims of a social system characterised by unequal access to the principal productive resources and assets. These communities often migrate to the cities to join the burgeoning informal sector”.

The community is currently focusing on education. But this revolution is side-tracking the children belonging to the deprived section. While it is true that child labourers come from impoverished families, it should be noted that child labour also perpetuates poverty, since the child labourer who survives the harsh conditions becomes an unskilled, debilitated adult who is not employed even in the industry that exploited him or her earlier. Furthermore, child labourers receive a low, negligible income and often no wages at all. Child labour also depresses adult wages and keeps adults unemployed.

Thus with not a single organisation taking care of the Muslim children belonging to the deprived section of the community, there is a huge vacuum which neutralizes the efforts of those organisations working in the field of education.

There is a need to think for a comprehensive strategy at the local and regional level focusing on enrolling the children from deprived section either in mainstream education system or in the alternative system of imparting them with certain skills so that they can earn a decent living.
The writer can be reached at mhl@rediffmail.com.

Investigation