(child) Labour party.
One reason why India is as it is, is on account of child labour. It is perhaps one of the most vicious forms of slavery or abuse. Well. Its hard to think of a more vicious one.
In one village I stayed I met a young man who was a student in Varanasi university.. intelligent villager.. son of landless peasants (serfs). Very poor people in bihar. ( though he assured me that they were not beggars.) We met a few times.. he was on holidays from university and had some spare time. He also undertook some volunteer teaching work at the local school when not attending studies.
One day we were out sitting by the river talking about this and that and three young children came by.. they were collecting rubbish.. recyclables any old bottles or cans.. paper.. the eldest would have been about 8 years though their growth was probably stunted from malnourishment making it difficult to judge. They listened intently to our conversation. they werent imposing.. they were hungry to learn and join in… after a while they went on their way. My bihari friend said that he knew of their case.(it was not a large village) his school had wanted the boys to enrol and attend class but the parents required the boys to work to contribute to the household income… it was one of those moments that left me wondering. (Or staggering had I been standing.)
Worse cases on a daily basis happen in the form of child beggars. I reckon it is often so that the parents send the kids out to beg preventing them from going to school.
In Nepal it is more blatant.
Often on the busses you get child conductors.. they work very hard.. in very, very polluted and harsh conditions.. it must ruin their health.. they will gain no reward as the parents will take whatever their meagre income will be.. they will miss out on schooling and be exposed to who knows what other influences in stead….
That is not where the problem ends though.. the children will be the sons and daughters of displaced peasants or even working peasants who subsist on 100 or200 rupees a day or less.. that is their wage.. and they work hard for it . this is no fiction: it is slavery.
I grew up so blithely ignorant of just how lucky I am..
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