Jaipur Lac Bangles Glitter on Sweat of Trafficked Child Labour

Hoarding seeking peoples' support to root out Child Labour in Jaipur

India continues to be a hotspot for child labour even while the government claims that the many laws it has enacted to curb the menace are producing results. The latest data reveals that there are 1,26,66,277 child workers in India. The highest 19,27,997 are in Uttar Pradesh which accounts for 20 percent of the total in the country.

In Jaipur, which has been identified as the most child labour prone city, reports suggest that children are trafficked from other states to work in undertakings manufacturing These reports reveal the tearful tales of children being trafficked, largely from Bihar, to work in small and big, textile, carpet and bangle factories operating all over the state. Newspapers over the years have been printing sordid tales of the sufferings of child labour

A recent report by Roli Srivastava for the Thomson Reuters Foundation reveals that            ” Impoverished children from Bihar have for years been trafficked to tourist-magnet Jaipur to work as slaves making bangles, embroidering or sewing buttons … Officials say 80 percent of the child workers in Jaipur have been trafficked from Bihar to work as slave labour in the handicraft industry that includes hand-embroidered clothes, costume jewellery and bangles.”

According to official data Rajasthan has about 250,000 child workers, which is possibly the highest in the country. People in the know claim, that the problem could actually be much larger. They claim that the data fails to capture the extent of home-based child labour. Jaipur has a reputation for its crafts and handicrafts and its artisanal industry which is quite at odds with the image of children working at workshops

Rajasthan has a strong and traditional rich handicraft industry, which includes printed textiles, shawls, embroidered fabrics and jewellery earning the state substantial revenues through exports. Demand has been increasing which has resulted in longer working hours. "Handicraft work in Jaipur used to be a family-based local business, but it has expanded in a big way. They want more people to work for more profit," Varsha Joshi, head of charity Childline in Jaipur told Thomson Reuter.

"Handicraft work in Jaipur used to be a family-based local business, but it has expanded in a big way. They want more people to work for more profit," according to an anti-child trafficking worker. With increased demand, the need for child labour seems to have increased. Manufacturers prefer children because they are easier to control, are cheap to employ and have nimble fingers to pick up small beads to stick on bangles or embroider an intricate design on a fabric.

Being placed among 100 cities across the country to be developed as smart cities Jaipur has

initiated steps to clean up its image as a child labour city. Several campaigns have been carried out by civil society organizations with some help by the police to rescue child labour. A major state-backed campaign has been launched against child labour and  trafficking According to officials the city's inclusion in India's $7.5 billion plan to turn the city  into a smart city by 2020 is the motivation.

Narendra Sikhwal, head of Jaipur's child welfare committee, said "When it was decided to make Jaipur a smart city, it became important to clean up. If tourists notice child labour, it creates a wrong impression. Our reputation can't be harmed. It is a blot on the city," he told the Thomson

Reuters Foundation.

Over the past years, through intensive campaigns and raids, the authorities have been able to rescue increasing number of children who were trafficked to work in cramped workplaces. According to the rescuers and the Anti Human Trafficking squad of the Jaipur Police the children were forced to work in bondage  in inhuman working environment.

The police data revealed that egged on by members of the civil society and speared headed by the Anti Human Trafficking squads the number of children rescued has been increasing every year. Official data reveals that 720 child labourers were rescued in 2014 and another 839 in 2015  in Jaipur. Lack of cooperation from local police. According to local activists, rescue work is often hampered because of the non-cooperation of the local police.

Child rights activist Deshraj Singh says  “Most of the work that has been done in this field is by the AHTU with little help from police. In spite of the fact that increasing number of child labourers are being employed in the bangle-making and jewellery industry, police stations rarely take any action in their own capacity.” Singh said lack of coordination among departments involved such as the department for child rights, the labour department and the social justice and empowerment department at times make things more complex.

Almost all the children, who are trafficked to Rajasthan, are brought to the state through a well-managed network of agents, whose job is to convince their families. The trafficking operations start after a local, contracts the family and convinces the family that he can provide the child with good education and a  future he is allowed to take the child to Jaipur. The agent often referred to as Seth hoodwinks the parents into believing that the child would be able to study as well as earn a good income.

Once the child reaches Jaipur his life of misery starts. The children are packed into a small inadequate room and not allowed to venture out. They are restricted to the narrow room where they are forced to work for up to 18 hours a day. The children, some aged as young as five, are not allowed to go to school and rarely saw the world outside the room, where they work, eat and sleep.

Rescued children returning to their homes in Bihar

One of the rescued children revealed that “The bangle factory owner would often scold us. The room where I along with six other children lived was not enough for all of us. We were also not allowed to go outside,” a 16-year-old.

Though the government has expressed its desire to end child labour in the state implementation of the required steps has been tardy. The laws are on the statute book what is lacking is the lack of seriousness and determination. A few civil society organizations are presently in the forefront pushing the authorities to act with greater vigour. There are some results with children being rescued from the bondage of forced labour however these have not been able to make a dent in the situation.

With the city being earmarked to be developed as a smart city there is now greater urgency. Promoters are worried that child labour would earn the city a bad reputation and keep prospective investors away. This has spurred campaigns to convince people to fight against the use of child labour. Large banners and hoarding at vantage points across the city urge the citizens to support the efforts of the local administration to do away with child labour.