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FIROZABAD
A CITY OF MISSING CHILDHOOD
A report by GOONJ..
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The
purpose behind our visit from January 5th to 7th’
2006 to Firozabad & Shikohabad in U.P., was a basic
survey of the conditions of children, schools, women and the general
population; so that we can assess and identify our areas of further
intervention. Firozabad is known for its famous glass bangle industry
where child labour and exploitation is rampant. Numerous villages
and slums surround it at the outskirts. A number of voluntary
organisations or NGOs are working here for socio-economic development
and elimination/reduction of exploitative labour.
GOONJ.. has
been collaborating with the Vikas Trust / MEBABS (Mahila Evam
Bal Adhikar Bachao Sangatthan), one such organisation here, for
nearly three years. Till now our association was restricted to
provision of school material for the Non-Formal-Education Centres
(NFEs) they were running, cloth sanitary napkins for women and
clothes for the general population. However, after spending two
days there and assessing the exact conditions and needs, we wish
to widen our focus from basic provision of material to playing
a more active role. We intend on taking up more responsibility
for running the NFEs as well as launching our initiative ‘Not
Just a Piece of Cloth’ with greater vigour.
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There were five aspects to our field visit –
1. The implementation and carrying through of our initiative
Vastra-Daan in this area.
2. State of children, education and NFEs; and the opening of
an Activity Centre there.
3. Scope for GOONJ.. provided
sanitary napkins for women and the role of Self-Help-Groups
(SHGs)
4. The Banjara Dera in Surnampur Village
5. Education centres/NFEs in brick kilns
At the outset, it is important to describe the general scenario,
giving a brief account of the background of the children whom
we wish to work for. Most families here have an average size
of about eight to ten people. And, each member is not a liability
as a ‘mouth to feed’,
but is an asset as a ‘hand to earn’.
Children normally begin to work at the age of about five, before
which also s/he is involved in some work or the other, concerning
the glass bangle industry. This is so because now the industry
operates from the home and thus each household member contributes
to it in some way or the other.
Earlier,
all children and workers worked in the factories of the industrialists
and contractors. Due to NGO intervention, about a seven-eight
years back, many of these factories were raided, sanctions and
fines imposed on the owners and children released. But, eventually,
the industrialists bought the corrupt government officials and
resumed their business. In fact, the fines are pending till today.
The only change this brought about was a shift of base in work.
Now, contractors began to outsource the bangle work to families
who operated from home. Resultantly, each and every family member
got roped into the job at all times of the day.
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The
modus operandi of the work now, although still within the realm
of child labour laws (prohibiting children below fourteen years
of age from working under particular conditions in factories)
rendered these very laws impotent. The current occupational
structure was very ambiguous in term of whether the children
are being exploited or are merely helping their parents with
their work. More so, the unwillingness of the parents to make
these laws applicable even to the new occupational structure
left concerned individuals and organisations powerless in controlling
this form of exploitation.
Although working conditions improved slightly, with some comforts
of the home being available to the children while working; the
flip side is that now there is no respite from the work atmosphere
– which comprises gas fumes, smoke and glass dust. This
adversely affects the health of all family members, causing
major health hazards. Earlier this was restricted only to the
premises of the factory, but is now brought into each and every
household. Also, the working hours have increased, as parents
heartlessly wake up their little children at three in the morning
to start working.
Children are mostly involved in two aspects of the phased bangle
making process – sadai (straightening out the bangle)
and judai (welding the joint of the bangle). Both, sadai and
judai are extremely harmful and dangerous – leading to
burns and causing the harsh flame, gas fumes and glass dust
to blow right into the face of the worker.
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In the name of houses they have just one small room, accommodating
about 8 to 10 people. In this little place, sadai and judai is
going on in every little corner possible. They eat, sleep and
produce more children in this little room itself. They have no
concept of family planning as neither condoms nor steralisation
is in use or practice, the government supported health system
is in a bad shape. Maybe this isn’t just a consequence of
lack of awareness or poverty; somewhere there could also be the
factor of a greed for having more earning members in the family.
One wonders what the impact of this is on the children. One also
wonders where a monthly income of about four-five thousand is
being spent apart from fulfilling the basic needs of all members,
clearing of a constant debt by repaying loans taken from locals
or employers and supplying a regular stock of liquor to the father.
Most men here have high levels of alcohol consumption and
also harbour a huge capacity for gambling in the form of Satta.
Nonetheless, they too contribute to the family earnings by doing
the marketing jobs of the bangles and judai as well.
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Another segment of labourers here is of those who sell their labour
on a daily basis in labour-whole sale-markets. Obviously there
are no fixed rates (it is almost like auctioning the minimum amount,
which depends on the desperation of a person to get a job for
one day) and there is no guarantee that s/he will procure a job
every day. This system speaks volumes of the level of poverty
and exploitation in this region.
Exploitation
occurs by depriving a child of her/his childhood (education, play
time, health care are some of the basics). It was a gloomy and
disillusioning picture to watch these little children working
on one bangle after another, oblivious of any reason to smile
or laugh. When we speak to them, they give monosyllabic answers
and do not even look up at us. One dark room, with the company
of a thousand bangles and a flame is all they have to fill their
lives with. Our one-on-one interaction with the children exposed
the shocking revelation that each and every child complains of
her/his parents – “mummy khelne nahin deti”
(my mother does not let me play), “mummy marti hai”
(my mother beats me), “papa dhhai bajay raat ko uttha dete
hain” (my father wakes me up at 2:30 in the night). Not
only is this a violation of child rights, but a blatant violation
of childhood itself – the freedom to smile, to enjoy, to
learn, to grow
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Implementation
of Vastra-Daan :
It
was rather amusing and interesting to see some our own methodologies
being silently executed in the activities of the Trust. Just the
way GOONJ.. prevents
wastage of every inch of cloth, the Vikas Trust has devised ways
of bringing over-sized garments to use. Some of the clothes that
GOONJ.. sends them
are too large for anyone to fit into. The Trust has formulated
a whole programme for putting this cloth to use by making smaller
garments like children’s clothing and under-garments out
of it. This has generated employment for young girls and is a
good vocational training exercise for those who do not know stitching.
The regular distribution of the clothes we send them has been
given the name ‘Project Need’. This
has truly brought our statement ‘Making Clothing
a Matter of Concern’ to life!
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Education
for Child Labourers in NFEs
The
Vikas Trust has about nineteen NFEs in Firozabad and Agra districts.
Each NFE (named as – Upekshit Bal Vikas Kendra - UBVK) has
about fifty-sixty children from the age group of about four-fourteen.
The method of teaching followed here is like it is in most NFEs
of India, i.e. play-way education, the syllabus of which is usually
designed by some central agency.
The subjects covered are Mathematics, Hindi and General Knowledge.
English, although formally introduced, owing to lack of expertise,
it isn’t quite taught in a proper manner.
The
effort of these schools is to get as many students from here as
possible, admitted into formal government schools. Formal schools
have fees, unlike NFEs where free education is being imparted.
Moreover, formal schools have longer hours, as opposed to the
three-four hour schedule the families are used to in NFEs. The
question arises, why would parents be willing to spend money on
their child’s education which would also cut down on their
working hours at home, when they treat their children as sources
of income.
The answer is not simple, as umpteen contradictions cross-cut
each other at various levels, preventing a clear image to emerge.
On the one hand teachers complain that they literally have to
go from door to door every day to call children; or actually plead
to their parents to send their children to school. On the other
hand there are parents who come willingly to admit their children
to school. Although currently a small minority, this segment furnishes
hope for a brighter future. Another hopeful remark, providing
an answer, was that of a girl in the Sant Nagar UBVK. Uniform
clad, when asked why, as UBVKs do not require a uniform, she said
her mother bought her one, asserting that when other children
in formal schools wear uniforms, why shouldn’t her daughter?
This thought in a mother highlights the desire to invest in a
child’s education and future. It allows outsiders like us
to imagine a future of these children outside the gloomy bangle
industry.
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However,
all such cases are exceptions, and to turn this into the majority
the Vikas Trust isn’t just working on child education, but
also parental counseling and guidance. They do this through SHGs,
what they call ‘samuh’, which aim at financial empowerment,
health care and education. Consisting mostly of women (but involving
men in meetings sometimes), these groups are counseled about child
rights. The organisation has even formed Child Rights Protection
Committees out of SHG members, and has involved them in restoration
of child rights. More about the role of SHGs in the lives of these
families, especially women, will be discussed later.
The
positive outcome of an accumulation of all these factors is that
about two-thirds of the UBVK students, every year, do get enrolled
into formal government schools.
Children love attending school. It is the only time they get for
themselves, to be children, to live out their childhood, to play
games, learn, grow! They frankly admit their dislike, even hatred
for the bangle making job that their lives have been forcefully
immersed into. They say they would come to school even on Sundays
if given the opportunity. Rani, a student of the Sant Nagar UBVK
said, “we would come to school everyday if we got uniforms
and shoes”. Commenting on the clothes GOONJ..
sends them, she said, “we are too small for the big clothes
you send us, please send us ‘fitting’ clothes”.
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GOONJ plans to tread a two-pronged
path as far as support for these NFEs is concerned –
1. To increase the number of UBVKs so more children have access
to education.
2. To improve the quality of infrastructure and facilities in
the UBVKs by regular provision of material.
By
assessing the needs of a few NFEs we have an idea that how and
where we can fill in the gaps and supply the schools with whatever
material they require. May it be something as small as four nail-cutters
for the school or a water pail, or something like furniture, mats
or even monetary support for the facilitators and teachers of
the school, we wish to support them in a sustainable manner.
We
are planning to launch this programme with much greater vigour
now. The reason being that we recognise a strong urgency here
for a fundamental change, almost a paradigm shift, that we may
be able to spark off by working with the Vikas trust, whose implementation
of our activities we are satisfied with.
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Our contact Details-
GOONJ..
Tel.- (m)-98681-46978, (o)-011-26972351
J-93, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi-44
E-mail - anshugoonj24@gmail.com
anshu_goonj1@yahoo.co.in
Website-www.goonj.info |
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