'Discover India' CD-ROM includes over 60 sides of photocopiable support materials. These include all the information on the disk, as well as many extra statistics and information. As an example, the material supporting the 'A Day's Work' section is included below.
A Day's Work
ACTIONAID India writes: 'Sending a child to school for the better part of the daylight hours is a luxury that none can afford.'
In Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, matchstick factories employ
70 000 children, 90% of them girls. By changing the clock, you can see and hear some of the experiences of one child, working in these factories.
Midnight
In bed. India has more working children of school-going age than any other country in the world.
1.00am
In bed. There are more than 17 million child labourers in India, with 70 000 in the Sivakasi region of Tamil Nadu (a state in the south of India).
2.00am
In bed. A loom owner in Mirzapur has admitted that he keeps his child labour force in captivity because he pays them in advance and he says they will run away if he lets them go.
3.00am
In bed. A court in Delhi ruled that Child Labour Unions were unlawful, so the children have no rights at work.
4.00am
In bed. There is only me and my mother here at the moment. My father has left for the city to find work as his crop has failed again. This happens a lot as the rain in this part of the country is unreliable. If the crop fails he has to go and earn money to buy us food. I have to earn money to help him.
5.00am
I must get up now and get ready for work. I have to wash, make my bed, and make my own breakfast. I must not be late for the bus.
6.00am
The bus is here to pick me up. The factory supplies it free as there are no public buses this early in the day. Without it I could not go to work.
7.00am
In the factory we all begin work now. I am 10 years old but most of the children here are just five or six. I began when I was five and now I am one of the oldest. I am also one of the fastest workers and that means I get paid more. I work seven days a week to earn as much money as I can.
8.00am
I place matches on a rack ready to be put in boxes. I get paid for the amount of work I do so I must work hard all day. Some children leave the factory at 8am to go to school for the morning. They are very lucky, I would like to go to school.
9.00am
The sun shines through the gaps in the factory walls and it gets very hot in here. The temperature can reach 37.5° Centigrade or even hotter. Sometimes I dream of being outside in the sunshine and the fresh air.
10.00am
I do my second job of the day now. This is my favourite job, packing matches into boxes. I am much better at this. Working is not as cramped here and my neck and back do not ache so much.
11.00am
My hands are getting sore and I am looking forward to my lunch break when I can walk around and talk to people.
Midday
This is the worst time of the day as the sun is at the highest point and the factory is hottest. I can’t stop working though.
1.00pm
Lunchtime! I can relax now. I must not take too long though because I don’t get paid when I’m not working. I usually take 20 - 40 minutes for my break. I always bring my own packed lunch, as it saves money.
2.00pm
This is the best time of the day, everyone is happy after their lunch. I enjoy this part of the day, I can work quickly again.
3.00pm
I am sticking boxes together now. This is the worst job of the day because if I get any glue on my hands they will itch. I don’t mind though because I would rather be doing this than working in the fireworks part of the factory. There are regular accidents there and people are always getting hurt.
4.00pm
It’s nearly time to go home. I’m working hard now as I can have a rest soon. I am lucky here because the job is not boring and it pays better than other jobs.
5.00pm
The day is nearly over and I am looking forward to going home soon. My boss is looking at the amount of work I have done and working out how much I shall get paid.
6.00pm
It is the end of the day. I did a lot today and got paid 8 Rupees (20p). I have to spend 1 Rupee on the bus fare home but that leaves 7 Rupees, which is a lot for someone my age.
7.00pm
I am home now. I can have my dinner and relax. My friends are going to school soon. I hope I can go with them.
8.00pm
I gave my parents my wages but they say they still cannot afford to send me to school. The school is a special one for working children. It opens early in the morning and late in the evening.
9.00pm
I must help my mother with the housework, but if there is not much to do I might get to watch television for a while.
10.00pm
My friends are back and we all sit and talk about our day before we go to bed. Sometimes I feel left out because they talk about school and I cannot join in. I wish that I could go to school.
11.00pm
Time to go to bed. I always sleep well as I am very tired after the long day. I am used to the work now, though, and don’t mind going. I like to help my parents.
Midnight
In bed. India has more working children of school-going age than any other country in the world.
The Malarchi Trust and ACTIONAID
Sivakasi is a rural area and does not always get enough rain. This means poor harvests, with men leaving the area to find work in the town of Madurai, 150 kilometres to the north.
Families in the area are deliberately large, as children are used as labour in match-making factories. These emit large amounts of noxious fumes, often leading to Tuberculosis (TB).
The Malarchi Trust was set up in 1982, based in the 'Sivakasi belt’ of Tamil Nadu, to help the growing numbers of child labourers in the region who work in the match and firework factories.
Malarchi Trust recognised that using child labour would not stop until the widespread poverty of the area was eradicated. Children on their way to school is an alien sight in the region: the 'earning child is more respected than the learning child'.
Young girls are packed into buses every morning, and sent to work. They arrive back late in the evening.
ACTIONAID began working with Malarchi Trust in 1983 through a child education programme. Malarchi is trying to raise the incomes of the families of child workers, reducing the need to send children to work. This creates time for study and play.
Land
Land has been bought on a collective basis, and distributed to landless families, who grow jasmine, a flower much in demand for religious festivals and perfume.
The plant needs regular watering and pipelines provide this. Flowers are picked in the early morning and taken straight to the nearby market for sale. The rest of the day is spent labouring, freeing children to go to school.
The flowers produce an annual income for a family of
8-10 000 Rupees (£160-£200)
ACTIONAID supplies funds to Malarchi, targeted specifically, at:
1. Agricultural programmes for men and women
2. Non-agricultural, money earning programmes
3. Pre-school, non-formal, supplementary and adult education centres
4. Health care
5. Community organisations, establishing rights for women
Case study
Anusuya, aged 7, is an only child. Her family has no land or animals, though they do have a protected water source. The health centre is a five-kilometre walk. Her father has to travel to the nearest town to find work, leaving Anusuya and her mother alone in the village.
The Malarchi Trust is helping this family through education. Anusuya is going to school to learn to read and write. Her parents are attending an adult learning centre. They are learning to read, and also techniques for farming in the drought prone conditions that lead to so many failed crops. ACTIONAID hopes that this will help the area develop a strong agricultural base and reduce the need for men to leave for much of the year in search of work. At the end of the programme Anusuya’s father hopes to buy some land and set up his own farm.
Climate
In southern India, the working environment is rarely controlled by heating or air conditioning. Summer temperatures regularly reach 37°C, and children are cramped in small spaces with little ventilation.
The average temperatures in Tamil Nadu are:
January 26.0°C
February 27.1°C
March 28.1°C
April 30.3°C
May 30.4°C
June 29.9°C
July 29.7°C
August 29.2°C
September 29.1°C
October 28.2°C
November 27.3°C
December 26.0°C
Child labour in India
An estimated 17 million (8.25%) of the 206 million children in India have to work. Figures show the number of child workers in selected industries as:
Handloom 20 000
Carpet weaving 15 000
Matchstick factories 70 000
Stone quarries 1 million
Construction 1 million
Agriculture 8 million
Statistics
Structure of Gross Domestic Product in India
(% 1950 - 1988)
1950 1960 1970 1980 1988
Primary 55.8 45.8 45.2 38.1 32.6
Secondary 14.5 20.7 21.9 25.9 27.8
Tertiary 29.7 33.5 32.9 36.0 39.6
Structure of Net Domestic Product in India
(% 1950 - 1980)
50-1 65-6 70-1 75-6 78-9 1979-80
Primary 59.0 47.7 49.2 44.0 40.3 37.0
Secondary 14.4 22.0 19.7 19.7 22.2 22.7
Tertiary 26.6 30.6 31.1 36.3 37.6 40.3
Economically Active Population (1981)
Agriculture, forestry, fishing 153m
Mining and quarrying 1.25m
Manufacturing 25m
Electricity, gas, water 1m
Construction 3.5m
Trade, restaurants, hotels 12m
Transport, storage, communications 6m
Finance, insurance, real estate,
business services 1.75m
Community, social and personal services 18.5m
Activities not adequately defined 22m
Total 245m
Gross Domestic Product by Industrial Origin
(% 1984-5)
Agriculture 31.5
Forestry and logging 0.8
Fishing 0.8
Mining and quarrying 3.1
Primary Total 36.2
Manufacturing 16.3
Construction 5.3
Electricity, gas and water supply 1.9
Secondary Total 23.5
Transport, storage and communications 6.6
Trade, hotels and restaurants 14.9
Banking and insurance 4.0
Real estate, dwelling ownership and
business services 3.7
Public administration and defence 5.3
Other services 5.8
Tertiary Total 40.3
India's principal exports
Tea, coffee, tobacco, cashew kernels, fruits and vegetables, spices, sugar, rice, marine products, raw cotton, oil cakes, iron ore, chemicals and allied products, leather and leather manufactures, cotton textiles, jute manufactures, metal manufactures, iron and steel, machinery and transport equipment, gems and jewellry, carpets, handicrafts, clothing, crude oil and petroleum products.
Production Indexes
Agriculture Mining Manufacturing
(79-8 =100) (80-81=100) (1980-81=100)
1978 100.7 99.3 99.3
1979 95.8 103.4 99.3
1980 97.9 100.0 100.0
1981 106.4 117.7 107.9
1982 104.6 132.3 109.4
1983 117.6 147.8 115.6
1984 120.6 160.8 124.8
1985 123.5 167.5 136.9
1986 123.0 177.9 149
1987 - - -
1988 137.7 199.1 175.6
1989 146.7 211.6 190.7
1990 147.6 220.7 208.0
1991 150.2 - -
India's principal imports
Wheat, rice and flour, edible oils and sugar, other food
oil and coal, cotton and jute fibre, synthetic yarn, pulp, rubber and non-metal minerals, metal ores and other raw materials, paper, basic and other chemicals, fertiliser, plastics, cement, metals, machinery and metal products, rail equipment, motor vehicles.
