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CHILDREN CHAINED IN COTTON FARMS
Hyderabad, May 5, 2002: The Telegraph, Calcutta
Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, which made headlines last month for an acute shortage of drinking water, is again in the news. This time for an alarming increase in child labour. According to a recent survey, the district’s bidi industry, cotton and chilli farms employed nearly 1.5 lakh (150,000) child labourers. Almost 20-30 per cent of them were kept chained throughout the day to prevent them from running away. More alarming was the inhuman treatment meted out to the child labour employed by the big landlords of the district. Some of them were chained whey they retired for the day, while the younger ones were chained throughout the day to prevent them from running away. According to police officials, child labour had been around for generations, but the incidents had shot up alarmingly in the last one decade due to paucity of a farm labour. “Either faction politics or poor wages had driven them away to neighbouring districts or states,” said C.Y. Reddy of a local NGO.
In Lakshmyapur village in Pagidyal mandal, chained bidi labourers were found following a tussle between the CPM and the local landlords, supporters of the Telgu Desam. There were 22 child labourers working in the bidi units of the village. According to Kurnool district collector G. Sai Prasad, the prime cause of the growing child labour was the menace of moneylenders in the villages. "Parents who could not return loans had to leave their children, even minor daughters, for work. Such practice was evident even in the houses of prominent politicians and faction leaders of the district," Prasad said.
In Lakshmyapur village, a 12 year old Bhuvaneswari was left with bidi contractor Krishna four years ago. She had been traded for interest on Rs. 4,000 borrowed by her mother. Bhuvaneswari was keen on studies but the merchant made her work over 12 hours a day. Five months ago, he chained her after she tried to run away. Srinivas, eight, was left by his parents with bidi merchant Naganna against a loan of Rs. 2,000. According to an NGO’s report, former Prime Minister P.V. Narshima Rao’s erstwhile parliamentary constituency Nandyal, too, had a high incidence of child labour toiling in its slate-stone mines.
Posted on 2002-05-28
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