For Andhra cotton-growers, girl-kids are like hens that lay golden eggs

To cater to their need for `soft hands’ to pluck the flowers, the cotton-growers are luring the girls as well as their parents with various gifts. The gifts range from bangles and ribbons for the girls and cash-incentives to the parents.

And, every time a voluntary organisation or a governmental department tries to educate people and stop the practice, the cotton-growers resist them by coming up with innovative strategies to attract the girls and their parents. This has ultimately led to an increase in the drop-out rate of girls in schools, besides confining them to the fields.

The menace of employing under-aged girls in agricultural work figured during a meeting at the Rangareddy district collectorate here to review the progress of steps launched to rescue bonded labour and rehabilitate them.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) member Justice K Ramaswamy, who reviewed the performance of the district authorities in eradicating child and bonded labour, elicited the opinions of voluntary organisations too when Venkat Reddy, representative of the MV Foundation, a leading NGO in Rangareddy district, highlighted the employment of girl-children in cotton fields.

Explaining the various steps launched by them for rescue and rehabilitation of child labour, Venkat Reddy urged the authorities to open more hostels for girls so as to prevent them from yielding to the inducements offered by the cotton-growers.

This apart, representatives of several voluntary organisations deplored the lack of commitment and non-cooperation of government machinery in abolition of child labour.

“Though several programmes have been launched by the government, the situation at the ground-level is far from happy,” said social worker and MV Foundation secretary Shanta Sinha.

She said that because of low investments in employment-generation schemes, there was tremendous male unemployment which could result in men resorting to bonded labour. Implementation of laws was ineffective and the authorities were not responding to even specific issues.

According to Shramik Vidya Peeth director Usha Rani, child labour was a social problem and there was a need for a holistic approach to curb the menace. Moreover, lacunae in the law and ineffective implementation were making it easy for violators to go scot-free, she said stressing the need for educating the employers also.