One more youngster falls to the evil of child labour

JAMMU, OCT 22: Thirteen -year-old Mohammad Yasin had always wanted to be a policeman. He still does. But now the very thought brings tears...

JAMMU, OCT 22: Thirteen -year-old Mohammad Yasin had always wanted to be a policeman. He still does. But now the very thought brings tears to Abdul Majid’s eyes because the doctors have told him his son will never walk again withoutcrutches — the result of a stint serving a family that promised to ease their financial burden so Yasin could study well.

Majid had agreed to let Yasin help out with domestic work at his landlord’s house in exchange for the waiver of the Rs 200-rent. He had taken the house on rent only so that Yasin could study at the middle school in Sha Mohalla, which is several kilometres away from their Dashna, their village.

“I was well aware of the problems in my family. In order to take away a bit of my father’s burden, I agreed to work at Niaz’s house,” recalls Yasin.

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But instead of the light household chores that he had been told about, the boy’s day began early: he washed dishes and made tea for the family before leaving for school. After returning, he had to wash clothes and work in the kitchen again, leaving him with hardly any time to study.

A little before New Year’s Eve, the Rishoos told him to whitewash their eight-room house — and to be quick about it. Yasin had balanced himself on the ledge of a second-floor window to paint the outer wall when he slipped and fell. Since there was no outward injury and Yasin could move, the couple told him to wash blankets — which is when he found his leg beginning to swell. The pain grew but the couple did not take him to a doctor. With no treatment, septicaemia set in.

“Rishoo sahib took me to hospital only when the pus started oozing from my leg. And bringing me here, he vanished. I have not seen any of them since then,” Yasin says.

The couple did not even inform Yasin’s parents about this incident. It was only when the boy’s mother came to visit him — two weeks later — that Rishoo’s wife told thim that her son was in hospital with fever. “ I was shocked to find my son fighting a lonely battle on the hospital bed,” recalls Yasin’s mother.

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When contacted, Rishoo said: “We have already given Rs 3,000 for Yasin’s treatment. What else should we do?” However, he refused to say anything when asked about using Yasin as child labour at his house.

Majid admits he got Rs 3,000 from Rishoo. “But tell me sahib, is that money going to bring my son’s legs back? I had kept my son there to study and they used him as a servant. What type of humanity is this?” he asks.

Even after working overtime, Majid is not able to earn enough to get medicine for his son. Neck deep in debt, he has run away from Doda so that he can find some work in Jammu and save his son’s life. The government hospital at Doda has referred Yasin to the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu for further treatment but doctors here have expressed little hope for the youngster. Majid hopes to file a complaint with the State Human Rights Commission against the Rishoos. But, like he says, money will hardly compensate for Yasin’s loss.