BALANGIR: Even the little spines are not free from woes of migration. Instead of carrying satchels to schools, children are forced to carry bricks at various brick kilns. The children migrate along with their parents to far off Andhra in search of work. The Child Labour Day today has no meaning for thousands of children of Balangir district. If the statistics of ActionAid are to be believed, children constitute 20 percent of the workforce at brick kilns. This is despite the district having 40 National Child Labour Project (NCLP) schools. Also there are many Non-residential Bridge Courses (NRBC) schools based in AP which are being run by Orissa government in collaboration with AP government to impart primary education to the children, who migrate with their parents and are deprived of education.
Umi Daniel of ActionAid said, nearly 20,000 children, out of the total one lakh migrants, go every year to AP and work there as secondary labourers. He said, ‘‘Normally children carry brick after it is made. They also help their parents in making the bricks like preparing the clay and carrying water.’’ Although there are NRBC schools, which are funded by ActionAid, Orissa and AP governments, yet only 2000 children are accommodated there. So, 18,000 children are deprived of education every year. He further said teachers from Balangir go to AP to teach the students. The teachers receive training imparted by ActionAid and get meagre salary Rs 2500, which is contributed by ActionAid and Orissa government. The AP government provides the mid-day meal for the children.
What is distressing is that parents, who migrate, treat their children as labourers. Since the labourers in AP kilns get wage on the basis of per pathuria (a group of three labourers), parents include one of their sons or daughters in pathuria to earn proportionately.
Strangely, as Sanjaya Mishra, a researcher reveals, parents, who don’t have children, borrow one to make up a group. He said a labourer gets six paise for making one brick, which include the labour of children. ‘‘There is nothing except indirect exploitation of children, who are being sucked into a conspiracy slowly.’’
