Child Labour in Cottonseed Production by Ashok Khandelwal

not present on the farm, the children had been programmed to
immediately move away at the sight of outsiders. In some cases if
one approached the farm from a height, the movement of children
scurrying away through standing crops could be made out. The
team therefore had to rely on indirect observation methods to
establish presence of children. While one member of the team
would talk to the farmers and fill the schedule, others would fan out
and interview the workers. Over a period of time, it would become
possible to understand the age composition of the workers' group.
Observations have been backed by video evidence in select cases.
Survey work was done during the second fortnight of September
2007 which is the peak period for cross-pollination work. CSP cycle
in Gujarat begins in May/June with sowing. Cross-pollination
work begins from late July/early August when flowering starts and
lasts till mid-October. The labour in question is hired for this
specific task. Two teams were formed, one each for the two areas.
1.4 :: Limitation
The study was undertaken amidst a very high pitch campaign
against child labour. The field work coincided with a three-day visit
of the Chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child
Rights on this very issue. This created lots of logistic problem for
the team of investigators. They were attacked, manhandled and
faced lots of hostility especially from a group of vested interests.
The farmers who were quite cooperative in the beginning became
very uncooperative and difficult to the extent that we had to wind
up the data collection half way. The farmers not only refused at
times but investigators realised that they have started deliberately
providing wrong and misleading information.
Resistance was especially more on the Monsanto farms. Once the
company field level representative became aware of the operations
of the survey team, they took all possible measures to not let the
survey take place. A representative of the Monsanto tracked the
movement of the team and ensured that no data was made available.
The researchers had no choice but to withdraw from the field and
call off the data collection. Only 42 farms could be covered. In all, 42
farmers, 23 contractors and 99 workers were interviewed.
This fact need to be borne in mind while reading generalisation in
terms of percentages. The size of the sample may be small but the
data, however, very clearly highlight the trend. The evidences
appear substantive and beyond any doubt.
18 :: Child Labour in Cottonseed Production