Child-and-adult-labour-in-the-export-oriented-garment-and-gem-polishing-industry-of-India

Child and adult labour in the gem polishing export industry of Jaipur
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day with 1 hour rest. The girls, who were employed inside the house, worked all day long, which
meant 8 to 14 hours per day. Friday is a free day for Muslims, and the Muslim children did not
work on this day. On Sundays all the children worked.
The children who combined school with work, worked 2 to 6 hours per day. A teacher said that
these children had the same hard life as the children who worked full-time because they were
doubly burdened, with school and work, plus making home work and helping in the household. A
study 160 on the child labour problem in the gem industry in Jaipur revealed that often children
dropped out of school due to a bad performance in the school. These children happened to be exhausted
in the class room and often were not able to do their homework. The children also lacked
concentration during school time. There has never yet been a survey on the percentages of
children who work full-time and part-time.
Children working without their father
The interviewed children whom were found at work in the 23 visited units, were most of the
times not a relative of the owner. This happened to be the case more often in the units which had
operated for a few years and which were located in the periphery of the city.
Children working with their father
Children who worked with their father outside the house or inside the house with the whole
family, worked the same number of hours as their father. The children who worked with their
father inside the house earned more money than the children who worked with their father for an
employer. It is difficult to estimate the number of children who worked with their family inside
the house. These children seemed to be even more deprived of freedom and time to play because
the father watches the child continuously. After work the children have to help in the household.
The girl child, who was always employed inside the house because of the Muslim faith, was even
more deprived of a childhood. She never saw friends of her own age and usually worked the whole
day through inside the house. When there were no stones to polish or cut she started drilling
beads. And when she did not do that job she made embroidery or helped her mother in the
household. She was also deprived of education and was only prepared to get married.
In one visited family, the father, mother, son and daughter together worked on two machines fulltime,
and processed the rainbow stone (semi-precious). The mother and daughter shaped the
stones and the father and son faceted and polished the stones. The family earned around Rs 150
per day. One little baby was lying behind the shaping machine. The room was also their living
space and in the corner a little kitchen was located. If the mother started cooking the food the girl
was required to continue working on the machine, otherwise she helped her mother or took care
of the siblings. The boy could go to sleep after working hours.
Family income and size, and reason of working
Most of the interviewed child workers gave as a reason for their employment that 'their parents
wanted them to learn a skill instead of roaming around' or that 'their parents did not want their
107
160 Neera Burra, 1995, Born to Work, Child Labour in India, pp. 107-108.