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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they will not send their children to the work because that is not good. They would send them to
school, whatever the financial position of the parents. Even if the family income is not enough
they would lend the money from neighbours/relatives and still send their children to school'.
The children were asked what they would ask from the Government to improve their situation.
All the children replied that they would ask the Government for a school in their colony
(neighbourhood). They would also ask for books, clothing, free education and food in the school.
Education
All the interviewed children were illiterate. These children had never seen a school. Some of
them got private tuition or moral teachings in the mosque where the child was taught things like
'you should obey your parents' and 'you should speak the truth' etc. The Muslim parents did not
attach much value to education in the common schools. (Since 1990 there have been many problems
in India, including Jaipur, between Muslims and Hindus). The Muslim parents did not
want to send their children to the Hindu schools, also because these were often located in Hindu
areas. During manufacturing unit visits, many adult workers, who had sons working in the
industry, said that the school fees were too high. They said that the schools asked higher fees
because they were Muslims. Parents were not able or did not want to pay extra money for books
and school uniforms next to high school fees.
The Muslim parents attached much more value to their children getting private tuition from
relatives or themselves. Here, the child was taught moral lessons out of the Koran and some Urdu
and Hindi. For Muslim parents moral teachings were more important than learning to read and
write. Most of the children stayed therefore illiterate. This can become a limiting factor later in
their working career.
The ex-working children who attended the Special School, were very happy to learn to read and
write among other things. Although these children said that the attitude of their parents towards
education had changed in a positive judgement, a teacher at one of the Special Schools said that
the attitude had changed also because of the stipend paid by the school. The stipend was an
incentive for parents to withdraw the children from the work if they earned wages that were lower
than the stipend.
Only a few children were interviewed who combined going to a government school in the
morning with work in the gem industry and in the home. A study 162 revealed that there were
many parents, whether relatively poor or rich, who sent their children to school, full-time and
part-time. Thus, there were also parents who recognized the need for education. Another study 163
revealed that out of a population of 410 children 42.4% had some level of formal schooling,
40.5% had never attended a school and 17.1% was illiterate. These results show that there were
also working children with some level of formal education but who had dropped out.
As far as the education of adult workers is concerned, most of them were illiterate but there were
109
162 Neera Burra, 1995, Born to Work, Child Labour in India, pp. 99-103.
163 Nisha Lal, 1992, Child Labour in Gem Polishing Industry in Jaipur, p. 57. Indian Insitute of Health Management Research, Jaipur.