THE TEACHER AND CHILD LABOUR

In India, half the children in the age group of 6 to 14 do not go to school. Does this in any way affect the school and the teacher? An attempt to understand this is being made in the following essay developed while working with the Teachers’ Union. M. V. Foundation in mid nineties was working with the teachers’ union in Ranga Reddy district to get their help in enrolling children who had dropped out or never went to school. It underlines the role of a teacher in abolishing child labour and has been used in training for government school teachers. Although one will find the data dated, the argument remains relevant for a significant percentage of children are even today engaged as child labour.

In Andhra Pradesh, each district is divided into Mandal Panchayats. Shankarpally mandal of Ranga Reddy district comprises of 36 villages and hamlets. In these villages the total number of children in the age group of 5 to 14 years is 10,310. Of these, 7493 go to school and 2817 are out of school. That is, some 30% of the children are out of school. The situation here is a little better than the rest of the district due to efforts made by a voluntary organisation to send children to school.

Of the 2817 non school going children, 1964 are in the age group of 9-14 years. Among them 1251 are girls and 148 of the 713 boys are bonded labourers. However, all children are doing some work connected with agriculture or at home. In a general sense, one can say that some 30% are potential or actual child workers and about 20% can definitely be called child workers.

How do these children affect the village school and the village school teacher? Often a teacher feels responsible only towards children who are admitted to school. So why should s/he worry about children who are not even admitted to school?

The existence of child workers in significant numbers gives it legitimacy. It also provides a potential market for new child workers. So no one feels uneasy about it. If a child is not going to school, s/he can work in the farm or at home or become a cowherd or agriculture labour. In Shankarpally area, typically girl children pick flowers round the year for the market in Hyderabad and boys work as cowherds.

At school, it means, if a child is not doing well in studies or fails s/he has got a place in the work force as child labour! The market beckons the child all the time. It acts as pullout pressure. Often it begins as seasonal work (dropout) for the poor child who is not doing well in studies. Then s/he fails - leading to permanently dropping out.

This also leads to lessening of pressure on the school, the teacher and the child to do well in studies. It is alright if the absenteeism is big. It is alright if the children do not study and the teachers do not teach. It is alright if the high school results for the Mandal as a whole is below 20%!

This lowers the standard of the village school on the whole. If 80% fail, then the best student may get only 40% or 50% marks. School loses its relevance.

With this the prestige of the school and that of the teacher falls. With the prestige goes the motivation and the moral force of the teacher. A vicious circle emerges. Low performance results in lowering the prestige and morale of the teachers leading further to the lowering performance of the school.

In such a situation, no one pays any attention to the teacher’s and the school's problems. The teachers' union mostly concerns itself with issues of salary and job security. Other glaring matters of a teacher's situation such as teacher student ratio, unfilled vacancies, lack of school rooms, the poor condition of buildings, a lack of blackboards and school furniture and so on, are ignored. Things like a decent school library, science laboratory and sports facilities hardly ever get a mention among the demands. No one has any motivation to demand better schools, to enlist community support, charities etc. to improve the school at the local level. All such energies come from far off green pastures of urban middle class sensitivities, enlightened government secretaries and international funding agencies.

The initiatives must come from the community and the teacher for any significant success. The teacher and the school must gain back their prestige. For this, the teacher and the school must perform. No pressure on children to be pushed out of the school should be permitted. There should be no option of becoming a child worker. This alone can reverse the direction of the pressure. Then children and the community will make a demand on the school. This will translate into a demand for more schools, more teachers, more school rooms, better rooms with blackboard and furniture, playground and sport facilities, library and laboratory.

For this to happen, some initiative must also come from outside the school. It should be ensured that no one employs children. In this, the educated youth in the village can play a vital role. They can persuade parents to send their children to school. Various labour laws such as - the abolition of bonded labour law can be enforced. In short, there should be no pullout pressure on the child. Abolition of child labour and universalisation of elementary education is the key to breaking this vicious circle.

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Published in Frontier, Kolkata, December 23, 1995