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Tamil Nadu
By Ramya Kannan
Children picking jasmine buds for water in a farm at Umblikaampatti in Salem district.
Around 20 children, between 5 and 10 years, are woken up at 4 a.m. They make a beeline to the farms, led by the eldest boy in the village. The little ones trail behind, followed by the women — their mothers, aunts and grandmothers — carrying empty pots, pans and buckets. In the farm, the children have to pluck tender jasmine buds and put them in tins, ready to be transported to the market. "We leave around 4.30 a.m. and work till nearly 8 a.m. All the while, we pluck the buds and put them in the tins. Sometimes we fill more tins, sometimes less — it depends. But if we stop while working, they will thump us in the head and shout at us to get back to work," says 10-year-old Mohan Kumar. The children are paid one or two rupees, depending on the quantity of buds collected. On an average, a child makes Rs. 15 a week. "We know this is a pittance. But we are not sending them to work for the money. It is for water," says Kumar. He is angry at the circumstances that force them to send the children, especially the younger ones, to work early morning. "We do not want the kids to work. It is too much for them. They have to rise early and then run to school after that. They become so tired. We feel sorry for them. But they have to go, just so we can get water," says Kannayi, who is part of a self-help group. "The owners of the garden have made it clear that we can take water from pumpsets only if the children are sent for work." Due to spraying of pesticides for plants, the children some times feel dizzy. "When they feel dizzy, they sit down. But only as long as they are not noticed. Once they are noticed, they have to be up and about, plucking the flowers." On Sundays, the children have to collect stones to fill bore pits. Recurring drought has resulted in local wells and pits drying up completely, leaving the locals literally gasping for water. The women walk several bramble-filled miles to fetch pitchers of drinking water. "That is just for drinking. Imagine how many trips we have to make to fetch water for washing and cleaning," says Chinnaponnu. In fact, water shortage is so acute that it has prevented several families from moving into land recently allotted to the community. Of the 46 families who were granted patta land, only 10 have moved into the settlement. "We have pattas for the land, but despite that, people do not want to move in. We can even do without roads and electricity, but what is the point of land without water," asks Raji. Repeated appeals have been made to the district administration, but have not yielded any results. "They tell us they will make a spot visit and assess the situation. If they do that and bring us water, our children need not work."
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