The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Juggling work and school

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Juggling work and school

Bageshree S.

These children have different reasons to hustle on the pavement

FOR A LIVING: There are many part-time child labourers who work before and after school hours.

Bangalore: Basheer will be going to Standard 7 from June 1. But the two-month summer vacation for the 11-year-old has not meant what it has for most other school-going children of his age. He has not been playing cricket on the road or gone to his grandparents' house. Instead, he has been helping his father mend punctured tyres in a makeshift shop in Goripalya off Mysore Road.

Anupama, on the other hand, sells flowers and vegetables at the Rani Chennamma Circle in Banashankari III Stage every evening. As the traffic light turns red, the girl picks up a few bunches of "soppu" and strings of flowers from her mother, who sells the same on the pavement, and starts persuading the waiting commuters to buy her ware. She sometimes manages to make a transaction before the signal turns green and dashes back to her mother to wait until it turns red again. Anupama can sometimes be seen doing her homework under the streetlight.

Basheer and Anupama belong to the large band of part-time child labourers who go to school, but spend most of their hours outside school working. They include children such as Basheer who work during summer and mid-term vacations and those like Anupama who work before and after school hours every day.

L. Isaac Arul Selva of The Karnataka Slum Dwellers' Protection Joint Action Committee, who recently went on a State-wide jatha covering 18 districts, says: "Some parents see it simply as bit of additional income to the family. But others see it as a non-formal training option."

Anupama's mother, Kenchamma, says that bringing her daughter along with her is also a way of "safeguarding" her. Besides, she says: "People cannot get off their vehicles to buy at a signal. So business is more when you take it to them. But I bring her here also because I do not have to worry about where she is what she is doing. She is always within my eyesight," she reasons.

The logic of Basheer's father Shabbeer Pasha is slightly different. "I do send my son to school. But what is the guarantee that he will get a job even if he passes 10th standard? He should know some job to make a living."

(The names of children and parents have been changed).

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