Boys from Bihar
It’s nearly impossible to go anywhere without seeing them, hard at work. Young boys, anywhere from eight years old on up, sweeping out storefronts, washing dishes for dhaba service, delivering glasses of chai, cooking, cleaning, fetching and so on. All of them much darker-skinned than I am. When I first saw these kids, my African-American upbringing made me assume I was seeing discrimination also hard at work, keeping the kids in place because of their color. But, of course, this is India; and the situation is a lot more complex than a simple race line.
The boys are usually from Bihar, one of the poorest states in India. (I’ll leave it as an exercise for the socio-political student to determine whether the Biharis are poor because they’re darker-skinned, or darker-skinned because they’re poor.) Over the years a contract system has evolved so that poor families with too many mouths to feed can earn money: the kids are hired to work elsewhere, and their employers provide them with room and board while sending their earnings home to Bihar to the family. The contracts run for about three years, with work taking the place of any education, and then the kids can return home.
Yes, we’re talking about a form of indentured servitude. And yes, the opportunities for abuse and exploitation are myriad.
At a rate of 300 to 400 rupees per month, the average shop or dhaba gets a hard-working employee at a fraction of the cost of an adult with a family to support. The family receives some welcome income while not having to support the kid earning the money at the same time. I’ve been told the contracts are actually overseen by the state of Bihar to some extent, so there is some overnment oversight to prevent abuse. Older laws already in place make it illegal to employ children in dangerous industries like meat-packing or chemical production. So, the whole situation seems to be some kinder, gentler form of child labor that’s almost sensible, except for the part where the kid loses out on education and normal family life while doing hard, dirty scutwork an adult would barely tolerate.
However, all of that is supposed to change now. A new federal law just took effect, making it illegal to employ children under the age of 14 in shops and dhabas. Violators face a fine of R10,000. Child labor in India is a long-standing issue the government has been trying to do something about, in its bid to make India more of a First-World power. However, this particular law is one officials are going to run into trouble enforcing. Why? Well, for the simplest reason there is: the law removes a regulated way for the kids to earn money, and replaces it with…nothing.
Errrr….nothing? What about education? Unfortunately, a recent study of Bihar’s educational system showed that the schools in Bihar are so bad, many families prefer the contract system. Sending a child to school represents additional expense for things like uniforms, textbooks and supplies, over and above the food-and-shelter equation. Most families do the math, and ship the kids off to work.
So this is the part of the story where India begins to learn about all of the hidden chain-reaction expenses in becoming “First World”. Child labor is bad. So you make it illegal, levying stiff fines to motivate business owners to toe the line. Suddenly hotel and restaurant meals become a little more expensive. Meantime, you’ve got to motivate the kids–and their families–to take advantage of any available education. That means spending more money to fix the educational system. Where does the money come from? Well, where does it usually come from?
Taxpayers, usually. But getting money out of taxpayers takes time. And fixing a school system takes even more time (Just ask any Californian…) And getting the money spent properly takes even more time. Meanwhile, poor families back in Bihar are still trying to solve the basic food and shelter equation.
Unfortunately, we already know how that equation gets solved in the First World: crime, and lots of it. Robbery, drugs, prostitution–all of the high risk, high-return activities that are a lot more profitable then sitting in a broken-down classroom for a few years. Here’s hoping that this time, with India doing the math, they can come up with a different answer…
