"Many women bring their infants to the work site if they have no other childcare arrangement. It is not uncommon for mothers to give their infants opium to keep them quiet while they are working. Thus, addiction starts early and becomes a way of life," the report said, which was prepared by VAAGDHARA (Voluntary Association of Agriculture General Development, Health and Reconstruction Alliance) and Plan India.
The report also claims that in the mining/stone sector, children start working around the age of 10-12 years, before that they are just not strong enough to carry heavy loads. They work as helpers at first, removing scrap and rubble, and gradually learn the tasks of making holes, and breaking and removing big slabs and rocks. There are no mechanisms for training them in what are considered more skilled and better-paid tasks like handling the pneumatic drill and breaking slabs, the report stated.
The working condition of the children is below satisfactory in all the industries/ activities that they are involved in. The report said that the state government has showed no concern for the welfare of the children working in carpet-making. "They (government) have no statistics," the report said.
Moreover, the report says that children are denied basic facilities like safe drinking water, toilets and protection from scorching sun. Also, in certain activities, children are put in to secluded, non-ventilated rooms with 20 to 25 children working together. In cases of bangle-making and speaker-making, it is found that even sunlight is not available to these children.
Child labourers are found in unorganized sector like agriculture, bidi-making, gem polishing, aari-tari, zardozi embroidery, sliver polishing, carpet industry, domestic work, dhaba/restaurant, ginning, mines, speaker-making, bangle-making, dairy work, rag-picking, child-trafficking, Kota doria weaving, brick-kiln, quarrying, block printing, wool shredding, salt industry and sex workers.
The health condition of these children is extremely bad. In almost all activities, there is direct or indirect health hazards for them. Due to their heavy work load and the conditions at the work place the following diseases are commonly prevalent among working children: TB, bronchial diseases, hepatitis, psychological problems due to constant fear, anemia, STD, drug addiction, skin diseases among others.
Children also get socialized into the working culture at an early age and by the time they are old enough to start working, they are ready to make the transition.
Though both girls and boys work in mines, more boys are found working as girls are usually kept at home to take over domestic chores like cooking, fetching water and firewood and to look after younger siblings.
In Jaipur, a common job is rag-picking, in which boys and girls as young as 6-years-old sift through garbage in order to collect recyclable material. The children usually rise before dawn and carry their heavy load in a large bag over their shoulders.
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