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Sambhar Mafia - Cooked To Kill!

Friday, November 04, 2005

India’s Child Servants

More and more Indian households are hiring child servants / maids (from rural areas) says International Herald Tribune. While there is increasing awareness about the employment of children in organized sectors (fireworks / firecracker industry, quarries etc), there is not much activism that is generally witnessed in this area:

Affordable, docile, easy to have around the house. Child workers have become a popular solution for India's new yuppies, as working parents search for cheap staff to help them juggle their professional and domestic responsibilities.

Traffickers have established a lucrative network of employment agencies, recruiting large numbers of children from impoverished rural villages to work as cleaners, maids and nannies for a flourishing generation of newly rich city professionals.

When asked, most employers say that they are rescuing young rural girls from desperate poverty, providing them with a better lifestyle, treating them like daughters and generally performing a commendable act of charity.

posted by Kaps at 12:17 AM

10 Comments:

  • I agree with you buddy!

    By Blogger Vinesh, at 3:19 AM  

  • This trade is unfair and maybe a miniscule percentage treat the maids well. Isn't it a status symbol (among Indians especially unga singapore la ;-)) these days to have a maid at home? Eating frozen food or TV-dinners is not our culture but employing minor girls as maid is.

    By Blogger D LordLabak, at 7:05 AM  

  • Unless education and some financial backup is provided to them, it would be difficult to stop those parents who send their kids for these type of jobs....

    By Blogger Ram C, at 7:28 AM  

  • this is an unfair trading going on!it is the same discussion on whether or not to burst crackers on sivakasi, a discussion that happened in our hosuehold long time back....saving them and givng them such jobs? that is not fair!

    By Blogger IBH, at 8:43 AM  

  • i watched one movie called "kutti"..it pained my heart to see the ending of that movie......it about a your domestic help girl!

    i think all those rich professionals should not spoil a child's life......

    sad, very sad state of affairs....

    By Blogger monu, at 1:37 PM  

  • And yet, ask the parents and they'll tell you what's good about child labour. This is tyupical intellectual kvetching sitting in a place higher up on the food chain without understanding the ground realities. Not condoning child labour but telling you that the probelm is not moral. It cannot be helped. We have to find a way to make people's lives better. Only then will child labour go. Only then will people stop killing the girl child. Hmm...i've said too much. Regards, me.

    By Blogger Subramaniam Avinash, at 3:06 PM  

  • Is that Veda or is that Jyo...Jyo...Jyothika! :-)

    By Blogger Subramaniam Avinash, at 2:28 PM  

  • @Vinesh,
    there are lot of people who feel about it....but nothing much is done to prevent it.

    @Deepa,
    It might be regarded as status symbol to some extent....but you can't employ kids as maid servants in S'pore.

    @RamC,
    More than the funding and support the parents of these kids need to be educated / warned about the perils of sending their kids to work as maid servants

    @IBH,
    some action is being done in sivakasi related stuff as it an organized industry...enforcement of child labour laws are much easier. however it is very difficult to nail down the offenders in case of child maid servants

    @Monu,
    Have heard about the movie....never got an opportunity to see it

    @Daily Unusual,
    as long as basic needs are taken care of, people might not send their kids to do such jobs

    @Vedam
    financial problems are a major reason why parents send their kids to perform such jobs. awareness and financial support is the need of the hour.

    By Blogger Kaps, at 1:47 AM  

  • Ironically enough in India people still have multiple kids so they can put them to work. In some cases the life of the child who is employed is actually better than what it would be in his own home -but of course, this is dependant entirely on the kind of family that employs him. But even so there is no guarantee that he would live a happy life in his own home if he was not employed ... his parents probably can't afford him if he's not working. It's sad, but there seems to be no immediate solution to this - except for population controls, I guess.

    By Blogger Anjali, at 3:22 AM  

  • hey kaps, a gud awareness post at the rite time..

    Ram.C was rite

    checkout

    http://yaathirigan.blogspot.com/2005/11/blog-post.html

    -
    செந்தில்/Senthil

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:37 AM  

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