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Crushing Stones Everyday :
Cursed Childhood
Child workers in
stone quarries in Nepal
-Jitendra Raut
Child labour is a traditional social problem in
Nepal but not unique to the country. There have been a lot of
talks on this problem and many accusing fingers have been pointed
at sectors like carpet factories. And, to date, most of the child
labour issues being discussed are related with only the kind of
labour exploited within a closed room or behind high thick walls.
But one need not necessarily
go to a carpet factory to see how children are being exploited.
Exploitation of child labour is taking place just in front of our
eyes and is noticed very rarely. Stone quarries are the glaring
example of such exploitation.
Parban Rai, is just 12 years
old. But he has been crushing stone at Chovar, near Himal Cement
Factory, for the past two years. He earns around 40 rupees, a
price for selling two baskets of crushed stone. It takes him about
eight hours of continuous hammering to fill the two baskets. He
had just quit school to work at the Chobhar stone quarry because
his family needed more money. Parban was a good student. He just
had secured first position in class three but his family could not
afford 150 rupees as sch ool
fee to get his mark-sheet. Hence the child’s hand is catching a
hammer instead of a pen, today.
Mahadev Beshi in Dhading district is one of the
prime locations in Nepal where stone crushing has been a
flourishing business with the growing demand for concrete
(construction material) in Kathmandu, the capital city. Most
families engaged in stone quarries don’t have even a piece of land
or a house. They have, therefore, migrated permanently to the
location of stone crushing virtually forever. The income they make
is barely enough to feed themselves with the cheapest of food
available. Children and adults alike are half-fed, lean and thin
and sickly due to malnutrition. Still a lot of children are
helping their parents in collecting or crushing stones. Majority
of the stone- crushing families are local and crushing stone is
their basic occupation. Mahadev Beshi has probably the largest
number of families quarrying and crushing stones in a limited
area. Crushed stone is required in construction work involving
cement or construction of black-topped roads and masons.
For large projects
power-operated crushers are used. But for small-scale construction
work such as private buildings, crushed stone is bought from the
marginalized families whose, primary occupation is crushing stone.
For construction of private buildings in Kathmandu Valley, the
crushed stone is brought mainly from Mahadev Beshi, Dhading. There
are other small-scale suppliers too at Balkhu, Bisankhu, Halchok,
Pharping, Shivapuri and other places, which are not far from the
capital city. Hundreds of families are involved in crushing big
boulders may it be in the river sides or near the hills. Poverty
is the main reason behind the involvement of children in the work
of quarrying and crushing stone. This leads to severe deprivation.
The children are deprived of their natural childhood, they cannot
go to school and health wise they become over stressed and
malnourished.
Milan Rai is Parban’s friend. He is eight years
old. He does not go to school. “I am doing this job because I have
to earn money. I crush the stone the whole day and give the money
to my mother,” he says blinking his expressionless eyes. His
parents also work in the stone quarry. There are about a dozen
families in Chovar who crush stone and sell them to big
businessmen who come there to collect the crushed stones by big
trucks.
Too little earning and
perpetual debt burden is driving them to more hard work. Thus
children do not get time to go to school. For their parents,
solving hand to mouth problem every day is more important than
sending their children to school. The only solution of this
drudgery is improvement of socio-economic conditions of the
families, which will safeguard the destroyed childhood.
There has been a global
effort to tackle the problem of child labour. In 1989 the UN
convention on the Rights of the child originated. Nepal and other
190 countries signed the convention. Nepal enacted the Children
Act-1992 to protect the rights of the child. The labour Act 1992
also has provisions for prevention of exploitation of child labour.
But these Acts and a number of other relevant regulations have
failed to prevent child labour exploitation. Although, any
concrete statistics on child labour is not available, independent
statistics say that almost one out of every four children is a
child labourer in Nepal.
Stone crushing has been a “profession” which is
not limited to any particular caste, community or region. People
of various ethnic origin, such as Brahman, Chhetri, Tamang, Newars
etc are involved in this. The common “caste” of these stone
crushers can be termed as POOR.
There is an old Nepali saying regarding the
relationship between poverty and bad habits. It says poverty
entails bad habits. This is no exception in this work of stone
crushing. Most of the adult stone crushers have the habits of
drinking alcohol, smoking and gambling. These things have a direct
bearing on the overall condition of the family, especially on the
condition of the children.
Parban is physically handicapped. He cannot see
with his right eye yet he is a prominent bread earner for his
family. He works along with his father and mother. They are from
Khotang district and living in Chovar since the past nine years.
Three people earn about 2000 rupees per month to support the
family of five. Parban has two small brothers but they are not
working. Parban is working also for them so that they do not have
to work in the stone quarry. “I am very much worried about my
future. I cannot see with one eye so I had to have good education
but my father has no money to send me to school,” he says in utter
despair.
The work is almost same everyday either for adults
or for the children. Digging and collecting black rock and
crushing it with a heavy hammer. The work continues for eight to
twelve hours everyday. If there is a need for more money then they
have to work for longer hours. And the work goes on for seven days
a week. Although, he has to work hard, Parban says “ My prime
concern is to earn 150 rupees so that I can get my mark-sheet and
get admitted to another school”. “I have to work hard to earn more
money so that we can repay the debt my father has taken from local
businessman after that I can continue my studies”, adds Parban
with some rays of hope in his eyes.
(Jitendra Raut is a journalist working with Radio
Sagarmatha, which mostly covers development issues)
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