The Face of Child Labor
When Hayden Kantor arrived recently in Bhat Basti, a crow of excited children swarmed around his jeep before he could even open the door, he said.
He said he met a little girl named Raju who spends her days toiling in the cavernous quarries of India near this cramped mining village that’s sprung up on the scorched earth.
According to Kantor she now earns 50 rupees – about $1.25 in U.S. dollars – for each 12-hour day of clearing rubble from the bottom of the mine.
Kantor said he met her as part of his work as a researcher for Gravis, a local nongovernmental organization that works to empower the rural poor in India.
As community members told him her story Raju sat on the ground beside them, tracing shapes in the sand with her hands.
Yet Raju’s story is hardly unique: Of the 2 million mineworkers in the state of Rajasthan, an estimated 20 percent are kids, according to Kantor.
Although international treaties and domestic laws prohibit child labor, the authorities rarely enforce them, according to statistics.
That morning Kantor saw the bottom in Bhat Basti.
As an undergraduate student at Duke University a year ago, trade seemed like little more than a numerical exercise for him, he explained.
So he shared the stories of those who suffer in silence, he reported.
But because words alone cannot halt this injustice, Gravis started a mineworkers’ union and an integrated program to address their needs, such as raising awareness about potential health hazards and workers’ rights, constructing schools so children can learn to read, forming self-help groups so women can earn an alternative income and lobbying the government to award compensation to workers suffering from silicosis.
Yet despite these efforts Kantor says he fears they’re waging a losing battle.
“It’s time we begin to fulfill our responsibility to these children,” he said. “Eradicating child labor won’t be easy.”
That morning, after listening to the adults speak, Kantor stated he asked Raju about her life.
“It’s very difficult to work there,” he said Raju told him, her voice barely audible.
When Kantor asked about her dreams, a thin smile crept across her face, Kantor recalled.
“Maybe in my next life,” she said, softly. “I’ll be reborn as a person who travels in a car.”
Kantor is now conducting community-based research in India as a Hart Fellow, the postgraduate component of Duke’s Hart Leadership Program.
