In Sherpur, Laloda, Ganeshpura, Hassanpura and other villages in Idar taluka, the first lot of children has arrived. Their day begins early around 4 am when the cotton flower buds are open and at their tender best. It will end only late in the afternoon. Nirmala, who does not look any older than 12, says: “I arrived here about a week ago from my village in Dungarpur, Rajasthan. My job is to cross-pollinate the flowers for which I get Rs 40 a day.”

This Rs 40 is not only less than the minimum wage of Rs 50, but she will also not be paid directly. The contractor here must have paid her father a lumpsum for employing her as an agricultural labour for a couple of months.

Shaileshbhai Pandya, a worker with the Gujarat Khedut Mazdoor Sanghathan (GKMS), says: “The contractors pocket the money. There is a big difference in what the children should get and what they get.”

The tribal children from Rajasthan, primarily in the age group of 10 to 15, come mainly to work in Sabarkantha and Banaskantha districts of Gujarat. The children work for more than 10 hours everyday and stay in makeshift shelters in the middle of the farm. There are a good number of girls here and the working conditions make them vulnerable to abuse.

The GKMS campaign against child labour last year has had the opposite effect. The farmers now deny that they employ children and the children have also been asked not to talk to anyone.

Ahmedbhai, of Laloda village has children working in his cotton fields. When asked he responded with: “I don’t employ children for work. The children come with their parents.” Sanju, working on the same farm and just a wee bit taller than the cotton plant, says: “My parents are in my village in Banswara. I came here all alone.”

Amritbhai Patel, head of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh in Idar taluka, says: “I have not heard of anybody employing children in their farms. If I come to know of any such instance I’ll tell the farmer to stop it.”

The GKMS has been meeting the farmers and telling them to stop employing children. Paulomee Mistry, President of the GKMS, says: “We have repeatedly asked the labour officers to conduct inspections in the farms. We have also started a poster campaign telling people that employing children is illegal.”

However, State Rural Labour Commissioner K Ninama too denies anything wrong. “There are hardly any children under the age of 14 working there. We found eight such children and have sent them back to Rajasthan. We will be conducting inspections every 15 days. I don’t think many children work there,” he says.

Since agricultural work does not come under the list of hazardous occupation children under 14 can be employed provided they do not work for more than three hours preceded by a rest of one hour and have weekly holidays.

Why is child labour preferred in Bt cotton farms?

• Children with nimble and small fingers are more suited to pollinate male and female Bt cotton flowers. The children first scour the field identifying and tagging all female cotton flowers. Plucked male cotton flowers are then used to pollinate them.

• Child labour is cheap compared to adults who demand more money to do the tedious job of locating male and female cotton flowers and the delicate task of pollinating them

• Children from Rajasthan don’t demand holidays until the season is over and they return home