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.

... contd.