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Andhra Pradesh cracker unit deaths bring back focus on child labour

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As many of us prepare to greet the festival of lights with sweets, rangolis and most likely firecrackers, a blast at a firecracker manufacturing unit at East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh left almost a dozen dead, including children, on Monday morning, while some battled serious burns. This brings the issue of child labour in cracker units to focus again.

The unit, a one-room affair with 15 to 20 people working to deliver in time for the festival, caught fire due to a friction leading to a blast, informed Srinivas Reddy, Additional superintendent of police (Administration), Kakinada.

"This was an accident, and 11 people have been found dead, and seven people are in the hospital. Of the deceased, seven are women, and so are nine of the injured. Some of them barely escaped the blast because they had gone out on some errand," said Reddy. When asked about the presence of children, Reddy said that there was only one woman aged about 16 years, and that he could not comment on the presence of children so soon.

The problem of child labour in fireworks industry comes out of the closet every time there is a ghastly incident as this. In 2011, a total of 14 children lost their lives in incidents in Titucorin and Sivakasi at Virudhnagar district of Tamil Nadu, a hot and dusty region notorious for rampant child labour and for claiming the lives of scores of children at the various firecracker manufacturing units situated there. In 2012, 38 children lost their lives at a factory in Mudalipatty. In the last 12 years, there have been 88 accidents in which 237 people have lost their lives in these firecracker factories.

Almost 70% of the country's firecrackers, including matches, are produced in Sivakasi. By 2011, there were about 9,500 firecracker units and 500 matches units in Sivakasi accounting for about 90% of India's crackers and 75% of matches output. Most of these units employ children between the age of 5 to 15 years, who work for more than 12 hours in extremely hazardous conditions for meagre pays. Most of these children for the number of pieces that they produce every day, and earn anywhere between Rs 30 to 50 per day.

"Asthma, eye infection and TB are prevalent among 90% of them who are involved in gun powder filling and are directly in contact with the chemical ingredients. Children are involved in loading flower pots, fixing the fuse, making paper pipes, filling rings etc. These workers usually do not wear any protective clothes and their skin is normally covered with the chemicals like sulphur, aluminium powder and gun powder. Moreover, children are affected psychologically, too," said a 2013 National Child for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) report.

Rakesh Senger of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, whose founder Kailash Satyarthi has won the Nobel Prize for a three-decade long crusade against child labour, said that in many factories children as small as five mix sodium and nitrate with their own hands. "Their hands are scalded, and because they are not technically trained, they tend to mix unsafe amounts for bombs, which usually blast," says Senger. He added that the problem is not limited to Tamil Nadu, and that BAA volunteers have seen child labour in cracker units in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jaipur and Assam. "There is no cracker unit in this country that does not employ children," he says.

According to the 1996 Supreme Court judgement by MC Mehta, factories that do not comply with the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, must pay Rs 20,000 as compensation for each child employed. The Act also lists a number of hazardous occupations and process which prohibits employment of children under 14 years, including cracker and match units. "None of these rescued children ever see a penny, let alone the compensation. Also, interstate migrating workers must be registered in both states as per Interstate Workmen Act, where the registration must not be done by the manufacturers," said Senger.

Former NCPCR chairperson Kushal Singh, under whose direction there were many studies conducted on child labour in cracker units, said that the implementation of the Act is incomplete. "This is criminal activity, and the state labour departments must be more proactive, they simply cite lack of funds. While on one hand the state makes education compulsory, on the other hand they employ kids as young as five in these factories," said Singh.

Employers are more than complicit in this. Abiruben, the president of the Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers' Association (TANFAMA) not simply refused to acknowledge the problem. "Which generation do you belong to? Are you living in the 20th century? These are simply hearsay; please get your facts correct. There has been no child labour in Sivakasi since 1982," said an irate Abiruben.

Rajagopalan, director of the Nether's Economic and Educational Development Society, who has been working to curb the menace in Virudhnagar since 2002, said the problem has moved deeper now. Children are now employed at home-based factories. "Children are now working in homes, and in some places working in factories that have moved to rural areas. Four months back, I went on a survey with an Italian woman who had come from Chennai, and found 40 children in about 4-5 units in Virudhnagar," he said. "How will the district administration take action against homemade units? Manufactures hide children in rooms in villages."

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