Farmwork lures children from poor families
The Hindu
They earn more in harvest season as they get plenty of work
Families in many villages of the district find it more lucrative to send their school-going children to farms for plucking chilli or cotton, which fetches them ₹9,000 a month in the harvesting season. As it directly impacts their attendance in the school, they could lose ‘Amma Vodi’ scheme benefits with the State government making 75% attendance compulsory.
Schools in interior villages and on the border with Karnataka are the ones that witness such practices. About 20% out of the 565 children enrolled in Havaligi K.S.Z.P. High School do not attend classes for various reasons (on record) but the majority are sent to work at some place or other. All of them are persuaded by the headmaster and teachers during interaction with parents to ensure 75% attendance to claim the Amma Vodi benefits but to no avail, says CPI(M) district secretary V. Rambhupal, who visited many schools in the Vidapanakal mandal. “During our Rythu Coolie Rakshana Padayatra now under way till December 18, we could witness a number of children working in the fields as it is the harvesting season,” Mr. Rambhupal says.
At Krishtipadu in Peddavadagur mandal a whole family has been working in a cotton field. Giving the reason for the children not going to school, the family head Thippeswamy says he has a contract with the farmer to pluck cotton, pack it in gunny bags and carry it to a lorry nearby, which fetches them ₹17 a kg and that works out to ₹400 per person in the family for an 11-day work.