Telangana Cotton Fields Employ Child Labour

Trade & Policy

Telangana Cotton Fields Employ Child Labour

To the extreme south of Telangana near Kurnool is the cotton producing Jogulamba Gadwal district. Farmers force their children to drop out of school for at least two months a year, as most of them cannot hire labour. The children who drop out of school to help their parents, work from 6am to 5pm every day. Padma, a farmer says, "For three months, the only time we go home is to sleep, and then early morning, after cooking, we rush to the fields. Cotton production is a herculean task. If we don't work for even a day, our crops will fail."

Acknowledging the critical issue of child labour and education, MV Foundation (MVF) - an NGO working for child education - designed a programme in the district by deputing volunteers, who work as motivators, and help in stopping child labour and counsel the parents to send their kids to school regularly. Their primary job is to stop the children from dropping out from school especially during the cotton harvest.

Child Marriage

Apart from the problem of child labour and school dropouts, another major crisis in the district is the child marriages. Cotton production requires manpower, and farmers who are wealthy enough employ labour by providing them a daily wage of Rs 300-350, and three meals a day. Poorer farmers who can't afford labour though turn to family - and when there aren't enough family members to help, they resort to child marriage.

Parents look for a bride for their sons, and once the children are married, the bride works on the farm, says Pasha, one of the MVF volunteers, working in Penchikalapadu.

Chakali Srinivas, an education activist, working with MVF says that child marriage is the latest crisis which has emerged out of the cotton production in the mandal.

Recalling their efforts last year to stop child marriages, he says, "Last year, 192 child marriages happened. Out of them, we could stop only 48 weddings with the help of local public representatives and Childline."

Vicious cycle of cotton debt

Cotton production is an unending cycle for heavily indebted farmers. The cotton seed companies, through agents known as 'organisers' are willing to lend advances only to the farmers who will cultivate cotton. Money is lent not just for the cost of cultivating the cotton, but also for other "unavoidable expenditures" such as weddings and other ceremonies. The farmers do not have access to other avenues. This advance payment, at an interest of 2-3% is a lifeline for them.

A farmer who cultivates half an acre of cotton typically borrows about Rs 10,000. The yield brings home about Rs 40,000. Once the advance money with the interest is paid back, the farmer takes home between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000. But the farmer receives this money only seven months after he has handed over the crop to the organiser. In this time, it is inevitable that debts have accrued again. Once again, the farmer heads back to the organiser for an advance payment.

In Jogulamba Gadwal there are around 300 organisers, who are also farmers, who then employ sub-organisers, who are also farmers. Another problem for the farmer is to identify a reliable organiser. In cotton production, the farmer has to rely on the organiser, if the organiser says that the cotton has failed the quality test, the farmer has to again cultivate cotton to clear the previous debt. In this process the farmer gets entangled in a web of debt.

According to Ramu, a farmer, 20% of the cotton crop in his village fails the quality test. He says, "The organiser and farmer relationship works on credibility. If we fall into the hands of a wrong person, we are doomed. "If two cotton tests fail, the farmer has to gulp down pesticide".

Measures taken by the government

Recently, the government has issued a directive to file cases against people who employ children in fields (including their parents) after learning the gravity of the issue. However, the ground reality remains the same.

District Agriculture officer, Govindu Naik says that there has been a gradual decrease of school dropouts in the last three years. He says that there has been a reduction in seed cotton production as most of them are opting for commercial cotton production. "Out of the approximate 3.5 lakh hectares of agricultural land, in 2014, 45,000 hectares of land were used for seed cotton production. The year later it came down to 35,000 and this year it came down to 25,000," Naik says.