Behind the curtains

"This was happening in the almond rich region of North India" cried the newspaper. The printed picture spoke volumes.  Three or four old   toddlers were standing on a heap of almonds spread over a big room and were going around  in a cyclical motion. We have witnessed the prevalence of abundant child labour in our  poverty stricken  populated nation.  In  everyday life we see them as servers in the road side tea stalls, as assistants in the automobile repair shops, in mechanic shops doing welding works sans any protection to their eyes, in the cycle shops filling air and doing puncture work. These are just few examples only. Apart from these known and seen phenomena  do we know about the behind the scenes child labour? That the buffing work to the stainless steel utensils which make them shine like silver displayed in big shops are done by the child labour in a dingy airless rooms? That the match stick and cracker manufacturing centres do have children working by simply changing their age  in the papers? The examples can go on endlessly.........

But the newspaper picture denoted an entirely different category of child labour. Shall we call it "The toiling toddlers?" As I threw the whitish almond nuts into my morning oats porridge  the three pairs of tiny legs portrayed in the newspaper  seemed to stare at me with vengeance!

Why not an adult do this job?  Why a baby? The simple answer was that  this  job could not be done by an adult! The soft brown skin of the almond indeed needed a  light force to get the white nut as a whole  which carries the best price in the market. An adult leg would indeed spoil the show bringing forth just broken nuts!

“Ma buy some branded perfumes for friends or fine bone china for the house  which tourist would prefer to take home." my daughter said "why should you buy these almonds abundantly available in  India? In our own Chennai  the Mint street and beyond where   have  shops doing flourishing business in nuts and dry fruits!"

I had to make a little explanation to her for my  purchase!

Given a choice I would prefer to watch the super singers in the TV channels and especially the junior ones. With their  innocent starry eyes they always add value to the singing. But my heart bleeds for the little ones when they are rejected by the judges however comforting their words were. Sometimes they pathetically stare at the judges  even after their rejection without proper understanding. Could the judges think of a small gift along with their talks?

If the sadness at their rejection was one part of the story, the parents waiting outside in great anticipation look at the child as if he was good for nothing stuff.  The pressure they put on their child  was worse than  on a ordinary  child labourer, since the mental and  the psychological strains take a toll on the efficiency and self-confidence of the child.

The Lilliputian size of the modern family and literacy level of the parents pumps in lot of time and energy into the house hold and children become the guinea pig to the  avaricious longings of the parents and thus the focal point of all unwanted attention. That my child should be an all-rounder bringing in  laurels constantly fills their mind. A scholar, a sports man, a singer of great repute  and thus a money spinner becomes the sole criteria.

"I have “thoo toosans evedhi dhey” one in the school and then one at the “aunthi” miss house” (I have two tuitions every day, one at the school and the other auntie miss' house) with a sigh  a child of three blurts out.

My child can write ABCD up to Z and from 1 to 100  is the false crown which  most of the middle and lower rung groups in the Indian society would love to wear. The pedagogical psychology, it is revealed that children should not be allowed to write till they are 7 or 8 as their fingers are not yet to be ready for that exercise.

 And if the child is able to recite the rhyme "Baa baa black sheep" they reach their crescendo!

Along with all these, their desire to get their children to  appear  in the TV  becomes a life ambition and thus adding one more feather to their cap! And what best route than the super singer programme with the lucrative monetary benefits as an add-on!

And the preludes to this programme  was not as pleasant as the end products appear to be. It is indeed the Calvary  to the child and we happened to be the unlucky witness to this whole process.

 My husband and I were on our monthly travel and stayed at the usual hotel. We love the place and  it's ambience and the walker's way just opposite  made a tempting option to stay in there.

As usual we were out of the room at 5.30. for a pleasant walk anticipating a  friendly accosting of the known faces! As we came to the portico  I was surprised that this serene place  the teeming with  people! The security guard came running and asked us to use the other gate since the usual one we use was locked. We looked around and could see a big crowd  outside the gate.  As we reached the walkers way  we understood that it was not just a crowd outside the  gate  but a big queue was extending beyond. The variety of the gathering was stunning! It consisted of father mother and child combination  or the child with a single parent and also grandfather grandmother and grandchild combo or the child with single grandparent. The whole show reminded me of the fairy tale story of " The pied Piper of Hamlin" wherein the  motley crowd of rats ran behind the piper enjoying his tune! 

Our Walkers way was also monopolised by people and food stalls and someone told us that  audition for junior super singer was to take place in the hotel around 10 in the morning. As we walked along amidst the crowd we witnessed an interview  with a grandmother who was there with  her grandson by the TV channel crew.

The request for an interview enthused the lady and she must have thought it might add value in her grandson's selection process!

"Can you wait for a minute?"  she requested them." I have brought some talcum powder for my grandson and I would use some for myself." She laughed. Talcum powder.....luckily for the grandma it was  the only makeup the previous Tamil generation  was aware of!

On that day we zig zagged through the populace instead of the salubrious trees and  peacock calls. The crew continued with their random interview which would make a proper prelude for the TV programme!

As we moved on we heard a frightened shout of a little boy who was holding his mother's salwar scarf tightly.

"Amma, amma, a wax doll is walking towards us...."

"Don't blabber.. shut up and practice the song..."

 Curiously we turned around  to witness the boy's wax doll indeed it was a crew member who did the interviewing of the people in the queue. In her heavy makeup of  mascara, rouge and bright lipstick and a  short frock and  high heeled shoe she could have easily frightened us, leave alone the poor child!

" Are you having a busy day today.....?" I accosted the staff gathered  in the reception area.

"Ma’am these people are crazy....... I have two young girls but neither my wife nor I would risk our children's life in this manner. Yesterday around midnight an old lady and her young granddaughter were knocking at our gate. They had started early in the morning from a village near Nagapattinam.  What with the crowded buses  they could reach this place now. They had come for the next day’s  audition for the super singer. Since our hotel was away from the centre of the city we wondered how they reached the place. They took an auto it seemed. We were aghast. What sort of risk they had taken at this hour? Anything could have happened to the young girl leave alone the old lady! Since we didn't have the right to open the gate  we had to wake up the resident manager and get his permission to let them in. In the reception area all the sofas were occupied by the sundry male crew members and  we found  a corner behind a sofa for them.  At that moment the old lady said that apart from the rice porridge they had in their house early in the morning they had not had any food through the day.   But we were in a dilemma as we could not go out during duty hours. We told her that there would be a food stall open in the  corner beyond the gate where she could get some food and till she came back  we would be taken care of her granddaughter .

 Ma’amm, we gave her a piece of our mind which she would never forget in her life."

"Hope she had learnt her lesson."

"I don't think so mam." another staff continued "the craze for fame and riches rules the roost! The irony is that of the thousand and odd children  being auditioned today only nine are going to be selected and added to this the rumour goes around  that the preferred lot of four or five children had already been chosen. For this  fake  audition these pitiable children should have been practicing with masters for months!  The pressure from the parents should have been sitting on their heads! And today the wakeup call should be very early for them to reach this place at four or  five in the morning!"

Sitting in the room I was musing. Can our children grow as healthy plants with just natural manure of good values and positive attitude? Why add up unwanted chemical fertilizers of  materialism greed and avarice to make them grow faster and bear just sour fruits? Do we realise that their mental and physical health is affected in the process?

p.s. I have taken away the super singer from my list of watchable!