SARDARPUR (DHAR): Amid the ongoing soybean harvesting season, many of the government primary schools in Sardarpur tehsil of Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh are lying deserted these days.
Children aged between 8 and 16 years can be found toiling in the fields these days, more in the tribal belt as they are earning around Rs 250 to 300 daily as labour costs in the area have shot up to Rs 800 to 1,000 for adults.
These children do not fall strictly under the category of child labourers as the Right To Education considers only those students who bunk school for a period between one and three months and work in hazardous industries. And agriculture is placed in the category of non-hazardous industry under the RTE.
School students busy in soybean harvesting in Sardarpur tehsil of Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh | FPNS
With nearby soybean fields buzzing with harvesting activities, pin-drop silence prevailed at scores of classrooms. About 80 per cent of the students are absent from school for the last two weeks. There has been a great loss to the studies of these students.
Many of the farmers here in Sardarpur said that children found scope for ‘employment’, mostly on soybean fields and this season had negated the impact of labour shortage thanks to a bumper harvest of the soybean crop. Farmers claimed that they prefer children for jobs like collecting debris and crop.
Another reason for farmers to prefer children share work is the ease with which they bend when compared to adults while working.
FPNS
Shiv Patidar, a father of four kids of Sardarpur all four aged between 9 and 14 are working on his 10-acre field.
“Their contribution saved me about Rs 15,000 in investment and that money will be used to buy new clothes for them during Diwali,” he said.
Patidar also said he would not mind his children working in other farmers’ fields whenever they could. “Children in our ethos have always learnt to be self-sufficient in this manner,” he added.
Children who work find at least 20 days of work and earn Rs 250 to 300 per day in wages during harvest season here and during this short period, they easily make around Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000, which is a handsome amount for their parents as well.
FPNS
With a half-yearly examination of the students of class 01 to 08th starting from November 07, many school teachers are worried about exam results. They claimed that whatever they taught in the last five months could go in vain during this two-week season of soybean harvesting.
The teacher says on the condition of anonymity that the Dussehra holiday in the first week of October and the work of harvesting soybeans immediately after it has affected the studies of the students to a great extent. We will return to the school only on October 28. We will try to revise the subjects taught 10 days before the half-yearly examination and update them.
Even the students of class 10 who are going to appear in the board exam a few months later are currently engaged in the harvesting.
