“It is an extremely lucrative business. This is a slave trade. Parents are, directly or indirectly, selling their children.”
Seven days a week, 8-year-old Jasmina K. rises before dawn to fetch water for the household where she works as a maid. She washes, sweeps and hauls until about 11 at night, when she lies down to sleep on the floor by the bathroom door.
Her employers have little patience with her exhaustion.
“I get tired and forget things, so they hit me,” she said, her eyes cast down. “They want the shoes polished. If I don’t do it fast enough, they hit me with a cooking spoon. They want to go to the toilet. If I don’t get the water fast enough, I get a beating.”
Jasmina has been a member of India’s child labor force for more than a year now. After her father died, she said, her mother sent her and her sister from their West Bengal village to work as maids here. Each month, she is paid 100 rupees, or about $2.25.
India has no outright ban on child labor and had long allowed the employment of children under 14 in all but what are deemed “hazardous” occupations. But last October a stricter law took effect; it prohibits the employment of children under 14 in hotels and restaurants, and as domestic servants.
Five months later, children’s rights advocates say, the law has had little effect. Under-age children, mostly girls, are as in demand as ever to be maids and nannies.
“Because of the booming economy and the spread of the nuclear family, we’ve seen a rise in demand for domestic help at a time when it’s becoming more expensive to employ people,” said Surina Rajan of the International Labor Organization. “So families are looking for a cheaper option.”
Hiring an obedient 8-year-old, fresh from India’s rural heartland, is a simple matter. Impoverished villagers willingly turn their children over to middlemen who promise a better life in the cities, children’s advocacy groups say.
“Placement agencies in Delhi and Mumbai are growing like mushrooms,” said Manabendra Nath Ray of Save the Children U.K. “It is an extremely lucrative business. This is a slave trade. Parents are, directly or indirectly, selling their children.”
The Indian government estimates that 12 million children under 14 are employed; children’s advocates say the figure could be closer to 60 million. It is unclear how many of these children work as maids.
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