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Burns disfigure kids working in Sivakasi - By: Bhaghawan Singh [Deccan Chronicle / 06-11-2007]

Twelve-year-old Chitra is a gruesome sight of a dried mass of flesh that hangs on a shriveled skeleton, like a scarecrow forgotten on a barren paddy field. Tended caringly by her mother Sunderambal inside their little thatched house in Pudutheru of Sivakasi, known as the Little Japan for its Rs.1,000 crore annual turnover of fireworks, the girl hides behind her bed sheets should any visitor duck into the doorway for a chat.

“We were working for daily wages in a fireworks factory in Sivakasi. Chitra was barely eight-years-old and there was a blast. She was badly burnt. Doctors said it would cost more than Rs.1.50 lakh to perform surgery to restore some shape to her mangled body. Where could I go for that kind of money? We were already neck-deep in debts,” recalled Sunderambal. It’s now four years since that tragedy and Sunderambal spends considerable time every day to feed the girl, clean her up and even help her during menstruation. “God gave me this child and I will take care of her till I die,” said the mother trying hard to fight back tears. The sad saga of the mother and daughter was caught poignantly on camera by a Korean TV crew along with a Chennai-based human rights outfit, ‘Manitham’, working on child labour in Sivakasi. Chitra’s was just one of the many cases that the probe team came across, a sad reminder that though the law prohibiting child labour was passed by the Indian Parliament way back in 1993, children in many states, particularly in Sivakasi down south in Tamil Nadu, are forced to toil to supplement family incomes and battle the never-ending debts.

It takes a lot of coaxing to get Chitra to talk and when she does, the sting in her voice actually redeems the pain in her eyes. “If I get better, if I heal at all, I will go back to work and repay the debts raised for my treatment,” she says. But she is still a cripple, with her breasts, hands and face stuck together like a crudely made wax figure, left half-done.

Little Karuppusamy is barely 14 and is busy stuffing the marundu (inflammable chemicals) into the crackers outside his hut, seated along with all the family members, who include even a six-year-old brother. Karuppusamy suffered an explosion in the fireworks factory he was working in four years ago and has ended up with a badly scarred face and mutilated fingers. But he must work on, as otherwise, the family would remain in debts and hunger forever.

Father Lingam insists that his son was accidentally injured while playing near a dumpyard which had some explosive chemicals left in it by oversight. “His boss would have got a signed letter from the father saying the boy was injured outside the factory. He would lose his job if he spoke the truth and he would have got a few thousand rupees as compensation,” said G. Subramanian, executive director, Manitham.

Locals at Sivakasi explain that the children are forced to work as the men folk spend a good part of their daily earnings on alcohol. “Many of the men here work in stone quarries and make Rs.70 a day, of which they spend Rs.50 on booze. The women and the children are forced to work,” said an activist. While most of the children of Sivakasi are forced into labour through the day, starting at seven in the morning, in thatched shacks, either making match-boxes or rolling crackers (there are no fire extinguishers anywhere in sight), some children do attend school.

But even they must pitch in to work in the evenings after returning home. The Indus Schools established in the region under a Indo-US cooperation project to tackle the problem of child labour pays Rs.100 a month per child attending the school in addition to mid-day meals. But this is not good enough for the families to keep their children away from the dangerous work with fireworks.

The Korean TV crew catches a factory hand at Sivakasi mixing potassium cyanide in the glue made of thick rice gruel, to discourage the children from eating it when hungry. Another shot has a little girl confessing she has been making matchboxes for the last two years and earning a paltry Rs.100 per week. There is a little brother watching her and offering help now and then. He will be part of Sivakasi’s growing labour force in a few months from now, making sure that India of a billion people will soon emerge an economic giant. [THE END]

URL : http://www.deccan.com/chennaichronicle/home/homedetails.asp#Burns%20disfigure%20kids% 20working%20in%20Sivakasi

Korean broadcaster shoots documentary on Sivakasi child labour - By: Jaya Menon [The Indian Express / 06-11-2007]

Rampant child labour in Sivakasi is not a new thing, nor are the frequent accidents in the fireworks factories crowding the parched Virudhunagar district. But a heart-rending 25-minute film, Tragedy buried in Happiness by a Korean broadcaster, Teagu Broadcasting Corporation, on the exploitation of children of Keezhapatti village and the gruesome accidents that left teenagers, Chithra and Karuppusamy, deformed for life, has brought back into focus the administrative apathy to Sivakasi's children.

Keezhapatti village near Sivakasi hides a dark secret. Four years ago, Chithra was involved in an accident while working in a fireworks factory. Cowering behind a bath sheet, Chithra tries to hide from Hyuk Soo Seo's camera. Naturally, she does not want the world to see her scarred face and the deformed mass of flesh that constitutes the top portion of her body. But the camera catches her expressive eyes.

Doomed to live within the four walls of her home, Chithra has not received much compensation, either from the company where she worked or from the district administration. Her mother, Sunderambal is apprehensive about even discussing the issue. She does not want to mention the name of the company. All that she laments about now is that it would have cost just Rs 2 lakh for a plastic surgery, and a new life for her child.

When asked what's her ambition is in life, Chithra says, "I want to work again and pay back all the debts taken for my treatment," she mutters from behind the sheet she clutches tightly to her face.

But there are many like Chithra in 'Kutty Japan (Little Japan),' as Sivakasi is called, where the fireworks business generates an annual business of around Rs 1,000 crore.

Karuppusamy, sits with members of his family in front of his hut, packing gun powder into cylindrical tubes. The camera pans to his face, grabbing the sight of his totally scarred and deformed face and hands. Does it hurt now, he is asked. "No," says 14-year-old Karupussamy, flexing his shriveled hands.

His father, Lingam, says that a small compensation was given. But the father was made to sign a statement which said the accident in which Karuppusamy was involved did not take place in the factory where he had worked earlier.

Muneeswari (13) has been working for the last two years in a match factory. Her little brother, barely eight years old, accompanies her. Her hands are coarse and have a yellow tinge. Nothing to do with 'maruthani' or henna. The camera next catches a factory worker showing cyanide powder being added in the gum preparation used to seal the match boxes with the blue-coloured paper.

"Just because the kids who work in the factories got into the habit of eating the paste when they were hungry, the factory owners began to add cyanide powder to the gum preparation. This stains every hand that works for this industry," says G Subramanian, executive director of Manitham, a human rights organisation, which helped the Korean company to shoot the film.

Muneeswari tells her visitors that she gets paid Rs 100. "For a day?" she is asked. "No, for a week. I work from 7 am to 6 pm," she says. She is an important breadwinner for her family of five. Suhasini (13) makes 4,000 match boxes a day from 8 am to 5 pm and gets paid Rs 40. The Manitham activists claim that while the district administration says that there are only 1,700 children working, there could easily be 40,000 children toiling in the fireworks and matches factory blatantly ignoring safety precautions. [THE END]

Think of these kids when sparklers light up Diwali sky - By: Papri Sri Raman [IANS News Agency / 06-11-2007]

Every time a sparkler lights up the sky during Diwali festivities, spare a thought for Karuppuswamy, Chitra and Muneeswari - three of the nearly 100,000 children toiling away in Sivakasi's fireworks and match industry.

The three children feature in a 25-minute documentary film, "Tragedy Buried in Happiness", shot in August with Manitham, a rights NGO working with children, Amnesty International and the National Confederation of Human Rights.

No volunteer of the National Rural Health Mission ever visits 12-year-old Chitra, who has been confined for four years within the walls of her tiny room - ever since the child, a rank holder in her school, got burnt while making crackers in the town, 650 km south of the state capital Chennai.

Today Chitra cowers before visitors, drawing up a grey sheet to cover her burnt body and her half burnt face. Her eloquent eyes speak to camera and say all that she does not tell.

Chitra's mother is reluctant to admit how much she was paid, what was the name of the unit where the accident took place. She only complains that it would have cost Rs.200,000 for the child's plastic surgery and that no one has helped her daughter.

Karuppusamy, 14, sits in an alley, surrounded by his siblings, stuffing gunpowder into holding trays for crackers. His hands and face are shrivelled. Asked if he feels pain, he says, "No."

Muneeswari's hands are yellow; no, not due to henna. "The gum that the children in her work group use contains cyanide, which stains every hand that contributes to this industry," said G. Subramanian, executive director, Manitham.

On camera, Muneeswari, 12, says she gets Rs.100 per week for eight to 12 hours of work every day. Her earnings help her parents feed her siblings.

Manitham activists say there are about 40,000 children working in the narrow bylanes of Sivakasi, about 650 km south of Chennai and home to the fireworks and matchstick industry, employing 50,000 people.

"There is a ray of hope," said rights activist and advocate Ajeetha B.S.

"We are beginning to notice a slight shift in the ages of the child labourers. A few years ago we found 10-year-olds working in these factories, now we find the children a little older, about 13-14," Advocate Ajeetha told IANS at Chennai.

Another activist, not wishing to be named, added: "What is happening in India today is exploitation of child labour, be it in the firework industry or in the farms. The issue is not poor working conditions, it is exploitation of children."

India is estimated to have nearly 125 million child workers, 80 percent of them in rural areas.

Appreciating the documentary, noted lawyer and rights activist Sudha Ramalingam said: "We have been fighting to end child labour for more than two decades. The film is a shocking revelation of what still goes on."

But making the film was not easy. Subramanian said, "No Indian NGO or filmmaker was ready to shoot the film. We were, therefore, forced to go to filmmakers from Korea." The documentary is in Korean, dubbed into Tamil and English. [THE END]

: : SCREENED IN... : :

- Human Rights Film Fest, 2007, Organised by Don Bosco Institute of Communication Arts, Madras School of Social Work, Bangalore Film Society and Breakthrough TV - Human Rights in Frames - Chennai, India - Dec. 09, 2007

[URL : http://www.donboscoindia.com/english/bis/default_ms.php?newsid=1552&pno=1]

- 4th National Convention of Children, Campaign Against Child Labour [CACL] - Addivasi Exhibition Ground, Bhubaneswar, India - Nov. 20-22, 2007
- Teen Reel - St.Marys College, Trichur, Kerala, India - Nov. 17 & 18, 2007
- Jagriti, 2007 - Ethiraj College for Women, Chennai, India - Dec. 10, 2007.
- Workshop on Human Rights - Cauvery College, Trichy, India - Dec. 10, 2007.

- CB-CID police enquired Manitham-Viruthunagar coordinator [Manitham]

Mr. Radhakrishnan of Viruthunagar CB-CID police called Manitham-Viruthunagar coordinator Mr. Paramasivam on 15-02-2008 and enquired at Rajapalayam police station regarding with the DVD - "Happiness behind Tregady", recently released on Child Labour in Sivakasi filmed by our Manitham.

Mr. Paramasivam, has fully cooperated with Mr. Radhakrishnan of CB-CID and given full details and locations where Manitham team shot the documentary. Reliable sources informed that Government of Tamil Nadu has directed the district authorities for an enquiry on Child Labour based on Manitham DVD. [THE END]

RELATED NEWS :

- Child Labour : By: Subramanian.G, Executive Director, Manitham - Paper submitted to National Seminar on "Strategies for Eliminating Child Labour in India". University Grants Commission-sponsored two-day, [July 21 and 22, - 2005] and organised by the Economics Department of the GRG PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, Coimbatore. MORE...

- South Asia region: report calls for law reform to end legalised violence against children - .pdf [End Corporal Punishment]

Hitting people is wrong – and children are people too. Corporal punishment of children breaches their fundamental rights to respect for their human dignity and physical integrity. Its legality breaches their right to equal protection under the law. Urgent action is needed in every region of the world to respect fully the rights of all  children – the smallest and most fragile of people.

This report reviews law and policy in relation to corporal punishment and deliberate humiliation of children in each state in South Asia. It makes recommendations for law reform and other measures which it is hoped will be adopted at the Consultation and pursued at a national, regional and international level.

THIS REPORT AND ITS RECOMMENDATIONS ARE ENDORSED BY: + Manitham - Promoting Human Rights, Protecting Environment, India - FULL REPORT...

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