As the pollination time for Bt cotton has arrived, small tribal children from across the border from Banswara, Dungarpur and Udaipur districts in Rajasthan have been brought by contractors to the Bt cotton farms in Idar Taluka in Sabarkantha district.
This is the scenario year after year. Thousands of children have been extensively employed for pollinating plants manually, so that Bt cotton seeds are ready for the market.
This year, the first lot of child labourers has arrived in the villages of Sherpur, Laloda, Ganeshpura, Hassanpura in Idar taluka. These small kids are fated to inhumane tortures by the farm owners. They start their day at around four in the morning and work till late afternoon. For this laborious job they get the minimal wage of Rs40 per day.
It is estimated that every year more than one lakh tribal children below 14 years from poverty stricken Rajasthan, arrive to work for three months in the BT cotton seed farms of Sabarkantha and Banaskantha districts of Gujarat. Children are being employed primarily because they can be paid very low wages and made to work long hours.
Even though there are strict laws for employing children, Bt cotton farms in these areas never care to follow any rules. For farmers here, these children are merely means to mint money.
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