Taking the right approach to child labour in Indian pastoral communities

Children’s participation in agricultural sub-sectors has become hazardous work. We need nuanced, cross-sectoral interventions to prevent child labour in pastoralism

The Indian case for child labour in pastoralism has been adequately overlooked, despite agriculture and its various branches being the largest employer of child labour.

The Centre for Pastoralism estimates that there are 35 million pastoralists across India, with most of them living in austere and inhospitable regions, ranging from the cold deserts of Ladakh to the Thar Desert and Deccan plateau. Lack of demographic indicators and socio-economic challenges of their livelihood further makes it challenging to lay out concrete estimates of the number of children in hazardous work in the sector.

However, many would argue that the need for children to work in pastoral communities is inevitable to keep the livelihood alive and does not necessarily conform to norms of child labour. The involvement of children in pastoral communities has been traditionally acceptable and age-appropriate tasks have enabled children to learn certain skills of inherent social, economic, and cultural value.

Even though there is hardly any evidence that helps in understanding how children’s contribution to pastoral communities in India has transitioned over a while, it is crucial to pay attention to the increasing socio-economic threats to pastoralists in the wake of globalised supply chains impacting agricultural sub-sectors and inadequate government policies. Such factors have led to the exclusion of heterogeneous pastoral communities from the market economy causing a decline in their household income, further creating conditions for children to engage in hazardous work and replace adults in many activities.

Hazardous experience for children

Children, as young as ten, are involved in time-consuming activities, such as herding where they are regularly exposed to harsh climatic conditions. Often, the children work in unhygienic conditions that pose certain risks to their health. The Child Labour and Adolescent (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 2016, also allows children to be engaged in ‘family work’, a term that is not clearly defined, justifying child labour in the pastoral sector and its related sub-sectors.

Rewant Ram, working with Urmul Trust in Bikaner district has been leading on-ground efforts in enhancing resilience and sustainability of pastoral livelihood options. He shared, “The parents are aware of the associated health risks during the long arduous journeys they undertake. These children remain at the risk of contracting diseases such as Anthrax from their infected animals and limited access to healthcare facilities along the pasture routes further jeopardises their well-being. The children are even forced to discontinue their school education resulting in limited livelihood diversification in the future. This traps the future generations in a vicious cycle of poor education levels, limited opportunities and poverty.”

With the majority of pastoralist communities being seasonal migrants, their children remain deprived of consistent quality education opportunities. Even when they are able to get enrolled in school, the overlaps in academic years and the inevitable need to work in order to sustain family income eventually makes them drop out of school.

There is also a serious dearth of support systems and monitoring mechanisms at the policy level to help the child cope up with the learning difficulties due to differences in curriculum and language. Additionally, requirements such as Aadhaar and the need of a residence proof for enrolment makes it difficult for the children to be enrolled in school as most of the pastoralists have are not even registered.

The children also face caste-based apathy and are often mistreated because of the stereotypes about pastoral communities. These challenges are enough to create negative circumstances for children preventing them from exercising their human right to education.

It is also important to understand that addressing the issue of child labour in pastoralism and ensuring access to quality education for these children is not only a child rights issue but a part of the quest for sustainable rural development, food security, and strengthening of pastoral livelihoods.

Need for strong policy interventions

Little has been done towards increasing the access of social, cultural, and financial capital for pastoralists and they have been relegated to the peripheries of the society, leaving very limited scope for engagement with them. From environmental risks and impacts, declining livestock health and capital, to restrictions in mobility due to COVID-19, the condition of millions of pastorals and their children is now more complex than ever.

An approach that separates the issue of child labour in pastoralism from pastoralism distress will only lead to reinventing of the wheel. It is high time that the environmental and economic contributions of pastoralists are acknowledged with strong policy support and implementation.

Children of pastoralist groups such as the Gujjars and Bakkarwals of Jammu and Kashmir and Changpas of Ladakh, where political imbalances have impacted their existence, are worst-hit besides others who have been struggling to get themselves registered and some, and are now on the verge of giving up their identities to accepted into the larger part of society.

Perhaps, these facts are indication enough to start asking the right questions about why certain communities where children’s work was, at one point, akin to sustaining the community livelihood and preserving the indigenous knowledge, are now at the periphery.

Learning about how children’s quality participation in agricultural sub-sectors became hazardous work and designing interventions, needs an extremely nuanced and cross-sectoral approach to prevent child labour.

Without ensuring efforts towards meaningful growth, preservation, and strengthening of pastoral communities economically, socially as well as politically, it is unlikely that children will transition from hazardous work to decent livelihood, as pastoralists tend to be pushed into hazardous work and remain out of school.

(Aastha Maggu is Programme Manager with Desert Resource Centre and Gazal Malik is Policy Research Coordinator at Global March Against Child Labour. The views and opinions expressed in this article are personal)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the authors’ own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.