By Patricia Mukhim
A lie can be half-way round the world before the truth has got its boots on … James Callaghan
There could not have been a more appropriate quotation for the IMPULSE NGO research which claims that Jaintia Hills has 70,000 child labourers, slogging in decrepit, dungeons called coal mines. In the following paragraphs I shall try to prove why the research is wrong and the statistics are damned lies. I am getting into this most unpopular activity ( unpopular because no one here contests anything and the whole world today is castigating Meghalaya to be a cruel state and I am one of its citizens) because like Adlai Stevenson my belief is that a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. IMPULSE has won so much applause from across the real and virtual (internet)world that discrediting its findings is equivalent to committing a sacrilege and the one who deconstructs the report would be termed an iconoclast.
Many wonder why this writer should question statistics that seem to have been accepted even by the otherwise critical mass of researchers and policy planners. They insist that Meghalaya’s coal mines do have children working and ask if that isn’t enough to indict the mine owners and the Government. They even wonder if I have been paid by some coal barons to dissect the IMPULSE research. The answers to the above boil down to one simple explanation that research based on wrong statistics/figures etc can have far reaching effects on the entire policy planning process and the deployment of State finances. How the hell can Government provide schooling for 70,000 children whose antecedents are not known? Who will provide them the shelter? Will IMPULSE do it in collaboration with Social Welfare Department? And may I ask where is the money going to come from? Will international donors with a bleeding heart for India do it? The irony is that India is part of the privileged G-20 countries sitting at the high table and committing to assist some of the world’s teetering economies.
One other reason why I have chosen to take up or rake up this IMPULSE issue yet again is because some astute readers have felt that the IMPULSE clarification that appeared in this newspaper is a complete lie. I quote from the clarification to jog the readers’ memory –
“We had used the rapid assessment methodology, which we found most appropriate, considering the vulnerability of the children. The estimation of 70,000 children is based upon the Census of India, 2001. The figures show that there are 1, 22, 992 children below 18 years in the Jaintia Hills. Out of those there are 90,368 children in the age group 5- 14 years. Numbers of working children who are below the age of 18 years are 95,365. Therefore, 77.5% of the children in Jaintia Hills have been categorized as Main Workers (i.e. working full- time) in the Census of India, 2001. As per the chart provided by Health Department, Government of Meghalaya there is a population of around 1,15,463 migrant children in the Jaintia Hills who are in the age group of 5- 10, 10-16 and 16 -18 years. As per the estimation, there are 5000 coal mines in Jaintia Hills. If we take an average of 15 to 20 children working in each of the mines and if we calculate the number of mines with that of the number of children working in them we will find that approximately 1, 00,000 children work in the coal mines of Jaintia Hills. Hence after an analytical study based on the statistics, IMPULSE estimated that there are minimum 70,000 children working in the coal mines of Jaintia Hills. In the first phase we interviewed 907 children and in the second phase 200 children working in different mines making a total of 1107 children.
My counter argument going by the same census the link for which will be provided below is the following:
Population of Jaintia Hills (2001 census) -2,99,108.
Population in age group 0-4 years – 48,133
Population in age group of 5-14 years – 90,368.
Population in age group of 15-59 years – 1,48 , 424.
Total workers in Jaintia Hills -1,26,877
Main workers – 95,365
Marginal workers – 31,242
Non –workers – 1,72,231
The 2001 statistics clearly mentions that there are 95,365 main workers (not children). “Main workers” includes all adult workers which means office goers, teachers, labourers, farmers et al who work not less than 183 days a year. Anyone working for less than that number of days is a marginal worker. The census 2001 has no statistics for child labourers. Nowhere do the statistics mention as IMPULSE has claimed that the numbers of working children who are below the age of 18 years is 95,365. If IMPULSE says that main workers are all children then where are the government employees and others? Also the data sheet does not mention that there are 1, 22, 992 children below 18 years in the Jaintia Hills. A child labourer is one who is of the age of compulsory schooling which is up to 14 years. Anyone above 14 years can work provided he/she has produce an age certificate.
The problem is that IMPULSE or the researcher has read the data wrongly. The statistics on workers and on the segregation of population age-wise has been placed side by side. (I would request readers, particularly researchers and sceptics to read the data sheet available on http://censusindia.gov.in/Dist_File/datasheet-1707.pdf). This will reveal just how all of us have been taken for a ride.
IMPULSE also quotes from the Health Department data citing that there are 1,15,463 migrant children in the Jaintia Hills who are in the age group of 5- 10, 10-16 and 16 -18 years. How, why and when was this data generated by the Health Department? What was the purpose for generating this particular data? Was it for some health intervention? What are the indicators used to determine that the children are migrants? Where did they migrate from? I have tried to get this data out from the Health Department and spoken to senior officials of the Health Department. They just could not find that data. So where did that data come from? I would therefore ask IMPULSE to publish what it claims is Health Department data for public viewing or to provide the web link for the data.
I find it very problematic that no one has contested the IMPULSE research while all media channels (the latest being CNN-IBN which has hailed Hasina Kharbhih as the saviour of child labourers) are happy to castigate the Meghalaya Government for colluding with the merchants of avarice in actively promoting the trafficking of children from Nepal and Bangladesh.
I have visited several coal mines and interviewed people working there. They were mostly adults and comprised a huge section of tribes from Assam. What would children do in the coal mines anyway? The coal is dug horizontally with picks and shovels which mal-nourished kids shown in the pictures can hardly execute. A good number of kids are employed in tea shops or are doing other odd jobs in peoples’ homes etc. But to construct the theory that 70, 000 children are working in the dark, creepy dungeons of Jaintia Hills is to be way off the mark.
Also if as IMPULSE claims, the 2001 census had already shown 95,635 child labourers then what was the point for the NGO to conduct another research? Can a state survey that finds nearly one lakh child labourers in one district of a state not have created a huge stir? Or are we trying to imply that the National Council for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) only woke up after IMPULSE came into the scene and that it was blind to the 2001 census of Meghalaya? So what happens to this hugely concocted research? Will IMPULSE publicly own up to their mistake? Will the researcher admit that she has committed a statistical blunder of enormous proportions?
There are too many researchers floating around in this State doing what they want. They enjoy absolute freedom and immunity. I wonder if we can enjoy similar freedom in a foreign country. Anyone coming on a tourist visa and trying to do research here is committing a serious breach of the law regulating the visit of foreigners. I am also not sure whether those claiming to be here on some kind of internship with some NGOs come on a scholars/student visa. We are too lax about a lot of things so Meghalaya has become a researchers’ paradise. Is this because our minds are so deeply colonised? I wonder!