June 19, 2017
ASIA / PACIFIC
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3
The Ultimate Beaders’ Paradise
CHILD LABOR. Indian boy Brijesh, who claims to be 16 years old but doesn’t know his birthday, poses
for a photo while sitting on corn stalks next to a busy expressway in Noida, India. Every 330 feet or so, there
are children selling cooked corn along the expressway on the outskirts of New Delhi. According to India’s 2011
census, boys like him are part of the estimated 8.3 million child laborers In India. Pictured on page one is Vikas,
age 12, an Indian boy who also sells corn on the expressway. (AP Photos/Tsering Topgyal)
BEAD FAIRE
O rig in a l
T h e
Hardscrabble children sell corn
in the heat by India’s roads
By Vaishnavee Sharma
The Associated Press
OIDA, India — Every 330 feet or
so along a busy expressway on the
outskirts of New Delhi, you’ll find
a child selling corn — quite possibly a child
too young to be working legally.
Twelve-year-old Prakash is one of them.
Lolling amid the discarded husks from
earlier sales, he doesn’t seem bothered by
the 100º Fahrenheit heat or the buzzing
flies. “We all work together and live
together,” he says, gesturing toward 15 or
so other boys working the highway.
Each is dropped off by their employer
every morning with a sack full of boiled
corn. They spend their days trying to flag
down drivers. They don’t leave until their
sacks are empty, sometimes 12 hours
later.
Are all as young as Prakash? There’s no
way to be sure. Each seems to change their
age with each answer, often forgetting the
number they previously mentioned. Most
are careful, however, to use a number
above 14 — the legal age in India to work in
N
non-family enterprises. Young men, whom
the boys claim are their elder brothers,
patrol the highway on motorcycles, ensur-
ing business runs smoothly. They also tell
them not to speak to visiting journalists.
Most comply, anxious to keep jobs that
pay about $80 per month — far more than
they could earn back home. All the boys
have moved to Noida, southeast of New
Delhi, from rural villages in search of
work.
On June 12, the World Day Against
Child Labor, the International Labour
Organization said 168 million children are
laborers, or about one in nine children
overall.
India, in its 2011 census, estimated the
country had 8.3 million child laborers.
Uttar Pradesh state, where Noida is
located, alone accounted for 1.8 million of
that total. UNICEF says child labor has
declined overall in India but its urban
areas have seen an increase.
Meanwhile, Prakash and the other boys
are still selling their corn late in the
afternoon. Their sacks are not yet empty.
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Indian fishermen try new nets for healthier oceans
Continued from page 2
lapsed.
Meanwhile, the UNDP has also helped
set up a crab farming project in the
Sindhudurg area to encourage local
preservation of the mangroves and
resistance to land developers and those
gathering firewood by chopping the
saltwater-tolerant trees down.
Now, nurseries for crab seedlings line up
along a two-acre stretch of backwater pools
filled with the mud that crabs like to dig
into. It takes up to nine months for the
crabs to grow to full size, at which point
they are harvested and sold for about $6.80
a pound.
Recently, the group of nine women and
one man earned nearly $1,000 in profits
from a single harvest.
Local officials are delighted with the
low-fuss process and positive results.
“With very little manipulation of the
environment, you can grow crabs
wherever you have mangroves,” said N.
Vasudevan, who heads a special unit
dedicated to mangrove conservation for
the government of India’s western state of
Maharashtra.
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