Kolkata, the city of joy, our country’s cultural capital is famous for a lot of things. Every day thousands of tourists come here. It was here, in this city, that Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa established Dakshineshwar, a temple for Devi Kali, on the banks of the sacred river Ganga.
Bengalis in general, are huge devotees of Goddess Kali and so this place experiences a huge crowd of ‘bhakts’ everyday. So for the food-loving bongs, numerous tiny restaurants now line the street adjoining the temple.
My mother happens to be someone who has great faith in Goddess Kali and so before joining college, she wanted me to visit Dakshineshwar once, and I obliged.
This story is not about Goddess Kali’s divinity or about the line of devotees that stretches far beyond the gates of the temple, waiting for their turn. This story is about “Maa Tara’s Hotel”, about “Dada Boudir Hotel” and all the other food joints surrounding the place.
The staffs of such places mostly consist of a cashier, generally a pot-bellied man, who apart from counting money orders the other workers around. Now these ‘other workers’ are mainly children ranging from 7-17 years of age.
That day my parents and I had gone to have breakfast in one such hotel. The cashier called out, “Ai Chintu 3te luchi ar ghugni porbe second table e” (Hey Chintu 3 puri and peas curry are to be served in the second table.) Chintu came out with 3 plates in hand, wearing a torn tee and jeans. The cashier slapped his head from behind, “Ei saala table gulo saaf korte hoy na?” (Hey *using a slang*, don’t the tables need to be cleaned?) Chintu hurried back and did as told. Let me tell you, Chintu was a boy around 11 years old, the age of my little brother. The difference was in the sides of the table.
I looked around and saw that most of the waiters here were children. It was a horrifying scene as they used cuss words and got beaten up as they went about their work. Well, it was horrifying to me. I tried to recall what I had read in my civics book back in class X, about child labour being banned by law, about government giving free education to children below poverty level and all that stuff. So was that limited to books?
I saw the same thing again in the beach side hotels of Puri last week.
Child labour is not a new thing in our society. We experience it every day in tea stalls, restaurants, municipal jobs and the list goes on. However, does it have no solution? We, the over-privileged people continue to take advantage of our monetary status, whereas they starve on the streets after working day-long.
Do you remember when our parents used to teach us how bad it is to use slangs? I guess etiquette does cost money and so does kindness and gentility.
Guys, we need to think of a way to curb child labour. Let’s take a step ahead and try educating the children below poverty line. We need to return their childhood to them. We need to remind the society that what law is.
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