...find time to study?

Childhood was not recognized as a separate stage of development in Europe 500 years ago, say historians. Children were seen as mini adults and started working at the age of 6 to 7.

Imagine, no time to play and study. No Children’s Day. No time to dream about what you want to do when you ‘become big’, because you are already ‘big’ and work is hard. Fetching water, carrying bundles of firewood and leaves, doing household chores and looking after younger brothers and sisters. A hard life.

Thank God, children don’t have to do all that today.

Situation 1: Acute water shortage
Place: Banaskantha, Gujarat.
Time: Now

Kanta and her mother fetch water anywhere between two to seven times a day. Their head-loads contain at least 15 litres of water. In good times, they walk about 1 to 4 kilometers in search of water. On bad days, maybe 7 km to the next village.

There is a modern pipeline that is supposed to bring in water and people have grown dependant on it, but it works only a few days in a month.

Headloading water in the severe heat is no fun.

Situation 2: Landslide-prone hilly agricultural area with shortage of firewood and fodder for animals
Place: Syuta, hills of Uttar Pradesh.
Time: Now

The burden of work falls mainly on the women. Girls start working early, helping out by the time they are 5-10 years old. Breaking the hard earth, ploughing it and sowing the seed, weeding the crop and then reaping it is all woman’s work. Also pounding the paddy to dehusk it, carrying manure from cattle-sheds to far-off fields and cutting and carrying huge loads of grass and fuel from the forest. Then, caring for the animals and doing the household work is also a woman’s job. Boys also help out, but less so.

Is there time for school ?

Increasing work, less time to study
The work-burden of girl-children’s is increasing, especially in places with a tough environment. They start work as young as5-7 years. At home and outside. This happens because of several reasons:

A degrading environment: In hill and mountain regions and in arid and semi-arid areas where forests are being cut or have disappeared, farming is tough. Girls and their mothers spend extraordinary amounts of time collecting firewood, fodder and water, leaving no time for anything else.

That’s your work, girl: Traditionally, a woman is supposed to wash clothes and utensils, and cook. All these jobs use water, so fetching water is also considered the task of women. So is collecting firewood and fodder.

Small family, unhappy family: Before, there used to be joint families in India. Grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, all lived together and there were more hands to share the work. Today, families have started living alone, so the work is shared by much fewer.

Migrating men: The men in Indian villages start moving out into cities in search of better jobs. Mostly, they don’t find it.

Too bad you’re a girl
The heavy work-load that girls share with their mothers means that they cannot be educated, even when there is a school to go to. Higher education is considered unnecessary for females because their lives will be spent in housework and farm activities. Boys are allowed to study longer as they have more time.

Girls die young
In Syuta, as in many places in India, the unimaginable hardships faced by women often lead to their early and untimely death. By her 30s, she is an old woman having given birth to 3-4 children already. Most women in Syuta die between the ages of 35 to 55, mostly during childbirth or due to malnutrition. Sometimes, weighed under 70-kg packs of leaves and grass, they fall to their deaths on slippery, narrow mountain paths, as they wander further away in search of vanishing forest resources.

Kanta and her friends in Sabarkantha have back-aches all the time, and their feet ache too. Their brains go numb with the weight of the earthen vessels and their growth gets stunted. They always tired. She’d rather catch a few hours sleep than go to school.

"Education of a boy means education of a man. Education of a girl means education of a family" — Mahatma Gandhi

Educated girl-children are the key
One of the biggest blockades to development in poor countries is high population growth. But recent research has found that educated girls and women and low population growth rates are strongly connected. A good example is Kerala where the literacy rates are the highest in India and the growth rates the lowest.

Gandhiji knew this years back. Why aren’t we doing something about it?

ECO-WARRIORS ALL Can you identify them?
South America, Rainforests	Africa, Oil		Asia, River
If you are serious about knowing more about the environment, then this contest is for you. These three personalities have been in the news for struggling and fighting hard to protect the environment and the rights of people whose way of life is threatened. Some of them have paid for this courage with their lives. Identify these eco-warriors and tell us in 2-3 lines what they are famous for. You can take the help of the given clues or ask adults* — your parents or teachers. Send in your entries before, 12 December 1998, to:
The Editor Gobar Times, CSE, 41 Tughlakabad Institutional Area New Delhi-110062		The first three all correct entries  will win a special prize!
*The contest is open to children only. Do write and tell us what you liked, or did not like, in this issue of GT. Mention your age and the class you study in.