Misery of India's child sari weavers

Sunil Raman:

Ten-year-old Divya sits in a low-roofed hut hunched over a six feet high and six feet wide pit loom.

A small, grilled window is the only source of fresh air.

A fluorescent tube above lights what is otherwise a dark and dingy hut. It is midday but Divya has no time to rest.

She has to ensure that the threads are ready for the weaver to make an intricate design on a green silk sari.

"I have been working for the last three years. Earlier I earned 150 rupees (around $3) a month. In the last one year my new employer is paying 200 rupees (over $4) a month," said Divya.

"I do not want to do this. I want to go to school but my parents have borrowed 5000 rupees ($111) from the loom owner. I have to work."

Divya's parents are masons. Driven by poverty they borrowed money from a loom owner and in return started sending their daughter to work on his loom.

She has been working for three years. But the loan and its interest never get repaid. Poor and illiterate weavers remain at the mercy of employers.

Social Action Movement (SAM) - a charity based in Kanchipuram - is working to eradicate child labour.

"It is claimed that children are employed because of their nimble fingers. That is not true. They are being exploited and paid very low wages. They are bonded labourers," T Raj, project co-ordinator of SAM, told the BBC.

Divya is not alone.

It is estimated that there are around 10,000 children in the districts of Kanchipuram and Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu work in the silk industry.

There are over 100,000 looms set up in individual homes on which these famous silk saris are woven. Many of these saris cost several thousand rupees.

These looms are located in individual households and most of them employ at least one child.

These children work every day of the week for up to 10 hours a day.

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