For food and some money, children risk their lives
Road side eateries and stalls bring mouth watering treats to the mind but these rehriwalas are also associated with an unpleasant truth. That of employing children as helpers, who race through the traffic, risking accidents to fetch orders.
IN THE last few years, there has been an unprecedented rise in the number of roadside eating points in the city. These eating points mostly emerge in the evenings and remain open until late nights. Women mostly dominate these areas but these food joints are also the preferred destinations of the youngsters who, after a hang out, love to munch these items as a light supper for their cozy evenings. But the grimy part of this scenario is that, the boys who take and serve the orders are mostly children, most of them in the age group of 10-12 years. Child labour is supposedly an unlawful act on the part of these rehriwalas. Willingly or unwillingly, you also become part of the gruesome child labour. An age when the children weave dreams of future they are working to satisfy their hunger. The road side working children are exposed to another malady of risking accidents while crossing the road carrying service plates in their hands to speedily finish the orders of their clients . For Asif (name changed), an eleven year old, this is a job for which he is paid, though not so handsomely. " I am working and getting money for that. My father also works the whole day. I have to supplement a family of five members, being eldest of the siblings. What I am doing today is what I have to do after few years, so why not from today only. And I love doing this," he says working mechanically and walks to another parked vehicle to seek the order. The children mostly deployed here belong to very poor families and the vendors lure them by giving them some money and meals from the available foodstuffs. “We work and we get money. But working here is enjoyable as with money, we can also taste different food stuffs which otherwise we can not afford. Sometimes they also give us some food for our family. We eat what we want, so we work here,“ said 13-year-old Zaheer who along with his younger brother works with these vendors regularly. The same helpers work for the six to seven vendors here, thus saving their engagement cost. They will take your order; they will take money and will then return to you. Even at a time, a helper remains standing close to the vehicle so that the person may not flee away. “This is a wrong practice as most of the children who are deployed in this work are small children and so it us a sort of child labour but what we can do. It is an open place and if the authorities are lending a deaf ear, how the public can help. This area remains over crowded throughout the day, hasn’t the authorities ever taken a notice of it even once," says Amit Mehta, who usually visits the place twice or thrice a week with her friends. "Even some accident can take place as these teens hardly bother, whether vehicles are coming from the other side and just rush and cross the road. A slip of the moment can lead to an accident. But no one cares, neither the rehriwalas, nor the authorities who are watching everything going on here and neglecting it," says Ritesh Sharma, residing close to Gol market, Gandhi Nagar. As the place is becoming a favourite destination of the eaters, crossing the road has become a headache for the dwellers because of the parked vehicles of those who come here, “You cannot even imagine of crossing the road close to these rehris on a four –wheeler,” he says.
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