The World Cup fever is reaching its highest peak! India, though not in the World Cup, is the second largest producer of footballs, after Pakistan. Around 10,000 children are involved in stitching and manufacturing of ball in Jallandhar and Meerut district
Makes Football; But Scores Naught
As the world is gripped in Soccer-Mania,Children go crazy, playing football-
In the backyards, in by lanes, in rain drenched Maidans.
Some want to be Maradona, some Ronaldinho or Beckham...
I'm lucky, my son and daughter are simultaneously on the line,
One in Delhi, the other in London, thrilled, we begin to chat!
But their responses come in monosyllables-
Both are watching Football!
I leave grown men, jumping like juvenile delinquents
in front of blue screens, and decide to step out
for a breath of fresh air, but the air is full of football...
I notice a boy with hundreds of Soccer balls-
Huddled amongst them, tiny figure, on the footpath.
The gleam in his eyes belies his tattered clothes
Sweat-drenched, clinging to his tanned back.
"Look what a beautiful ball it is, buy it for your son!
I stitched it myself last night, it was the last one";
He holds his colourful creation, proudly out to me,
It is then I notice, the pricked and wounded fingers,
One swollen with septic, puss oozing out of it...
Alarmed I look up, our eyes meet, he looks away sheepishly....
Suddenly, I know the reason behind those glistening eyes!
"Please buy a ball! If I don't sell all, I won't get my five rupees!"
"Is that all you make in a day?" By now I am appalled!
" No, today I had fever, they sent me to sell the balls,
But tomorrow I'll go back again to stitching footballs,
They pay me 3-5 rupees for stitching a ball,
and I can stitch in a day, two big footballs!"
I calculate that mentally- comes to 6-10 cents per day;
that is all!
I imagine him sitting, with hundred other boys his age,
hunched, in dimly lit halls,
And stitching with frenzied fervour, multicolored footballs....
With sharp needles and rusted knives, puncturing his hands,
Oblivious of the impending backache, and poor eye sight.
Working through the pain of untreated sores,
'cause the work has to go on...
There is a big demand these days- the soccer fever is on....
And he cannot even dream of playing with these balls...
And I picture my children, laughing and shouting,
playing football in the front lawn...
My lost demeanor perplexes him:
" Don't you have children at all?"
I come back to myself, quickly pay him 200 rupees,
the cost of two balls,
And hurriedly drive away, from those multicoloured balls.
But, after a hundred yards, I stop and park on the side,
The road's swimming in front of my eyes; I cannot drive at all....
And the honest boy comes running after me:
"Excuse me, you forgot to collect your balls!"
Author: Zoya Zaidi
Aligarh (UP), India
Copyright©: Zoya Zaidi
Note: On12th June, the World Against Child Labour Day, ILO symbolically waved a " Red Card to Child Labour"; World Cup football legend Roger Milla of Cameroon " Kicked the football against Child Labour", in a friendly match in Geneva, on this day.
Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) in India and Global march against Child Labour mounted a massive campaign during FIFA World Cup 2002, appealing to the FIFA, sporting good manufacturers and the world at large for child-labour-free-footballs. The efforts resulted in announcement by FIFA to introduce code of conduct in collaboration with the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) and to specifically monitor the elimination of child labour in India and Pakistan's soccer ball industry. However FIFA has failed to implement the code of conduct. Today Pakistan (Sialkot) and India (Jalandhar and Meerut) are the largest exporters of soccer balls.
http://www.newkerala.com/news3.php?action=fullnews&id=14339
http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-headlines/markup/msg02875.html
http://www.bba.org.in/news/football.php3
Poetry by Zoya Zaidi
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Written on 2006-07-03 at 16:26
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