Make Your Way 5, Schulbuch mit Audio-CD und CD-ROM

BABY KAUR (Shopkeeper) C “I started my shop a year or so ago. Now I have a good place, but it was really hard when I started off. Sales have increased now. I have my own special customers and everybody in Tilak Vihar knows me and my shop.” Baby Kaur is the hard-working owner of a tiny shop in Tilak Vihar. She sells everything that can fill its narrow racks. The shop itself, like most other shops in Tilak Vihar, is like a wooden matchbox on four legs. When we met her, she was trying hard to repair some of the damage that had been caused by the previous night’s storm. Baby Kaur’s eyes were filled with anger at having to sort out all the broken articles which she couldn’t sell now. She is thirteen years old. “I went to school once, but that was a long time ago. My father and brother were killed in the riots two years ago and ever since then all the women and girls in my family have had to work.” “Do you like to work?” “No!” “Why not?” “Because I’d like to be able to play like other children too.” “But don’t you have any friends?” “I never have the time to make friends. I have to cook in the evenings and look after the house as well. Where is the time to make friends?” She works from seven in the morning to seven in the evening and cooks after that. “I make a hundred rupees or so every day. I give it all to my mother. We use most of it to buy more articles for the shop.” “Do you get any pocket money?” “Never!” Suddhabrata Sengupta CHINNADORAI (Match-packer) D Chinnadorai is seven years old. He goes to work at 3 o’clock in the morning by bus and comes back late in the evening around seven. His eyes burn because he does not get enough sleep. He fills matchsticks into boxes and also packs dozens of boxes into big packages. In a day he packs over a thousand packages and fills hundreds of boxes with matchsticks. He earns between 10 –15 rupees a week. Often the boxes catch fire as they rub against each other. The packages blaze into a big fire, dangerously near the child. In other countries they print on matchboxes: “Keep out of reach of children,” but in India, they employ over 45,000 children in the southern part of Tamil Nadu to produce matchboxes and fireworks. Chinnadorai and the other children are very fright- ened of fire. They try to be careful, and yet they get burnt. Many little ones have ugly blisters all over their bodies. According to our factory laws, even adult workers must wear fire-resistant clothing while doing such work, but most of the children work naked. Many children had to leave school and go to the factory because they could not afford the school expenses. But Chinnadorai left school because the teacher beat him. “School was boring. The teacher made us repeat things we never understood. She shouted at us for no reason. But still, school was better than the factory; at least you don’t burn your hands in school. I should never have gone to the factory. But once you go you are stuck there forever. My mother will not let me stop because she now expects my wages every week.” So he waits for evening to come. “I sleep on the bus ride back and at home I play, play and play. I like playing marbles. If I did not have to work in the factory, I would play all day.” Visbwapriya L. Iyengar 72 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv