I begin with an example of the kind of burdens and opportunities a young boy may experience in a socioeconomically marginalised context where the only jobs available are in the informal sector. Following are several excerpts from an interview with Prakash (OBC) whose father had died a few years back. His mother and he lived with his father’s brothers as a joint family. His father’s family had been living in Indore for more than forty years.
(I had been confused about the number of jobs he worked and how he had obtained the jobs and Prakash had been explaining patiently.)
Prakash: I have three bade papas right, [they were four brothers]. One [of the brothers] was my papa only. He passed away. And one more [brother] is there – he also passed away.
Reva: Okay.
Prakash: Now my dadi also passed away. Reva: Yes.
Prakash: Three passed away. How many left at my home? My papa isn’t there. And one more bade papa isn’t there. His son [is] grown up, so [that’s] good… Two sons were there – good, grownup. Then [they were] looking after their father’s business. Their father passed away so they began to look after the work. And they started taking me with them.
Reva: You also go there?
Prakash: Yes. And one more bade papa is there. Because two passed away and another bade papa was there right? He used to have a thela (hand cart). He used to do this catering work also. So he, you know, he got me some work [in a shop] opposite him. That is how it is. (With a smile), now you understand?
During the wedding season in Indore47, Prakash works alongside his uncle and cousins on the latter’s catering business. In the off-season he works at a shop that sells electrical goods. In the following excerpt, Prakash enthusiastically lists all the jobs he could perform as a member of the catering team:
Prakash: I can also work with machines! Used in catering, you know, ba- ffat.48
Reva: I don’t know. You tell me.
Prakash: That ‘gudiya ke baal’ is made, isn’t it? ‘baraf ke laddu’… (He named popular local street food items)
Reva (finally catching on): Yes! That machine…you have worked it?
Prakash: [I have] worked the one used for baraf ke laddu, [worked] the one for making pop-corn49. And gudiya ke baal.
(Interruption: a student wanted to know what ‘t-h-r-o-u-g-h’ was. We were sitting in my usual spot near the door and on one edge of the dais for our interview. There was no teacher in the classroom and the Head Master was managing both the classroom and his usual administrative work.)
Reva: So, then do you get good money? Prakash: Yes.
47 The majority of weddings take place between October and March in Indore. 48 He was referring to the buffet dinners offered in wedding receptions in Indore and
he pronounced buffet – ba-fat each syllable pronounced fully and clearly.
Reva: How much did you get?
Prakash: [I] used to get hundred rupees [per day]. I used to go at five [PM], returned by midnight.
* * *
(We had been discussing the distribution of work at home which his mother and sister took care of.)
Reva: And what do you do at home? Prakash: I? I go to work, don’t I?
Reva: At what time do you go [to work]? And what time do you get back? Prakash: I go after iskool [around 2 PM] and come back by eight.
Reva: And you eat something when you get home [after school]?
Prakash: Yes. Iskool too…take [some food] to work too. [I] take my ‘copy’50
too. * * *
Reva: And how much money does [your] mummy get? Prakash: Mummy gets…three or four thousand [rupees]. Reva: And how much do you get?
Prakash: I get three thousand [rupees] now. (This is at the electrical goods shop.)
Prakash also told me that his mother fell sick often with what the doctor diagnosed as typhoid. Then she had to take time off and as there is no notion of sick leave in the unorganised sector in Madhya Pradesh, it was always leave without pay. Typhoid was the most commonly named illness by students in the classroom. Jaundice was the next most named. Ill-health was at phenomenal levels in these families; both adults and children in IWC families suffered from a range of health issues which affected their ability to work and neither seemed able to take adequate leave to recover.
* * *
Reva: What all [games] do you play?
Prakash: Hide-and-seek, pakdam pakdai51, bat-fuddi.
Reva: Where do you play? On the road outside your house? Prakash: Yes.
Reva: Is there space? Don’t vehicles pass by? Big ones?
Prakash: Not big ones. Only small ones – bicycles and these [two-wheelers] come.
Reva (nodding): Small ones only…
Prakash added: And if there is some work going on at someone’s house then big ones come with gravel…
Reva: Okay, do you know what your father used to do? Prakash: Yes.
Reva: What?
Prakash: He had a thela for selling sandwiches.
The above excerpts show that urban neighbourhoods do not offer IWC boys much space or opportunities for leisure, particularly, if they have serious financial responsibilities like Prakash did. Prakash had to work hard to support his family and had little time to himself outside of school. I suggest that the lack of leisure, the hard work and the seriousness of their responsibilities may also contribute to a lack of engagement with classroom teaching on the part of some IWC students. Moreover, as I argue in chapter five, while IWC children could not fulfil the cultural and educational requirements at school their having to earn and learn new skills outside school has implications for constructions of their intellectual ability within classroom discourses.
In addition to financial condition, caste also seemed to be a factor in determining which boys most needed to support their families. While upper caste boys also went to work a larger proportion of UC boys reported it as being out of choice – as opposed to need – compared to OBC, SC and ST boys. But this preliminary finding needs to be explored further as the UC boys may also be more embarrassed to admit to financial need. Boys also opened up to me about their family’s financial conditions a bit later than the girls in the classroom did; this might be a reflection of the socially important
51 It is a game played by a group of children where one child runs and tries to catch
role that men/boys are expected and perceived to play in determining a family’s socioeconomic status.