haral south 24parganas with the spirit of pujas still lingering in the air and bengal ready to usher in the festival of lights a sleepy village tucked away in the backyards of south 24parganas comes to life its firecracker season and so business season for haral which for a decade has been the biggest source of crackers to kolkata and much of the eastern region but those who enjoy these crackers never come to know about the lost childhood that went into making their diwali so special around 4000 families in haral are engaged in the firecracker trade which is now a cottage industry in the village 45 km from kolkata haral once an impoverished village where residents made a living by ferrying passengers on bullock carts is now prosperous and it owes much of its prosperity to the firecracker industry but its guilty of engaging children as labourers an average household in haral engages all its members in the trade regardless of their age the workforce is especially reliant on women and children manufacturing crackers involves several stages and children in significant number are often involved in the most hazardous of these steps the prevalence of rampant child labour is evident from the remark of santu sardar 16 i get a daily wage of rs 100 during the festive season that supplements my fathers income my family has five members and my father is the sole breadwinner so even if it is difficult to balance school and work for a household like mine i must earn he says santus day begins at 6 am and he has to work till five in the evening i have to work roundtheclock during my vacations and sometimes skip school too reveals another child labourer aged 10 most of the childlabourers tend to drop out after sporadically attending school only to be absorbed in the trade ironically a majority of the buyers purchasing firecrackers happen to be children who are of the same age as that of these childlabourers the village however has benefited from the trade bullock carts and mud tenements have given way to motorcycles and pucca houses but they are probably coming at a price higher than what haral had bargained for nobody takes notice of the health hazards associated with the trade lack of fire safety measures dingy rooms direct exposure to chemicals for long periods of time afflicts the industry chemicals like molten rubber berium and aluminium are used without any care or caution low awareness levels prompted a veteran trader to comment that working in this environment can cause tuberculosis and breathing troubles but a regular intake of banana is enough to ward off any bronchial irritation it is no surprise that the health concerns of the labourers are at the bottom of everyones priority list even their own most manufacturers in the industry who pride themselves on managing a cottage industry are at a loss for words when asked about the precautions