While US citizens may savour Indian mangoes in their country, the 'American almond' has come under the shadow of child-labour in New Delhi.
About 2,000-3,000 children are believed to be employed in the job of cracking 'American almond', as it gets sold at anywhere between Rs 340-400 per kg in New Delhi's markets.
At a place called Karavalnagar, which falls at the border of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, thousands of children, believed to be employed in about 25 godowns, work for close to 12 hours everyday, NGO activists working against child labour say.
Their job is cracking and removing the unwanted outer covering of the almonds, which come in gunny bags loaded by trucks everyday. In few cases, their parents, mostly
mothers also work. The wages, as workers tell, are paid according to the gunny bags of almonds (called 'kattas') cracked by an individual.
"The rate is Rs 30 per bag (full of almonds), which weighs close to 22 kgs. Normally, we are able to finish (cracking of almonds in) two bags a day" says Jyoti, an eight-year-old girl. In any case, a child hardly ever earns above Rs 60 a day, she adds.
The local contractors employing these children claim that the almond in question is 'American'. "This is (an) American almond. It is sent here everyday by the seths (traders / wholesalers) who import it from US. After cracking, we load it in trucks and send it back to them. We do only the cracking part" says a local contractor, who didn't wish to be named.
