• Selling Last and Love in Bali
• What to Do-Kuta and Seminyak
• The Hidden Life of South Bali
• The Struggle to Save Bali's Turtles
• Jimbaran-The Bukit
• What to Do-Impossible Surf at The Bukit
• Fair Trade in Bali
• Ubud
• A Dance for Every Day
• Balinese Painters
• Ubud-What to do
• A Word of Dance
• East Bali in a Nutshell
• The Hidden life of East Bali
• Klungkung
• Where to Stay-Padang Bay
• Where to Stay Candidasa
• First and Third World in Tenganan
• Amlapura-Tirtagangga
• Tirtagangga and Around
• Amed Beach
• Planning Your Trip: The Best of Bali
• South Bali in a Nutshell

 

The Hidden Life of East Bali

The north of Ubud. There, Kacrut met hundreds of children like him, working in home-based workshops.

In the handicraft industry, children are assigned tasks according to their ages. The older children construct t­he wooden objects using saws, axes, and chisels. The you­nger children are responsible for sanding and painting. Competition among handicraft producers and slim profit ­ margins mean that children working with harmful paints, varnishes, and sawdust are almost never provided with safety equipment like masks or gloves. At Kacrut's place of . employment, many of the children had breathing difficulties, and one boy suffered burns from working with a blowtorch to make an object look “antique”.

Although many employers in Bali are aware of laws ­that ban child labour, they also know that the regulations are rarely enforced. Employers skirt the law by claiming that the children are their own nephews or nieces who are being trained in useful skills. In fact, most employers seem convinced that they aren't doing anything wrong. “I don't just hire children to help make handicrafts,”­explains one of them. “My own two sons work, too. Why should I waste money sending them to school? They won't be able to get jobs when they graduate ­anyway. At least by working, they can make some money and learn a skill.”

Defining Childhood and Labour

Whenever one talks about child labour in Indonesia , there is always the risk of playing into stereotypes. Some blame the lack of education of the parents, who breed ­ unthinkingly with no thought for the future, sliding into poverty until their children are forced to labour. Others blame multinational capitalism and try to defend the ­rights of the poor peasants who, having lost their land to ­development, must now send their children to labour in the same factories and plantations that disenfranchised them in the first place. Yet despite inter - national agreements, education programmes, labour rights movements, and other efforts to “empower” poor people, no one has­

few were surprised

Competition among handicraft

hunt for frogs

started skipping school