Most such families leave the boys behind to continue with their schooling. Girls are taken along because leaving them may not be safe and because their education has low priority. In the multitude of fields across India, girls under 14 toil from dawn to dusk. Agricultural workers, boys and girls, constitute up to 85 per cent of the child labour force in the country. But because the work done at home is non-remunerative and labour in the fields forms part of the vast unorganised sector, they are not included as child labourers in official estimates.
Boys also work in the fields, running ploughs, cutting ready crops, digging hard soil.
But, in purely relative terms, they lead a better life. The sons don t do housework in addition to field work. They eat first, the daughters often eat stale leftovers. Unlike girls, they get time to rest and play. Girls who work from home tend to be the most invisible.