There is magic in numbers — especially when a government with a troubled conscience is producing them. A recent report prepared by the West Bengal government’s labour department claims that a two-year survey conducted by the department has managed to find only 49 child labourers in Bengal. The 2001 census had put the number of child labourers in the state at more than 8.5 lakh. Even without knowing the census count, anyone living with his eyes open anywhere in the state would find the labour department’s latest findings patently — indeed, scandalously — absurd. Most people working with children in the non-governmental sector agree that the 2001 count would have become at least 10 lakh now. Even if one were to count the number of children working in the state’s 3,000-odd brick kilns, the number would come to several thousands. Then, there are the fireworks factories, tea stalls, sweetshops, dhabas and other eateries, together with the various homes, leather factories, car-repairing sheds, tea plantations and farmlands where children under 14 work illegally. So, the brazenly ridiculous piece of information provided by the labour department speaks of the convergence of different kinds of blindness to child labour — of the State and of civil society, the two kinds often working in collusion.

Legal reform is the easiest way out of the problem. But as Indian child labour and juvenile justice laws stand, children are very well covered by them. So focusing on finding ways to implement these laws, together with orders issued by the apex and other courts over the years, should be the concern of the State. That is where the failures are deplorable, and where figures like these latest ones are urgently needed as cover-up. The infrastructure, in terms of government homes and schools (to name only two), prescribed by these laws is woefully inadequate in the state, and publishing the right figures would show this up in a way that would be deeply embarrassing for the government. Hence, the labour department’s excuse that if it had probed the matter too much, it would have been taken for running an “inspector raj”. And this strategic looking away suits most other adult members of society. Think of how inconvenient life will suddenly become in many urban and suburban homes if the domestic help is suddenly noticed to be less than 14 years old. So 49 the official figure shall be, until the next count.