—Photograph by REUTERS/Parth Sanyal

Children make their beds at a home operated by "Free the Children," an Indian nongovernmental organization, at Madhamgram village in India on August 5, 2006.

"The new government law is the result of lobbying by many organizations," said Anil Shah of the advocacy group Pratham. "This legislation is a step in the right direction, because it allows social workers to use the law to rescue these children."

Shah's organization works on improving the quality of education in India. It has implemented a novel program that aims to teach children how to read and write in eight weeks. The group also educates parents living in rural villages about the dangers of sending their children to work.

"India is changing a lot, and people are becoming more and more socially aware," he said. "I'm more optimistic now than I was a few years ago that this is something we can get rid of."

Photgraphs and article source is National Geographic Channel, posted on Mail India Blog by Afzal Khan.

—Photograph by REUTERS/Sherwin Crasto

Indian boys look out a window during the same police raid in Mumbai (see previous photo).

Indian government officials said on October 10, 2006, that police were on standby in several states to launch raids on employers suspected of breaking a new law banning many employers from hiring children as laborers. Anyone found breaking the law faces up to one year's imprisonment and a 20,000-rupee (U.S. $425) fine.

The government ran full-page newspaper ads over the weekend, with a photograph of a toddler sweeping a floor. Above the photo was a warning to employers that they could face jail time if they fail to observe the law.

But skeptics have questioned to what extent the new law will be enforced, especially since existing legislation against child labor is often ignored.

Photgraphs and article source is National Geographic Channel, posted on Mail India Blog by Afzal Khan.

—Photograph by REUTERS/Sherwin Crasto

Seven-year-old Salaj Mohammed Kasim weeps during a police raid on a Mumbai (Bombay) embroidery workshop on March 4, 2004.

Many children are worried about the financial implications of the October 10, 2006, law banning some forms of child labor in India. The 80 rupees (about U.S. $2) that a child working in the city may make in a day can be crucial to the survival of the family back home.

Rama Chandran, 13, has worked in a small restaurant in Delhi for four years. He sends money home to his widowed mother and three younger siblings in southern India. "If I didn't send money home, they would starve," he told the Associated Press.

Social workers also caution that sufficient safeguards have not been put in place to protect children who could find themselves homeless as a result of the new law.

"Abject poverty … is the most important and fundamental issue why children are laboring," Rita Panicker told AP. Panicker heads Butterflies, an Indian nongovernmental organization that works with street children.

Photgraphs and article source is National Geographic Channel, posted on Mail India Blog by Afzal Khan.

—Photograph by REUTERS/Desmond Boylan

An Indian woman holds the hand of her eight-year-old daughter after she hammered her finger last year while breaking rocks on the banks of a river in Siliguri, India.

Injuries are common among child laborers, and can be devastating. "They have no safety net, no insurance, no medical care," education advocate Anil Shah said. "If they get hurt, they don't get paid."

Most of the children who work in cities like Mumbai (Bombay) and Delhi come from far-away rural villages, where unscrupulous agents often recruit the kids.

But the majority of child laborers in India are employed on rural farms, where they may work with their families. "At harvest time, some rural schools can be completely empty of children," Shah said.

Photgraphs and article source is National Geographic Channel, posted on Mail India Blog by Afzal Khan.

—Photograph by REUTERS/Jayanta Shaw

A child carries unbaked bricks to a kiln at a brick factory in Raichak, India, in December 2000. Scenes like this remain a fact of life in India, despite a longtime ban on hard labor by children.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says firm action would be taken against employers who violate a newer ban, which forbids "softer" child labor, such as cooking food in restaurants.

"I call upon each one of you to stop employing children as workers and actively encourage children to join schools," Singh said on October 10, 2006.

But some experts say India's poor schools are largely to blame for the widespread child labor. Primary school education in India is free, and a recent survey by the education advocacy group Pratham showed that 94 percent of India's children are enrolled in school. That same poll, however, found that only half of the students could read and write.

"The poor quality of education plays a big part why children drop out and go to work," Pratham's Anil Shah said. "Parents are saying they might as well send their children to work if they're not learning anything in school."

Photgraphs and article source is National Geographic Channel, posted on Mail India Blog by Afzal Khan.

Photograph by Prashant Ravi/AP

A young girl sells popcorn on a sidewalk in Patna, India, on October 9, 2006, the day before a federal ban went into effect in India prohibiting employers from hiring children under 14 to work as maids or in restaurants, tea shops, hotels, or roadside eateries.

Indian law already prohibits the employment of children under 14 in "hazardous" industries. Yet child labor remains widespread in India, despite the country's emerging economic power.

At least 12 million Indian children work instead of going to school, according to government estimates. Advocacy groups say the real figure could be as high as 60 million.

"This is a huge problem," said Anil Shah, who heads the Houston, Texas-based U.S. chapter of Pratham, an Indian nongovernmental organization working toward universal primary education in India. "Millions of children are being robbed of their future."

—Stefan Lovgren

Photgraphs and article source is National Geographic Channel, posted on Mail India Blog by Afzal Khan.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

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