All children have the right to play, to be free, and to just live. They shouldn't have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, but some do. Many children shouldn't have to work, but they do. They're working twelve hours a day, seven days a week! They're poor and barely have enough money for food. Some children around the world start working when they're only four years old and have the responsibilities of an adult! They look like kids on the outside, but they have to act like adults on the inside.  

There are many children who are forced to work around the world.  Although nobody knows for sure, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that in 2002, at least 352 million children were working. Of these, 211 million were children between the ages of 5 and 14 years old.  You can consider yourself fortunate if you don't have to go to work everyday and are lucky enough to attend school.  

Kids are forced to work in many different areas of the world, especially in developing countries.  Developing nations are the poorer countries of the world. They include many of the countries of Africa, Latin America, and Asia, which have less advanced industries. (Industries include businesses, trade, and manufacturing.)  Believe it or not, 41% of all the children in Africa work, 21% of children in Asia, and 16% of the children in Latin America and the Caribbean work. 

In India, girls have to work twice as hard as boys, and their working conditions are much worse. In India they think boys are better than girls, so they make the girls work harder! Both boys and girls work in factories, stone quarries, and even in construction sites. Sometimes they have to use huge machines. In India, about 55 million children are forced to work. It's life or death.

But it could be even worse than working all day. Sometimes children are enslaved or bonded. A way this could happen is if a family needs to borrow money from the employer, (the boss of the company the family is working for). The boss gives them some money, but until it's repaid, the child belongs to the employer. Slowly, the money is paid back, but the whole time the child has been working, the money went to repay the debt. The family needed that money! So, they often need to borrow money again! Once the bonding or enslaving starts, it's pretty hard to stop.

Thankfully, there have been a couple of changes, but you can't expect something big like that to change overnight. It took a lot of patience and courage, but finally laws are being formed. India is getting better. And to think, you probably complain about going to school where you have parties and make friends. Would you rather go to work all day in the hot sun, or freezing cold, or maybe even be taken away from your family? I mean they get a reasonable time to sleep, but it's never long enough.

Nowadays, bonding is illegal. People who are caught are sent to prison, and all the children are freed to live with their families again. Even though they still have to work, they are happier because they are with their families. At first this law worked, but people still bond children in India. Not as much, but they still do it. 

Bonding is still going on, but India has made a great change. Children and adults are forming trade union groups to fight for their rights. The employers are forced to give the workers a decent amount of money and better working conditions. India has improved itself a little, but they still need help. Governments need to work together to help stop child labor and slavery.  Visit our Helping Hands page to find out how you can help make a difference!

Citations

Magazine

Stalcup, Ann. "India's Child Labor."  Faces.  September, 2003: pp. 8-13.

Websites

UNICEF. "The Rights Site." <http://www.therightssite.org.uk/> (November, 2003).

Images

Images of factory, people in India, money, and sun from "Microsoft Office Online" <http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?cag=1> 
Images free for non-profit and personal use. (October-February, 2003-2004). 

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