Victims of sexual slavery, forced labor or domestic servitude. They work 7 days a week, with grueling shifts. They are the Indian children, whom the parliament could save tomorrow if it passes a law against child labor in the country. We sign the petition to ask him
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous
With the last baby in the family attached to her side, Kalawati, invented name to protect the identity of this Indian woman, she wakes her husband, six-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son each morning for breakfast, a small handful. of rice each. It's 3:15 in the morning. The meal cannot satisfy anyone's hunger, but all the children of Kalawati will eat again only at 13.00.
They are not heading to school: the family is about to start 18 hour working day at the brick kiln, before the sun rises. All of them, including children, will have to carry buckets of water to create the mud needed to make the bricks, put the mixture in the molds, stack the bricks, dig the soil for the next day's bricks. At the end of the day, the little ones will complain of back pain, while Kalawati will suggest that they try walking a little to ease the pain, knowing it won't work.
The Kalawati Day Tale is a true story, the same as that of millions of other families, whose children work everywhere, from stone quarries to carpet factories, passing through rice fields. Nor is it the most gory of the endless possible tortures in the life of a slave child in India. There are days when they are beaten, days when on their heads, as a threat, the owners of the kilns will swing burning bricks to scare and subdue them. Days in which they will be violated. All under the eyes of the parents, desperate but helpless.
Victims of sexual slavery, forced labor or domestic servitude. They work 7 days a week, with grueling shifts. They end up suffering from disabling injuries, respiratory disorders and chronic pain, without considering the psycho-social aspects. These children are often left illiterate and plagued with health problems, which also jeopardizes the possibility of finding a different job once they reach adulthood. Thus, they are destined to remain slaves for life.
Yet, the Indian Parliament could act to make the typical day of these child workers different, making the abuses and hardships only a distant memory, forever. On Friday 6 September, in view of the elections, a series of bills will be voted, including the "Child and Adolescent Labor Abolition Bill", or the law for the abolition of child labor, which would prohibit the use of children under 14 years of age, would introduce severe penalties for offenders and would provide for the monitoring of suspected cases of child slavery.
At this moment, explains Walk Free, a movement against one of the greatest evils in the world, modern slavery, which already had reported the presence of minerals "chased" in the Nintendo consoles, calls for a voice to all women like Kalawati and their children, especially as representatives of institutions are now paying more attention than ever to what voters have to say to get the next election results to their side. Kalawati won't have a chance to speak for her children, but we can ask the Indian Parliament to pass the law which would end the slavery of Indian children.
To sign the Walk free petition click here
Roberta Ragni
READ also:
- Bitter chocolate with the flavor of slavery and child exploitation
- 6 multinationals involved in slavery and the exploitation of child labor
- Nintendo: "bloody" minerals in video game consoles (#slaveryisnotagame)
