no-longer-a-slumdog

No Longer a Slumdog
Cruel Exploitation
Children in underdeveloped countries are often the victims
of cruel exploitation of various kinds. Throughout the world,
more than 150 million children between the ages of 4 and 14 are
involved in child labor. 7 There are 1.2 million children bought
and sold every year. 8 Those who end up on the streets are quickly
picked up, like the boys in the movie Slumdog Millionaire, and
forced into a begging ring or other hard labor. Child laborers of
South Asia toil to make fireworks, twist carpet fibers or make
matches in primitive factories. They spend their days in quarries
and coal mines, rice fields, tea plantations and pastures.
One girl labored in the fields of a cottonseed farm in southern
India, earning 20 cents an hour. This 15-year-old was continually
exposed to the highly toxic pesticides that were sprayed
on the fields every week, where she has been working since she
was 10. She started working when her father committed suicide
after incurring huge debts. 9
An article in Forbes magazine tells of six to eight young boys
crammed together in a room no bigger than a king-size bed. They
work 16 hours a day, decorating photo frames, diaries, shoe heels and
such with sequins and pieces of glass. Some are as young as 5 years
old. They all live together in this same room and cook their food
together. Their combined earnings each month might be US$76, 10
which means each child only makes US$9.50 each month!
The worst fate of all awaits little girls who end up trapped in
prostitution. Some are kidnapped or tricked into it. Parents sometimes
sell their girls, similar to the way children are sold into bonded
labor. Others are dedicated to this life as a sort of offering by their
parents. The book Dalit Freedom brings this practice to light.
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