Lost in Labour

Imagine…

Imagine a childhood where all you see every day is the stone walls of the factory in which you live, the tube lights overhead and the sewing machine at your hands?

Or you might wake up every morning on a factory floor with the smell of machine oil in your nostrils, until you forget even what your mother’s face looked like…

This is the story of India’s child labourers. Child labour is a problem in many countries. One agency (ILO, 2009) says that there are over 73 million children who work full-time in the world. 73 Million is the population of the United Kingdom and Belgium added together! Imagine two whole countries, made up of children under fourteen, all working like slaves; labouring twelve hour days for little or no money.

Does that sound like a nightmare? It’s in the world we are living in today. Full time labour is the every-day reality of one in ten children on earth.