It’s the festive season in India. Indians will soon be celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights. But while millions will exchange sweets and gifts, light lamps and lanterns outside their houses and burn fireworks in gay abandon, little would they know that their fun comes at the cost of hundreds of children, manufacturing fireworks in little neighbourhood factories, putting their health and lives at risk.

 

On the 2nd of November, one 12-year old boy lost his life and 10 other children were injured after a blast and major fire at an illegal fireworks factory in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

 

According to reports, the parents of the victims claim they were not aware their children were working in the factory. Officials are now clamping down on the firework manufacturing units.

 

But the truth is that children do continue to work in hazardous conditions when they should be in schools looking to a bright future. Parents are very much in on the situation as for them, it is a choice of sending their child to school as opposed to letting him earn money to put food on the table and, in many cases, alcohol down the father’s throat.

 

In another recent expose, The Observer, UK revealed how children were used to make clothing for international brand GAP. According to the report, the children were working in little manufacturing units in New Delhi. As a fallout of the report, GAP withdrew the clothing line from its stores in the UK and US.

 

Following the report, 28 children were rescued from cloth manufacturing units in Delhi. But on being produced before the magistrate, they were refused to be recognized as child labourers. Some officials in India feel this is a means to block exports from the country.

 

Now the children are still awaiting compensation and an uncertain future. Many do not wish to go back to their villages for fear of being beaten by their families. The government can simply not look after them in government homes. The question is will these children and thousands of others like them be sucked into the cycle of poverty and abuse? Or is there a way out for them?

 

Organisations like El Shaddai, working to uplift disadvantaged children, face uphill tasks given the enormity of the problem. But it can be done, one child at a time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 4:41 am and is filed under Feature Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.