Most end up in bonded labour or working as prostitutes, the leaders of Bachpan
Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) said as they escorted more than
200 children to the gates of the Indian Parliament to call for changes to
legislation.
"While buffaloes may cost up to 15,000 rupees (USD $350), children are sold at
prices between 500 and 2,000 rupees (USD $11.75 to $47)," Bhuvan Ribhu, who
conducted a study to be released later this year, said.
Their demonstration coincided with the two-day annual meeting of the South
Asian Association of Regional Cooperation attended by the heads of government
for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Police prevented the demonstrators from reaching the meeting hall but allowed
them to present a petition to the office of Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister.
Activists maintain that the association's convention for preventing trafficking
in women and children has failed to stem the problem because its definitions
cover prostitution but not forced labour.
They claim that more than 50,000 Nepalese children and 40,000 Bangladeshi
children are bought and sold across the border every year by scouts rounding up
workers for farms, carpet factories, quarries and brothels.
Desperately poor parents frequently exchange their children for money, often as
little as $5. Some falsely believe that their children are being taken to work
as domestic servants and will send money home. Few ever return. Others trade
their sons and daughters to pay money lenders. Up to 15 million children in
India, most of them from low-caste families, could be enslaved to work off
someone else's debt, according to a Save the Children report published last
month on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery by Britain. The
report also said that children account for a fifth of India's workforce in
sandstone quarries and nearly a third of sex workers.
In October India introduced a law banning children under 14 from working as
domestic servants or in the food and hospitality sector. Offenders face two
years in prison.
India still has more than 12.6 million child workers aged 5 to 14. In Asia the
estimated number is 122 million, according to the International Labour
Organisation. India still has more than 12.6 million child workers aged 5 to
14, the largest number of any country in the world. Campaigners say that the
new law has yet to make any difference because India's economic boom creates an
insatiable demand in the cities for cheap labour. In Asia the estimated number
of child workers is 122 million, according to the ILO.
Poor families send their children to work as soon as they are physically able.
Social workers in Rajasthan this month asked the state government to consider
extending its subsidised lunch programme beyond 10 years old to the age of 16
to reduce drop-out rates. Most child labourers are school drop-outs.
Trade unions in India are also being urged to press their members not to employ
child labourers.
Bachpan Bachao Andolan and other nongovernment organisations last month
completed a 3,100 mile (5,000km) march from Calcutta to Delhi to raise
awareness about illegal child labour. About 100 rescued children joined the
march.
Activists complain that police officers are bribed by traffickers to turn a
blind eye to their activities or help to move people around the country.
