The global financial and food crises are hitting the developing world especially hard and, where families live in poverty, children are often forced to work. Some are bonded indefinitely to employers to pay off debt. Others are trafficked into the sex industry for the same reasons.
Child labour and trafficking are major problems in India, especially in the state of Andhra Pradesh. A World Vision survey, conducted recently in Rajahmundry, showed about 2500 children in 40 slums are working. These children have limited opportunities to go to school and they often face health issues through exposure to toxic chemicals, injury or HIV and AIDS.
This is what child labour look likes:
- It's full-time work
- It takes the place of going to school
- There's little or no pay
- It's done by kids as young as four or five years old
- It's done in dangerous places like on busy city streets, in garbage dumps or factories
- The hours are long, sometimes more than 12 hours a day, and include weekends and holidays
- In its worst forms it involves being beaten, abused and subject to psychological cruelty