World Day Against Child Labor: From Brick Kiln to ABC

On World Day Against Child Labor on June 12, the international nonprofit Lotus Outreach will celebrate 400 child workers in India who enrolled in school for the first time in their lives. While Lotus Outreach has many projects designed to keep children in school and out of work, the brick kiln kids illustrate this reality most starkly. As many as 80 million children work in India, many of them in 14 hour shifts with no shelter from the sun. While many of them never learn to read, these 400 children will have a happier future. I hope you will take the time to remember the faces and families you see here.

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Shaping 1,500 Bricks Each Day

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Six year-old Kapil Devi and his brother Manoj, 10, had their work cut out for them: carrying as much clay and gravel as they could possibly balance on their heads. Crouching in the hot sun in Mewat, north India, where temperatures climb above 100º F, they shaped about 1,500 bricks each day in old-fashioned molds.

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Six year-old Kapil Devi and his brother Manoj, 10, had their work cut out for them: carrying as much clay and gravel as they could possibly balance on their heads. Crouching in the hot sun in Mewat, north India, where temperatures climb above 100º F, they shaped about 1,500 bricks each day in old-fashioned molds.

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Comments

[JenniferAllen8319]

12:46 AM on 06/20/2011

Many children in developing countries are sole providers for their families.It is beautiful to see initiatives that grant children their childhood!

[sunoftime]

03:59 PM on 06/13/2011

I absolutely disagree with forced child labor. I do however agree with programs that allow children to gain hands on, real world experience that will help them later in life. I feel we would have a lot fewer homeless if children understand how to build infrastructure and/or run businesses. I'm not saying put an 8 year old in a bulldozer or appoint them as the CEO of a fortune 500. But I am saying give them the skills to be awesome at an early age and see how that awesome develops the rest of the country.

[redsoxpagan]

01:44 PM on 06/13/2011

Thank you Ms. Haas for spreading the word of the good works of those who fight this scourge on humanity and for keeping the issue in the public's eye (should they choose to see)

[Michaela Haas]

11:28 AM on 06/13/2011

Please also watch the very good video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9-Efuy0wSI

[redsoxpagan]

01:47 PM on 06/13/2011

Again, thank you.

[sabelmouse]

09:00 AM on 06/13/2011

not to mention that much of the worlds cocoa is harvested by child slave labour. and i mean the slave part literally.
also disney and mattel have a very bad record for using children and teens as workers to make toys for our precious darlings.
in mattel's case the fumes in barbie factories are pretty bad for those children's health too.
let's think about that when we go shopping.

[tnanimation]

11:24 PM on 06/12/2011

World Day Against Child Labour: Not being celebrated in Maine, Wisconsin, Michigan or Florida this year.

[ProgressivePicon86]

11:16 PM on 06/12/2011

I doubt these children complain at all, compared to American children who moan about not having a material object thats new, and which will make them popular amongst their peers. American children also get fat and pudgy from all the crap they get to eat through this country's obsession with fast food. These children in India deserve to have a better life.

[redsoxpagan]

01:43 PM on 06/13/2011

Don't blame the children. It's parents who use TV as a babysitter, who overindulge their children, and who think mindless materialism is nurturing.

[AOL SUX]

11:08 PM on 06/12/2011

Someone should tell Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, said laws child labor laws are unconstitutional. Seriously. Please Sir, I want some more. Yes, Republicans are still looking for the good old days.

[Pablito Garcia]

10:56 PM on 06/12/2011

There is no need to be against Child Labour. Children don't "Labour" for the "love of it" ... When world wide wealth reach the world rather than the rulers of the world, then... only then, will this not be an issue, until then, taking away child labour hurts the poor.

[MadeinUSABlog]

12:44 PM on 06/13/2011

This has been shown to be untrue. Child labor only perpetuates an endless cycle of poverty. The wages earned are not anywhere near enough to help anyone escape poverty. Education is the key to better opportunities for these children.

[Pablito Garcia]

09:27 PM on 06/13/2011

I'd be eager to review the analysis. I have taking my lead from a number of key economists. I don't disagree with "education" in any way, shape, or form. I just recognize I think that sometimes we forget how much that is a privaledge of being out of poverty.

[ifsos]

10:51 PM on 06/12/2011

It is sad to children this age work this hard. But these countries are building. What is sad is that at the rate the US is going, we are lible to see our children having to do this so that we can all eat.

[Stinky71]

10:07 PM on 06/12/2011

Farm kids can't escape child labor.

[SocratesSiddhartha]

10:02 PM on 06/12/2011

The GOP will see this and it will get them excited.

[OneBurbon]

09:47 PM on 06/12/2011

I had a paper route as a kid.

[yappnmutt]

10:09 PM on 06/12/2011

and you suffered a lifetime of harm. i was mowing lawns at 12. i had farmer friends who had worked since they were 5. children today don't think they should work until they graduate from college. that is why they are useless for the most part when they enter the work force. a 50 year old geezer can run circles around them.

[MadeinUSABlog]

12:46 PM on 06/13/2011

Are you seriously comparing a paper route or mowing laws with working in a sweatshop?

[Yolanda Webb]

09:42 PM on 06/12/2011

Why as adults everything has to come down to politics and pocketbooks. For heaven sakes these are children...your children, my children, God's children....stop turning a serious issue that our humanity should address into a platform for political candidates. If we simply decided that not all decisions should be made by politicans regardless of political affiliation our society would be a better place. Why don't we just grow up and stand behind the real adults that are trying to protect children from being exploited. If people would get off their couches and from in front of their television sets and go see what life is like for 'other' people they would really stop forming racist, prejudicial opinions. Our child labor laws were passed during a time when children in this country were being exploited - so for those who sound off on here and don't remember those times...they were cruel, harsh, and shameful as the only people who made any money off the backs of children were the folks at the top of that food chain.

[yappnmutt]

10:12 PM on 06/12/2011

our child labor laws were passed because of pressure from wealthy women who couldn't imagine having to work at all, let alone, at 8 years old. the families of these working kids didn't necessarily support the laws and neither did the kids.

that is not to say 8 year old kids should work today but keep the issue in perspective.

[the-lexicon]

10:33 PM on 06/12/2011

what an amusing thing to say.

[bealebkk]

09:34 PM on 06/12/2011

If you are against child labor then you better dump any product made in Asia!! and most of all China since this won't happen this day is an exercise in futility.