Photo: unicef

Pure greed and an arrogant attitude towards human rights prevent existing laws from being treated with the respect they deserve.  In India there are approximately 200 million children between the ages of 4 and 14. Roughly half of these girls and boys have to work very hard up to 12 hours a day. There is a total lack of social networks or industrial accident protection.
They do not even have enough to eat.

These children are being exploited in the worst imaginable manner.
The situation of the girls is particularly bad.iese 



They are generally totally isolated from other children or their relatives, and they are either not paid at all or only receive a pittance. As if that wasn't enough, they are frequently beaten and subjected to sexual abuse.
Many of these girls become pregnant at an early age and are then thrown out onto the streets, where they are often forced to turn to prostitution. Dire poverty compels many families, who often have no work or food themselves, to hand over their children to a so-called job broker for a small fee. The child is out of the house, and there is one mouth less to feed.

           
    Photos:  terre des hommes      

Particularly awful and diabolical is the fact that many firms and corporations all around the world continue to take advantage of this cheap form of production.


None of us should forget that the consumers in the industrial nations, i.e. all of us, create the market for these companies in the first place. Who honestly asks himself when he is buying an Indian carpet how it was made. It doesn't matter, as long as the price is right. Child labour may be illegal, but legislation is simply ignored. Only in exceptional cases are employees punished for breaking the law. Worldwide approximately 143 million children do not go to school. 
Of these, two thirds are girls.                          

Amongst all the terrible injustice and conditions endured by the world's children, we should also not forget that children's rights in the industrial nations are also insufficiently respected and supported. High levels of youth unemployment, child poverty and lack of prospects, combined with a general lack of understanding for the problems of today's young generation, all lead to children and teenagers being excluded, or given the feeling that they are being excluded, from our society. It is the responsibility of every single one of us to talk to children and young people, to listen to them, and to be sparing with well-meaning advice. Children and teenagers should be our partners, and not just the objects of upbringing or education Adults can also learn a tremendous amount from children and young people; we just have to listen to them.


In our environment we can actively do something to help these children.

The children of the world need our solidarity,
 they need us to dig deep and often into our pockets, and to keep a watchful eye on products which have been created by children in the midst of pain and misery.

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