The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : A lens view of child labour

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 13, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

A lens view of child labour

Staff Reporter

Documentary captures the lives of working children

BANGALORE: Fifteen children cycled 4,040 km around Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Goa and logged 32 hours of film footage. And out of this came "History Expedition", a documentary capturing the lives of working children.

"If we were to ban child labour, we will have to stop living," remarks child rights' activist and director of the film John Devaraj wryly. The film, he says, shows how every product that one consumes can be linked to the labour of toiling children.

Questions raised

Citing an example, Mr. Devaraj says the roses exported to countries such as Holland are from places such as Anekal and Malur. "Young girls are employed to pick 10,000 roses a day," he says. In Bellary, 2,50,000 children extract iron ore that is later exported to countries such as China, he adds. The documentary, Mr. Devaraj says, raises questions such as why our country has 300 million unemployed youth even as there are 134 million employed children. He hopes to create awareness among policy-makers on the urgency for addressing child labour so that concrete steps can be taken to abolish it.

Concerns

"I hope to get politicians to address the issue in their agendas or manifestos. Concerns regarding child labour must also become part of school curricula, just as it has been with practices such as sati," he says.

The documentary will be screened on July 15 at 10.30 a.m. at Bal Bhavan in Cubbon Park. For details, email bornfreeart@gmail.com or log onto the website www.bornfreeart.org.

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