Children at Work

videographer & editor: sheila franklin

director & producer: ravi khanna

focusing on child labor in India

Kumar is 12, at ten he was kidnapped from his village and spent the next two years working for a rug maker. He has scars on his face from the beatings he received because he was a slow learner. He was rescued by the man sitting next to him, during one of many raids performed by the South Asia Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS).

After spending three months at a SACCS rehabilitation center he will return to his family.

Children At Work is dedicated Iqbal Masih. Iqbal was 4 years old when he was sold into bonded labor by his father to pay off a debt to a carpet factory owner in Pakistan. He was forced to work 12 hour days.

Iqbal attended a human rights rally at the age of 10 and decided to speak out about his working conditions and the plight of thousands of children like himself who were forced to work in servitude. Iqbal became a child activist. He refused to go back to the carpet factory. He began to speak to increasingly larger crowds and, as a result, helped to free many other children. In 1993, he was recognized for his work and honored with the Reebok Human Rights Award. He continued his activism upon his return to Pakistan. In 1995, at the age of 12, Iqbal was gunned down for speaking out. His murderers have never been apprehended.

These are just some of the 60 million children working full time in India. India has more child laborers than any other country.

"This video represents a substantial contribution to the movement to end child labor and sweatshop abuses. It includes valuable footage exposing the travesty of child labor and bonded labor in India. It should be a useful tool for educators and organizers alike."

Charles Kernaghan, Executive Director, National Labor Committee

"We are living in an extraordinary age of information technology and global markets. How can we think of shaping a new world without emotion and compassion? Let us start by watching the faces and voices of children who are producing wealth for others at the cost of their present and future. The children who are enslaved and forced to an endless life of misery and exploitation. "Children at Work", brings hope in the jungle of digits, and reaffirms our collective commitment that one day, we shall overcome the evil of child labour."

Kailesh Satyarthi, Chairperson, South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude

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