A Child peeping through the grills of a foundry where he works
A child working on a drill machine
A child polishing an aluminium dekchi
A girl child attempting to sell flowers to some people in a car, will she be successful. I dobt it as the car people think of her as a nuisance.
A child collecting waste from a garbage dump which he will then sell for earning something for gis family. This is a common sight at all garbage dumps.
Three children collecting partially burnt coal from cinders thrown by a foundry. These too will be sold again.
A child breaking bricks.
Children carrying bricks at construction sites.
A child on a grinding machine
This child has managed to get some rest from his work in a press or hammer.His stool is a welding machine.
A child working in a galvanising shop. You can see the acid fumes.
A child helping on the lathe
The sweat
Again sweat

Our government has put in place some laws banning chld labour.
It seems the owners of the workshops where these children may not have heard of the law.
Maybe, some of these workshops are owned by our legislators who pass these laws, and they care two hoots for such laws.
Or may be they may have heard of it but the children or there parents may have just wanted the children to work to keep away the pangs of hunger.
The parents may have considered themselves lucky to have got the work against stiff competition from other hungry families.
How does the government propose to feed all these children?
None of our political parties are seeing the population bomb ticking away.
None of them mention the word family planning in their election manifestoes for fear of antagonising a particular community.
Children will continue to be produced to be then thrown on the streets to beg, steal and become criminals or work in such factories.
It is unavoidable unless we control our population.

Photographs were sent by Krishna Joshi