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COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010: Child labourers pictured working on construction sites | Mail Online 29th September 2010
After Delhi's disgrace, the shame: Child labourers pictured working on construction sites in frantic effort to get Commonwealth Games stadiums ready.
CNN find dozens of incidents involving children of seven and younger
India was yesterday building its chaotic Commonwealth Games venues with the toil and sweat of the country's children.
Distressing pictures show children apparently as young as seven carrying hods and buckets as part of the Delhi's desperate bid to complete construction ahead of the opening ceremony a week tomorrow.
The images, released by CNN, drew criticism from Save The Children. 'We are concerned about reports of young children working on construction sites,' said the charity.
Carrying the can: A naked child walks with a pail as Commonwealth Games labourers look on at a site in Delhi discovered by CNN
Hard at work! A child quite clearly helping in the construction at the side of a road in Delhi outside the Indira Gandhi Stadium in one of dozens of instances catalogued by CNN
The Games have attracted media attention to the issue of child labour, but we must not allow this issue to be forgotten after the momentary media glare subsides.'
It is an indication that the organisers - who have been criticised for the late-running of almost every aspect of the Games - are desperate to save the project from being cancelled as the first athletes, including the English party, arrived in Delhi.
Trafficking expert Siddharth Kara, a Harvard fellow, told CNN: 'I reliably documented in just a few days 32 cases of forced labour and 14 cases of child labour.
'Children were working, picking up hammers, banging stones, paving entry ways and planting grass along the roads to beautify them, hours and hours at a time.
Barefoot: A child risks injury in the middle of a site in Connaught Place, one of the main thoroughfares for Games traffic, as contractors furiously try to finish pavements before next week's opening ceremony
Shocking site: Another barefoot young child is photographed by CNN performing chores with older workers
'I documented children aged seven, eight, nine, ten years old working alongside their families in this mad rush to get the construction completed.'
The images, taken by Harvard fellow Mr Kara and released by CNN, drew criticism from Save The Children. 'We are concerned about reports of young children working on construction sites,' said the charity.
Kara undertook a independent research trip around South Asia looking at issues of forced labor, trafficking and child bondage. Kara has written several novels on the issue and is acting as an independent academic on this particular trip.
He also outlined the harsh conditions these children were forced to work under:
'The conditions are sub-human and that's really the only word I can apply. They live in the dirt, they go to the toilet behind bushes and trees which is why they found human excrement in the athletes village a few days ago.
'The children, especially the young ones, don't have a sense of what's going on. They're told to do the work and they just do the work. They don't know that they should be in school or that they should be playing.'
Taken for granted: This family of labourers told CNN they had moved to Delhi before the Games but had not been paid for two monthss
After Delhi's disgrace, the shame: Child labourers pictured working on construction sites in frantic effort to get Commonwealth Games stadiums ready.
CNN find dozens of incidents involving children of seven and younger
India was yesterday building its chaotic Commonwealth Games venues with the toil and sweat of the country's children.
Distressing pictures show children apparently as young as seven carrying hods and buckets as part of the Delhi's desperate bid to complete construction ahead of the opening ceremony a week tomorrow.
The images, released by CNN, drew criticism from Save The Children. 'We are concerned about reports of young children working on construction sites,' said the charity.
Carrying the can: A naked child walks with a pail as Commonwealth Games labourers look on at a site in Delhi discovered by CNN
Hard at work! A child quite clearly helping in the construction at the side of a road in Delhi outside the Indira Gandhi Stadium in one of dozens of instances catalogued by CNN
The Games have attracted media attention to the issue of child labour, but we must not allow this issue to be forgotten after the momentary media glare subsides.'
It is an indication that the organisers - who have been criticised for the late-running of almost every aspect of the Games - are desperate to save the project from being cancelled as the first athletes, including the English party, arrived in Delhi.
Trafficking expert Siddharth Kara, a Harvard fellow, told CNN: 'I reliably documented in just a few days 32 cases of forced labour and 14 cases of child labour.
'Children were working, picking up hammers, banging stones, paving entry ways and planting grass along the roads to beautify them, hours and hours at a time.
Barefoot: A child risks injury in the middle of a site in Connaught Place, one of the main thoroughfares for Games traffic, as contractors furiously try to finish pavements before next week's opening ceremony
Shocking site: Another barefoot young child is photographed by CNN performing chores with older workers
'I documented children aged seven, eight, nine, ten years old working alongside their families in this mad rush to get the construction completed.'
The images, taken by Harvard fellow Mr Kara and released by CNN, drew criticism from Save The Children. 'We are concerned about reports of young children working on construction sites,' said the charity.
Kara undertook a independent research trip around South Asia looking at issues of forced labor, trafficking and child bondage. Kara has written several novels on the issue and is acting as an independent academic on this particular trip.
He also outlined the harsh conditions these children were forced to work under:
'The conditions are sub-human and that's really the only word I can apply. They live in the dirt, they go to the toilet behind bushes and trees which is why they found human excrement in the athletes village a few days ago.
'The children, especially the young ones, don't have a sense of what's going on. They're told to do the work and they just do the work. They don't know that they should be in school or that they should be playing.'
Taken for granted: This family of labourers told CNN they had moved to Delhi before the Games but had not been paid for two monthss
