Hard evidence of child labor at 2010 Commonwealth Games - CNN.com

By Phil Han, CNN

September 24, 2010 2:16 p.m. EDT

 

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Trafficking expert Siddharth Kara: I documented 14 cases of child labor
• Kara: The labor was for construction related to the Commonwealth Games
• Kara: Children as young as seven working
• Delhi official: Kara did not contact us, we would have acted if we had known
  

(CNN) -- As Indian officials struggle to deal with mounting international criticism toward the safety and security of Commonwealth Game athletes, new evidence has emerged that show children as young as seven are being used in the construction of game venues.

In an exclusive interview with CNN International, Harvard fellow and trafficking expert Siddharth Kara told Becky Anderson that child labor was a widespread and well known issue in New Delhi.

Explainer: What are the Commonwealth Games?

"I reliably documented in just a few days 32 cases of forced labor and 14 cases of child labor all for construction related to the Commonwealth Games," Kara said on Connect the World.

"The children I saw were the ones where I felt I had documented child labor -- where 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."

"I documented children aged seven, eight, nine, ten years old working alongside their families in this mad rush to get the construction completed."

Kara, a renowned expert on the subject of human trafficking, 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," Kara said.

"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."

CNN anchor Becky Anderson pushed Kara on the issue and questioned the methods he used to document the cases of child labor and whether they were not just children accompanying their parents on job sites.

Kara responded by explaining that he went to great lengths to accurately document these cases.

"I didn't just show up, turn up and then carry on to the next site because it took me several days to document these 30 or 40 cases," Kara said.

"It would take me hours to document, in the heat and high humidity. It's not just kids playing in the dirt or using a hammer as a toy."

CNN tried back on July 23, 2010, to contact the chief minister for New Delhi and minister responsible, Sheila Dixit about the allegations made by Kara, but after several attempts, no official reply was ever made.

Dixit did finally speak to CNN's Connect the World this past Tuesday and said that if she was aware of the allegations of child labor in the first place, she would have acted.

"If this gentleman, whoever this student was from Harvard, if he had come to us, told us that this is what was happening there, we would have taken immediate action," Dixit said.

The minister also went on to say that "she had wished" somebody would have come and told her of the allegations.

Kara, who was asked of Dixit's response, said that he had in fact tried to contact Indian government officials of his findings.

"I tried to let people know back in mid-July and I tried to contact the ministry of labor several times about my findings but had no response," Kara said.

Hard evidence of child labor at 2010 Commonwealth Games - CNN.com

KVBP's Carly Reed Talks About the Commonwealth Games, Child Labor, & KVBP - Pittsburgh Human Rights Network

• Posted by Kullu Valley Bike Project on September 29, 2010 at 2:23pm
• View Kullu Valley Bike Project's blog

Hello readers! This week’s blog is going to follow the same topic as last week, child labor, but this time we’re

going to focus specifically on an article recently released by CNN, written based on an extensive interview with Siddharth Kara, a Harvard fellow and human trafficking expert.

Kara is currently traveling the world reporting back on issues related to human trafficking and child labor. Kara told CNN that he documented 32 cases of forced labor and 14 cases of child labor occurring in construction related to the Commonwealth Games to be held next month in New Delhi. He told CNN that the use of child labor was a widespread and well known issue within New Delhi. As mentioned in last week’s blog, child labor occurs as a result of numerous factors including poverty, lack of opportunities and a supply of vulnerable populations such as young children living in India’s slums.

Kara noted that “children were working, picking up hammers, banging stones, paving entry ways and planting grass along the raods to beautify them, hours at a time…(he) documented children aged seven, eight, nine, ten years old working alongside their families in a mad rush to get the construction completed.” Additionally, these families were living in sub-human conditions. Kara reported that he tried to contact Indian government officials to report what he had found but had no response. Ironically, the Commonwealth Games, this year to be held in New Dehli come with the mission of creating a suitable enviroment and opportunities for the involvement of Indian citizens in the Games as well as a core value of transparency.

While we cannot say for sure that the Indian Government was aware of the use of child labor in preparation for the Games, what can be gleamed from this article is that when there is a demand for cheap labor, and a supply of vulnerable workers, more often than not these will be exploited. Further, many people, including government officials, will turn a blind eye to these abuses. As shown in Kara’s case, these workers often include children as young as six and the effects of their labor, both physically and psychologically can last for the rest of their lives.

The children who are to benefit from the work of the Kullu Valley Bike Project live at an orphanage in Kullu Valley. They are a prime example of a vulnerable population which often fills the ranks of child laborers. Fortunately, through the work of those around them, they are being shielded from this monstrosity. Though these children live in conditions that many of us in the United States may consider unbearable: 16 children sharing two rooms and one bathroom, the children are able, through the support of local shop owners in their town and outside volunteers, to attend school and have a home. Without the donations of those in the village and the support of volunteers and organizations like the Kullu Valley Bike Project, these children would most likely end up working as child labors in back breaking jobs such as stone crushing or weaving.

The Kullu Valley Bike Project strives to improve the lives of the orphanages at Kullu Orphanage, in addition to that of others in the region, through the development of a bike co-op and advenure biking eco-tourism program.

When Grady arrives in India he will teach these children the joy of bike riding as well as how to maintain bikes and lead tours, all of which will contribute to a sustainable form of income and local industry which will keep them from the clutches of child labor and unscrupulous employers who wish to exploit them.

Source: PHRN

KVBP's Carly Reed Talks About the Commonwealth Games, Child Labor, & KVBP - Pittsburgh Human Rights Network\\

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