A child in India has little protection if it is born in the streets or the slums. In many cases, the child is sold for prostitution or as a child slave, where even in their early childhood, they are forced to do some of the hardest and filthiest work.
What is worse, many of the child slaves are viciously beaten, raped or killed if they do not perform their work according to their owner's whims.
One of the common practices is that of scalding, or pouring hot oil or boiling water in places usually hidden by clothing, to teach the child a 'lesson'.
One child, rescued by police, told horrific tales of abuse. When her owner was displeased with her work, she ripped all her nails out, one by one. At other times she was poked in the mouth with a needle for speaking. Finally she was burned with hot water, right before someone rescued her.
The estimates are mind bending: millions of children in India are believed to live in slavery. They work everywhere from farming, sewing in sweat shops, brothels and households. They are not paid, most of the times, and have no future, nor hope of escape. Their own families sell them into slavery or hire them out.
12.5 million children are believed to be in bondage in India. Although the practice of child labor and slavery is illegal, the practice is burgeoning, and Indians pay little mind to these legislations, just as they do for other things, like dowries and honor killings.
The girl that was rescued, Durga, was sold for 1.3 dollars. She was put on a train to Bangalore, 2,000 miles from her hometown of Calcutta.
Most of the children that are rescued, like Durga, have little hope of having a normal life, but if they end up in a mission, or other social structure, their prospects better. But many of them are so scarred, physically and mentally, that their lives might never be normal.
Bangalore is a boomtown, commercially speaking. The newly created wealth, also creates a growing demand for cheap or free labor. The trains that arrive every week, are often packed with children that will become slaves.
Some of the children end up as slaves after they run away from dire familiar conditions, only to find even worse prospects. The children often ride the trains by hitching a ride. But there are men who spot them when the train arrives at one station or another, and soon they have them in their clutches. They wave a little money in the child's face and bring them to their place of slavery.
The police are now placing men at train stations, in hotspots like Bangalore, to intercept the children. The train platform however, is very long, and usually packed to the brim with people, so that it is not easy to survey the arrivals. Only a few children each day are saved: most of them still end up in horrible situations.
The Don Bosco priest in Bangalore is one of the central figures in saving and rehabilitating the children that are found. He eventually either finds a relative and sends the child home, or places them permanently in one of the Don Bosco's organization's homes.
One of the reasons girls suffer this fate so frequently is because girls are considered a burden. The male is the one who remains with the family and provides for his parents. So getting rid of a girl from gestation to teenagehood, is a practice common with very poor families. Many times, they are sent to places far away from their home, so that when they get there they do not understand the language, and that keeps them from escaping or being found.
Even worse is the fate of girls, or children of prostitutes. Their life is even more in danger, as they risk being raped by people who come to see their mothers. In fact, so many of the girls are initiated in brothels early on, that 40 of all red light district workers are minors. Some are started at age 10, or sold to men who say they will marry them, but do not.
Another form of predation occurs after a natural disaster. The slave drivers scour villages to find orphans and drag them away.
Some of the girls who are kidnapped are kept in dungeons for weeks prior to their 'debut' in the streets. During that period, they are raped every day so that their will is broken. They are also starved, to further break their resolve.
An 11 year old girl, Sanjana, tells the harrowing tale of being sold to a man who said she would become a bride, but was instead brought to a brothel. She was forced to be with 10 man a day, nearly 30 during holidays. She was told that she had to work to repay her debt, but never could. She said that she could never refuse a man, and none of the men wore condoms. She also says that most prostitutes in Mumbai have Aids. She escaped when she was 22, and now works as a seamstress. None of her tormentors or captors were ever prosecuted.
Between these slave owners and the children, only a few religious organizations and social programs stand. Without them, the children have no hope, no shelter, no future.
Partial Source : Spiegel I. / 9.20.13
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