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Children hang their face masks in the net and play a game of soccer in Kochi, Kerala state, India, on Oct. 6. (R S Iyer/AP)

MundoAsia, , ,

In the past two months, 7-year-old Tarun’s world collapsed around him. He lost both his parents to covid-19 during India’s devastating second wave. With the deaths of the family’s primary earners, Tarun’s grandfather Mohan is forced to work extra hours as a daily-wage construction laborer. Even after working overtime, he earns a mere 40 rupees (or $0.55) per day. The family anxiously worries that food will run out within the week — and they are not alone in this predicament.

India’s second wave has generated conversation about vaccinations and funeral pyres. Yet the staggering number of children who have lost both parents, and families who have lost their sole earners, also warrants immediate attention.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

While investigating child labor in India last month for a book, I found myself in the northern state of Bihar, an established source of children for trafficking networks.

Here, alongside the expected stories of abduction, I heard of another unexpected and heartbreaking path to servitude. Children as young as 10 had begun to directly offer themselves to traffickers because they could no longer go hungry.

I met 14-year-old Arun Kumar, who told me of his experience.

Kumar lives with his uncle and two younger siblings in Amni village, a day’s journey by bus from Patna, the Bihar state capital.

Two days before we met, Kumar had been returned home by a local nonprofit organization, supported by Save the Children, from a rice mill in the state of Haryana, where he had been working 18-hour days, seven days a week.…  Seguir leyendo »