CAPITALISM COMES TO INDIA

"Two rickety ceiling fans stir the stale air in a cramped room in New Delhi where 10 men hunch over bright fabrics, sewing shorts to be sold overseas. "I get paid 24 rupees [56 cents] for every piece I stitch," says 31-year-old Amjad Ali. "But I'm sure it's very expensive when it sells abroad." Ali works a lot of overtime at this garment subcontractor, with no holidays, yet he can still barely support his wife and son. In another Delhi neighborhood, Sami Alam, 8, tells of escaping earlier in the week from a sweatshop where he'd worked as a cook for nine months. His parents had sent him to Delhi from his native Bihar, in exchange for cash. "I didn't know how to cook, so the owner would beat me," he says, showing scars on his frail arms." (Time, 11 June) RD