SLAVERY AND OPULENCE

Arising out of the case of a 13 year old girl who worked as a maid (for a couple who had gone on vacation to Thailand) and who had been rescued by firemen from a locked apartment, some staggering figures on child exploitation were revealed. The girl described a life akin to slavery, child welfare officials said. Her uncle had sold her to a job placement agency, which sold her to the couple, both doctors. The girl was paid nothing. She said the couple barely fed her and beat her if her work did not meet expectations."The International Labor Organization has found that India has 12.6 million laborers between the ages of 5 and 14, with roughly 20 per cent working as domestic help. Other groups place the figure at 45 million or higher. Unicef has said India has more child laborers than any other country in the world. .... Mala Bhandari, who runs Childline, a government hot line for child workers, said India's urbanization and the rise of two-income families were driving demand for domestic help. Children are cheaper and more pliant than adults; Ms. Bhandari said a family might pay a child servant only $40 a month, less than half the wage commonly paid to an adult, if such servants are paid at all." (New YorkTimes, 4 April) In stark contrast to the the life of that hapless 13 year old girl we have the case of Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire industrialist, who has several hundred domestic workers in his skyscraper residence in Mumbai, the country's financial capital. Child slavery for one luxurious opulence for the other. RD