P-72 India.... child slave labour

Misery goes on for India child workers

Shanta looks like any other six-year-old, except there is an open wound on her head, her hands are swollen, chapped and grey and she can barely walk.... She is the youngest of the three little girls aged six to 13 years who were rescued last month from Faridabad in the state of Haryana.... Badly beaten and bruised, the girls all worked as domestic helps just a few miles away from India's capital, Delhi.

In October, the government enacted a law banning children under 14 from working as domestic servants, at teashops, food stalls, restaurants, hotels or in the hospitality industry...

Shanta says she had been working with the family for the past year after her brother left her there..... "I used to work in water the whole day. She [the employer] beat me up regularly with a stick for not finishing my work on time. I was woken at four in the morning and then I had to wash the clothes, sweep and mop the floor," she told the BBC.

According to Shanta, she was given rice only twice a day - served on the floor - and was made to sleep in the bathroom.....She said that she never complained about her plight as that would have meant more beatings