Eight year old Devli is exuberant. For the first time in her life, she is experiencing what it means to be free. Today, she is singing, dancing and playing with the other children at the Balika Ashram in Delhi but her life wasn't like this always. It was a tale of pain, torture and suffering. She was born in bondage. Her grandparents and parents were also in bondage. She had neither home nor a person to look upto. BBA activists rescued her along with 100 other children in a dare devil raid in Charkhi Dadri stone quarries of Haryana on 15th June, 2003. Despite repeated pleas from BBA, the district administration did not give release certificates to any of the labourers. BBA, then enrolled released children in its transit rehabilitation centres.

Today, Devli is a happy and charming young girl. Apart from studies, she is also doing well in extracurricular and cultural activities and participates in all the events organized by BBA/SACCS. She exclaims, "No child should ever be held in bondage. I shall strive to release all children from the evil of bondage.”

Maina is only seven and it came as an eye-opener for the Ashram staff to know that she had been working in a circus for last two and a half years. Her financially unstable background made her father take the merciless decision of sending her to a circus in lieu of a meagre amount. She woke up every morning at 5, practiced for hours together before she performed in 4-5 shows each day. She could go to bed only after 12 to wake up next morning to follow same routine. She hardly used to get any time to rest or play.

At an early age of five, she carried the responsibility of her five younger siblings and almost missed her own childhood. “I wanted to play like other children and go to school but perhaps, I was destined to suffer.” She is being given non-formal education in Balika Ashram now and is receptive to it. She enjoys all the activities in Ashram and is happy to be with other children of her age. Luckily, now she can play and have fun with others.

As a 14-year-old bonded child labour, Kalu Kumar was working in a carpet unit at Saraipitha (Varanasi). The son of an illiterate agricultural labourer who did not have his cultivable land, his mother managed household while his 2 brothers and 4 sisters stayed home, away from education, with him. Kalu had an elder brother who had gone to Punjab to earn money. Kalu’s parents were totally illiterate and neither Kalu, nor his siblings were interested in going to school.

When Kalu was eight, he and his friends had gone to a field for grazing their goats. Two persons named Akali and Bhupa appeared and kidnapped two children. They were taken to an employer who trained them for fifteen days and paid a negligible amount of Rs.100 each month. The work environment was deplorable and intolerable. Everyday, Kalu was abused and beaten by his loom owner. Even now, one can see the scars of the wounds inflicted by his master, visible on his stomach and palm. It was the extreme inhumanity of the employer that instead of providing medical treatment he filled the wounds with matchstick powder. The work would begin at 4 a.m. everyday and would continue even after 10 in the night. For one year, Kalu would knit carpets. He got respite from this miserable life only after he was identified and rescued by SACCS/BBA activists. Another 18 children were rescued with Kalu and all of them belonged to North Bihar.

15 year old Sonia is blind. She lost her eyesight at the young age of seven. She was working in sports goods industry where she used to stitch footballs, volleyballs etc. She was given only seven rupees per day. At the age of eleven, she was rescued by the volunteers of social justice, a friendly NGO of South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude/ Bachpan Bachao Andolan based in Punjab. She was at the forefront of a campaign against the use of child labour working in sports good industry for the World Cup, 2002, held at Japan.

"Hundreds of thousands of children in the world make footballs, baseballs and volleyballs. These are the children who will never be able to play with the goods they produce." Said Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of SACCS/BBA.

Seema an unfortunate girl of 12 years, was mercilessly tortured by police in the name of conducting inquiry into murder of her employer, an old lady, on the second day of her joining. Naturally, she would not know any of the relatives or friends of her employer and she was in no position to name the person, who visited her employer, talked to her in a closed room and went away after threatening Seema, just before her employer was found dead, but police kept on torturing her for three days. She was tied with an electric cord and was thrashed with a ruler. She was made to sit with her hands bent and legs tied with cane. She was treated with extreme severity, hung her upside down and slapped on her ears. Neither was she provided the basic amenities nor blanket and food in the police custody. Even her uncle was taken into custody and he too had to go through a similar experience in the name of interrogation.

Abhinandan is a 13-year-old boy with twinkling eyes and mischievous smile. He lives with his family in District Saharsa in Bihar. His father, Gannabhil is working in brick kilns in the nearby area and Abhinandan also goes to work along with him. His mother is an agricultural laborer and works to cut the seasonal crops, which may be paddy or wheat. Earlier, Abhinandan was staying with his maternal uncles and helped them graze the cows. He worked there for 2 years and came to his father. He has one younger brother, three small sisters and an ailing grandmother. At home he looked after his siblings. The village had all sorts of economic stratification and caste differentiation right from Brahmins to Schedule castes. The family lived in a small house built under Indira Awas Yojna (a government scheme) where water seeps inside in the rainy season. The family does not have any property.

"I went to school for two years but left there as my master used to beat me a lot. So I left school", he said pointing his head with twinkling eyes. He studied till 2nd class. "My father also studied till 5th class. He wanted me to go to school but my mother wanted me to work. She told me, if we dont earn what will we eat". Abhinandan worked at brick kiln for more than a year.

"I was not paid anything for the work I did. My father's wages (Rs. 130/week) included my wages also but I worked extra for loading the ready-made bricks in the trucks for which we children were paid Rs. 10-15 per 1000 bricks. We used to work almost whole year for that" he disclosed. We were never paid full amount for the work. He kept the other half saying that he would give it next week. The things were repeated and we had to work at the same place or leave our money. My work was to mould the bricks with wet soil and in summers we used to go there around midnight, as the soil would dry soon during daytime. There was no time limit for work. Anybody could work for any number of hours and we were paid according to the number of bricks we mould.

"I would keep working for whole day. When I was not molding bricks, I was loading them in trucks for which I was paid. The atmosphere was full of dust. It was so dusty that we had to wear masks on our faces with two holes for eyes so that we could see. I did not like the work and wanted to escape, but where would I go? During summers, days were extremely hot and children used to work in shifts for loading the trucks. Two children would load the truck for two hours and then they would sit under the shade and two other children would work. We used to wet our bodies and then work. It was horrible. I used to go home for lunch and there was no facility for medical aid" he said. Luckily, an activist from Mukti Ashram visited their village and motivated his parents to send him with them to learn some vocational work. Abhinandan came to ashram on April 29, 2001. He was very mischievous and spoke his mind freely. There was no injury mark on his body. In the ashram, he took part in all activities actively and enjoyed the surroundings very much. He has learnt the value of education and says that he would go to school even if the master beats him. He says, "I have learnt the importance of education. I will not go to school due to compulsion but for the need, my need". He has gained confidence and is relearning the elementary education. He takes interest in social education classes and has shown great performance in sports. He wants to go back to his village and join school. He wants to open up a shop in his village along with his father.

I started working at the age of 8. My father was a laborer but the work was not constant. My mother also worked along with him to supplement the family income but still it was inadequate to support the family of seven members. The income was not constant and my parents sent my sister and me to our village in Raipur, Madhay Pradesh to our paternal uncle's home. There also, I worked all day and listened to their abuses. My father during his visit to village saw that and brought us to Delhi. After two months, the house where my parents were working was completed and they were left without work. Somebody whom we knew told us that a household in the vicinity needs a young girl to look after their two-years-old son. So I at the tender age of 8 years started working from 7 o'clock in the morning till 8 in the evening. My work included looking after the child, washing utensils and cleaning the house. I worked there for two long years.

After two years, Geeta started having the problem of cough and cold, which her master interpreted as tuberculosis. They thought that she would communicate the disease to their young child and they told her to quit. Geeta started staying at home. At that time again her father lost his job and the family had to go through tough times. He started taking training in white washing and Geeta started working in households. She worked there for 4 years, cleaning utensils, doing household. Unfortunately, the family lost their mobile phone and the blame came on Geeta. She again had to quit the job.

Then Mr. Ratan Nishat, maternal uncle of a girl staying at ashram, told her parents about Girls Collective and motivated them to send her there so that she could learn some vocational skill. Geeta came to the ashram and started learning reading and writing skills and can now stitch ladies dresses. She also takes part in other activities of ashram and takes keen interest in the social classes.

There are seven members in his family, his parents, two brothers, and three sisters. One of his brothers is married. They do not have any land property and stay in a small Jhuggi (slum). His father is a laborer and his mother works in the farm. His younger sister looks after the household.

Aghan is illiterate and could not study due to poor financial condition of his family. He helped his parents. Later he came into contact with a middleman who used to supply labourers to loom owners of Varanasi. He was lured for working at a loom in Varanasi, where he worked for a year in Sabari village of Varanasi district. After a year he was sold with four other children to another carpet loom owner.

He used to work from 5 in the morning till 11 in the night. Work pressure made him weak and prone to several ailments like eye complications, pain in the spine and limbs. Food was often not provided to him and on rare occasions he was given stale food which caused further loss to his health. Aghan developed skin problems but the owner ignored it. He never received any oil, soap, clothes or toiletries for his maintenance. If they were extremely sick, the owner used to get them treated inside the four walls of the mill.
Aghan tried to escape many a times but failed. Whenever Aghan wanted to go home to meet his parents, he was not allowed. The owner hit him on his knuckles which terrorized all other kids also who wanted to go home. Once when Aghan refused to work on the loom, the owner inserted a hot iron rod in his eyes, Aghan is, now, visually challenged.

“My master beat me brutally, charred my hand in the flames of a gas stove and then burnt me with red-hot iron rod” recounts the seven year old Ashraf. This barbaric treatment was a punishment for drinking left over milk at his master's house.

Ashraf, son of Karim Ullah Khan was taken away as a domestic help for Hamid Hussain, Ministry of Agriculture, through a neighbour Aslam, who was a friend of Hussain's peon, Sudershan Ashraf's parents.

Originally from Begusarai District in Bihar, Ashraf had been living at Sangam Vihar, Delhi for last seven years. His parents are sick and unemployed and the family is destitute. Ashraf's parents were promised that their boy will have no work except giving company to the children in the house. Apart from being fed, Ashraf was also promised a government job on growing up. Without doubting the broker's promises, the parents of the boy gladly handed him over to Aslam.

But just after two weeks, Aslam was asked by Sudarshan to take the child back. When he went to the officer's house to pick up the child, Aslam was apalled to find Ashraf 's hand and feet tied up. On enquiring, Aslam was told that the boy had burnt himself while cooking chappattis. The child himself was unable to utter a word as he was threatened by his employers. Ashraf was returned back to his parents.

The parents were shocked to see their little boy return from the officer's house with swollen lips and bleeding from his mouth and cheek. The back side of his hand was severely burnt and blood was oozing out from the numerous fresh wounds on his left eyebrow, chest, groin and legs. The boy was traumatized and could not speak.

However, after a couple of hours Ashraf informed that he was not given proper food and was beaten up regularly. One day he was given some milk to give to Hussain's children and some milk was left over in the glass. Being very hungry, Ashraf drank the last few drops. At this, Hussain beat him up severely, hitting him in testicles, burned his hand over the flames of a gas stove and even burnt his body with red-hot iron rods.

The parents, shocked by the cruelties meted out to their little child, treated his wounds with some local medicines. The next morning, when Ashraf’s health was further deteriorating, he was taken to the nearest medical clinic. The doctor at the clinic however, advised that Ashraf be taken to a bigger hospital instead, as the wounds were extremely severe. The doctors at other hospital advised the parents to report the case to the police, as the boy's condition appeared to be a medico-legal case.

Ashraf was carried to the police post from where they went to Mr. Hussain's house along with a policeman. Being a gazetted officer, Mr. Hussain however refused to talk. After many efforts, Mr. Hussain was finally brought to the police station one afternoon where he was met by Ashraf, his mother and the middleman, Aslam. Being an influential man, Hussain had police on his side and they forced the boy's mother to put a thumb impression on a document, a copy of which was denied to her.

11- year-old Basudev Bhattari came from Kavre district, about 60 kms from Kathmandu. He lived in his uncle's house with his father, who did not own any property. After his mother's elopement, Basudev had to face hatred and humiliation from other members of the family. He did not get an opportunity to attend school. After his father's death he ran away from home.

He started working in a sweet shop in Banepa, where he had to work day in and day out from 5 in the morning to as late as 9 in the night. He found it very hard and left the job after two months. Apart from two meals a day, he was not given any salary. He worked as a waiter in another hotel for about a month.

From Banepa he came to Kathmandu and worked as a domestic helper in a house in Baneshwor. The masters used foul language even when he made small mistakes. Tired of ill behavior from the masters, Basudev ran away from there and took to the streets. A man offered him a job in a carpet factory at a salary of Rs. 600 per month. After working for 6 months in that factory, he asked for his salary but he was turned away. In the mean time, Basudev had learnt to weave carpets pretty well and according to the agreement, he should have received salary of 3 months which was Rs. 1,800. He felt cheated for not receiving any money for all the hardships he went through, so he left this job.

While walking alone in the streets, he saw an Indian man picking plastics and garbage and Basudev followed him to junkyard, where he learnt about the work and rate of plastic and metal scraps. Then he started working as a rag picker to survive on the street. On the very first day he earned some twenty rupees but had to go hungry the next day as it was raining. Struggling with hardships, Basudev kept working as a rag picker for a year.

Basudev was very obsessed with bicycles; so he went to work in a bi-cycle repair shop out of curiosity. He did some repair of punctured tiers and it made him happy because he could ride those bi-cycles occasionally. One fine day when he was riding a new bi-cycle from the shop, one of his friends Jeevan came and asked to ride his bike, but his friend ran away with the new bi-cycle leaving him in trouble. When the bi-cycle shop owner found out about this, he became furious and hit him so bad that Basudev's face became red with blood. The owner asked Basudev to pay him off the cost of the bi-cycle, otherwise he will chop off both his legs. Basudev promised to pay him Rs. 50 a day by working. Basudev then ran away to Bhaktapur from him as could not earn Rs. 50 a day. But the man was still after him. Basudev smart enough escaped from his hands and came to Kathmandu, where he met a rag-picker boy named Jayram. After hearing Basudev's story, Jayram suggested that he go to the CWIN Socialization Centre. After a few days, in the socialisation centre, he was referred to CWIN Children's Home, a transit centre for children at risk.

During his stay in the CWIN Children's Home, there was a great change in his behavior. He took active interest in both sports and studies. He got along very well with other children and showed a potential for leadership.

He is progressing a lot in his performances in the center and outside. He is now an active member of CWIN Child Rights Forum, formed by the children themselves who are staying in different CWIN centers. He has also been participating in various programmes organized by CWIN and other organizations working for the child’s rights. He is very talented in other creative activities like drawing and acting. He has recently acted in an awareness video-slot on domestic child labour made by CWIN which is being telecasted on national television. Some of his achievements are:

• He has actively participated in a workshop 'Children's participation: Children's Vision' organized by Redd Barna Nepal from 5 to 7 September, 1997.
• Has won first prize for puzzle game and second prize for painting competition organised by Children At Risk-Network Group (CAR-NWG) to mark Children-at-Risk Day in September 14, 1997.
• And participated as a trainer in Child Rights Conference organized by Plan International from 16-21 November 1997.

Basudev wants to study and become an engineer in future so that he can have his own home and wants to work for the children who are underprivileged and face problems like he did. Today, he is an avid internet surfer.

Govind Prasad Khanal is a fifteen-year-old boy who belongs to Ilam district in Nepal. His family of seven includes four brothers and one married sister. Agriculture is the family's main source of income but they no longer own any land. Whatever little ownership they had was mortgaged and later sold due to his father's illness.

Govind's tryst with harsh labour and cruel living conditions began at a public school owner's house where he started work as a domestic servant. His employer, Mr Prakash Burathoki lured Govind to work with him on a promise of educating him. Once at his employer's house, there was no education, only hard work.

Besides the regular housework, Govind's main job was to look after the pets in the house. For one year, he worked at the house without any wages. Thoughts of running away took seed in his mind but his hometown was too far away for him to put his thoughts into action. Finally, one day when he could take no more, Govind lied of his illness and did not report to work. He never went back.

Om Prakash, a 12 year old boy who was working as Agricultural Labourer in Ananda Pura, Rajsthan. His family consisted of 9 members. He looks young, rather small for his age, and his skin is dark from constant exposure to the sun. He spoke casually about his life style, at times smiling in amusement as he recounted some events in his life.

Omprakash had been working with his employer for 7 years. He was physically punished by his employer if he committed any mistake in work. He slept in the verandah. He was only given two meals. On special occasions, he was not allowed to participate. Always his employer abused like “You low grade people should not touch us".

One day our field Activist R.P.Verma came to know about him and brought him to Mukti Ashram for rehabilitation. In Mukti Ashram he got vocational training in tailoring. He improved day by day and today he is a successful tailor.