Male, born 3 July 1992
Om Prakash is born in the village of Dwarapur, in the Jaipur area, Rajasthan, India. He is 14 years old.

At the age of 5, he was taken away from his parents and became a forced labourer. For three years he faced many hardships as a child slave. He had to work all day long under bad conditions. Ploughing, sowing, harvesting, tending to cattle, handling pesticides and other chemicals was his daily routine, as were the beatings for slightest mistakes from his master. Om Prakash was given two meals a day for his work, he never got any wages.

At the age of 8 he was rescued by the activists of Bachpan Bachao Andolan and went to a re-integration center or “Bal Ashram” for liberated child slaves. He was medically checked and went through counseling. Because he was keen on studying, he was enrolled in the nearby government primary school. He was reunited with his family, but lives in the Bal Ashram. His family is too poor to take him in. He is in close contact with his parents and his 10 brothers and sisters and visits them every 6 months. All his brothers and sisters are in school. The parents do not allow them to work.

Since he lives in the Bal Ashram he has started to help other children like him. Om Prakash is a very convincing boy with a great sensitivity for injustice He believes that education is a basic right for children and the key for a better life. He wants to make both parents and children aware of this. He started to tell the children in his home village about his own experiences as a child labourer.

In 2004 he was the head of the children’s assembly of his school. All students were asked to pay fees. Om Prakash had read that it was not allowed. To ask for money from parents who cannot afford this. The education in Government schools is supposed to be free of costs. He raised his voice against this practice and approached the sub-divisional magistrate. A petition was filed in the Jaipur Court and consequently the court passed the judgment that all the money taken from the parents should be returned to them. This was done by the school. Then the Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission took it up and ordered that no school could take money from the parents, with his case as an example. So the case of Om Prakash created a legal precedent which in turn had its effect in the whole state of Rajasthan. Om Prakash also played an instrumental role in making his home-village a “Bal Mitra Gram” (Child Friendly Village) and since then has worked to increase the number of these Child Friendly Villages. Child Friendly Villages are villages in which children’s rights are respected, and child labour is not allowed by the villagers. Another special achievement of Om Prakash is that he mobilized more than 500 birth registrations on his own. He did so by visiting schools and villages and convincing people about the importance of birth registration: it gives the right to a name and nationality; it gives all the rights provided by the nation, the right to be free from all forms of exploitation, the right to education and the right to health care, economic privileges, like the opportunity to work, to open a bank account, social security and a pension. And also political privileges such as the right to vote. The Birth Certificate will have a long term impact for the children and will help them access social services: such as education and healthcare, proof of age! It will help to protect the child against child labour and child marriage: making it easier to defend against abuse and child trafficking. It is the first and most basic right of the child. Om Prakash has a strong spirit and will not easily stop once he has set his mind on something. An extraordinary example of his strong will is his bicycle tour to Delhi. From 4 until 8 September 2005 the Second Children’s World Congress on Child Labour and Education was held in Delhi. 40 children were selected to participate. Om Prakash was visiting his parents at that time, and was therefore not in the selected group. When he found out about it, he decided to go to the Congress by bike. This was not around the corner. He had to bike for 36 hours... He made an impressive statement at the congress about child labour.

KANTA'S DREAM

It is true that all children have dreams , a lot of them dream of becoming doctors, engineers, and police officers but only a few really know why they want  to be so . 11yr old  Kanta  dreams of being a  Police Inspector so that he can punish the employers of his  father who make him work  in the mines. Son of a bonded labourer, Kanta was a child labourer   rescued by Bachpan Bachao Andolan. At this tender age, he has seen a rather rough side of life working as a child labourer unlike his rather blessed counterparts in the city. When most children his age are only concerned about fun and school, Kanta understands the struggle for earning   two square meals a day.

He  is currently   enjoying freedom in 'Bal Ashram', a transit rehabilitation center for released child labourers in Viratnagar (Rajasthan) run by BBA..Studying in class 3   in Rajasthan's Sothana primary school is doing reasonably well he held the 2nd rank last year. He dreams of studying hard and passing the IPS exams with a good percentage.      
        
Kanta was rescued along  with  150   Bonded labourers  from the mines located in Charki Dardri  in the  Bhiwani   district of Haryana after a raid  and rescue  operation by BBA on 15th June 2003..

Many of the children rescued during this raid and   rescue operation are now receiving vocational training and education   in the Bal Ashram situated in Virat Nagar and the Balika Ashram in Delhi.

Puran Banjara, India

Puran Banjara, 13, is from Village-Salmania, Post-Baroda, Dist-Shyopur, Madhya Pradesh, India. He has 6 brothers and 1 sister. Neither Puran’s mother nor his father can read or write.

Puran started working with his parents in the stone quarries of Haryana and Rajasthan when he was only 6 years old. He broke stones and loaded them into trucks, and dug pits for underground cable along the road, 11 hours a day (from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.), 7 days a week for 3 years. More than half the day, he worked on an empty stomach because he had no breakfast. He only had one 15-minute break for lunch at 1:00 p.m. The working conditions were very unhygienic and harsh. Puran still bears a scar on his knee from breaking stones without protective gear.

Puran’s father Devi Ram was indebted to the owner of the stone quarry for an amount of Rs. 20,000 for the treatment of Puran’ ailing grandfather. Even after sever years of hard labour, Devi Ram and his family were not allowed to leave the stone quarries as the owner was claiming Rs. 45,000 with interest on the capital. However, Devi Ram and the family were never paid their wages except a lump sum amount of approximately Rs. 1000 for the work of 5 working members. Thus, ensuring that the family could never write off the debt and continued to remain in bondage for ever.

As part of an on-going campaign to identify and rescue bonded children, one day, activists from the Bal Ashram, a rehabilitation center run by Bachpan Bachao Andolan found Puran and his brothers working in stone quarries. On pursuing the case of Puran and younger brother and realizing the indebted and harsh conditions of labour, the activists were able to convince Devi Ram to consent to let Puran and his brothers to leads a free life and get education at the Bal Ashram. Due to the loss of labour from Puran and his younger brothers, the employer filed a case against Devi Ram on false charges and sent him to jail. Eventually BBA activists helped in his acquittal.

Puran now lives with other children who have also been victims of child labor and are receiving educational and vocational training at the Bal Ashram in Viratnagar, District-Jaipur (Rajasthan). At the Ashram, Puran learned slogans, educational songs and street plays. He is part of the cultural team that performs folk theatre to generate awareness of social issues, including child labor. He participates in demonstrations and marches to highlight prevailing social problems in the local area, and helps organize rallies to enroll out-of-school children in school and design campaigns to boycott fireworks and other products manufactured using child labor.

Puran plays and active role in the implementation of Bal Mitra Gram (child- friendly villages) near the Ashram. When he return to his own village, Puran will try to make it a child-friendly village, which aims to eliminate child labor and enroll all children in school through active community participation and the establishment of a children’s parliament.

Puran believes that he can accomplish whatever he wants to do. For now, he wants to concentrate on his studies. He recently completed final exams for 8th grade. Eventually, he would like to attain a higher education and join the army. He wants to become "an army man."

Puran thinks that the best way to help him and other child laborers to achieve their dreams is to make friends with them and convince them to go to school. Education is most important for children. "Every child should have access to free, compulsory, quality and meaningful education," he says. "It is essential for children to go to schools."

Mohhamad Samsur, India

Mohhamad Samsur, 13, is from Kachhi Basti, Manoharpura, Jagatpura, Jaipur (Rajasthan). He has four brothers, who are 4, 9, 10 and 15 years old. Samsur’s father runs a tea stall and sells garbage collected by rag pickers. His father has completed 8th grade and can read. Samsur’s mother is illiterate. She is a domestic worker and helps her husband sort out the garbage to sell.

Samsur started working with his friends as a rag (garbage) picker when he was ten years old because his parents and all his neighbors and friends were rag pickers. He collected garbage from McDonalds, Pepsi factory, and Milk Processing Units in Malviyanagar, Jaipur, three hours a day (from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.), seven days a week for a year. He still has a scar on his foot from stepping on a piece of broken glass while collecting garbage. Samsur also attended school for four hours a day (from noon until 4 p.m.). During his work as a rag-picker, Samsur was addicted to gutka (tobacco) and sometimes used to smoke cigarettes.

He has completed only one year of schooling, later he dropped out of school so that he could continue rag-picking throughout the day.

One day Samsur’s father met an activist from Bachpan Bachao Andolan (the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude). The meeting was an eye-opener for his father, who realized his responsibility to work and to send Samsur to school. Without wasting anytime, he sent Samsur to the Bal Ashram, a rehabilitation center run by Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

Now, Samsur lives at the Bal Ashram in Viratnagar, Jaipur District (Rajasthan) with other children who have been withdrawn from work and are receiving educational and vocational training. Samsur is improving his reading and writing skills so that he can be reintegrated into formal school when he returns home.

Samsur is busy fighting illiteracy, child labor, dowry, corruption, child marriage, etc. He participates in the implementation of Bal Mitra Gram (Child Friendly Villages). He interacts with villagers and children in nearby villages to advocate for a child-friendly society, which aims to eliminate child labor and enroll all children in school through establishing children’s parliaments. Samsur also participates in demonstrations, rallies and marches to highlight prevalent local social problems, enroll children in school, and boycott fireworks and other products that are manufactured using child labor.

Copyright Bal Ashram Trust 2006
VIrat Nagar, Jaipur,
Rajasthan, INDIA