news

These 10 Children in Asia Will Make You Feel Grateful

It's World Child Labour Day. What does this mean to us as people who don't know what it's like to collect rubbish at a young age? What can we do to help? We searched for 10 stories of children in Asia whose lives we could all learn from.

Cover image via

#01. Young Chinese girl who works 12 hours a day in a brick factory

Zhang Qianqian a young girl in Guizou City who works 12 hours a day in a brick factory

Image via chinasmack.com

#02. Rustam working in a cotton field

Rustam working in the cotton field We sleep and eat directly on the floor. They give us some bread and sugar in the morning and a meagre soup in the evening. We have to work endless hours until we harvest 80 kilograms of cotton every day!

Image via cbc.ca

#03. Young children collecting usable waste from one of the biggest landfill sites in the Philippines

Most of the families in Payatas choose not to send their kids to school due to lack of finances. Instead, they let their kids help them scavenging to add to their family income. An individual only gets 50 to 100 pesos a day about $2 per head, thus the more family member working the higher the income they get.

Image via aidphilippines.com

#04. 13 year old children working on a construction site

Indian children working at a construction site near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi

Image via guim.co.uk

#05. Hands of 8 year old boy working in rickshaw parts making factory

Hands of 8-year-old Munna while working in a rickshaw parts making factory. He works 10 hours a day and gets 8 USD for a month.

Image via turnbacktogod.com

#06. 7 year old child collecting steaming rubbish heap on a cold winter morning

7-year-old Jasmine collects rubbish from a steaming rubbish heap on a cold winter morning. She earns money to support her family by scavenging for items on the Kajla rubbish dump.

Image via turnbacktogod.com

#07. Young boy making metal components

A young laborer making metal components at a factory. Dhaka . Bangladesh

Image via turnbacktogod.com

#08. Child working in silver cooking pot factory

Jainal works in silver cooking pot factory. He is 11 years old. He has been working in this factory for three years. His work starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. For his work he gets 700 taka (10 USD) for a month.

Image via turnbacktogod.com

#09. Child carrying unbaked bricks

Scenes like this remain a fact of life in India, despite a longtime ban on hard labor by children.

Image via nationalgeographic.com

#10. Young girl selling popcorn on Bihar streets

Indian law already prohibits the employment of children under 14 in "hazardous" industries. Yet child labor remains widespread in India, despite the country's emerging economic power. At least 12 million Indian children work instead of going to school, according to government estimates. Advocacy groups say the real figure could be as high as 60 million.

Image via nationalgeographic.com

What now? Three things you can do that will make a difference:

SHARE & JOIN THIS 2013: World Vision Malaysia (WVM) has started its 30-Hour Famine movement for 2013. The fund-raising campaign see participants old and young across the nation fast for 30 hours while educating themselves and others on global hunger and poverty.

bit.ly

PLEDGE TO RAISE VOICE AGAINST CHILD LABOUR IN ALL ITS FORMS. TREAT ALL CHILDREN EQUALLY. NEVER EMPLOY ANY CHILD IN HOUSE OR IN SHOP. NEVER BUY PRODUCTS MADE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY BY EXPLOITING CHILDREN.

savethechildren.in

SIGN A PETITION: Tell Forever 21 to Stop Forced Child Labor in Cotton! The government of Uzbekistan continues to remove millions of children across the country from school and force them to pick cotton during the harvest season.

change.org

You may be interested in: