BY PRIYA India – while one of the fastest developing countries of the world, is still famous for its 22% population below the poverty line. Statistics from UNICEF claim that as many as 10 million children in India end up working as child labourers. According to the Right to Education Act (RTE), children between the ages of 6-14 years have the right to free and compulsory education. Most kids in this age group don’t get to see the inside of a school and the ones who do go to school, end up having to work long hours even after school and during holidays. Even if a child manages to last in school for the first fourteen years of his/her life, they’re bound to be taken out, in order to help their family make ends meet. They either work in the family business or as labourers at construction sites, in small-scale and/or harmful industries (such as firecrackers, alcohol, etc.) or sometimes even beg on the streets. Children from poorer families (mostly from the Scheduled Caste...
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