India
FIGHT CHILD LABOUR AND YOU WILL STOP CHILD TRAFFICKING
Voices from our project areas
| From labour to learning | |
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Firoza is 12 years old and the youngest of three sisters. Her father worked in a roadside hotel earning just Rs 700-800 per month and her mother worked sorting and packing prawns. When Firoza’s mother was diagnosed with cancer she had to stop working. Gradually financial pressure led the sisters to drop out of school and work in different households as domestic workers, commuting from home each day. For many families with barely enough income this is sadly seen as the best solution to meet their financial needs. Save the Children’s partners soon found out about Firoza and her sisters. In the family’s difficult circumstances, the only way to get the girls back into school would have to be alongside their work to help to the family income. |
| The employer and family agreed to send the sisters to a drop in center each day outside work hours. At these centers children get an education, life skills training and some vocational training as well. After just one year their parents wanted their children to return to school. To help this happen, Save the Children provided the support needed to get the sisters into a formal school and also provided vocational programs for the girls. Firoza has trained in photography under the Eye-to-Eye project (link to photos). Now she is in 6th standard at school and enjoys practicing her photography. Firoza is an excellent painter and dancer and her ambition is to be a teacher for underprivileged children. |
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| From cleaning floors to cutting hair | |
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Sandhya started working as a child domestic worker at the age of nine. Sandhya was the youngest of seven children and her parents sent her to live and work in a house in Kolkata. Sandhya managed all the domestic chores and worked for more than 14 hours per day, leaving no time for play or study. Save the Children’s partner NGO learnt about Sandhya when they conducted a survey in the area. They approached her employer and asked him to allow Sandhya to attend a drop in center for an hour or two per day for education, support groups and vocational training. By this time Sandhya was about 16 years old and because of the large gap in her education she decided to pursue a vocational qualification as a beautician rather than return to formal education. |
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In 2006 Sandhya was accepted at a vocational training institute and successfully completed a six-month beautician course. Sandhya’s employers were supportive of her vocational education because she continued to work for the family whilst undergoing training. By 2007 Sandhya started working as a beautician and decided to leave her job as a domestic worker. She has returned to her family in Joynagar, south 24th pargana district and commutes five days a week to Kolkata where she is a practicing beautician and is continuing her training |
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