Child Slavery-A Shame In 21st Century
July 19, 2008
Child slavery has slowly become a booming business with the improving economy and the countries getting richer the world over. Some children work as bonded laborers with their parents sweating out from dawn till dusk in the agricultural fields. Others are kidnapped or trafficked by the agents. The girl children meet the worst fate. They are either harassed physically and mentally as domestic helps or end up as prostitutes at various brothels.
RAGING FACTORS BEHIND CHILD SLAVERY
Poverty:
The most important factor is the yawning gap between the rich and the poor. The children suffer debt bondage as they pay loans of their fathers and grandfathers. Poor parents are ready to sell their children at any cost.
Operating middlemen:
These agents are very quick to arrange the gang kidnapping of children or lure their parents promising to send them monthly commissions. In South Asian countries like Burma, the middlemen demand hefty pay packets for selling children for foreign tourists at brothels for prostitution.
Nexus of politicians with the traffic agents:
This nexus is responsible for never ending child slavery. The politicians misuse their power to hide the operations of traffic agents while they merrily supply them underage kids for child slavery. An example is the supplied boys to Saudi Arabia where they are forced in slavery, forced to ride camels as camel jockeys. Even if the camel wins the race, the boy will never get a single cent.
Social homes not safe any longer:
The administrators of such homes are themselves involved in prostitution rackets. The sexual abuse in such homes is so rampant that many kids run away only to be kidnapped and forced to worst forms of child slavery. They are denied food, kept in bondage and forced to beg outside five star hotels.
WAYS TO OVERCOME CHILD SLAVERY
The measures range from exposing the nexus of the middlemen, providing alternate jobs to the parents, prevent commercial exploitation of children, giving them free education and empower the regulatory bodies to monitor the problem in every state.
Rough estimates predict that there are one million children who serve as prostitutes the world over. The rest are engaged in other forms of child slavery. Unless and until strict law enforcement and social awakening is mobilized, the children will continue to suffer as slaves.































