There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children.
There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected,
that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want
and that they can grow up in peace.
– Kofi Annan
Tibet
For the past three decades as I traveled the world on assignment I
have witnessed children working in fields, factories, ditches, tunnels,
mines, and ship-breaking yards.
Niger
The scope of the problem is vast.
Hundreds of millions of children spend their
childhood working and do not have an opportunity to
play, go to school, or live in a healthy environment.
Mali
Kandahar, Afghanistan
Amid attempts to protect elephants from ivory poachers and dolphins
from tuna nets, the rights of children go remarkably unremarked.
– Anna Quindlen
Mandalay, Burma
Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together,
and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the
social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor
to the end of time.
– Grace Abbott
Mindanao, Philippines
Mumbai, India
Pul-i-Khumri, Afghanistan
Marpha, Nepal
India
The object of employing children is not to train them,
but to get high profits from their work.
– Lewis Hine, 1908
Afghanistan
Child labor perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy,
population growth, and other social problems.
– Kailash Satyarthi
Nepal
Rajasthan, India
India
Niger
Kabul, Afghanistan
Kashmir
The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines child labor as work that is
mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children;
and interferes with their schooling by: depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;
obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine
school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
Thank you for sharing such a great post, and beautiful but sad photos!
This is wrong on every level. Your photos are beyond beautiful and striking. A must share.
Childhood is fleeting and sacred. Children should never have to work.
Heart breaking documentation!!!
Thank you for reminding us to keep the plight of children front and centre and doing so visually has so much power . I have enjoyed and been challenged by your thoughts and photography for years .. a picture truly is worth many words
We need this reminder of the plight of these little ones. May we all be moved to do something to end this curse. Thank you for sharing and for these haunting, yet stellar images.
Very sad and heart breaking post . Child slavery is a crime against humanity. Humanity itself is at stake here.Thank you Stevebhai for making us aware
This is indeed a very sad and hear breaking post. Child slavery is a crime against humanity. Humanity itself is at stake here.
Thank you for sharing Stevebhai. and raising awareness
These photos are beautiful and brutal. The problem is so complex, as sometimes these kids have to work to support the family. But these kids almost always work in unfair and hazardous conditions, and all kids should be in school, not working.
Powerful
How terribly sad. Thank you for sharing the horrible plight of these children.
Excellent work!
Our children have no idea how children work so hard from a very early age, yet mostly they have a smile on their faces when photographed. Always such real life images, thank you for bringing the lives of others into my life.
It is truly an awful crime. In general, in the developed countries, people do more for dogs and cats than they do for the homeless, and hungry children. So sad, but it’s important for people like you to show the problem openly and clearly.
Thank you for helping me to contemplate on this more, much appreciated.
These are some of the saddest photos you’ve posted. I thank you for challenging my sense of world responsibility. I am inspired to to help end this
Will act on how I can best contribute to end child labor.
Thank you for this post. I have long admired your work. Now child labour is a complicated issue. (I have lived in the third world for quite a while). A vicious circle of sorts. Many children can only find subsistence if they work. Then they don’t go to school and never get out of the vicious circle.
Some solutions have been implemented here and there. School in the morning (or afternoon) and work in the fields the other half of the day. Not sure what is the right solution. Anyway. Thanks again for the post.
Brian
This breaks my heart. The price of profit should never be a child’s innocence.
Oh what a powerful post on today’s bitter truth. You have really captured all the feelings about poverty, child labor and a politics that is not ok in our world! Thanks for sharing.
Your best one yet but also most heartbreaking.
Thank you for this IMPORTANT post! I will be sharing it widely. It puts a face on the realities many choose to ignore or minimize.