Wednesday 28 August 2013

Urgent Petition to End Child Slavery in India

I received this message from the Walk Free team today and wanted to share it on here. Please read it and sign- children's lives are hanging in the balance here!

Blessings!

Ronell x



***URGENT*** Time is running out. The Indian Parliament is going to adjourn on Friday so we are in Delhi and planning to deliver the petition TOMORROW calling on the Indian Parliament to abolish child slavery in India by passing the "Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill”.


Every day, millions of children in India wake up to long hours of backbreaking labour, working everywhere from stone quarries to carpet factories to rice mills. These children—some as young as 5 years-old—are kept from school and forced to work 7 days a week for up to 18 hours a day in hazardous situations that leave them permanently injured or crippled by heavy loads and dangerous equipment. 

Because these children are often left illiterate and plagued with health problems, they are—in a cruel twist of fate—less likely to find employment once they reach adulthood. This continued enslavement of children traps generations of Indians in a vicious cycle of slavery, illiteracy and poverty.

Thankfully, Indian politicians are considering legislation called the "Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill," which: 1) prohibits employment of children under 14 years of age, 2) outlines harsh sentences for violators, and 3) provides for monitoring of suspected cases of child slavery. This legislation would put an end to the enslavement of children in India, but it risks not passing without a demonstration of mass public support. That is why we are personally delivering 1,010,917 signatures on the 29thof August to the Parliament of India, calling on them to immediately pass the Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill.

Days from now, the Parliament of India will close the doors on its Monsoon Session. They need to know that any further delay in the passage of this historic law banning child labour in their country is simply unacceptable.

For every day that this bill is delayed, millions of children in India will continue to be trapped in the nightmare of modern slavery. While leaders in India remain inactive, an entire generation remains at risk of being bought and sold to work in unimaginable conditions of sex slavery, bonded labour and domestic servitude.

By keeping this crucial bill off the agenda, the Indian Parliament is allowing modern slavery to continue to rob children of the chance to be healthy, educated and free to build a bright future for themselves and for their country.



We can end child slavery in India.
After you take action, will you take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family to make sure that as many people as possible join us in pressuring the Indian Parliament to protect millions of children from modern slavery? Thank you in advance for your help.

In solidarity,
Debra, Nick, Jessica, Kate, Mich, Amy and the Walk Free Team


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