1.00 Pictures start

(NO TEXT ONLY TITLES)

1.06 - 250 MILLION CHILDREN IN THE WORLD WORK

1.18 - 153 MILLION OF THEM ARE IN ASIA

1.36 - IN INDIA CHILDREN WORK FOR CENTS IN FIREWORKS AND MATCH FACTORIES

TEXT STARTS

1.36

In this small village in the south of India children make matchboxes - as a home industry.

1.44

Four year-old Rashida helps her sister Poochammal. She has the finger agility her sister doesn't.

1.53

The children are paid per box: for 1'000 glued boxes they make 9 rupees - about 25 US cents.

2.09

original sound

girl

I don't miss school, says this girl.

2.14

original sound

Mathammal, mother

It doesn't make any sense to send my daughter to school. My sons already go. The girls work here until they get married. We need the money.

2.23

In 40 villages in Sivakasi in the state of Tamil Nadu matches and matchboxes are made like this. In every village around 100-300 families are working. Most of the work is done by women and girls. It's been like this for generations.

2.38

original sound

Ganjpjtha Shantha

lawyer and human rights activist

Children start to work between the ages of 5 and 6. They must spend more than 12 hours a day in the factory. They have no leisure. They work, work and work - their life long. It's because of this we say child labour is stolen youth.

3.01

Paupathy has known work since she was little. Every morning she leaves the house with her mother. The 11 year-old makes matchboxes. The mother works in the fields.

3.16

Child labour is illegal in India. But no-one cares about it - neither employers or parents who need every cent.

3.33

The children sit for hours at a time in the dark and stick the boxes together. Tiny children squat nearby. Frequently generations work together under the same roof - from grandmother to grandchild.

3.50

Pasupathy also often helps in the fields in the evening. Her mother picks cotton

3.56

The father grows sunflowers, cotton and maize. But the money he earns from this isn't enough to feed his nine children. Every month he has to pay off his debts.

4.06

original sound

Shunmugavel Rakkammal

farmer

My daughter has to work. I can't send her to school - it's almost free but we don't have money for the school books and pencils.

4.20

Women in India are used to work - in the factories or in the fields. For some years  now the land has been able to produce enough to cover their food needs. But there's no surplus - at least not in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

4.39

Rice is generally threshed by hand. Only a few villages can afford a harvesting machine.

4.56

Seventy-five percent of children in the match factories have parents that belong to the lowest caste - the lowest level of society without rights.

5.13

They carry out the lowest forms of work - and the pay corresponds to that. In the Indian family, daughters, even today, have no opportunity.

5.23

original sound

Ganjpjtha Shantha

lawyer and human rights activist

The line of succession is passed through the son. The Indians believe for their business they need sons. Daughters only eat rice. If they have more daughters than sons they no longer count the girls. They don't consider them as their children. Girls are even killed at birth. We call this female child murder.

5.47

(after Good Morning teacher)

To help these children, the government finances schools. But in the last 2 years the state coffers are empty. Before 100 children used to come here to learn, now there are only seven.

6.02

Every family - including the parents from Gurulakshmi - get 100 rupees a month - about 3 US dollars - as compensation for the lost earnings of their daughter or sons. But that's only a third of what a child could earn in a month. The mother is hoping that the government will pay more money. Otherwise she'll have to send her 7 year-old back to the factory.

6.30

My daughter only wants to go to school - says the mother. It's rare in the village that children - particularly girls - have so much free time as Gurulakshmi.

6.41

This factory manufactures matches. Ninety workers are employed here. No one will say how many of them are children.

6.57

The matches are stuck on a wooden board. After being dipped in a toxic liquid they are dried overnight.

7.10

The children have been working here for years. They breathe in the corrosive, sulphur fumes. There's no air conditioning in the factory.

7.21

Most people here are illiterate. They have to trust others to count for them. At the end of the day they show how many boxes and matches they've made.

7.33

Lawyer, Shantha has founded a women's organisation. It's thanks to her that a law has been passed. Factory owners  which employee children and are caught are now liable to be fined 530 US dollars. At least, that's what it says on paper.

7.46

original sound

Ganjpjtha Shantha

lawyer and human rights activist

 I believe that now factory owners won't employ children in the open anymore - they will do it in secret. When you go to film there you won't see any children. They'll either send them home or hide them. If you film children then they'll be threatened with a fine.

8.15

150'000 children work in the fireworks industry according to a human rights organisation. Sivakasi is the manufacturing centre of rockets, crackers, jumping jacks and sparklers. Two hundred factories are situated here. It's a million dollar business. The different kinds of fireworks are exported all around the world. Because explosive substances are used there are from time to time accidents. Then, the eyes of the world fall on the production conditions of the workers - but nobody cares about their fate.

8.54

They're known as the silver men. At work they wear gloves at work and masks.

9.00

When sparklers are being manufactured, part of the process is to dip the metal sticks into a toxic liquid. Most of it is comprised of a poisonous heavy metal salt.

9.15

The barium nitrate and aluminium dust leaves the skin shining. The chemicals can enter the lungs and eat away the body.

9.29

The employers play with their employees health as if it were a game - paying them only low wages. There's no other work in Sivakasi - and for illiterates there's absolutely nothing.

9.41

It's difficult to film in the fireworks factory - particularly when there is child labour or health damaging processes when they are manufacturing firecrackers.

9.57

Here we found one child. She works with her mother. She makes jumping jacks.

10.13

Working without protection for the skin can lead to circulatory problems, bronchial and lung damage.

10.22

The workers can't complain or fall sick. Men earn a couple of hundred rupees a month. Just enough to feed their families.

10.50

Eleven year-old Venkateswari sticks matches in a ring. She makes 25 of these a day.

10.58

The chemicals get in her eyes. Her lungs hurt, says her mother. And her hands are particularly affected.

11.06

11.08

Children that work here, lose their youth and for a few cents risk damaging their health. Who thinks of them when we see a rocket rush towards to sky, and burst into stars while we laugh?

ends