Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror

Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror: "Bad"

"Children are great imitators. So give them something great to imitate."

"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children."

The practice of bonded child labor is prevalent in many parts of rural India, but is very conspicuous in the Vellore district of Tamil Nadu. Here, the bonded child is allowed to reside with his parents if he comes to work at 8 a.m. every day. The practice of child bonded labor persists like a scourge to humanity in spite of many laws against it. Although stringent, these laws are literally non- functional in terms of implementation.

Children who are sold as bonded labor only get a handful of coarse grain to keep them alive in return for their labor. Sometimes their period of thrall extends for a lifetime, and they simply have to toil hard and depend on the mercy of their ‘owners’ without any hope of release or redemption. The parent of the bonded child is usually an impoverished, uneducated landless laborer, and the mortgagee is traditionally some big landlord, money lender or business man who thrives on the child’s vulnerability to such exploitation.

One of the most inhuman and onerous forms of child exploitation is the age-old practice of bonded labor in India. In it, a child’s labor is treated like security or collateral for cunning rich men who procure small sums to his family at exorbitant interest rates.