d.). When children are forced to work at a young age, they can also develop serious health problems. "Health problems are compounded for children because they are more susceptible than adults to the types of illnesses and injuries associated with occupational hazards" (Parker, 1999). Many personal accounts have been written by children who had been child labourers to let the world see the horrible conditions they experience. Shankar, a child in bondage who was 6 years old at the time this was written, tells about her experience as a child labourer in Asia.
" I used to have to handle the heavy instruments to cut the knots in each carpet. Many times my thumbs and fingers were injured when the cutter slipped. Then I would cry for my mother but the Master would only beat me. He never took me to the hospital or gave me any medicine. What he used to do was, to take a match stick and fill the cut with the match stick powder then he would set fire to it with another match so that my skin and blood would bond together, I would cry for my mother then he would beat me again." (CWA, n.d.)Stories like this one from Shankar allow you to see how child labour is physically impacting and effecting children in developing countries around the world.
Most children who work are little more than slaves to their employers. They put up with abuse, starvation, and sometimes never being paid for their work. The abuse they have to endure harm their chances to grow into healthy and productive adults. One eight year-old boy, Munnilal, from Varanasi, India, was freed when a raid was lead on the factory in which he worked and was kept in a slave-like environment. His ""Master"" gave him no money for the long hours he worked. He also stated that he was "hit again and again"(Kielberger, 1999). The physical abuse has an emotional impact on these children, and the visions of their "masters" abusing them will liger in their minds forever.
