Child labor itself is a crime but the way they are punished for silly mistakes is found to be brutal. The owners of certain factories or workshops resort to third degree methods to extract work from kids, as was evident from a recent incident, telecast by major news channels. The ‘colleagues’ of a child who was beaten to death, revealed bitter facts that must serve as an eye-opener to the powers that be and the politicians as a whole.

The central and all the state governments in India should initiate immediate steps to collect information about the existence of factories, shops or any other places which engage kids to carry out odd jobs in their workshops. Simultaneously, the parents of such kids should be warned of the consequences. It is worth mentioning here that some parents are more concerned about the short term benefits than educating their kids despite the fact that all sorts of facilities are available to children who are poor and downtrodden. Naturally, it is not necessarily poverty which forces kids to discontinue their studies and opt for jobs which threaten their future.