This Article is From Apr 21, 2011

The man who allegedly killed 10-year-old Moin

New Delhi: When a ten-year-old died at his factory in Northwest Delhi, Kalimullah disappeared. He has been arrested today, five days later.

The child, Moin, was his nephew. But Kalimullah had allegedly beaten him so severely that the child's body would later be seen contoured with bruises all over.

When Moin was taken to a cemetery by other workers at the factory, a man noticed the battered body and called the police.  

Since then, India has confronted a reality it usually avoids - except in brief moments of introspection and blame for the persistent child labour that is harboured in our cities.

Moin came from a poor family in Madhubani in Bihar. So when his uncle offered to take Moin and his brother to Delhi three years ago, his parents agreed. "I had sent my boys to Delhi so that they could study...I never expected this," says Moin's mother, Najma.

Moin was one of four children who worked at Kalimullah's bindi-manufacturing unit which operated out of two small rooms. The children worked 18 hours a day, seven days a week. If they said they were tired, they were attacked by a vengeful employer or managers, sometimes with hot iron rods.

After Moin's death, they were collected by the police. "I saw Moin getting beaten," says an eight-year-old colleague of Moin's. "I heard Shabbir say they should make him sit with his head between his knees for an entire night and beat him."

Activists who work to rescue child labour point out that when these children are sent home, they return to families who cannot afford even the most basic meals for them. And usually, in a matter of weeks, they board trains again for cities where they earn close to nothing and are treated like bonded labour.  Breaking that vicious cycle needs a host of measures, they say - including ensuring that schemes like free mid-day meals are implemented in the poorest villages. 
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