Nepalese Teenager Leads Campaign Against Child Trafficking
A Nepalese teenager, who slogged as a child labourer after being sold by his poverty-stricken parents, has now donned the mantle of a campaigner and is raising awareness against child trafficking in South Asian countries. The boy was 10-years-old when his mother sold him for 1,000 rupees to an Indian broker. However, after undergoing arduous labour along with torture at the hands of his master, Abdul Mallik of Janakpur is now campaigning in the border areas of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries to raise awareness against child trafficking. Along with Mallik are around 100 other children, who were sold and made to undergo similar hardship at the hands of cruel masters in Nepal and India. The campaign is being supported by an NGO. "There is no word to describe the master's cruelty," Mallik said recalling his painful days in a woolen clothes factory in Delhi. "There, I had to work over 18 hours a day, but the master always found excuses to torture me. Now we are on a campaign to raise awareness in the border areas of South Asian countries so as to prevent the illegal sale of children," he said. The South Asian campaign against the sale of children began from Kolkata on February 25. They would carry out their campaign in all SAARC countries, said Kailash Satyarthi, the organizer of the campaign and chairman of the Save Childhood Movement. "Our campaign also aims to rescue those already sold and to ask the authorities for taking action against those involved in such inhuman acts," he said.