2. Child Labor: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

3. Working children are employed on the streets or in the cottage industries. These children recycle garbage or make and sell small goods for the wholesale market. Some of these jobs, such as cleaning shoes, newspaper and candy sales, are familiar to most travelers.

4. Children work in the street in many countries; this child is selling plastic bags in an Acapulco street market.

5. The contortionist epitomizes life as a circus performer. Children work long hours, practice dangerous acts, and only the best and those who manage to survive continue their lives as performers. A circus may have dozens of small children; there are few teenagers and fewer adult performers.

6. It is estimated that there are between 1,200 and 1,500 fishing platforms surrounding the islands of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia. The platforms stand on stilts and are located from 1 to several kilometers off-shore. Boys are taken out to the platforms to fish for krill. Once there, they are held for periods of up to six months. Their diet consists of rice and fish: fresh fruits and vegetables are a rare treat. Fresh drinking water is scarce. Three to six children may sleep on a shelter floor measuring six feet by ten feet. The children have little shelter from the sun and rain and no protection from falling into the ocean. Their small size makes it easy for them to fall through holes in the platform, and even if they can swim, they are often overwhelmed by waves and wind.

7. Fishing platform worker, Indonesia The child is working inside a fishing platform. He is helping to pull in fishing nets that have been dropped from the platform.

8. Dozens of children and adults crowd into a small block building and make cups, saucers, and other tableware. The air is hot and dusty, filled with fine grit from aluminum, brass, or stainless steel. The noise levels exceed occupational standards.

9. Children in factories such as this make polished metal tableware. They use high speed polishing machines and the noise in these factories is overwhelming. No doubt most of the workers suffer hearing loss from the loud noise.

10. The educated use of protective equipment by electroplaters is extremely important in preventing contact with various metals and acids. The minimum protective equipment should include gloves, aprons, boots, and chemical handlers' goggles. Aprons should come below the top of the boots. In addition to poorly fitted and inadequate protection, this photograph is a graphic illustration of the size disproportion between the children and the protective equipment offered to them. Children work in a world that is designed by and for adults. Children are rarely if ever considered in the development of protective equipment. The educated use of protective equipment by electroplaters is extremely important in preventing contact with various metals and acids. The minimum protective equipment should include gloves, aprons, boots, and chemical handlers' goggles. Aprons should come below the top of the boots. In addition to poorly fitted and inadequate protection, this photograph is a graphic illustration of the size disproportion between the children and the protective equipment offered to them. Children work in a world that is designed by and for adults. Children are rarely if ever considered in the development of protective equipment. Electroplate worker, India

11. There are between 60 and 115 million child laborers in India; of these, at least 15 million work as bonded laborers. Bonded labor refers to working in a condition of servitude in order to pay a debt. Most often the debt is incurred by a child's parents or relatives. The debt is paid-off by labor. Children sold into debt bondage work long hours for many years in order to pay the debt. According to Human Rights Watch, "while India leads the world in the number of bonded child laborers, debt servitude is a significant problem in Pakistan and Nepal as well. Nor are contemporary forms of slavery confined to South Asia; previous Human Righ ts Watch reports have document forced labor in Kuwait, Brazil, Thailand, and the Dominican Republic." In India and Nepal there are an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 children who work as bonded laborers making carpets. Shop owners say that they need the good eyesight and fine fingers of children to make carpets. However, adults, not children, produce the h ighest quality, more finely-knotted carpets.

13. Street beggar with polio, Indonesia

14. The children begging in this photograph were probably working for someone else. At the end of each day, they give a percent of their earnings to the person who owns that street corner in order to return the next day. More than likely, they are not liter ate.

15. Out of desperation children fight vultures for food to eat. Dead animals and toxic wastes are dumped indiscriminately. A small girl came up to me with the head of a recently killed sheep. Around her, animal carcasses were rotting; at times the smell is almost unbearable. In the shadow of the city a fire burns; the acrid air hangs like so many sorrows. At the edge of the fire, enshrouded in smoke, live the forgotten - small and larger communities of people - whose existence is ignored as a social anomaly. These communities scavenge for things they may be able to sell. Too poor to buy enough food, they supplement by scavenging in the rotting garbage.

16. Brick worker, Nepal

17. Throughout much of the world, bricks are made by hand. Mud is dug from nearby fields. After it has been kneaded, it is shaped using a small mold. First, sand is sprinkled into the mold to prevent the mud from sticking. Next, the mud is scooped by hand and thrown into the mold. The extra mud is trimmed off the top to shape the brick. In some regions the mold is then turned upside down to release the brick; in others, the mold has no bottom. Finally, the brick is stamped with the name of the manufacturer. Bricks are left in the sun to dry. When they are dry, they are carried to the kiln for firing. In India and Nepal bricks are stacked in enormous kilns, covered with dirt, and then fired by dropping fuel down small stacks, scattered about the top of the kiln. After firing, workers remove the bricks from the kiln. If the bricks are dropped, they may fall several feet onto the bare foot of a worker. Workers then carry large loads of bricks across fields of stone and broken bricks for storage and shipping. Even a small brick factory may produce as many as 500,000 bricks per year. Each brick weighs between one and two kilograms (2.2- 4.4 pounds). A small child may haul over 1,000 bricks on his/her head or back each day

18. Mixing mud for brick-making.

19. Brick worker, India

20. In many quarries the stones are broken by hand. Because of the large amounts of dust, the work is quite dangerous. Workers are at extreme risk of developing silicosis (scarring of the lungs) and a related disease, silico-tuberculosis. According to some medical studies, over 70 percent of workers who develop silicosis will also develop tuberculosis. This is a serious problem in regions of the world where tuberculosis is endemic.endemic

21. Stone quarry worker, India