One child goes missing every 8 minutes in India, half are never found, new middle class in India kidnaps young girls for cheap labor-BBC

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2/4/14, "Child labour: India’s hidden shame," BBC, Shilpa Kannan

"One child goes missing every eight minutes in India and nearly half of them are never found.

Kidnapped children are often forced into the sex trade. But many here feel that children are increasingly pushed into domestic labour - hidden from public view within the four walls of a home.

The government estimates half a million children are in this position.

Demand from middle classes
 
At a rehabilitation home in northern Delhi run by a charity for children, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, many families have gathered. They are all tea workers from the north-east state of Assam and have come here searching for their missing daughters....

Helping these families find their daughters is Kailash Satyarti, the head of Bachpan Bacchao Andolan.

"This is the most ironical part of India's growth. The middle classes are demanding cheap, docile labour," he says.

"The cheapest and most vulnerable workforce is children - girls in particular. So the demand for cheap labour is contributing to trafficking of children from remote parts of India to big cities."...

India is estimated to have more child labourers than anywhere else in the world....

Government helpless
 
And the government body in charge of children's rights admits they are helpless.

"Unfortunately our child labour prohibition and regulation act is totally outdated," says Kushal Singh, head of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights."...

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