Now, child labour scandal hits C'Wealth Games

More shame. Even as Delhi is racing against time to save its face amid a slew of scandals, here comes a nightmare to disgrace the already downtrodden image of the Commonwealth Games—child labour.

Reports expose widespread use of child labour both inside and outside the Games Village.

AFP reported that children are being put to work to help spruce up New Delhi streets, even as unions said under-age labourers were not being employed at venues. A number of young children—boys and girls—have been working alongside their parents in efforts to plant trees or repave footpaths as part of the efforts to improve the image of the sprawling capital.

Leading Indian unions—which have launched furious attacks against the government about dangerous labour practices at the Games—ruled out claims about child labour. Concerns over the issue were heightened by a front-page photograph published in The Daily Telegraph.

Telegraph’s photo showed a child working on seating in the main games stadium. However, The Telegraph did not give the age of the pictured child.

Children were spotted openly working in Delhi streets, employed by municipal contractors, despite widely flouted laws that require children up to the age of 14 to go to school.

“I’ve been laying sidewalks for a year,” Suddha, a 12-year-old girl from Madhya Pradesh, said. Even younger children can be seen working as garbage workers, carrying sacks of rubbish.
On the stadium sites, the Building and Wood Workers’

International Union said its investigations had found no use of child labour. But reports said that children had built some parts of the stadia.

CNN published photographs that showed children as young as seven in the construction sites of the Delhi Games.