This construction labourer and mother of a 15-month-old toddler is forced to tie her offspring to a large stone at a construction site in Ahmedabad.
Shivani spends nine hours a day outdoors, in temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius, tied to the stone with a tape marked ‘caution’.
Her mother Sarta Kalara said that she was left with no option as she and her husband need the money digging earth for electricity cables. They earn Rs 250 at the end of each shift.
Image courtesy: NDTV
“This site is full of traffic, I have no option. I do this for her safety. My younger son is three and a half so he is not able to control her,” the 23-year-old mother was quoted by NDTV.
There are about 40 million construction workers in India—at least one in five of them is a woman. Most are poor migrants who shift from site to site building infrastructure for India’s booming cities. It is not uncommon to see young children rolling in the sand and mud as their parents carry bricks or dig for new roads or luxury houses.
Image courtesy: NDTV
According to the parents working at these construction sites, their children are usually with them until they’re 8 or 9. They are later sent to live with their grandparents in the villages in the neighbouring states.
“They don’t care about us or our children, they are only concerned about their work,” said Sarta about the managers of these construction sites.
