Not My Life ... ?

Did you know that by helping begging children, by buying products that are made by children, and by turning your faces away from child rag-pickers, that you are actually helping human trafficking and that it is a part of modern day slavery ?

I saw this documentary movie " Not My Life - Ending Modern Day Slavery " on CNN. Its about Modern day slavery in all its forms and variations. Its not just a problem existing in poor countries in Asia and Africa but in 190 countries(official figures) across the world including the USA and European countries. The movie tells us that its not just poverty which forces people to fall into this hell but a lot of other factors. Modern day slavery thrives today mainly because of the need for cheap labour, child soldiers and brothels.


The most disturbing scene in the documentary was this small hut/shack in Mumbai where
they found 25 girls hidden in a small room in enclosed spaces as small as 5*5 feet and in between false ceilings between the roof and the horrifying fact was that the ages of these girls ranged between 4 and 12 ! And they say in the documentary that the person who was responsible for finding and rescuing these children was killed in an accident within two weeks. There are many more such disturbing stories and incidents from Albania, Ghana, USA and Italy that is shown in the first part of this movie.

The director of this movie, Robert Bilheimer, clearly explains that many of us are not aware of how we indirectly help modern day slavery by thinking that we are not a part of it and hence we are not helping it to thrive.

And the film maker makes us realise that everyone is indirectly helping this slavery to exist. How many of us have helped children begging in the streets without realising that it is another form of human trafficking where children are forced to beg so that someone else can make money ?

How many of us realise that the food we eat or the clothes we wear or the crackers that we burst are often because of the labour of a child and therefore again helping in human trafficking ?


These children, after they attain a certain age, are again transferred from factories to brothels and again after a certain age back to slaving in factories. But usually these children do not live even up to 30 years of age beacause of various diseases, injuries that they get when working or because of the torture that is inflicted on them to make them work.

Did you know that in Albania, from a group of 30 children, 1 is randomly picked and burnt alive, just to show as an example to other children, the fate they will encounter if they try to run away ??

So what can we do to stop this ? How can we help ?

The first step is to understand the forms of human trafficking that exist in the world today and in what all forms it is projected.

Please go through this link and see the movie and facts about it -

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/16/director-we-can-change-the-world/

Once you see the movie and understand what modern day slavery is, you will surely find a way and do your bit in shrinking the size of this hell and pulling people and helping people out of it.

Please do not have the attitude of its "Not My Life" !