Quite the irony

We all seem to have 'learnt' at school how bad child labor is and how it poses a danger to children who have a right to live a decent and innocent life. But school lessons are just school lessons it seems, for the malice of child labor is as widely present as anything! Not that we alone can do much, but surely our minute efforts can make a difference. For instance, we can take a stand against employing  kids for our household chores. I'm sure there must be a horde of munnis and chotus in our typical Indian households. They can't help it because either they are forced into the work by their poor parents who seek additional sources of income or because they've seen enough problems at a young age to last a lifetime and they get into work.

This problem took a greater hold on me when I recently witnessed an example of young kids put to work.
I was on my way to college and while you've got a mere eight station distance to your destination, you can't do much except notice other people and during one of my people-noticing times, I saw a small group entering the metro- a lady holding a 2 and a half year old child, another woman(i guess her mother or m-i-l) and a small stooped figure. I could not quite make out the figure in ragged clothes and on closer examination saw that she was a girl, hardly eight or nine, bent with the weight of numerous shopping bags that weighed her down and that contained expensive stuff, which she was never destined to own, but carry, yes. A sad but true thing. What made me downright outrageous was how the lady pushed her impatiently through the crowd, barely noticing the impression that was being made on the girl's neck by one of the bags. And, how could anyone that seemed to be educated enough to know child labor is a crime, could go on about having a kid do the work of an adult , maybe more than that, while she cradled her baby lovingly and protecting her from the crowd.
Really, what an irony that is!