In the spring of 2006, 15 freed-working children bicycled 4040kms in the states of Karnataka, Goa and Tamilnadu and photographed 25 000 images of toiling children. 32 hours of film footage capturing the dreams and aspirations of over 4000 children was logged .

This is the History Expedition.

Through this History Expedition we realized with shock and sadness the extant of children involved in labour in the production, distribution and marketing of the basic commodities we use and the more sophisticated products that the world consumes. Right from the day to day consumptions of bananas, turmeric, onions, milk, chilies, cotton to the digging of manganese and iron ore which makes computers, mobiles, Laptops to silk and Sugar: to the bricks in every building that goes up!

The images we have gathered clearly Indicates that fifty percent of Agricultural labour in ouragricultural Country are children, Child labour in Independent India is rampant, widespread and is the writing on the wall for all to see intensively and extensively displayed. The exports of India to around the world as our country stands the largest, highest and biggest producer of all things needed for human life comes from the tiny hands of our small citizens  who stand in 2007 at 134 million.

Bangalore the rose capital of India sends a plane load of cut roses to Holland everyday all cut by petite children each one cutting 10 000 rose stems!

Children have become an important element in the social production processes. Children have always contributed to domestic help in grazing cattle collecting firewood, tending to other children, cooking, traditionally in crafts and artisans works as an apprentice.

But CHILD LABOURERS who work for 8, 10, 12 hours a day have come to stay in today's modern world as acceptable.

Tens of thousands of people have been drawn off the land from the country side to form the urban centers, the mill and the factory. Mass uprooting of people from traditional work to modern work brought about a modern way of Life.

Overcrowding of cities, the birth of slums mass cheap labour, cheap people. Accumulation of wealth and capital has produced hunger poverty and free liberated urban -rural poor. The Exodus from the countryside is still reaching the peak, unabated. Among many streams and rivers of Labour migrating to the city are ever newer ones. Springs rivulets of Children ~

Deprived of basic needs of food, shelter and clothing, deprived of education and knowledge~ CHILDREN LIKE ANTS march into cities in search of work making the street their home, living by the stars in the sky! Poor families have more children, because it means an extra pair of working hands not an extra mouth to feed~ They need these extra hands to procure money~ Money demands working hands, which is fast and cheap.

And children meet this demand. They will not get primary education because they will not go to school~ They will grow up to be poor and hardworking….and fall into the POVERTY TRAP, which is a vicious circle, they will marry to produce extra pair of hands.

They toil in hundreds and thousands of little units of Labour rooms! In small factories, in Hotels, Auto-Garages, in the match factories, in construction sites, in homes……..

Behind every match stick that strikes fire: behind ever motorbike that is moving, behind every cup of coffee in a Hotel, behind every brick that builds the houses, behind every silk, behind every banana that is peeled, behind every ice cream that is put on the cone, behind 8% of our countries wealth are working children's hands!

This adult world is very unreasonable. How can a society with its tremendous development in science and technology employ children as labour?

It seems that there is a civil war going on Greedy adults against innocent children 

The world shrinks into a global village through telecommunications~ Markets are expanding with the dawn of the ●dot com businesses. So also CHILD LABOUR~ In the last 4years population of child labour increased from a 100 million in 2001, to 134 million today.

The worst of the CULTURE OF VIOLENCE is the ENSLAVEMENT OF CHILDREN TO TOIL~ Perpetuating this submission of childrento toil is the adult world~ They are all denied the most important aspect of life CHILDHOOD!

Every child is BORN FREE so says the first article on CHILD RIGHTS

We want to change the values and the attitude of adults towards children. To make an adult understand not to differentiate between his/her child, who should be free, play, gain knowledge and a child who s/he will employ?

We want to present the Film History Expedition which is 2 hours and 36 minutes of very candid documentation of the trials and tribulations of the children of Karnataka

We urge you to help desseminate it by organizing a screening in Singapore.

Please send me your addres so that i could post to you the film for review and perusal.

With Gratitude