Making a Living - World's Children

Hard times — hard lives

Making a living

Families eke out a living however they can. In the countryside that usually means working as farm laborers. In the cities manual labor such as breaking rocks into gravel or carrying bricks and cement on their heads is the customary work available to the poor. Three hundred million Indians live on less than a dollar a day. Street vending is commonplace throughout India and many other developing countries. A family in which one or more members is able to sell something on the streets usually can survive. Though there are child labor laws, they are rarely enforced. School is simply not an option for most poverty-stricken children. Government estimates put the number of working children in India at 13 million. Non-governing organizations suggest a much higher figure: 60 million.

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