Back at the end of the dotcom bubble in early November 2000, I was in Bangalore for the much-touted IT.com conference. This was a rather impressive, enormous display of cutting-edge technology from around India and the world with keynotes by global leaders in technology and thousands of companies presenting and tens of thousands attending. But amidst all the fanfare and futurism, to me the most striking thing about it were the six to nine year-old girls who swept up all the glossy postcards and cups of cappuccino the visitors dropped on the floor. While there, I met the now-late Daniel, and his then-pregnant wife Mariane, Pearl at that conference, and, in a videotaped interview,I told him that the innovation most needed in India was to focus its brainpower on meeting its own basic needs -- like how to educate its urban slum-dwelling children, rather than putting them to work helping showcase innovations they'd likely never use.
Well, now it's 10 years later, and, when it comes to this painful irony of using child labor to showcase its development, India is no different. The Commonwealth Games are coming to Delhi in October, intended to be another impressive display for the world, but behind the scenes, children are doing heavy lifting. This photo-essay entitled 'Bricks for Bread and Milk' in Foreign Policy magazine is worth each click. Above is one picture from it. She's carrying a brick that will be part of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. I wonder what Panditji would think looking down on this modern India which he helped birth.
