This footage was filmed at the side of the road at a village in Andhra Pradesh.

Dr Prasad, the founder of Heal, shows the living conditions of many people from this area of India.

He explains the need for education, to help take the children and future generations out of a cycle of poverty.

Despite the recent news stories highlighting the growth in India's economy, and the new wealth this is creating, the need to help India's children is becoming even more important. Child labour is a massive problem in India and in Andhra Pradesh in particular.

Economic deprivation and an inadequate education infrastructure mean sending a child out to work from as young as six is an all too acceptable option for rural families in particular.

More than half the children in this state drop out of school before finishing seventh grade.

The Andhra Pradesh government says it is taking measures to combat the high attrition rates.Some government initiatives such as free books for primary schoolchildren, a free mid-day meal and the installation of toilets have gone someway to improving school attendance.

But an MV Foundation official, Shanta Sinha, says there is a great difference between what the government says it is doing and what is happening on the ground.

"The resources are not going where they should. There aren't enough teachers and they're under-qualified. In one school there are 300 students and only two teachers.

The state government estimates that nearly 400,000 children of primary age are not regularly attending school, but the MV Foundation disputes this figure, estimating closer to four million are not regularly in classes.

HEAL is committed to helping as many children as possible escape the poverty trap in Andhra Pradesh. We are hoping to develop other projects in the future should sufficient funds be in place to meet the requirements of multiple projects.

Our goal is to expand over the coming years with further projects in Andhra Pradesh, with the aim of helping up to 1000 children escape the poverty trap by the end of the decade. Its only a small percentage of the overall child population, but very important nevertheless.

Child Labour is not restricted to Andhra Pradesh. The following article, by Navdip Dhariwal of the BBC, highlights the same problem in a different part of India:

Farm workers toil long hours in the fields in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu for little reward in the intense heat.

But it is often their only means of survival.
Cheap labour is one commodity India has in abundance. Hidden from public view though, is another workforce. In an isolated spot, miles from the nearest town, is a thriving matchstick industry.

Here inside makeshift straw huts - and in the small dwellings that neighbour them - we found some of India's youngest workers.

Rows of exhausted young girls - up to 20 and as young as five are working alongside their mothers. For 16 hours a day their tiny blistered fingers skilfully turn out matches for export.

Ordered to leave

The toxic smell of sulphur is overwhelming in the windowless room.

Twelve-year-old Sindhu dips the tips of the sticks into hot sulphur.
"I start work early but don't finish until late into the night. I get paid less than two dollars a week."

Our presence was clearly not welcome. As we were speaking to the girls the owner came in and ordered us to leave. Within walking distance are other factories. But again, when we arrived, the youngest workers were quickly led away.

While the factory owner denied he was employing underage workers, almost every single household in this part of Tamil Nadu has one or more children working long hours in appalling conditions.

Campaigners say over 11 million children are forced to work in India.
Lighting a fire for a rare family meal, Sarojama gathers her five grandchildren around her.

Exploited

She has barely been able to feed them, so she was forced to borrow money from a local factory owner.

Unable to pay back the loan she sent her young grand-daughter to work. Parimeeta was taken out of school and has been working 12 hour days for two years.

The debt is less than $20.
Campaigners fear that as India's economy continues to boom, children are increasingly being exploited to meet the country's hunger for global success.

In a recent raid in the capital Delhi, police rescued a large number of boys from local sweatshops. Agents had lured them from India's poorest regions, promising the children that they would be taken care of and paid well.

They were found hidden on the top floors of garment factories - held captive in filthy cramped rooms under lock and key.

They painstakingly spent hours applying crystals to garments. Many of the clothes end up being sold in shops in the UK.

Ineffective

These are places the authorities say are difficult to close down.
But Swami Agnivesh of the Bonded Liberation Front says that hundreds of children are kept hidden from public view in the buildings of crammed alleyways.

"They are kept in the most appalling conditions and not enough is being done to help them," he said. India has laws in place to protect children and bans the use of young workers, but they remain pretty ineffective. The United Nations Children's' Fund says that the sheer volume of children engaged in work is living proof of the world's failure to protect them.

That is the reason why the agency's work is focused on building a protective environment which safeguards children from exploitation and abuse.

In Tamil Nadu local charities have helped pay off families' debts so that at least some children can be released from the matchstick factories.

Finally freed from the shackles of work, they now have some hope of reliving their childhood. But it is often a dream that is short-lived. Charity workers admit most of the children are likely to find themselves forced back into a life of bondage."

To view video photage of this story please click here and choose Concern over India's Child Workers.