What Role did Iqbal Masih play in Child Labour

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Iqbal Masih started his child labour journey at a very young age. At just four years old he was forced out of his home, away from his family, to work for a wealthy carpet maker, to whom his family owed a total of six hundred rupees, sixteen Canadian dollars. Iqbal and a large amount of children were forced to work more than twelve hours a day, six days a week. The over worked children were treated like rubbish. They were beaten regularly, verbally abused, and worst of all chained to their looms by the carpet factory owner. If that wasn’t enough the poor clueless children were cheated into working insane hours and were paid twenty cents a day, and that’s only if they make a certain amount of product. If that wasn’t awful enough, the children had to pay for their own food. Leaving the children to starve and pay off their debt sooner, or slave for more money so they can eat a meal of rice. After eight years of being over worked and beaten Iqbal ran away from his master, to the police, after learning child labour was illegal, Iqbal went back to his owner’s factory with police reinforcements. Iqbal was astounded when he saw his master bribing the police. Iqbal expressed to Francesco D'Adamo how he felt his stomach tighten and how fear took over his body because he knew he would be in trouble with his master. Iqbal was punished severally for his escape attempt but this only motivated him more. He escaped once more and this time he knew he had to make it count. Iqbal ran off to the BBLF, the Bonded Labour Liberation Fund, here they offered Iqbal a safe place to stay. Although Iqbal Masih passed away at a young age, he nevertheless left his mark on the world by travelling around the world to raise awareness for child labour, insp... ... middle of paper ... ...ildren Takes Flight." Free The Children. Accessed March 13, 2014. http://www.freethechildren.com/marc-and-craig/free-the-children-takes-flight/. WebsiteCommentsLinkTagsFootnoteEditDelete "Iqbal - Home." Iqbal. Accessed March 13, 2014. http://iqbalbookreport.weebly.com/. WebsiteCommentsLinkTagsFootnoteEditDelete "Iqbal Masih." About.com 20th Century History. Accessed March 12, 2014. http://history1900s.about.com/od/1990s/a/IqbalMasih.htm. WebsiteCommentsLinkTagsFootnoteEditDelete "Iqbal Masih." Moral Heroes RSS. Accessed March 12, 2014. http://moralheroes.org/iqbal-masih. WebsiteCommentsLinkTagsFootnoteEditDelete "Iqbal Masih." Wikipedia. March 03, 2014. Accessed March 04, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iqbal_Masih. WebsiteCommentsLinkTagsFootnoteEditDelete "Who Was Iqbal?" Who Was Iqbal? Accessed March 04, 2014. http://www.mirrorimage.com/iqbal/who/who.html.

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