On 24 May 2002 Ms. Eli Pollard made a presentation to Brattleboro Union High School students about Bhima Sangha, a union of, by and for working children in Southern India. Bhima Sangha has a current membership of 13,000 working children age 8 to 17 throughout various districts in the state of Karnataka, India.

Ms. Pollard spoke about the complexities of child labor issues and how the members of Bhima Sangha are tackling the problem and why they call themselves 'working children.' According to Ms. Pollard, Union members are improving their lives by empowering themselves through training, education (formal & informal), unity, and support from their families and communities.

She shared stories of her research in India about Bhima Sangha members uniting to identify problems and find solutions to such dilemmas as poor salaries, lack of potable drinking water, inadequate educational resources, and hazardous working conditions (such as pesticide spraying).

Ms. Pollard summed up her presentation by explaining that children's rights are the foundation on which better societies can be built and that this is what Bhima Sangha is doing, one Union member at a time.

Bhima Sangha, C/O Concerned for Working Children, can be reached at cwc@pobox.com and can be researched through at their web site at www.workingchild.org.

Ms. Pollard is a Masters graduate from the School for International Training, in Brattleboro Vermont. She is currently working at RUGMARK Foundation in Washington, DC. RUGMARK is a nonprofit organization working to end illegal child labor in the carpet industry and to offer educational opportunities to children in India, Nepal and Pakistan. Through RUGMARK inspections and monitoring, consumers can look for the RUGMARK label on carpets as their best assurance that no illegal child labor was used in the manufacture of a carpet or rug. Visit the Rugmark web site