Welcome to the village of Nikau in northern India, where a courageous school is holding out for a chance at a better life for child laborers and their families. Nikau village is a small farm and farm-labour community near the cities of Agra and Firozabad in northern India. Many of the families here supplement their incomes with the money their children earn by working in the glass bangle industry. Although the work is difficult and dangerous, the families need the money from bangle production to survive. Traditionally children work as much as 12 hours a day in hazardous conditions, leaving no opportunity for schooling.
Bangles are thin glass bracelets that are especially popular with married women in India.
Near the city of Firozabad, Nikau is a center of bangle production, providing many poor children and their families in the area with jobs and money. The manufacturing process is potentially dangerous in many ways. Glass fragments, dangerous chemicals, open flames and toxic smoke all pose a danger. Most of the child laborers in Nikau village do the joining and design-making work in their own homes. Tara Projects Association advises them regarding the need for better ventilation and the proper use of cloth filters.