Local activists give a larger number. No one can deny that roads must be improved in India, but it is certain that children will be working on road construction activities as a result of this project. In January 1994, I accompanied Dr. M.K. Patra, Director of the Asian Workers Development Institute in Rourkela, Orissa, on a tour of the dumping yard of the Rourkela Steel Plant. It is in the dumping yard that you will find the working children. That place is like hell.
Accidents occur there often, mainly bad burns.
And, most of the children there suffer from respiratory disease. Many of the children come from tribal families who have been displaced as a result of modernization. The plant management denied any responsibility for the working children, they are not employees. In Cuttack City, it is estimated to be over 33,000, among whom 3600 children are engaged in mining and quarrying. Furthermore, just in Cuttack, approximately 1500 children are construction workers.