Her parents don’t want to leave Shivani tethered to a rock in the heat while they labour at a building site, but say they have no choice.
They can’t afford childcare and her older brother, aged only three-and-a-half, isn’t old enough to watch her.
If she wasn’t tied there, she might run into the road from the site in Ahmedabad, India.
Barefoot and covered in dust, the 15-month-old toddler spends nine hours a day in temperatures topping 40 degree Celsius attached to the 4.5 feet tape marked ‘caution’.
“I tie her so she doesn’t go on the road. My younger son is three and a half so he is not able to control her,” her 23-year-old mum Sarta Kalara is quoted as saying, adding, “This site is full of traffic, I have no option. I do this for her safety.”
Shivani’s parents work for Rs 250 a shift digging holes for electric cables in the city of Ahmedabad.
The parents are amongst the millions of workers who are putting up new buildings and infrastructure for the country’s booming cities.
