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15-month-old is tied to a rock while parents work

May 18, 2016 11:24 IST

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.

IMAGE: Barrier tape is tied around 15-month-old Shivani's ankle to prevent her from running away, while her mother Sarta Kalara works at a construction site nearby, in Ahmedabad. All photographs: Amit Dave/Reuters

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.

IMAGE: Sarta Kalara holds her 15-month-old Shivani as one end of a barrier tape is tied to Shivani's ankle to prevent her from running away.

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.”

IMAGE: Kalara says she has no option but to tether her daughter Shivani to a stone despite her crying, while she and her husband work for Rs 250.

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.

IMAGE: Kalara and her family are among the 40 million construction workers in India.

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