New Delhi, June 26 (Express News Service): This 11-year-old has never played with a football. Yet, he spends the whole day making at least five of them. Thin and impoverished Tarikhat, talks little and deftly uses his needle and thread to stitch white and black leather pieces together to make a ball.

Tarikhat has, however, never heard about the Football World Cup.

Twenty children engaged in the football-making industry have been rescued by Delhi-based NGO, Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

Akram, 9, another child who was rescued, says he would like to go school. His palm is swathed in bandages...he was cutting leather and rexine pieces with a knife when he cut his palm a fortnight back. He and his younger
brother, Gulzar work ten hours a day and earn Rs 3 for every ball they stitch.

Their two younger siblings are also engaged in the same work and the money they earn goes to their parents. The brothers, however say, ‘‘If we got some money, we would buy a cricket ball.’’

Children as young as six years old are employed across Meerut in the football-making industry. Meerut in UP and Jalandhar in Punjab, are the hubs of sports goods manufacturing and entire villages are engaged in manufacturing soccer balls and base balls. ‘‘Large sports goods manufacturers sub-let the making of footballs to smaller contractors, who in turn, engage these families,’’says Kailash Satyarthi of Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

Satyarthi says, ‘‘Although sports bodies such as FIFA and our national Football Federation have pledged to eradicate child labour from the industry, but such activity is not being strictly monitored.’’

‘‘On paper, these children’s names are on school registers but in reality, they have never been to school,’’ says the NGO activist.

Shalini likes playing kho-kho but says that she does not play anymore. Along with her seven sisters and two brothers, they stitch footballs and manage to make ends meet.

The NGO says it has been counselling the parents of these children and encouraging them to send their children to school. They will be enrolling the children in schools with the start of the new session in July.