Nine-year-old Lakshmi works in a factory as a cigarette roller.

She tells her sister's story

My sister is ten years old. Every morning at seven she goes to the bonded labor man, and every night at nine she comes home. He treats her badly; he hits her if he thinks she is working slowly or if she talks to the other children, he yells at her, he comes looking for her if she is sick and cannot go to work. I feel this is very difficult for her.

I don't care about school or playing. I don't care about any of that. All I want is to bring my sister home from the bonded labor man. For 600 rupees I can bring her home—that is our only chance to get her back.

We don't have 600 rupees…we will never have 600 rupees [the equivalent of U.S.$14].

According to the Human Rights Watch, bonded labor is life for over 10 million children in India.

Calcutta alone is home to more than 100,000 street children who know neither mother nor father, love nor care. They are not just numbers or statistics—they are real children. Though nameless and faceless on the streets where they live, each one was created with love and is known by God.

It is doubtful they've ever held a toothbrush or a bar of soap; they've never eaten an ice-cream cone or cradled a doll. The child laborers of South Asia toil in fireworks, carpet and match factories; quarries and coal mines; rice fields, tea plantations and pastures. Because they are exposed to dust, toxic fumes and pesticides, their health is compromised; their bodies are crippled from carrying heavy weights. Some are bonded laborers, enslaved to their tasks by family poverty.

More than 3,000 years ago, invaders conqered the Indian subcontinent and set up the beginnings of the caste system.

On August 15, 1947, the nation of India was born, becoming the world's largest democracy overnight. The new constitution officially abolished caste discrimination, but today, more than 50 years later, this mindset still remains firmly in place in India and other Asian nations as well.

November 4, 2001, marked a day when tens of thousands of Dalits gathered for a historic meeting, publically declaring their desire to leave the caste system and follow a faith of their own choice.

Approximately 700 million Dalits, low-caste and tribal people live in Asia today. They face extreme segregation and prejudice on a daily basis. They are often denied access to safe drinking water, freedom of worship, their choice of occupation—and even a basic education. In some places, in fact, the illiteracy rate is as high as 90 percent.