India (MNN)—In India, it’s estimated there are 1.8 to 3.3 million child laborers aged 5 to 17, according to a 2024 UNICEF report. Mission India is striving to provide these children with help, hope, and an opportunity to be introduced to Jesus, through their Children’s Bible Clubs.
Raina Miller of Mission India notes poverty is the root of India’s child labor problem: “India’s dealing with so much poverty that there are often times where we see cases of children being sent to work with their parents out of total desperation. So there are some parents who would love to give their kids an education, but if they’re not going to have dinner tonight, then they feel like the option is to send their child to work instead, just to make sure that kids aren’t going to bed hungry.”
Children can find themselves in a variety of jobs, such as selling balloons, working in tea stalls, or picking through trash to find things they can sell.
“This was the Bible club,” says Miller. “This was who the Bible club was reaching.”
Mission India’s Bible Clubs include singing, prayer, scripture memorization, and discipleship. They also offer holistic support, teaching children the importance of bathing, wearing clean clothes, and brushing their hair. Ultimately, as these children grow through the club, it can impact their entire families.
Atul
Atul is one of these Children. His father was a daily wage laborer who mixed cement in brickyards, and their family lived in a home made of bricks and tin sheets with water pooling on the floors any time it rained.
“If his dad couldn’t find work that day, the kids went to bed hungry that night, and as you can imagine, if you’re desperately hungry, it’s really hard to focus at school,” says Miller. “So Atul began skipping school. Pretty soon he was working alongside his parents and became a child laborer.”
When Atul found the Bible club, he discovered he was not alone—and so much more.
“All these kids struggled with poverty and fear and hunger, and yet at the Bible club, they could find joy, and they had each other, and they had community, and it was a place where they could just be kids again, unlike in their day-to-day lives. So Atul really grew and thrived in that environment.”
His confidence grew, he began helping to teach his little sister and others in the club, and he has been attending his regular school more frequently. Now, he wants to become a teacher, so he can help other children. When someone asked Atul what had caused this change in him, he told them it was because he went to the Children’s Bible Club every day, describing it as “another school that’s filled with love and laughter.”
Pray that Atul and his family, who have already experienced growth through the Bible club, would fully accept the salvation of Jesus.
As the school year is coming to a close, the year-long Bible clubs will also be wrapping up—however, more will start in the fall.
“We would love to welcome as many of India’s child laborers and other kids as possible to join year-long Bible clubs and to have an experience like Atul did,” says Miller. “A $24 gift would reach another child like Atul with Christ-centered love, Bible-based lessons, and a space to just be a kid and receive discipleship from a caring Christian leader.”
You can donate to the Children’s Bible Clubs at missionindia.org/single-gift-donation/?referral=MNN2605.
Header photo courtesy of Mission India.
