That is why these 200 children from 12 countries have embarked on a global march led by New Delhi-based Kailash Satyarthi's South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS). The Asian chapter took the march through Surat, Vadodara and Ahmedabad in Gujarat en route to Udaipur.

The sense of camaraderie among these children is evident as they translate the story of those from Bangladesh from Bengali to Hindi.

Eleven-year-old Basudev Badri's little frame belies his range of experience. From working in a hotel, house, carpet factory, to building roads, he has done it all. Today he is an activist, having formed his own manch in Nepal with the help of SACCS. He and his group educate children, perform streetplays to highlight the evil of child labour. ``In my absence, my friends are running the show,'' he says with great sense of responsibility. According to Satyarthi, this march will be the first social agenda for the BJP government, which has promised to eradicate child labour and ensure free and compulsory education primary education in their manifesto. There are 60 million children in India alone, he points out. The coalition is responsible for liberating 40,000 bonded child labourers in India. Chedi, from Bihar, who worked in a carpet weaving unit, said, ``My father, a rickshaw-puller, was promised that I would be educated. Instead I was beaten up and made to learn carpet weaving by my masters,'' he said. He is being educated at the SACCS centre at Delhi.

Thirteen-year-old Lily from Bangladesh has been selling garlands outside Sansad Bhavan since the age of five. ``It was only after I was incorporated in the manch that I started studying. Now I am in class four,'' she says.The anger and injustice isapparent as they put forward their point: ``We did not ask to be born,'' says Sultana from Bangladesh. ``It is the government's duty to do something for us. Why should we be made to work when we want to study and play?'' asks Lily.

Will the global march succeed? ``It will highlight the fact that if we start working at this age, we will be incapable of working by the time we reach the actual age when we should be working,'' said Basudev.

With this hope, these children are travelling 5,000 km to Geneva. They will participate in the ILO's General Assembly, which expects to debate on a new convention against child labour.

Though they have hardened to life a little, their optimism to make a difference is definitely infectious.