2016: A Picture and its Story
Tape is tied around Shivani's ankle to prevent her running away, while her mother works at a construction site nearby, in Ahmedabad, India, April 19, 2016. Amit Dave: 'I was shooting daily life pictures in Ahmedabad when I spotted workers pulling heavy electric cables and thought they could make an interesting frame. The light wasnÕt good, so I waited for it to improve. The workers' children were running about playing by the roadside, but there was one child who was sitting alone, and I wandered over to see why. Fifteen-month-old Shivani was tugging at a plastic tape her mother had wrapped around her leg and tied to a rock at the building site. Barefoot and caked in dust, she spends nine hours a day in temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius attached to the tape marked "caution". Her mother Sarta Kalara said she has no option but to tether Shivani to the stone, despite her crying, while she and her husband work for 250 rupees ($3.8) each a shift digging holes for electricity cables in the city. "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," said the 23-year-old. "This site is full of traffic, I have no option. I do this for her safety." Parents said their children usually stay with them until they are seven or eight, when they are sent to live with their grandparents. Kalara, holding Shivani, as the plastic tape dangled from her leg, said managers had turned a blind eye to her plight. "They don't care about us or our children, they are only concerned with their work."' REUTERS/Amit Dave TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY SEARCH "2016 PIX" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "THE WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES.
