Slave the children

There's so much about the Indian culture that I love: generosity, helpfulness, food, colors, history, democracy, festivals, higher spirit.. I could go on. But one thing really bugs me and it bugs me a lot: child servants. I can accept that the caste system goes back in history and many of the well-to-do here offer stable, good jobs to the less fortunate. But on a playdate today, we met a family who had a wonderful home and 2 lovely kids. I saw a third child and asked if he were the nephew. The mom smiled and said no, that's our servant. I asked the child's age and she said 14. He waited on us and I felt disgusting. The boy should be in school! One of the kids, age 9, remarked to me (unprompted) that the boy wasn't his brother, but his servant. OUCH! I wanted to kidnap the boy and bring him home with us and put him in school. While the family is comforted that they are giving the boy a better opportunity than what his own family could offer, it still seems wrong to me. Without an education, he is destined for a life of servitude. I recently finishedKite Runner, one of the best books I have read in a long time. I couldn't help but think of this haunting story when watching these boys play.

I'm now determined to find a way to not just help this boy, but to find a way to help all kids in this situation in a scalable, Googley way.