New Delhi, June 4: ARMED with small digital cameras, 15 children set out on a journey to free others from the clutches of child labour. And after cycling 4,040 kilometres across South India over two months, their journey, documented in a film titled “History Expedition”, will be released here on Tuesday. An exhibition of photographs by these children, most of them from Karnataka, will also be part of the show.

“When I set out for this journey, I thought there would be few child labourers around. But I was shocked to see so many of them,” said Anand, 13, who sold tender coconuts till two years ago when he was asked to join Bornfree Arts School in Bangalore and made part of the photography team. “We went to Sivakasi, where matchsticks and crackers are manufactured, and the clothes industries in Tirupur¿. Children are employed everywhere.”

Anand has clicked more than 4,000 photographs in Tamil Nadu, Goa and Karnataka; some of these will be part of the exhibition.

In all, the team has clicked more than 25,000 photographs, ranging from children working in fields, spice factories, flower markets, iron and manganese mines and tabla-making units.

Satish, a physically challenged member of the team, said while adults are paid Rs 200 and given proper rest hours, children, for the same job, earn only Rs 20. “And they don’t get any rest or proper food,” he said. “The roses that people gift on Valentine’s Day are cut by children; they earn just Rs 50 for every 10,000 roses per day.”

Originally from Bijapur district in Karnataka, Satish worked at a cycle repair shop in Maharashtra’s Sholapur before the agency ‘Childline’ took him to Mumbai. But unable to continue studying in Hindi medium, he was sent back to the Bangalore centre. He ran away and started begging.

Later, Satish joined up with Bornfree School, and “now I have learnt to play the flute, and can dance too.”

The documentary is directed by John Devaraj, the art director of the popular yesteryears series ‘Malgudi Days’. A 32-hour film in real, an edited version of two-and-a-half hours would be released tomorrow by Minister of State for Labour Oscar Fernandes. Interestingly, most of these children do not want to become doctors or engineers; they want to open an art school or teach painting to underprivileged kids. “I will earn by selling my paintings and pictures,” Anand said.