Don't accept the unacceptable.

I've just read an article in the Sunday Telegraph about young Indian children who are forced into devastating manual labour in remote limestone quarries. At these quarries, children as young as 6 are mining the 'trendy' Kota limestone which has been used to pave the entire King St Wharf entertainment precinct in Sydney.

The work is backbreaking, the heat is scorching and the payment is 50 Indian rupees per day, or $1.20AUD for an eleven hour day. Despite the fact that the caste system is officially outlawed in India, all of those who work in the mines are still observed as 'untouchables', or Dalits, which literally means crushed or broken to pieces. The children who work at these mines do not have a choice because they are supporting their families and helping to pay off debts incurred by their parents.

It's very hard work - sometimes I hurt my fingers with the tools. I wish I went to a school, but instead I am here.

We travelled from across India for this work. To you this might seem cruel. But when there is no work you will see the worst forms of cruelty.

I have never heard of Australia. When they pavers leave here, I don't know where they go.

It's hard, painful work. I'll go back to school later. But for now, I help my family by working here. I don't like it, but there is no choice.

I'm about to say something that may be controversial and harsh but honestly, when have I ever cared?

Suppose that photographs of young Indian, African and Asian children were different. Imagine that typical (how it pains me that I can even refer to poverty as 'typical') landscape of poverty - we've seen it so many times. Dirty. Dusty. Dilapidated. Skeletal. Imagine those children, the ones whose eyes silently cry out to us, pleading for help, for the recognition that their lives are worth something. Then imagine this: that the children you are seeing have porcelain skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. Might society then see them as people? Might we then be moved to act? How does that image make you feel? Does it suddenly make a difference?

I'm trying to unclench my fists. Oh Lord, let me be a voice for those who have none.