Camel racing is a century old arab sport where children were used as a jockeys.The advantage of using a child over an adult is their low weight and height,which meant the camels could run faster.Many laws have been made but till 2005 children were used as jockeys.Many children suffered injuries such as broken legs and hands from falling off camels,which can run up to 30km per hour.Now instead of a child,camels in UAE are ridden by small robots which are tied into camels by hand.
Many boys were bought from their parents in Pakistan,India Sudan and Bangladesh for as low as US$3.Parents in these countries used to sell their boys to arabs not knowing that these kids are used as jockeys.These children were not fed properly because the owners don't want them to gain weight,they were given 2 biscuits a day and some water to drink.Few kids don't know to talk there language nor they know to which country they belong to.UAE was the first country to ban child jockeys in the year 1993.But that was highly ignored until the year 2005.Finally in the year 2005 Dubai and other emirates responded to intense international pressure cleared the camel-tracks of children, replacing them with robot jockeys.The related article is here
The kids got the freedom, will the camels get freedom??
Pic source:-www.gluckman.com
Video source:-Youtube
29 comments:
Nice post about camels Varunavi..
Poor kids..Just went through the link about that kids varunavi..Isnt it cruel..Pity for themm.
a nice post varunavi... people were cheated becos of their poverty :(
and it's nice to hear that this practice was abolished... but I don't know whether this camel racing will be abolished.... :(
The whole of middle east has no human rights for anyone who is not a male and not a muslim. Why talk about kids and camels? In countries like Saudi Arabia, the condition of a woman is worse than that of a door mat.
Human rights is a far off issue for those barbarians.
Oh..ila kooda jarugutunda pramanchamlo :-O
I have heard about small children being used as jockeies in the Camel Race. Thank god they have replaced them with the robots. Good post, Varunavi.
@Pooja yes they were very cruel to those kids.They say even kids enjoy being a jockey:(
@Kanaguonline robots replaced kids not much because of the pressure from the west but because of their pride.These robots are very costly so the owners have pride of possesing it
yes whole of middle east doesn't treat women properly.But they dont abuse their children,they abuse the asian countries children who are sold because of their proverty and arabs buy them because their are wealthy:(
@Krishna kumar avnu ela guda jarugutundi:( edi chala takuva:(
@Sandhya with lot of pressure these kids are replaced by robots.But having said this,the owners have pride of possessing these robots as they are very costly only rich arabs will have them.
Money blinds most of the times.
Thats so terrible abt Kids...atleast now they are free and rgd your question when will camels will get their frrdom, hmmm we cant say Varunavi.
It's so sad that children are still sold and brought. :(
Why can't some people just have less kids so that they can feed and cloth them better?
Nice post varunavi!
Its sad to hear that kids are sold and used as jockies. they are made to survive on 2 biscuits day!! thats very bad...
BTW,
I just went through your other blog(http://mykitchenaroma.blogspot.com/)
loads of recipes there. will try at least few of them.
Nsiyer well said
@Ramya yes there is no answer of that,if it was in india the races would have been stopped long back.Just imagine camels running on the desert when the temp is above 45 degress:(
@Lifeismystery thanx and do try the recipes and let me know how it was.
Its sad that this age old practice of selling human being..kids/females still prevail in some part of world..how can parents can be so cruel to their own child..
Poverty leads them to sell their kids.Their family sizes are also small,they dont do birth control..
Oh my goodness!! Varunavi - This is so shocking!!!
'Many boys were bought from their parents in Pakistan,India Sudan and Bangladesh for as low as US$3.'
and that they are not fed - to ensure that they don't gain weight!!! Atleast they've stopped it now.. Thank god for that! Glad you brought this to our notice - I had not known about this before...
Have you ever eaten Camel meat. I have eaten horse but never a Camel. I would definitely like to try it.
@Smitha getting jockeys from other countries started when arab countries discovered oil,before that they were not rich so they used to use there own kids.And also the race were not in large scale as it is now.
@Odzer i have seen people eating it,but never ate it nor i will eat:(
Nice post. I'm learning something new everyday from the blogging world. To me it looks like both child crulty and animal cruelty in the UAE. I feel bad for the poor things.
@Badz Camels are made to run in the hot sun and their owners are in A/C 4wheelers:(
Varunavi in 1992 Feb-March, there was this news about around 20 boys who were rescued by the police, they had been sold and were being sent to Saudi Arabia for camel Races. Even after the police rescued them it was difficult to find out who there parents were. This post brought hat horrible nightmare back.
There were photographs of these rescued children in the newspapers and talk of how the children screamed when they got scared and when they screamed the camels ran faster, so nobody minded their screams! Can you imagine the indifference of these people?? To use children so cruelly just for entertainment! It seems the boys were abused otherwise also.
I had been able to sleep well after reading this, the thought of somebody feeling no guilt or horror in selling their children and some other adults equally guiltlessly using those same children for something so avoidable. If I remember correctly even Prince Charles had attended these races and he had two boys but felt no shame in watching other boys falling off camel backs and getting hurt or dying!Maybe the criticism by the press then made them ban it in 1993.
Now I am going to watch the video, I am so glad you blogged about this. Thank You.
IHM i was not much aware of news until i saw the race which was coming live on a arabic channel and i googled it and got the info.
So cruel are the parents who sell there kids,it is the fault of the parents not the buyers :(
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