Cosette, Oshin & Roton: Persecuted Sisterhood

In Victor Hugo's classic "Les Miserables", Cosette appears as the daughter of Fantine, who is forced to leave her with the "Thenardier couple, to whom Cosette was useful in two ways; as a way of extorting money from her mother & as a household drudge in her own person." When the protagonist, Jean Valjean comes across her, horrified by the way she was worked, he buys her off & looks after her as his own daughter.

In "Oshin", a very popular Japanese TV serial & film (2013), Oshin is a seven year old girl in a very poor family, who cannot even feed her & send her out to work in return for a little rice. She undergoes unbelievable hardships which she bears stoically, but runs away when unjustly accused of theft. Kokone Hamada, who plays the title role is in the same class as the immortal Shirley Temple as a child actress.

Rabindranath Tagore's short story "The Postmaster" (filmed by Satyajit Ray), deals with a post office in a remote village, where no postmaster can bring his family. So there is a little orphan girl Roton (Bengali pronounciation) who cooks & washes for him. When the present postmaster arrives, he learns that his predecessor would even beat this little girl. He however treats her kindly, asks her to be clean & neat & even teaches her to read & write. But he falls ill & is nursed by Roton. But he leaves feeling the weather doesn't suit him. Roton is devastated to lose the only person who was kind to her & refuses his tip.

So whether it is France, Japan or India, the earlier prevalence of child labour was traumatic to the poor children.