When Kewal was eight, his mother fell seriously ill. Kewal’s father borrowed money for medicine from a man who owned some carpet looms. “The condition was that someone in my family had to work to repay the debt, and because I was the oldest I had to go and work in the carpet factory. It was a terrible time. They hardly gave us any food and the debt never decreased, however much I worked. After three years I managed to run away. My family persuaded the factory owner to let me work in the village instead, so that I could go to school in the mornings." On the WCP Child Jury Kewal represented child labourers, debt-slave children and children who ‘don’t exist’ because their births were never registered.