Most of the children at the transport yard in Jammu have been working since they were just five years old.
Seven-year-old Neha and her 10-year-old sister Rupa will not get to celebrate Diwali. With a ragged sack in one hand and a stick in the other, the two sisters will instead be collecting scrap.
Every day, they join more than 50 other young children at Narwal transport yard in Jammu and walk through hundreds of workshop collecting scrap, their bodies covered in mechanical oil. For the two sisters, 10 hours of hard work means Rs 50 for each of them at the end of the day.
"We go to work on Diwali, we cook food at home, we are poor people, we don't celebrate Diwali, the festival is for the rich", said Neha.
Neha and Rupa have five brothers and four sisters. But they are the only working members of the family. Their mother knows the hazards her daughters face every day, but says, there's no other option.
"We also want our children to go the school and study, but what to do, we can't afford it," said Shammi, Rupa and Neha's mother.
They are not alone, 25 other girls do the same job. The mechanics at the transport yard watch silently. The danger of this work is evident. There is always risk of respiratory problems, nervous system disorders, skin problems, digestive and liver diseases.
"We tell these children not to do this job, this is a very bad job, but what can these children do, they have to do something to earn their livelihood, their parents are always under the influence of liquor," said Daljeet Singh, a mechanic at the Narwal transport yard.
Most of the children at the transport yard have been working since they were just five years old. They miss their childhood, but nobody has anything to offer them, except little sympathy.