Child labour

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The first general laws against child labour, the Factory Acts, were passed in Britain in the
first half of the 19th century. Children younger than nine were not allowed to work and
the work day of youth under the age of 18 was limited to twelve hours.[1]

Child labour, or child labor, refers to the employment of children at regular and
sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international
organizations and is illegal in many countries. Child labour was utilized to varying
extents through most of history, but entered public dispute with the advent of universal
schooling, with changes in working conditions during the industrial revolution, and with
the emergence of the concepts of workers' and children's rights.

In many developed countries, it is considered inappropriate or exploitative if a child

below a certain age works (excluding household chores or school-related work).[2] An
employer is usually not permitted to hire a child below a certain minimum age. This
minimum age depends on the country and the type of work involved. States ratifying the
Minimum Age Convention adopted by the International Labour Organization in 1973,
have adopted minimum ages varying from 14 to 16. Child labor laws in the United States
set the minimum age to work in an establishment without restrictions and without parents'
consent at age 16.

Historical

Child laborer, New Jersey, 1910

During the Industrial Revolution, children as young as four were employed in production
factories with dangerous, and often fatal, working conditions.[3] Based on this
understanding of the use of children as labourers, it is now considered by wealthy
countries to be a human rights violation, and is outlawed, while some poorer countries
may allow or tolerate it.

The Victorian era became notorious for employing young children in factories and mines
and as chimney sweeps.[4] Child labour played an important role in the Industrial
Revolution from its outset, often brought about by economic hardship, Charles Dickens
for example worked at the age of 12 in the local Blacking factory, with his family in
debtor's prison. The children of the poor were expected to help towards the family
budget, often working long hours in dangerous jobs and low wages.[5]

Agile boys were employed by the chimney sweeps; small children were employed to
scramble under machinery to retrieve cotton bobbins; and children were also employed to
work in coal mines to crawl through tunnels too narrow and low for adults. Children also
worked as errand boys, crossing sweepers, shoe blacks, or selling matches, flowers and
other cheap goods.[5] Some children undertook work as apprentices to respectable trades,
such as building or as domestic servants (there were over 120,000 domestic servants in
London in the mid 18th Century). Working hours were long: builders worked 64 hours a
week in summer and 52 in winter, while domestic servants worked 80 hour weeks.

Two girls protesting child labour (by calling it child slavery) in the 1909 New York City
labor day parade.

A high number of children also worked as prostitutes.[6] Children as young as three were
put to work. In coal mines children began work at the age of five and generally died
before the age of 25. Many children (and adults) worked 16 hour days. As early as 1802
and 1819 Factory Acts were passed to regulate the working hours of workhouse children
in factories and cotton mills to 12 hours per day. These acts were largely ineffective and
after radical agitation, by for example the "Short Time Committees" in 1831, a Royal
Commission recommended in 1833 that children aged 11-18 should work a maximum of
12 hours per day, children aged 9-11 a maximum of eight hours, and children under the
age of nine were no longer permitted to work. This act however only applied to the textile
industry, and further agitation led to another act in 1847 limiting both adults and children
to 10 hour working days. [6]

[edit] Present day

A young boy recycling garbage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 2006
See also: Children's rights

Child labour is still common in some parts of the world, and can be factory work,
mining,[7] prostitution, quarrying, agriculture, helping in the parents' business, having
one's own small business (for example selling food), or doing odd jobs. Some children
work as guides for tourists, sometimes combined with bringing in business for shops and
restaurants (where they may also work as waiters). Other children are forced to do
tedious and repetitive jobs such as: assembling boxes, polishing shoes, stocking a store's
products, or cleaning. However, rather than in factories and sweatshops, most child
labour occurs in the informal sector, "selling many things on the streets, at work in
agriculture or hidden away in houses—far from the reach of official labour inspectors and
from media scrutiny." And all the work that they did was done in all types of weather;
and was also done for minimal pay. As long as there is family poverty there will be child
labor. [8]

According to UNICEF, there are an estimated 158 million children aged 5 to 14 in child
labour worldwide, excluding child domestic labour.[9] The United Nations and the
International Labor Organization consider child labour exploitative,[10][11] with the UN
stipulating, in article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that:

...States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and
from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education,
or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.
Although globally there is an estimated 250 milllion children working.[11]

In the 1990s every country in the world except for Somalia and the United States became
a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC. However according to
the United Nations Foundation Somalia signed the convention in 2002, the delay of the
signing was believed to been due to Somalia not having a government to sign the
convention [12]. The CRC provides the strongest,[citation needed] most consistent[citation needed]
international legal language prohibiting illegal child labour; however it does not make
child labour illegal.

A boy repairing a tire in Gambia

Poor families often rely on the labours of their children for survival, and sometimes it is
their only source of income. This type of work is often hidden away because it is not
always in the industrial sector. Child labour is employed in subsistence agriculture and in
the urban informal sector; child domestic work is also important. In order to benefit
children, child labour prohibition has to address the dual challenge of providing them
with both short-term income and long-term prospects. Some youth rights groups,
however, feel that prohibiting work below a certain age violates human rights, reducing
children's options and leaving them subject to the whims of those with money.[citation needed]

In 1999 the Global March Against Child Labour the movement began with a worldwide
march when thousands of people marched together to jointly put forth the message
against child labour. The march, which started on January 17, 1998, touched every corner
of the globe, built immense awareness and led to high level of participation from the
masses. This march finally culminated at the ILO Conference in Geneva. The voice of the
marchers was heard and reflected in the draft of the ILO Convention against the worst
forms of child labour. The following year, the Convention was unanimously adopted at
the ILO Conference in Geneva. Today, with 169 countries having ratified the convention
so far, it has become the fastest ratified convention in the history of ILO. A large role in
this was played by the Global March through our member partners.

In an influential paper on "The Economics of Child Labor" in the American Economic

Review (1998), Kaushik Basu and Pham Hoang Van argue that the primary cause of child
labour is parental poverty. That being so, they caution against the use of a legislative ban
against child labour, and argue that should be used only when there is reason to believe
that a ban on child labour will cause adult wages to rise and so compensate adequately
the households of the poor children. Child labour is still widely used today in many
countries, including India and Bangladesh. CACL estimated that there are between 70
and 80 million child labourers in India.[13] Even though the respective national laws state
that no child under the age of 14 may work, the law is often ignored. Children as young
as 11 go to work for up to 20 hours a day in sweatshops making items for US companies,
such as Hanes, Wal-mart, and Target.

Child labour happens for 61% in Asia, 32% in Africa, and 7% in Latin America, 1% in
US, Canada, Europe and other wealthy nations In Asia, 22% of the workforce is children.
In Latin America, 17% of the workforce is children. The proportion of child laborers
varies a lot among countries and even regions inside those countries.

To stop child labour the police often checks on factories that are suspected to use
children.

Recent child labour incidents

Young girl working on a loom in Aït Benhaddou, Morocco in May 2008.

BBC recently reported[14] on Primark using child labor in the manufacture of clothing. In
particular a £4.00 hand embroidered shirt was the starting point of a documentary
produced by BBC's Panorama (TV series) program. The program asks consumers to ask
themselves, "Why am I only paying £4 for a hand embroidered top? This item looks
handmade. Who made it for such little cost?", in addition to exposing the violent side of
the child labor industry in countries where child exploitation is prevalent. As a result of
the program, Primark took action and sacked the relevant companies, and reviewed their
supplier procedures.

The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company operate a rubber plantation in Liberia which is
the focus of a global campaign called Stop Firestone. Workers on the plantation are
expected to fulfill a high production quota or their wages will be halved, so many
workers brought children to work. The International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit
against Firestone (The International Labor Fund vs. The Firestone Tire and Rubber
Company) in November 2005 on behalf of current child laborers and their parents who
had also been child laborers on the plantation. On June 26, 2007, the judge in this lawsuit
in Indianapolis, Indiana denied Firestone's motion to dismiss the case and allowed the
lawsuit to proceed on child labor claims.

On November 21, 2005, An Indian NGO activist Junned Khan, with the help of Police,
Labour Department and NGO Pratham mounted the country's biggest ever raid for child
labor rescue in the Eastern part of New Delhi, the capital of India. The process resulted in
rescue of 480 children from over 100 illegal embroidery factories operating in the
crowded slum area of Seelampur. For next few weeks, government, media and NGOs
were in a frenzy over the exuberant numbers of young boys, as young as 5-6 year olds,
released from bondage. This rescue operation opened the eyes of the world to the menace
of child labor operating right under the nose of the largest democracy in the whole world.

After the news of child labourers working in embroidery industry was uncovered in the
Sunday Observer on 28 October 2007, BBA activists swung into action. The GAP Inc. in
a statement accepted that the child labourers were working in production of GAP Kids
blouses and has already made a statement to pull the products from the shelf. [15] [16] In
spite of the documentation of the child labourers working in the high-street fashion and
admission by all concerned parties, only the SDM could not recognise these children as
working under conditions of slavery and bondage. Distraught and desperate that these
collusions by the custodians of justice, founder of BBA Kailash Satyarthi, Chairperson of
Global March Against Child Labour appealed to the Honourable Chief Justice of Delhi
High Court through a letter at 11.00 pm. [3] This order by the Honourable Chief Justice
comes when the government is taking an extremely retrogressive stance on the issue of
child labour in sweatshops in India and threatening 'retaliatory measures' against child
rights organisations. [4]

In a parallel development, Global March Against Child Labour and BBA are in dialogue
with the GAP Inc. and other stakeholders to work out a positive strategy to prevent the
entry of child labour in to sweatshops and device a mechanism of monitoring and
remedial action. GAP Inc. Senior Vice President, Dan Henkle in a statement said: "We
have been making steady progress, and the children are now under the care of the local
government. As our policy requires, the vendor with which our order was originally
placed will be required to provide the children with access to schooling and job training,
pay them an ongoing wage and guarantee them jobs as soon as they reach the legal
working age. We will now work with the local government and with Global March to
ensure that our vendor fulfils these obligations." [5] [6]

On October 28, Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America, responded, "We strictly
prohibit the use of child labor. This is a non-negotiable for us – and we are deeply
concerned and upset by this allegation. As we've demonstrated in the past, Gap has a
history of addressing challenges like this head-on, and our approach to this situation will
be no exception. In 2006, Gap Inc. ceased business with 23 factories due to code
violations. We have 90 people located around the world whose job is to ensure
compliance with our Code of Vendor Conduct. As soon as we were alerted to this
situation, we stopped the work order and prevented the product from being sold in stores.
While violations of our strict prohibition on child labor in factories that produce product
for the company are extremely rare, we have called an urgent meeting with our suppliers
in the region to reinforce our policies."[17]

In early August 2008, Iowa Labor Commissioner David Neil announced that his
department had found that Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking company in Postville
which had recently been raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had employed
57 minors, some as young as 14, in violation of state law prohibiting anyone under 18
from working in a meatpacking plant. Neil announced that he was turning the case over
to the state Attorney General for prosecution, claiming that his department's inquiry had
discovered "egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa's child labor laws." [18].
Agriprocessors claimed that it was at a loss to understand the allegations.

In 1997, research indicated that the number of child laborers in the silk-weaving industry
in the district of Kanchipuram in India exceeded 40,000. This included children who were
bonded laborers to loom owners. Rural Institute for Development Education undertook
many activities to improve the situation of child laborers. Working collaboratively, RIDE
brought down the number of child laborers to less than 4,000 by 2007

Child labor is also often used in the production of cocoa powder, used to make chocolate.
See Economics of cocoa.

Defense of child labour

Child laborers on a farm in Maine, October 1940

Concerns have often been raised over the buying public's moral complicity in purchasing
products assembled or otherwise manufactured in developing countries with child labor.
However, others have raised concerns that boycotting products manufactured through
child labor may force these children to turn to more dangerous or strenuous professions,
such as prostitution or agriculture. For example, a UNICEF study found that after the
Child Labor Deterrence Act was introduced in the US, an estimated 50,000 children were
dismissed from their garment industry jobs in Bangladesh, leaving many to resort to jobs
such as "stone-crushing, street hustling, and prostitution", jobs that are "more hazardous
and exploitative than garment production". The study suggests that boycotts are "blunt
instruments with long-term consequences, that can actually harm rather than help the
children involved."[8]

According to Milton Friedman, before the Industrial Revolution virtually all children
worked in agriculture. During the Industrial Revolution many of these children moved
from farm work to factory work. Over time, as real wages rose, parents became able to
afford to send their children to school instead of work and as a result child labor declined,
both before and after legislation.[19]

Austrian school economist Murray Rothbard also defended child labor, stating that
British and American children of the pre- and post-Industrial Revolution lived and
suffered in infinitely worse conditions where jobs were not available for them and went
"voluntarily and gladly" to work in factories.[20]

However, the British historian and socialist E.P. Thompson in The Making of the English
Working Class draws a qualitative distinction between child domestic work and
participation in the wider (waged) labor market.[3] Further, the usefulness of the
experience of the industrial revolution in making predictions about current trends has
been disputed. Economic historian Hugh Cunningham, author of Children and Childhood
in Western Society Since 1500, notes that:

"Fifty years ago it might have been assumed that, just as child labor had declined
in the developed world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so it
would also, in a trickle-down fashion, in the rest of the world. Its failure to do
that, and its re-emergence in the developed world, raise questions about its role
in any economy, whether national or global."[19]

Big Bill Haywood, a leading labor organizer and leader of the Western Federation of
Miners and a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World
famously claimed "the worst thief is he who steals the playtime of children!" [21]

According to Thomas DeGregori, an economics professor at the University of Houston,

in an article published by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank operating in
Washington D.C., "it is clear that technological and economic change are vital ingredients
in getting children out of the workplace and into schools. Then they can grow to become
productive adults and live longer, healthier lives. However, in poor countries like
Bangladesh, working children are essential for survival in many families, as they were in
our own heritage until the late 19th century. So, while the struggle to end child labour is
necessary, getting there often requires taking different routes -- and, sadly, there are many
political obstacles.[22]
 CHILD Protection &
Rights
Introduction

Who is a Child?
According to International Law, a ‘child’ means every human
being below the age of 18 years. Childhood is characterized as
a period of special consideration in human rights terms, as a
period of evolving abilities and vulnerabilities relative to those
of adults.
Today this is a universally accepted definition of a child which comes from the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), an international legal
instrument agreed and ratified by 192 States in the world to promote Child
Protection and Child Rights.

What is ‘Child ‘Protection?

Child protection is crucial to ensuring that children under 18 years of age have the
rights, confidence and environment in which they can make choices, express their
views and communicate effectively with other children and adults.
It is a broad term to describe philosophies, policies, standards, guidelines and
procedures whose aim is to protect children from both intentional and
unintentional harm and from vulnerability.
Child protection incorporates both prevention and care as well as recovery and
rehabilitation aspects. Children can only become change agents to improve their
lives and that of their families and communities if they are safeguarded from
abuse, discrimination and harm of any kind, be it physical, sexual, emotional or
neglect.

What are ‘Child’ Rights?

A right is as an agreement or a “social contract” established between the persons
who hold a right (often referred to as the “rights-holder”) and the persons or
institutions which then have obligations and responsibilities in relation to the
realisation of that right (often referred to as the “duty-bearer”.)
Child Rights can be defined as the fundamental, vital freedoms and the inherent
rights of all human beings below the age of 18. These rights apply to every child,
irrespective of the child's, parent's / legal guardian's race, colour, sex, creed or
other status.
 CHILDLINE 1098 SERVICE

The calls would come late in the night.

"Didi, can you come? There's been a

fight at the station."

Events "Didi, can you help? The police have

battered Raju."

State Children's Meet-
Children's involvement in
Childline..
And a CHILDLINE volunteer would get up and rush out to where a street child was
waiting. On one of those dashes across the sleeping city of Mumbai , an idea was
born.

What street children in Mumbai needed was a helpline, their own

helpline.

childlineindia.org.in
In 1996, Mumbai launched CHILDLINE, the country's first toll-free tele-helpline for
street children in distress. It has responded to over 13 million calls from children
who live and work in Mumbai , and has grown into a national child protection
service that operates in 83 cities. In 12 years, CHILDLINE has worked with over 3
million children in need of care and protection.

Subscribe to
CHILDLINE
SMS Channel
 The term Child Labor is used for employment of children below a certain
age, which is considered illegal by law and custom. The stipulated age varies from
country to country and government to government. Child labor is a world
phenomenon which is considered exploitative and inhuman by many international
organizations.

What is Child Labour

Child labor is done by any working child who is under the age specified by law. The word, “work”
means full time commercial work to sustain self or add to the family income. Child labor is a hazard to
a Child’s mental, physical, social, educational, emotional and spiritual development. Broadly any child
who is employed in activities to feed self and family is being subjected to “child labor’.

Child Labour Today

Child labor is a very complicated development issue, effecting human society all over the world. It is a
matter of grave concern that children are not receiving the education and leisure which is important for
their growing years, because they are sucked into commercial and laborious activities which is meant
for people beyond their years. According to the statistics given by ILO and other official agencies 73
million children between 10 to 14 years of age re employed in economic activities all over the world.
The figure translates into 13.2 of all children between 10 to 14 being subjected to child labor.

Child labor in India is a human right issue for the whole world. It is a serious and
extensive problem, with many children under the age of fourteen working in carpet
making factories, glass blowing units and making fireworks with bare little hands.
According to the statistics given by Indian government there are 20 million child
laborers in the country, while other agencies claim that it is 50 million
Causes of Child Labour
Some common causes of child labor are poverty, parental illiteracy, social apathy, ignorance, lack of
education and exposure, exploitation of cheap and unorganized labor. The family practice to inculcate
traditional skills in children also pulls little ones inexorably in the trap of child labor, as they never get
the opportunity to learn anything else.

Absence of compulsory education at the primary level, parental ignorance regarding the bad effects of child labor,
the ineffictivity of child labor laws in terms of implementation, non availability and non accessibility of schools,
boring and unpractical school curriculum and cheap child labor are some other factors which encourages the
phenomenon of child labor. It is also very difficult for immature minds and undeveloped bodies to understand and
organize them selves against exploitation in the absence of adult guidance. Poverty and over population have been
identified as the two main causes of child labor. Parents are forced to send little children into hazardous jobs for
reasons of survival, even when they know it is wrong. Monetary constraints and the need for food, shelter and
clothing drives their children in the trap of premature labor. Over population in some regions creates paucity of
resources. When there are limited means and more mouths to feed children are driven to commercial activities and
not provided for their development needs. This is the case in most Asian and African countries.
Illiterate and ignorant parents do not understand the need for wholesome proper physical, cognitive and emotional
development of their child. They are themselves uneducated and unexposed, so they don’t realize the importance
of education for their children. Adult unemployment and urbanization also causes child labor. Adults often
find it difficult to find jobs because factory owners find it more beneficial to employ children at cheap
rates. This exploitation is particularly visible in garment factories of urban areas. Adult exploitation of
children is also seen in many places. Elders relax at home and live on the labor of poor helpless
children.

The industrial revolution has also had a negative effect by giving rise to circumstances which
encourages child labor. Sometimes multinationals prefer to employ child workers in the developing
countries. This is so because they can be recruited for less pay, more work can be extracted from them
and there is no union problem with them. This attitude also makes it difficult for adults to find jobs in
factories, forcing them to drive their little ones to work to keep the fire burning their homes.

Child labor is a reality in spite of all the steps taken by the legal machinery to
eliminate it. It prevails and persists as a world phenomenon in spite of child labor
laws.

The causes of child labor in the contemporary world are the same as those in U.S.
hundred years ago- namely poverty, lack of education and exposure, poor access to
education, suppression of workers rights, partial prohibition of child labor and
inadequate enforcement of child labor laws.

Child labor is a reality in spite of all the steps taken by the legal machinery to
eliminate it. It prevails and persists as a world phenomenon in spite of child labor
laws.

The causes of child labor in the contemporary world are the same as those in U.S.
hundred years ago- namely poverty, lack of education and exposure, poor access to
education, suppression of workers rights, partial prohibition of child labor and
inadequate enforcement of child labor laws.

Hundreds and thousands of children are toiling as bonded labor in India’s silk
industry and the government is not able to do anything to protect their rights. Those
children who are working in India’s silk industry are virtually slaves.

Human rights organizations are calling on India to free these children from bonded labor
and rehabilitate them. The children are bound to work for their employers in exchange of
the loan taken by their parents or families, and are unable to leave because of the debt.
They are also paid very paltry sum for their labor. Most of these children are Dalits.
Dalits are called untouchables and belong to the lowest level in the hierarchy of the
Indian caste system.

Indian sweet shops are notorious for profiting from child labor which is tantamount
to slavery. These shop also profit from illegal retail activities and use small and
vulnerable children in the manufacturing process. Children as young as eleven and
thirteen toil in these shops for hours on end and suffer from exertion and fatigue.
They have no fixed working hours and are constantly threatened with the fear of
being fired, are depressed and deprived of education and entertainment.

The most inhuman and onerous form of child exploitation is the age old practice of
bonded labor in India. In this, the child is sold to the loaner like a commodity for a
certain period of time. His labor is treated like security or collateral security and
cunning rich men procure them for small sums at exorbitant interest rates.

The children who are sold as bonded labor only get a handful of coarse grain to keep them
alive in return for their labor. Sometimes their period of thrall extends for a life time, and they
have to simply toil hard and depend on the mercy of their owners, without any hope of release
or redemption. The impoverished parents of the bonded child is usually a poor, uneducated
landless laborer and the mortgagee is traditionally some big landlord, money lender or a big
business man who thrives on their vulnerability to such exploitation. The practice of bonded
child labor is prevalent in many parts of rural India, but is very conspicuously in the
Vellore district of Tamil Nadu. Here the bonded child is allowed to reside with his
parents, if he presents himself for work at 8 a.m. every day. The practice of child
bonded labor persists like a scourge to humanity in spite of many laws against it.
These laws although stringent and providing for imprisonment and imposition of
huge fines on those who are found guilty are literally non- functional in terms of
implementation.

However most of their efforts were sabotaged by high level government officials covering the
fact that children were doing bonded work in factory promises. They deliberately employed
their energy in running public awareness campaigns and made claims of creating propaganda
against child labor, instead of punishing erring employers and freeing and rehabilitating the
bonded children.

Governments did take few directions on the right track initially, but most of their
efforts came to naught with time. Moreover the government efforts did not reach
high profile industries like bidi, cigarette making and carpet weaving. According to
Cousen Neff - an official of the Human Rights watch – “Instead of living up to its
promises, the Indian government is starting to backtrack, claiming the problem is
being solved. Our research shows that it is not.”

Neff also identified a major link between caste and bondage in Indian society. Dalit
family’s functions as bonded labor due to caste based discrimination and violence
and not poverty in many cases. The caste system in India is one of the main
foundations on which the edifice of bonded labor rests. Dalits or the so called
untouchable are denied access to land in India, forced to work in inhuman
conditions, and expected to perform labor for free. This is due to the so called upper
castes boycotting them socially and subjecting them to economic exploitation. This
attitude of society keeps the poor families bonded in a scourge of perpetual poverty
and labor. It is now very important for all International donors to put pressure on
the Indian government to enforce bonded labor and child labor laws in the country.
The term ‘child labor’ means ‘working child’ or ‘employed child’. ‘Child labor’ is
any work done by child for profit. ‘Child labor’ is a derogatory term which
translates into child exploitation and inhumanity according to sociologists,
development workers, medical professionals and educationists. They have identified
child labor as harmful and hazardous to the child’s development needs, both mental
and physical.

The future of a community is in the well being of its children. The above fact is
beautifully expressed by Wordsworth in his famous lines “child is father of the
man”. So it becomes imperative for the health of a nation to protect its children
from premature labor which is hazardous to their mental, physical, educational and
spiritual development needs. It is urgently required to save children from the
murderous clutches of social injustice and educational deprivation, and ensure that
they are given opportunities for healthy, normal and happy growth.
 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
25 July 1995

THE EXPLOITATION OF CHILD LABOR IN INDIA

Testimony of the Honorable Dan Burton of Indiana
in the US House of Representatives

Mr. BURTON of Indiana: Mr. Speaker, much attention was appropriately focussed on
human rights abuses by the Indian Government against minorities in Kashmir and Punjab
during recent consideration of H.R. 1868, the foreign aid appropriations bill for 1996.
However, there exists another little-known human rights problem in India, which is every
bit as grave. This problem, which received little discussion, is the exploitation of child
labor. The United States Government and the international community have paid little
attention to the prolific employment of young children. It is time to attend to this neglect.

Child labor in India is a grave and extensive problem. Children under the age of 14 are
forced to work in glass-blowing, fireworks, and most commonly, carpet-making factories.
While the Government of India reports about 20 million children laborers, other non-
governmental organizations estimate the number to be closer to 50 million. Most
prevalent in the northern part of India, the exploitation of child labor has become an
accepted practice, and is viewed by the local population as necessary to overcome the
extreme poverty in the region.

Child labor is one of the main components of the carpet industry. Factories pay children
extremely low wages, for which adults refuse to work, while forcing the youngsters to
slave under perilous and unhygienic labor conditions. Many of these children are migrant
workers, the majority coming from northern India, who are sent away by their families to
earn an income sent directly home. Thus, children are forced to endure the despicable
conditions of the carpet factories, as their families depend on their wages.

The situation of the children at the factories is desperate. Most work around 12 hours a
day, with only small breaks for meals. Ill-nourished, the children are very often fed only
minimal staples. The vast majority of migrant child workers who cannot return home at
night sleep alongside of their loom, further inviting sickness and poor health.

Taking aggressive action to eliminate this problem is difficult in a nation where 75

percent of the population lives in rural areas, most often stricken by poverty. Children are
viewed as a form of economic security in this desolate setting, necessary to help
supplement their families' income. Parents often sacrifice their children's education, as
offspring are often expected to uphold their roles as wage-earning members of their clan.

The Indian Government has taken some steps to alleviate this monumental problem. In
1989, India invoked a law that made the employment of children under age 14 illegal,
except in family-owned factories. However, this law is rarely followed, and does not
apply to the employment of family members. Thus, factories often circumvent the law
through claims of hiring distant family. Also, in rural areas, there are few enforcement
mechanisms, and punishment for factories violating the mandate is minimal, if not
nonexistent.

Legal action taken against the proliferation of child labor often produces few results.
Laws against such abuses have little effect in a nation where this abhorred practice is
accepted as being necessary for poor families to earn an income. Thus, an extensive
reform process is necessary to eliminate the proliferation of child labor abuses in India
which strives to end the desperate poverty in the nation. Changing the structure of the
workforce and hiring the high number of currently unemployed adults in greatly
improved work conditions is only the first step in this lengthy process. New labor
standards and wages must be adopted and medical examinations and minimum nutrition
requirements must be established in India. Establishing schools and eliminating the
rampant illiteracy that plagues the country would work to preserve structural changes.
However, these changes cannot be accomplished immediately. Pressure from the
international community, especially the United States Government, is absolutely
necessary to bring about change in India.

I believe that it is imperative for the U.S. Congress and the Clinton administration to pay
more attention to the exploitation of children in India as well as other areas in South and
Southeast Asia. Currently, Germany has instigated a pilot program that places a stamp on
all imported carpets that are child labor free, thus urging consumers to buy these
products. Because of the high price range of these carpets, similar programs can and
should be given serious consideration in the United States.

The Child Labor Deterrence Act of 1993, which is still under consideration, prohibits
importing to the U.S. any product made, whole or in part, by children under 15 who are
employed in industry. While this aspect of the bill may be effective, the United States
needs to take action regarding child labor abuses, specifically targeted at India. Mr.
Speaker, I call on every Member of Congress to pay more attention to this little-
recognized problem. We must acknowledge the fact that we cannot continue to sustain the
exploitation of children by purchasing carpets woven by the hands of children.

PANGAEA
Street Children - Community Children
Worldwide Resource Library
 Photo of Franklin (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) by B. Hayskar

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures

is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them;
that is the essence of inhumanity.

--From The Devil's Disciple by George Bernard Shaw

The United Nations has been attributed as estimating the population

of street children worldwide at 150 million, with the number rising
daily. These young people are more appropriately known as community
children, as they are the offspring of our communal world. Ranging in
age from three to eighteen, about 40 percent of those are homeless--
as a percentage of world population, unprecendented in the history of
civilization. The other 60 percent work on the streets to support their
families. They are unable to attend school and are considered to live in
"especially difficult circumstances."

Increasingly, these children are the defenseless victims of brutal

violence, sexual exploitation, abject neglect, chemical addiction, and
human rights violations.

This collection of readings is provided for those concerned about

protecting and improving the lives of the world's street children-- our
community children--and helping them to their full human potential.

Your comments are welcome, as well as contributions of additional

resource materials, to: kids@pangaea.org. Please provide the source,
author and date for all submissions, along with links. Materials of
historic background would also be helpful.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107,
this material on Street Children Worldwide is provided as a public
service without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.

Materials relating to PANGAEA books and products, however, are

protected by International Copyright Law and may not be reproduced
in any form, including electronic, without the express prior written
permission of the publisher. A copyright notice appears on all web
pages to which this pertains.

It depends completely on the circumstances, tasks and activities carried out if this work is
hazardous for the child or not. We can assume that what is hazardous for adults will also
be hazardous for children. However, children are more vulnerable since they are in
physical and mental development. Children are often “achievers”, they want to perform
well and are inexperienced and untrained in dealing with hazards. Tools and machines are
not made for them, and thus pose more hazards. They are also not organized and
powerless. All those factors contribute to the fact that the same task carried out by
children can be more hazardous for children than for adults. The effects of hazardous
child labour vary from skin disease to asthma to (in the worst case) fatal injuries. Not
only physical, but also mental and behavioural problems can be the result of
hazardouschild labour.