Child Slavery: The Ugly Truth
by Adam Yngelmo
March 2010
In India there is an estimated of sixty and one hundred and fifteen million working children. This is the largest amount of working children in entire world. These children face horrible conditions when working. They are either working in quarries, in the fields, in sweatshops, working on city streets or as domestic servants. No matter what the job they are paid unjust wages and have miserable and difficult lives. These children do not go to school. More than half of them will never learn the basic skill of reading. Many have been working since the age of four or five, they continue to work till adulthood where they may become extremely sick or deformed from the slavery type conditions.
These children cost less than average cattle. They can be bought and traded like animals for around five hundred rupees up to two thousand rupees. They can be paid low wages, exploited more and have no power against their superiors. Child trafficking and slavery is one of the fastest growing illegal operations. It is estimated that forty-two billion dollars is made from it. In 2006 UNICEF stated that an estimated one hundred-seventy one children are working in hazardous conditions.
In 2007 children were found working in a textile factory in slavery conditions. Children as young as ten years old were found making clothing that was for the company known as Gap. These kids worked long hours every day for the entire week. They earned less then a dollar. There were given unjust wages and were given beatings and threatened daily if they did not meet there goal. These children were found in filthy conditions working on piles and piles Gap Kids’ girls blouses. They were to be sold for 20 Euros. They would then be shipped to American and marked up to higher prices. Gap stated that it was not aware that they had children, as young as ten, working on their clothing in India. They would take out all garments from that shipment and further investigate the incident.
In conclusion child labor is one of the fastest growing illegal industries. In the world, India has the highest amount of children working. Most of these children work for unjust wages and in slave life conditions. They face hazardous conditions each and every day. They are not given proper education and cannot learn basic skills so they can get out of labor and have a better life for themselves and their families. If nothing is done about these horrific acts of working these children will not have decent lives and future children will have to suffer in the same conditions.
Sources Used:
1.http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jan2000/chld-j07.shtml
2.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oct/28/ethicalbusiness.retail
3.http://pangaea.org/street_children/asia/carpet.htm