Who Really Makes Your Toys

In China, there is a great demand for child laborers, for children have smaller hands, and their eyesight is undamaged from years of work. Children are often used in factories that produce toys. Life in these factories is brutal. Oftentimes, children are expected to work 15 hour days, beginning at 8 A.M. and continuing past midnight. In many instances, the children work seven day weeks, and are paid 12 cents an hour. Although this is against Chinese labor laws, the laws are often not enforced.

Some reasons that children end up working in factories at a young age, is actually to help pay for schooling. Families in rural areas make very little money, about 195 Yuan, which is close to $31. School costs roughly 15 Yuan, which is about $2.50. Families are simply unable to pay for their children to attend school when they already have so little to spare.

To call an end to child labor would not ease the suffering of the children and their families. Without the children’s valuable income, families would have even less money, and the children would have no chance of attending school.

Instead, regulations and taxes should be put upon products produced in factories that implement child laborers. Raising the price of items produced by children by several cents would help to give the children better salaries, which would aid them and their families greatly. Children should also only be able to work a maximum of eight hours a day, because they are still growing, and require more sleep and rest and nutrition.Besides this, children should only be allowed to work after school hours, education should always come first.

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Child Labor: Harmful but Necessary

There are 215 million children involved in child labor, and 115 million of these children are involved in hazardous work. Hazardous work is any work that can harm the health, safety, or morals of children. This includes but is not limited to, child soldiers, trafficked children, and those who work in unstable environments for very low wages. Hazardous child labor needs to come to an end and regulations need to be made concerning the jobs, health, and education of non hazardous child laborer.

All children performing hazardous work are at risk for lifelong disabilities. Since children have a faster metabolism then adults, they breathe in twice as much air. This means if children are working in gold mines where they are exposed to harmful chemicals such as mercury, then they are twice as likely to absorb these unhealthy toxins. If children are partaking in heavy lifting during growing stages, then they can develop deformities such as crippled feet, bent backs, or dislocated shoulders. Another huge problem with child labor is their mental stability. These children have lost their adolescent and moved straight into supporting their families. For the children, this can mean educational loss and loss of overall happiness. All of these issues are serious health concerns involved with hazardous child labor, and they need to be stopped by force of law.

Not all child labor is bad however, with regulations child labor can be a sufficient way for children to support their impoverished families. Child Labor is categorized into 3 categories, ages 13 and up can perform light work, ages 15 and up can perform ordinary work and ages 18 and up can perform hazardous work. If a child is below the age of 13, they should not be performing any work. The first regulation that needs to be made is education. A free, quality education needs to be provided and mandated for all children until the minimum age of work. Even after children have reached the minimum age, there should still be time restraints on how long a child is eligible to work. Also, the jobs and conditions of these jobs, need to have extreme regulations. If policies for child labor are instated, then hazardous child labor will vanish.

Child labor is sometimes a necessary source of income for impoverished families. If hazardous conditions are ended and regulations are made, then child labor should be a completely safe option for children who are in need.

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Companies Envolved with Child Labor.

Nike has been accused several times of using slave child labor in other countries. Their biggest case is the one of making shoes in Indonesia. It is said that they higher kids under the age of 16 in a regular bases paying them only the minimum wage or nothing. These children are forcefully put to work by family members and at times even sold to companies. So does Nike support slave child labor? The legal age to work in Indonesia is any child 14 years or older, and Indonesia has over 2.4 million children working in rural areas and a quarter million working in urban areas between the ages 10 and 14. There are many more children under the age of ten working in Indonesia. These children sometimes have nowhere to go and they finish living in the same factories they work in all day. Indonesian culture has ignored all the laws against child labor for many years. Recently, the minimum wage was raised so they could in some way help all the children forcefully working under the legal age and this too has been ignored by many employers. When a country takes no major actions against child slave labor is it still wrong for companies to come in, hire, and use children’s labor?

Slavery results from economic disparities

The trafficker, the slave owning entrepreneur, and the unfortunate bonded individual all have one thing in common, and that is the need for economic success. Exploiting individuals to achieve the minimum cost of labor satisfies the demand for maximized profits. As long as there are individuals who are willing to exploit humans in efforts of attaining the maximum profit, slavery is said to continue. 

Those who fall into slavery often come from vulnerable situations. Extreme poverty contributes significantly to global slave trade. Desperate families will sell their children with the allusion that the child will experience a better life, or simply the family cannot afford another mouth to feed. Traffickers prey on desperate situations including natural disasters. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti last January, despite promises from Haitian leaders to protect orphaned children, the number of smuggled individuals (especially children) skyrocketed. This same behavior was witnessed in south Asia after the tsunami in 2003. After both disasters children were devalued to the point that smugglers offered to trade children for sex, cooking, and laundry. 

Traffickers have very little to nothing invested in their slaves, resulting in up to 500% profit. This economic venture proves too tempting to those whom have traded their morals for potential economic growth. A simple way to combat this issue and to minimize the exploiters' profits is, as a consumer to demand fair traded items. The combination of excessive materialism and the desire to spend the least amount of currency possible fuels the human trafficking industry. When we as consumers decide to elevate the fad of buying fair trade and organic items into a movement and demand true fairly traded items, the profits reaped by slave owners will diminish significantly.

 

Raising awareness along with passing and enforcing legislation can also minimize the number of those who reside in bondage. Organizations such as the Polaris Project and Free the Slaves are successful in both raising awareness and inspiring legislation. While slavery is illegal in every country, indifferent public officials seldom seek to assist those who are enslaved. We as responsible citizens of society have the moral obligation to demand people of power to take actions against exploiters and assist those who have been taken advantage of.

Is Tradition an Excuse to Have Child Slaves?

Every day Haitian children are sent away in hopes of a better life. This has become a Haitian tradition. When Haitians don’t have enough money to support their children they sent them to live with another family or many times complete strangers. These foster parents are supposed to take care of these children as if they were their own. They’re supposed to send them to school, buy them clothe, and guide the to a better future. However, this hardly ever happens. These children are taken in as servants, forced to work without pay, secluded from other children in the household and not often sent to school. Before the earthquake out of Haiti’s eight million people 300,000 children were restaveks. After the earthquake one million Haitians were left homeless so the number of restaveks also raised a lot. The big question with all this is. Is this Haitian tradition or child slavery? If the parents give away the children willingly is it still slavery? Jean-Robert Cadet, a former restavek, now runs an organization against restaveks. Cadet tells us that the only reason why restaveks are still around today is because it is socially accepted as tradition. Cadet says only a small percent of restaveks are treated well and sent to school, this makes Haitian parents prefer sending of their kids and hoping they end up with a good family than watching them die while living with them. So is this so called “ tradition” slavery?

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Walmart leads the world in labor exploitation

Walmart is one of the worst exploiters of labor in existence. It goes past the scale of anything witnessed in historical cases of slavery. Walmart has expanded its influence to parts of the developing world where labor is in abundance and squeezes the life out of its workers for maximum profits. Walmart has to face over 5000 lawsuits a year for human rights violations.

WalMart's excessive exploitation of child labor forced even China to take action. China proudly reported that it had broken up a child labor ring in Guangdong province that used over 100 children ages 13 to 15 and paid an average wage of 42 cents an hour with no overtime. The minimum wage in China is 64 cents an hour and the minimum working age is 16.

In addition to overuse of child labor and exploitation of the impoverished, WalMart finds that it's cheaper to wash employees' blood out of manufactured clothing before selling it than to provide
gloves and safe machines to their seamstresses. Muhammad Saidur Rehman, A Wal-Mart factory owner in Bangladesh said "We still suffer from the legacy of the colonial days ... We consider the workers to be our slaves, and this belief is made all the easier by a supply of labor that is endlessly abundant."

Many people have tried to fight Walmart and those who seek fair trade products are now being heard more loudly than in previous years. However, Walmart even thought of that and in 2005, was caught passing off imported sweatshop-produced products as "being made in the USA".

Walmart is a role-model for all people abusing sweatshop and slave labor. It has gained immense wealth and influence at the cost of countless lives. I am waiting for the day when "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" sings its sweet song into Walmart's coffers. Hopefully in the future no corporation will ever be able to out-do Walmart.

Not the Children!

Children like Wilson Peter and Dai Manju have adult responsibility placed upon them at an early age. They are a vital component to the income of their homes. Working in mines and having to give up an education are definitely no way for a child to live. In the case of Wilson Peter of Mererani, Tanzania, he has to work in the Tanzanite mines. He is asked about the dangers of the mine and what he fears. He says, “I could just fall in the mine. You can slip and fall. The mine can collapse on you. While sifting, you swallow the dust. You can get really hurt. “ Dai Manju lived in the Dabie Mountains of China. She had to drop out of school to help around the house and work to bring funds into the household. The initial opportunity to acquire an education was stripped from her. Thus the question is asked, why the children? Many children are made to work because their parents simply are not making enough money to support the family. This opens up the door for the children to be exploited. Why should the children have to suffer? Organizations such as the Good Hope Program of Mererani and Nivasa sponsor children being exploited and enslaved. The Good Hope Program of Mererani takes young men and train them in a trade such as mechanics or farming. Nivasa is an organization in Sri Lanka that provides financial assistance to victims of human trafficking to help them raise and educate their children. If there can be aid given to the families suffering, similar to Nivasa, there would be no need for the children to have to work. Also, the children are being educated, why not the parents? Of course they have to work to live, but what if there were funds allocated to assisting the parents while they go to school and can get better paying jobs in factories or offices? Kids should be able to enjoy their childhood and begin an education. I feel as though the rescue efforts wait for the child to be in trouble to intervene and help. It seems more sensible and effective to address the issue at the stem rather than wait for the children to get involved.