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10 Shocking Child Labor Facts - The Borgen Project

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Here are 10 child labor facts about the perpetuating cycle of poverty that results from depriving children of an education. These shocking facts about child labor demonstrate the detrimental effects of the practice on the countries which it plagues.

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Young Activist’s Death Hits Pakistani Carpet Sales : Trade: Exports to West have diminished even though producers haven’t been linked to death of 12-year-old who fought child labor

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Young Activist’s Death Hits Pakistani Carpet Sales : Trade: Exports to West have diminished even though producers haven’t been linked to death of 12-year-old who fought child labor

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Already hit with sagging exports, Pakistani carpet dealers say they have lost more sales to Western buyers since the killing of a young activist who spoke out against child labor.

The death of Iqbal Masih, 12, received worldwide publicity after a group that is fighting child labor blamed carpet industry owners. But residents of his village later said Iqbal was slain in a fight with a farm worker, and Pakistan's leading human rights group says there is no evidence implicating the industry.

Iqbal's case attracted attention because he had been to Sweden and the United States to speak at conferences denouncing child labor. He had worked as a carpet weaver from age 4 to 10.

Imran Malik, vice chairman of the Pakistan Carpet and Manufacturers and Exporters Association, estimates $10 million worth of orders have been lost since the April 16 shooting.

"Carpets that were once considered a piece of art are now looked upon as if the blood of children has been used to make them," Malik said.

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The carpet industry, one of the biggest exporters in this impoverished country, was facing lean times even before Iqbal's death. Exports fell from $183 million in 1992 to $149 million last year, the government says.

The United States, the largest importer of Pakistani carpets, purchased $42 million worth last year, down from $55 million two years earlier.

"With this controversy, our wholesale carpet buyers don't want to take the risk and buy Pakistani carpets," said Abdul Latif Malik, a leading Lahore carpet dealer who says he has lost at least $300,000 in sales since Iqbal's death. He is no relation to the vice chairman of the carpet association.

Usman Ashraf of Usman Carpet House in Lahore said he has lost $80,000 in sales since mid-April. "It is all related to the young boy's death," he said.

Both dealers said Western buyers had contacted them to say they would not be making further purchases due to the furor over the killing.

But in New York, carpet dealers contacted by the Associated Press said they had seen no backlash against Pakistani carpets since Iqbal's death, although one said reports of child labor overseas had sparked questions from a few customers.

"There isn't a major scare that I'm aware of, but all carpets have not been selling as well because of the downturn in the economy," said Michael Harounian, a partner in the New York-based Harounian Imports.

Harounian and Larry Feldman, president of the Rug Warehouse in New York, both said they try to ensure they do no business with carpet makers who use child labor.

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Anti-Slavery International, a British-based group that campaigns against forced labor, estimates carpet makers employ about 500,000 children under 14 years old in Pakistan, 300,000 in India and 110,000 in Nepal.

Children are prized by carpet makers because their tiny fingers make small, tight knots, the sign of a truly fine carpet.

Hand-knotted carpets also are made in Iran, China, Afghanistan, Morocco, Turkey, Peru and some former Soviet states.

"Apart from the former Soviet Union, where we have no information, we have information to suggest that child labor is used to some extent in all these countries," said David Ould, spokesman for Anti-Slavery International.

It was the campaign against child labor that drew attention to Iqbal's killing.

The Bonded Labor Liberation Front, a private group in Pakistan, blamed the slaying on Pakistan's "carpet mafia," although it provided no evidence.

An AP reporter who visited Iqbal's village outside Lahore was told by numerous residents that the youth was shot by a farm worker after a petty dispute. Iqbal's cousin, who was wounded in the shooting, told the same story to police, who have arrested the farm worker.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the country's most respected human rights group, said it found no evidence tying the carpet industry to Iqbal's death.

In dirt-poor villages where there are not enough schools, children are routinely sent out to find work in mills, brickyards and garages before they reach their 10th birthday.

The conditions are often filthy and dangerous and the daily pay can be as little as one rupee--the equivalent of three cents. But in such an impoverished region, many people accept child labor as normal, including the children.

"Children themselves say, 'We're earning a living.' The family says they need the money," said Shireen Khan, a spokeswoman in Islamabad for the International Labor Organization, a United Nations group.

Pakistan passed legislation in 1992 that says children under 14 are not allowed to work, but the law is not enforced.

If Pakistan does not show some progress, it could lose preferential tariffs on its carpet imports into the United States, Commerce Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said.

"It's like a sword dangling over our head," he said.

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Young Activist's Death Hits Pakistani Carpet Sales : Trade: Exports to West have diminished even though producers haven't been linked to death of 12-year-old who fought child labor.

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Already hit with sagging exports, Pakistani carpet dealers say they have lost more sales to Western buyers since the killing of a young activist who spoke out against child labor.

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Children work because their survival and that of their families depend on it, and in many cases because unscrupulous adults take advantage of their vulnerability. It is also due to inadequacies and weaknesses in national educational systems. It is deeply ingrained in cultural and social attitudes and traditions.

Poverty is certainly the greatest single force driving children into the workplace. Income from a child's work is felt to be crucial for his/her own survival or for that of the household.

Popular perceptions and local customs and traditions (even when they are well-intended) also play an important part, such as:

The view that work is good for the character-building and skill development of children;

The tradition that children are expected to follow in their parents' footsteps in a particular trade, and to learn and practice that trade at a very early age;

Traditions that push poor families into indebting themselves heavily for social occasions or religious events, then relying on their children's work to pay off the debt. The phenomenon of bonded labour, recognized as one of the worst forms of child labour, is still widespread largely because of the vulnerability of poor families to such pressures;

The widely held view that girl children are less in need of education than boys, which leads to them being taken out of school at an early age and placed in work at home, or sold into domestic employment or sex work.

Child labour may be so deeply ingrained in local customs and habits that neither the parents nor the children themselves realize that it is against the interests of children and illegal;

Children from large families are more likely to be at work than those from small families, simply because the parents' income is quite insufficient to support a large family.

The availability and quality of schooling is among the most important factors:

many communities do not possess adequate school facilities;

even where schools exist the education provided is often not perceived by children or their parents to be a viable alternative to work. For many families, schooling is simply unaffordable. Even when it is "free" it involves a perceived opportunity cost of the income foregone when a child is at school rather than at work;

the education provided is frequently of poor quality, and/or perceived by the parents and the children themselves to be irrelevant to local needs and conditions. It is hardly surprising therefore that they see no point in attending school;

traditional views prevail that girls are better prepared for adult life by sending them to work than by investing in their education;

as a result of the above factors, vast numbers of children enter early into the unskilled labour market. They are frequently illiterate and remain so throughout their lives, and they lack the basic educational grounding which would enable them to acquire skills and to improve their prospects for a decent adult working life.

Families themselves are a major factor. Large numbers of children are unpaid workers in family enterprises (farms, informal sector workshops, etc.), which depend on family labour in order to survive. Many national laws and regulations, as well as international standards like Convention No. 138, allow exceptions in such cases. However, even in family enterprises, children can be exposed to serious risks to their health and safety.

According to the experts, the main reasons for the emergence of child labour in bigger cities are unhealthy family life and economic deprivation. Families strained by financial difficulties cannot cope with the increasing demands of their children and sometimes even fail to provide them with adequate nutrition. This appears to be the main reason children look for their own sources of income. In socially disadvantaged, alcoholic or morally bankrupt families, pecuniary challenges are often coupled with destructive dynamics in the relationships. These factors combine to spur children into the street, temporarily or permanently, leading them to a vagrant existence, required too early to make independent decisions. Economic hardships and family dysfunction can therefore be named as the main causes of child labour. Another important cause mentioned by the experts is the overall social and economic situation in the country.

According to the experts, the main reasons for the emergence of child labour in bigger cities are unhealthy family life and economic deprivation. Families strained by financial difficulties cannot cope with the increasing demands of their children and sometimes even fail to provide them with adequate nutrition. This appears to be the main reason children look for their own sources of income. In socially disadvantaged, alcoholic or morally bankrupt families, pecuniary challenges are often coupled with destructive dynamics in the relationships. These factors combine to spur children into the street, temporarily or permanently, leading them to a vagrant existence, required too early to make independent decisions. Economic hardships and family dysfunction can therefore be named as the main causes of child labour. Another important cause mentioned by the experts is the overall social and economic situation in the country.

Any diagnosis has to begin by recognizing the complexity of the problem. Legislators and policy-makers have to beware of oversimplified explanations for the existence of child labour.

For instance:

there is a widely held belief that there is nothing much that can be done to combat child labour Р that it is a result and a manifestation of poverty and can only be eliminated when poverty itself has been eliminated;

according to another school of thought, child labour only exists because unscrupulous adults exploit children in order to make quick profits and to gain an unfair advantage over competitors. All that needs to be done, according to this school of thought, is to bring the full force of the law against the offenders and to send the children back to school where they belong.

The basis of the elimination of the worst forms of child labour within a relatively short time-frame must be legislation, which keeps the total elimination of child labour as the ultimate goal of policy, but which explicitly identifies and prohibits the worst forms of child labour to be eliminated as a matter of priority. Such legislation must also provide adequate sanctions for violators and adequate compensation for victims, and be rigorously and impartially enforced.
For all these reasons, even when it has been declared illegal, child labour continues to be tolerated and accepted as the natural order of things Р and much of it is invisible. It is frequently surrounded by a wall of silence, indifference and apathy. But that wall is beginning to crumble. The process of globalization and the development of modern means of communication have made the plight of working children a major issue on the agenda of the international community.

The growing international concern with the problem of child labour, reflected by these and other events, has been the result of a number of developments, notably:

The trend towards greater liberalization of trade and capital movements. This has brought about increasingly vocal demands that children should not be victims of the increased competition among countries and firms struggling to obtain a comparative advantage in world markets through the cheap and docile labour of children.

Greater transparency in the world economy and the abolition of blocs after the end of the Cold War.

The indignation of consumers at the thought that the goods they purchase may have been produced in abusive conditions, including child labour; and

The publicity given to the commercial sexual exploitation of children, particularly children in prostitution and pornography and sex tourism.

At the same time it has resulted in a fuller understanding of the complex causes of child labour, and in particular the fact that it is deeply rooted in poverty, in the lack or inadequacy of schooling and in social and cultural traditions and structures. Its elimination cannot be achieved merely by a stroke of the legislator's pen, but is recognized to be a very long-term goal. However, growing concern has emerged that certain situations of child labour are so grave and inhumane that they can no longer be tolerated.
Thus a consensus emerged in the 1990s that the highest priority should be given to eliminating the worst forms of child labour, that visible results should be achieved within a short time-frame rather than in some indefinite future, and that a concerted programme of action should be launched at the national and international levels in order to achieve rapid results.

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Children work because their survival and that of their families depend on it, and in many cases because unscrupulous adults take advantage of their vulnerability. It is also due to inadequacies and weaknesses in national educational systems. It is deeply ingrained in cultural and social attitudes and traditions.

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Two Children Against Child Labor: Iqbal Masih and Craig Kilburger

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Two Children Against Child Labor: Iqbal Masih and Craig Kilburger

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Time Machine (1902): Children working in the Pennsylvania coal mines

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Time Machine (1902): Children working in the Pennsylvania coal mines

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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In Afghanistan, school is a luxury that many working children cannot afford

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In Afghanistan, school is a luxury that many working children cannot afford

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Wars, poverty and greed keep millions enslaved

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Wars, poverty and greed keep millions enslaved

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Wars, poverty and greed keep millions enslaved

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The Global Slavery Index estimates that almost 30 million people throughout the world are being held in bondage.

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Some say greedy bosses will try to get around new child-labor laws in India

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Some say greedy bosses will try to get around new child-labor laws in India

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Group pushes to protect children working on U.S. tobacco farms

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Group pushes to protect children working on U.S. tobacco farms

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Newsela: Millions of children still in slavery, and it must be stopped

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Newsela: Millions of children still in slavery, and it must be stopped

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Newsela: Child labor still a problem in minerals industry

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Newsela: Child labor still a problem in minerals industry

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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What Every Child Should Know About Child Labor

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What Every Child Should Know About Child Labor