• You must be logged in to see or use the Shoutbox. Besides, if you haven't registered, you really should. It's quick and it will make your life a little better. Trust me. So just register and make yourself at home with like-minded individuals who share either your morbid curiousity or sense of gallows humor.

Satanica

Veteran Member
Bold Member!
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-children-slaves-idUSKCN12S27K?il=0
[....]
Hundreds of children, mostly from poor rural areas of northern Indian states like Bihar, are brought to Bengaluru in Karnataka every year by agents who sell them into bonded labor or hire them out to unscrupulous employers, activists say.

"I sneaked out one night and bought a telephone card," teenager Adhir Paswan, 18, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview.

"I made the distress call to our families and a helpline in Bihar. We were not being paid and the younger boys were being beaten and abused."

One of the boys, 17, said in a statement they hadn't been paid in over a year.
[....]
A 2015 report by the International Labour Organization puts the number of child workers in India aged between five and 17 at 5.7 million, out of 168 million globally.

More than half of India's child workers labor in agriculture and over a quarter are in the manufacturing sector.

The government has recently amended its child labor law to permit children to work for their families and reduce the number of banned occupations for adolescents.

"The sole factory was a miserable place," said Lakshapathi Pendyala of the Association for Promoting Social Action, a charity that runs a helpline in Bengaluru that was part of the rescue team.

"The boys were working from nine in the morning to nine at night. They were made to sleep in the workplace only, which was filled with the smell of glue used in sticking the soles," Pendyala told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Friday.

"Several chemicals and glues were being used by the boys without any protection and some of the boys had deep cuts on their palms."

In a statement, rescuers said the boys, aged between 14 and 18, had been brought to Bengaluru from Sitamarhi district in Bihar state by at least five different traffickers.

The boys had been working at the factory for between one and 14 months.
[....]
the boys said they were forced to work throughout the day with breaks for meals only. None were allowed to call or visit their families.

Paswan said they had been promised wages of 7,000 rupees ($105) a month. Most said the money had been sent for a few months to their parents and then discontinued.

Police have registered a case against the owner of the factory and two traffickers under anti-slavery legislation.

They arrested two people. The factory owner is at large, investigating police, said in an interview, requesting anonymity.
 
I'd need to know what caste these children belonged to before condemning anyone.

I wish they'd release what american company this factory produced for.
 
i know child labor like this is horrible, but all I could think when I read the title was, "Help! I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese Fortune Cookie Factory"!

So I LOL'ed.o_O:rolleyes:
 
I just ordered this specific game themed jacket for my son, it came from India. I swear I just told my husband it looks like it was stitched by an eight year old. Makes me feel icky..
 
I just ordered this specific game themed jacket for my son, it came from India. I swear I just told my husband it looks like it was stitched by an eight year old. Makes me feel icky..

I remember someone on some forum, probably reddit, who had bought a piece of furniture you put together and noticed tiny fingerprints on it. :( There's not much you can do about it since most of our manufacturing is overseas. Even if you attempt to buy American, the box will most likely say "assembled in USA" as all the parts come from abroad. We can't even console ourselves by believing the tiny prints came from a diminutive Asian adult, because they're still virtually slaves. It's getting harder and harder for me to find enjoyment and satisfaction in my way of life, because I realize no matter what I do I am still supporting the misery and suffering of other human beings.
 
Back
Top