Child Labour Should End !! What About Consumers Demand Of Cheap Goods?

Child Labour Should End !! What About Consumers Demand Of Cheap Goods?

SOURCE : SKYNEWS.COM

India has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of child labourers under the age of 14.

These children are trafficked from the poorest parts of the country. All promised a better life in the bright lights of growing cities.

Some parents are paid just 3,000 Indian Rupees (less than 35 ) and a promise of more money later to part with their children. Traffickers quickly move them to the bigger cities and sell them to contractors.

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Once in the clutches of a contractor, these children are put to work in almost inhuman conditions. They neither get their promised wages nor see their parents for years on end.

Kailash Satyarthi, of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a child campaign group, estimates the number of child labourers in India could be around 50 million; close to 80 % of Britain’s population. Though the government maintains the figures are far less.

‘Children are largely employed in the garment industry and a large number make products that are exported to the western world,’ he said.

‘The cheap products are sold on the high streets of London, Paris and New York, and when people buy these cheap products they in turn are responsible for the perpetuation of slavery. These cheap products are made from the sweat and blood of these child slaves.’

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Delhi is a hub and transit point for child trafficking. Sweatshops dot the capital.

Campaigners tell us it is very difficult to stop this practice unless there is a sustained and concerted effort from not only the authorities, but consumers themselves.

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Comments : So are we ready as consumers to pay the extra bit and shut the bargain to end child labour? The answer is within us.