Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511170114
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: G-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CARL HARTMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The 150-page survey, ``By the Sweat and Toil of Children,'' documents the use of young children for arduous and often-dangerous work in 56 countries.
The report was commissioned by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who is campaigning to get Congress to ban importation of products made by children.
In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 says children of 14 and 15 may work only in limited kinds of jobs, outside school hours. For hazardous jobs, the minimum age is 18. Child workers must be paid the minimum wage.
All 50 states also have laws regulating child labor, most of them setting limits on age and hours of work.
For both economic and cultural reasons, however, many countries have no such protections.
As a result, the survey said, children cut sugar cane in Brazil, knit carpets by hand in southern Asia and work as prostitutes in Thai brothels.
An estimated 5,000 children work in the silk thread manufacturing industry in southern Karnataka in southwestern India, the report said. Girls from 5 to 16 are sent to work by their parents, who receive loans in exchange from the factory owner.
The United States imported $28 million in silk thread and silk fabric from India in 1994, the report said.
In documenting the use of young boys as camel jockeys in the United Arab Emirates, the survey said the boys are strapped to the camel's back and ``their cries of fright are perceived to propel the camel to run even faster.''
``The boys are deliberately underfed to reduce their weight on the camel, and are sometimes subjected to sexual abuse and physical harassment,'' the report said.
Virtually every country has enacted laws or signed agreements limiting how children can work, but many permit child labor anyway, the report said. It noted that an official decree in the United Arab Emirates stipulates that camel jockeys must weigh at least 99 pounds and prohibits the use of children. But it left enforcement to the local Camel Racing Association.
The Labor Department said reports persist of the abduction or recruitment of boys 4 to 10 years old from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Mauritania.
Last year's child-labor report requested by Harkin dealt with the use of children in mines and factories. That was the first of three surveys the Iowa Democrat has commissioned in his effort to enact sanctions against countries using children in the workplace.
The International Labor Organization, of which the United States is a member, warned in a recent report that sanctions can endanger instead of protect children by forcing employers to immediately discharge them. In many societies, families must have the income of child workers in order to eat.
The World Bank also opposes trade sanctions against child labor. It contends that the scourge can be removed if governments enforce their own laws and make school more attractive to families than jobs.
Asian countries are most often cited in the U.S. report: India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia. In South America, Brazil is mentioned frequently.
U.S. law already prohibits importing goods made with forced labor. But officials of the Justice Department and the U.S. Customs Service said they could not recall a case involving children.
by CNB