[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 46 (Thursday, April 17, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1692-H1696]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHILD LABOR AND THE CRUSADE OF IQBAL MASIH
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran] is recognized
for the
[[Page H1693]]
balance of the time as the designee of the minority leader.
Earth Day
Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New
Jersey for raising these very important issues to recognize the
importance of Earth Day.
It behooves the Congress to look back at history before there was an
environmental sensitivity. We had a lake in Ohio that actually caught
on fire. We had air that was not fit to breathe. We have created
greenhouse gas emissions that have led to a global warming that one day
will inundate several very populous islands. The Seychelles, for
example, inevitably will go below sea level because of the greenhouse
gas emissions that have resulted in the warming of our entire planet.
The ozone layer has been depleted because of chlorofluorocarbons
carbons. We have an area the size of North America in the Antarctic,
and while it may not concern people that penguins are not able to
reproduce like they were, the fact is that it is a warning to all of us
the effects of ignoring our environment.
In this country, we find that children's cancer is the second leading
cause of death among children, and we know that 80 percent of the cause
is environmentally related, 90 percent worldwide. It is because of
pesticides in foods that children eat. It is because of the toxic
chemicals that we put in our ground and on our grass that children play
on and touch and get into their skin. It is because of the particles
that they breathe. It is because of some of the water that they drink.
And so, as a result, we have despoiled this planet in many ways. And
it certainly behooves us not to look back at what we have accomplished,
but to look even more forward.
There are a lot of things that need to be done. For one thing, we
ought to be measuring the toxicity level of environmental risks as they
would effect children, not fully grown adults.
And so we have a lot to do, and I know that the gentleman from New
Jersey will be in the lead in accomplishing those objectives.
Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later. Hopefully, not too
late.
But Mr. Speaker, I would like to raise another equally compelling
issue. It is an international issue, but it is one that has immediate
effects upon our own population and our responsible role in the world.
And so I would like to go down to the podium and address the House from
there.
Mr. Speaker, what I would like to speak about is child labor, the
exploitation of children for profit. This week is the 2-year
anniversary of the death of a real leader in the crusade against child
labor. He was murdered because of that crusade. His name is Iqbal
Masih.
Let me begin by telling you a little bit about the life of Iqbal
Masih and how he became a crusader against child labor. Iqbal grew up
Muritke, Pakistan. Iqbal's family lived in poverty, as do millions of
other families in Pakistan.
Clearly it was very difficult for Iqbal's parents to scrape together
enough to feed their children. By the time Iqbal was 4, his older
brother was ready to marry. It should have been a time of great
celebration.
Perhaps if by accident of birth Iqbal were born into a different
family, one in the United States or a country as prosperous as ours,
with the kind of employment opportunities that we afford, perhaps your
family or mine, then Iqbal would have taken part in the ceremony and
celebrated the marriage of his brother.
But Iqbal was not born into such a family. Iqbal did not get to take
part in his brother's wedding. His family could not afford the wedding.
They needed $12 to properly wed their son, and they did not have it.
So how did Iqbal's family pay for the wedding? Did Iqbal's father
look for more work? Did they try to find a cheaper way to finance the
wedding? No. Instead they took out a loan for the $12. But they did not
have a house to put a second mortgage on. They did not have a pension
plan to borrow against.
So they used their son Iqbal. They traded Iqbal to the moneylender as
collateral on a $12 loan. The moneylender was not a banker merely
looking for insurance on his loan. In fact, Iqbal's parents were never
expected to pay the loan. Iqbal was expected to pay off the loan.
But how does a 4-year-old pay off his parents' debts? Well, he is
forced to work. Iqbal had become a bonded laborer. Bonded labor is one
step removed from child slavery.
The moneylender, now Iqbal's master, could trade or sell Iqbal to
others. He exercised complete control over Iqbal. Because Iqbal's small
fingers were nimble, he was forced to tie knots in handmade carpets.
Carpet manufacturers prefer to get children when they are young. As
one manufacturer said, their hands are nimbler and their eyes are
better, too. They are faster when they are small. They are also easier
to control.
Because the carpet manufacturer controls what or even if these
children eat, he can easily control them. Some manufacturers are not so
subtle. Many of them chain the children to their looms. They must eat,
work, and sleep tied to their loom.
At 4 years old, all these children know of the world is their
village. They probably do not even know the name of their village. They
are often taken hundreds of miles away. Even if they were lucky enough
to escape, they would not know where to go. And even if they knew where
to go, corrupt government officials merely return them to their
masters.
So how do you escape from bonded labor? Iqbal was told he could
escape if he raised enough money to pay off his parents' $12 loan. The
carpet manufacturer said he would deduct Iqbal's salary from the amount
Iqbal's parents owed.
The carpet manufacturer also added any of Iqbal's expenses to the
amount his parents owed. These expenses included room and board. Iqbal
had to pay for the privilege of sleeping chained to a loom and fines
for any mistakes that 4-year-old boy made. The carpet manufacturer also
charged interest on the loan.
Within a few years, Iqbal's $12 debt had increased 2,100 percent.
Iqbal tied tiny knots for as much as 20 hours a day. He usually worked
6 days a week, and frequently all 7 days of the week he would work. He
was beaten when he made any mistakes.
Iqbal worked for 6 years as a bonded laborer until he was freed with
the help of the Bonded Labor Liberation Front, a human rights group.
Iqbal was only 10 when he escaped. He then traveled around the world
speaking out about the horrors that he and millions of other children
experienced. His efforts focused international attention on the problem
of child labor.
Because of his efforts on behalf of other child laborers, Iqbal won
the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1994. Although a hero to other
children, Iqbal made many enemies. Carpet manufacturers had to pay
bigger bribes to continue business as usual. They were losing money.
Iqbal returned to his home village of Muritke, Pakistan in April
1995. On Easter Sunday, 2 years ago yesterday, Iqbal was riding his
bicycle with two friends when he was shot and killed. Iqbal was 12
years old, 12 years old.
Mr. Speaker, the International Labor Organization estimates that
worldwide there is as many as 200 million children working in Africa,
one quarter of all the children are working; in Asia, 18 percent; Latin
America, 7 percent. Child labor takes many forms. The worst is bonded
labor and indentured servitude like Iqbal Masih endured.
Children also work in more traditional manufacturing centers, such as
factories. Some children are minors. Some work on fishing rigs in the
ocean. Some work on the streets shining shoes or selling their bodies.
They work as glassblowers and as carpenters. They sort hazardous
recyclables, like broken batteries soaked in acid and used hospital
syringes dirty with blood.
Children have little resistance to adults that seek to exploit them.
Unfortunately, almost invariably, children wind up at the bottom of all
national agendas for political and social action.
I want people to focus on this picture. It is of a little girl at a
shoe shine stand in Ecuador. She is less than 4 years old. She
represents the millions of children who work on the streets of the
world cities.
The cycle begins when a farm family moves to the city in search of
work.
[[Page H1694]]
They soon find that the city is not what they expected. They lack the
skills necessary for a good job and find city life far more expensive
than they had planned on.
The family's mother may find work as a maid, but typically the father
turns to alcohol or leaves the family. If children are surrounded by
models of chronic inactivity and frustration at home, they may even be
attracted to the excitement of the street.
Children are sent onto streets to work or beg. While seeking work,
they are easy prey. They are given a job like this girl shining shoes.
They must turn over all the money they receive to an older child who
then gives them a small portion as salary.
The older child is equivalent to a pimp raking in profits by
exploiting a small army of children. Frequently, though, the older
child is in a similar relationship with even older children who may
control large groups of these child pimps. Those that are beggars may
be maimed to make them look more miserable and helpless than other
beggars.
As the children grow older, they may realize they can make more money
by theft or by exploiting children younger than themselves.
Street life cannot be easy for anyone, especially a 4-year-old girl.
Tragically, when these children need to be thrown a life preserver,
they often turn to drugs. The common drug for them today is glue. When
they are hungry or very cold, they sniff glue to kill the pain. After
sniffing glue the children stagger. They slur their speech, and their
eyes swell and turn red. Soon they have irreversible brain damage.
While these tragic lives may sound parallel to life on our own city
streets, there is an important distinction: The role of corrupt
government officials.
In Brazil, one counselor said if a boy does not have enough money to
give a cop, he may beat him. With the proper payoff a kid can keep out
of the reform inventory or he can keep his place on the park bench for
another night.
I would like to show the next picture, which is of a boy in Aligarth,
India. It is a town in the Providence of Uttar Pradesh on the border of
Nepal. This picture was presented to the Committee on International
Relations last year by a constituent of mine Ms. Francoise Remington,
director of a nonprofit group called Forgotten Children.
Uttar Pradesh is known for its production of brass and other metal
products. This boy is making tiny padlocks. The average pay for
children in the metal industry is $6 a month. The children work 60-hour
work weeks. The children are recruited by middle men called dalals, who
are paid by the thekedar, or contractor, who prefers children because
they are so easy to control.
Although most metal factories claim to be family businesses to skirt
India's scant child labor regulations, there are virtually no
incidences of actual family metal shops in this part of India.
These children remove molten metal from molds near furnaces. These
children work with furnaces at temperatures of 2,000 degrees. Burns are
a constant danger. Children also work at electroplating, polishing, and
applying chemicals to metal. This child is polishing padlocks on a
small grindstone. Fumes and metal dust are constantly inhaled by these
children, causing tuberculosis and respiratory illnesses.
Child labor in India is still the norm rather than the exception.
There are about 250 million children in India. Estimates of the amount
of children working in India ranges from 44 to 100 million. The Indian
Government admits to at least 17 million.
{time} 1930
The next picture is of Silgi. She is sewing soccer balls.
Nearby Pakistan, nearby to India, has similar problems with child
labor.
Mr. Speaker, you may remember this picture from Life magazine last
June. This is a picture of 3-year-old Silgi. She sits on a mud floor,
in a filthy dress, stitching soccer balls bound for Los Angeles--Los
Angeles, this country for which we pay large sums of money of which she
gets a pittance. With needles longer than her fingers her stitching is
adequate, but her hands are so small that she cannot handle scissors.
She must get assistance from a fellow employee, her sister. Silgi lives
in Sialkot, a city of 300,000 that produces 35 million soccer balls per
year, 80 percent of the world's supply.
Mr. Speaker, children like Silgi can sew up to 80 hours each week, 80
hours a week in silence and near total darkness. Their foreman says
darkness discourages photographers who may wish to expose their trade.
They are punished if they fall asleep or if they waste materials or
miscut patterns. They are also punished if they complain to their
parents or speak to any strangers outside the factory. These children
may be punished in a small room in the back of the factory. They may be
hung upside-down by their knees or they may be contained. Frequently
they are starved.
Let me show the last picture. This is of a girl bashing rocks. You
could find pictures like any of these, scenes like any of these
children that are pictured here today in any of these countries that we
refer to.
Sometimes the entire family is working in bondage, perhaps to pay the
debt of a diseased relative. Children are required to work alongside
their parents to maximize production. They work up to 14 hours a day
carrying rocks or breaking them into pieces. This young girl is doing
just that. She lives in an area where gravel is scarce. In order to
make cement, rocks must be broken down to small stones, and many rural
areas' traditional class or caste systems perpetuate bonded labor.
Pledging one's labor and that of his children may be the only
resource a family has and may be all they can pledge as security for a
loan. Unfortunately, the same family may be uneducated and illiterate.
It is easy prey to the money lender who may charge outrageous interest
rates, and in those cases in which the labor of the family is pledged,
debts are passed from parent to child often for generations upon
generations.
Mr. Speaker, a surprising number of children are minors. The hazards
they face are enormous. In the jungles of southeastern Peru, children
work mining gold. In 1991, common graves of child workers--these are
mass graves of child workers--were uncovered. The corpses reveal that
these children died from disease and from work-related injuries.
Mr. Speaker, let me just speak briefly as to what the United States
can do about this. First thing we need to know is that it exists, to
spread the word so that we can become mobilized. There are many Members
of Congress who have introduced legislation to combat these horrors,
and just this week the Clinton administration announced a new voluntary
code of conduct and labeling program. We need to gather it, this
information, because in developing a solution to the problem of child
labor we need to know the scope of the problem, the sources of the
problem and what it is that we can do in the most cost-effective and
efficient manner to change this situation.
Because many governments are in denial over the scope of child
exploitation in their country, the international labor organization has
made progress working with specific countries in human rights groups in
conducting surveys. For example, until recently Pakistan had never
conducted a survey to determine the scope of its problem. Pakistan and
the International Labor Organization should be commended for
undertaking this project. The study indicated that at least 8 percent
of Pakistan's 40 million children were actively working and being
exploited. More than half of the child laborers were located in the
province of Punjab. So while the release of hard data and the scope of
the child labor problem may hurt Pakistan in the short term, it now
knows where resources are most urgently needed.
The United States compiles two sources of government information on
child labor and human rights. The State Department's Annual Country
Reports on Human Rights contains an overview of the human rights issues
in every country. Unfortunately each report only contains a paragraph
or two on child labor issues. Today I introduced legislation to add an
additional section to the human rights reports that would detail the
scope of child labor in every country. It would include an overview of
the country's child labor laws and whether they are effectively
enforced. It would include a
[[Page H1695]]
discussion of government corruption and bribery and their relation to
the effectiveness of child labor laws. It would greatly enhance the
information available to us today.
The other major source of government information are the reports
published by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs under the
direction of Under Secretary Andrew Samet. These reports are dedicated
to specific aspects of the child labor problem. The first dealt with
manufactured and mined imports, the second with forced and bonded child
labor, and the third with goods imported into the United States. They
have just undertaken their fourth report which I am sure will be as
excellent as the last three.
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, we are a contributing factor to the
propagation of child labor. Few U.S. investors and even fewer U.S.
consumers would knowingly buy products made from the sweat and toil of
children. As consumers, we should ensure that when we spend $30 to $50
to buy a soccer ball for our children that the money does not go to
companies that deny other children their childhoods by working them for
pennies a day under inhumane conditions. As investors we should be sure
our businesses are doing more than giving lip service to avoiding child
labor.
On Monday the Clinton administration took the first step in
addressing these concerns. They brought several members of the
manufacturing sector together with labor leaders and public interest
groups to craft a voluntary labeling program.
The first part of the President's program develops a ``Workplace Code
of Conduct'' for apparel manufacturers. A code of conduct embodies a
company's policy on a host of issues typically including ethical
conduct which may differ from culture to culture. By firmly stating the
company's policy on discrimination, forced labor, wages, benefits and
other terms of employment, an American business can put its licensees
and subcontractors on notice about the types of conditions it finds
acceptable. By incorporating codes of conduct into contracts with
licensees and subcontractors, a business can have greater control over
how its goods are produced worldwide.
Many American firms have taken upon themselves to adopt strong codes
of conduct prohibiting child labor, yet problems persist. One clear
example was Nike's recent experience in Pakistan. Nike has a strong
code of conduct prohibiting child labor among its subcontractors and
anyone they do business with. Yet numerous reports documented children
stitching soccer balls for Nike.
So why did they not know there was a problem producing soccer balls?
Largely it was because when Nike's subcontractor in Pakistan became
overworked, it subcontracted out some of its work, and in doing so did
not impose the same code of conduct. This second level of
subcontractors were unscrupulous profiteers who farmed out the work to
whoever they could get to do it cheaply, the most cheaply, primarily
children like Silgi.
Multiple levels of subcontracting are common in global manufacturing.
Unfortunately they add levels of complexity to enforcing labor codes.
To ensure that the various levels of subcontractors and licensees are
adhering to codes of conduct, businesses need to have reputable firms
inspect their subcontractors periodically. Many small firms have been
doing this successfully for years, and we are finally seeing the major
accounting firms break into this market.
To a certain extent, adopting codes of conduct makes economic sense.
The more a code of conduct is enforced, the less likely the controlling
firm is subject to claims of worker exploitation and perhaps
litigation.
President Clinton's recent initiative includes a code of conduct
requiring no more than a 60-hour work week, a minimum age for
employment of children, and compliance with local minimum wage laws.
Even though an undeveloped country may not see enforcing its minimum
wage laws as a priority, our codes of conduct will require that goods
bound for the United States be made in compliance with these local
laws.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire at this point how much time is remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). The gentleman has 8 minutes
remaining.
Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, today, short of spending many, many hours in
a library, consumers have no way of knowing if the products they buy
are produced by children, and in exchange for complying with the
suggested codes of conduct manufacturers will be permitted to use a new
``No Sweat'' label on their goods. Consumers will find it easy to look
for the No Sweat label. Quick and easy access to such information will
empower consumers to show the manufacturing industry the importance of
staying child-labor free. I would hope that every parent would look for
this label and would understand but for the grace of God their child
could be in a similar exploited condition.
Labeling programs do have critics. Some fear that labels will be
easily forged. Some fear that labeling requirement will be increased
over time and used as protectionist measures. These are valid concerns
and only serve to underscore the importance of fighting the battle
against child labor on many fronts.
One is trade sanctions. We could ban imports made by children. This
is the approach taken by Senator Harkin and Congressman Frank and their
legislation. This approach would keep track of specific products that
were routinely made with child labor from certain countries. These
products would be banned unless the importer could demonstrate that
child labor was not used in the manufacture of the product.
Another approach is through utilization of the generalized system of
preferences program. The GSP, which is the acronym for this program, is
designed to provide preferential trade treatment to developing
countries. If a country qualifies, certain products are given reduced
tariff rates.
A condition of receiving these generalized system of preferences
benefits for any particular product is that the export country ensure
that basic worker rights are protected. If not, the United States can
revoke GSP benefits to all products from the country, or the United
States can revoke generalized system of preference benefits for
specific products. Last year, Commerce Secretary Kantor suspended GSP
benefits to Pakistan on surgical equipment, sporting goods and hand-
knotted carpets for failing to effectively fight child labor in these
industries.
Because the export country usually wants to restore GSP benefits
quickly, it has an incentive active to cooperate with the United
States. The executive branch has the authority to reinstate GSP
benefits if it is satisfied that the export country is making a good
faith effort to rectify the problem.
Unfortunately, all of these approaches only help solve the child
labor problem to the extent it is connected with U.S. trade. But about
95 percent of all child labor does not involve products bound for the
United States. Most involves domestic products or services and cannot
be effected by U.S. trade policy.
For this reason I introduced the Working Children's Human Rights Act
which would deny non-humanitarian U.S. assistance to countries that
have not enacted or refuse to enforce their own child labor laws. U.S.
taxpayers should not be forced to support rogue regimes that turn a
blind eye to government corruption and inaction that perpetuates the
exploitation of children. Withholding foreign aid has a limited effect,
though, because only a small handful of countries receive any U.S.
assistance today.
The United States does, however, have leverage through lending
institutions such as the World Bank. The World Bank provides loans,
technical assistance and policy guidelines to help its developing
country members reduce poverty and improve living standards through
sustainable economic growth. The bank does a tremendous job at
financing necessary projects such as infrastructure improvement which
is necessary to attract private sector investment. Because of the
importance of assistance such as World Bank loans to developing
countries, it is appropriate for the United States to condition its
vote in favor of loans to a particular country on that country's
compliance with major U.S. foreign policy goals.
{time} 1945
Today, the United States votes against loans to countries which the
President has certified as major illicit
[[Page H1696]]
drug-producing countries. The eradication of child exploitation ought
to be as important to United States foreign policy as combating
narcotics, which is terribly important. That is why my legislation
would require the United States to vote against loans to countries who
have not adopted or refused to enforce their own child labor laws.
There is a more immediate step the World Bank could take. Last year
we heard testimony before the Subcommittee on International Relations
and Human Rights, on which I sat, that hundreds of children worked on
infrastructure improvements on one particular project in India. Who
knows how many thousands of children like them work on such projects?
The World Bank and other such institutions should take a more active
role in eradicating child labor by requiring that no children work on
projects for which World Bank funds are used. Surely U.S. taxpayers do
not want their contributions to the World Bank used for development
projects that exploit children.
Mr. Speaker, I want to share with my colleagues some success stories
in our battle to end exploitation of the children. The first is a
project in Bangladesh that would not have been possible without the
dedication of U.S. Ambassador David Merrill.
Bangladesh's garment sector began thriving in 1977 and currently
exports over $750 million per year into the United States. The
industry's main products include shirts, trousers, jackets, T-shirts,
shorts, briefs, and sweatsuits.
By 1990, estimates of the number of working 10- to 14-year-old
children in Bangladesh were between 5 and 15 million children. The vast
majority of these children worked in the garment sector. Typically,
garment factories in Bangladesh were dimly lit with poor ventilation.
Hours were very long. Workers usually were forced to work without
break; the doors are locked during the shift. Only occasionally is a
guard with a key near the door. During time of high demand, workers are
locked in until their work is finished, often overnight. They work 24
hours a day.
In 1990, the Bangladesh garment manufacturers insisted that children
were only in factories to accompany their working mothers who could not
afford child care. Not true. Yet the Asian-American Free Labor
Institute study showed children walking to factories with their time
cards in hand. When that institute probed further, they learned that
children really worked at the same factories with their relatives.
In the fall of 1993, Senator Tom Harkin and Representative George
Brown introduced legislation to ban imports made by child labor from
entry into the United States. Fearing passage of this bill, the
Bangladesh garment manufacturers abruptly fired 50,000 child workers.
Unfortunately, firing the children from the manufacturing centers
meant they were forced to look for other work. Many went to work as
brick-makers or fish processors, using more dangerous equipment that
exposed them to even more risks. Through the hard work of Ambassador
Merrill and human rights groups, an historical memorandum of
understanding was signed by the Bangladesh garment manufacturers, the
International Labor Organization and UNICEF on July 4, 1995.
As a result of this agreement, children are moving from factories to
schools while they receive a monthly stipend. The Bangladesh garment
manufacturers, UNICEF and the ILO, the International Labor
Organization, all contribute to a fund to build schools and educate
these children, and that is the solution. That is what we have to be
doing. They pay the children one-half of what they would have made in
the garment factories.
It is working. We can make progress. We need to be making that kind
of progress in other countries. It is wrong to continue exploiting over
100 million children per year.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time. I appreciate my colleague, the
gentleman from California [Mr. Cunningham] having the patience to wait
through this. I would urge my colleagues not only to cosponsor the
legislation on human rights for children, but to get involved in this
issue seeking a long-term solution.
____________________