[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 53 (Thursday, May 2, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E680-E681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CHILD LABOR

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 1, 2002

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, today I recognize the outstanding work done 
by participants in my Student Congressional Town Meeting held this 
spring at the University of Vermont. These participants were part of a 
group of high school students from around Vermont who testified about 
the concerns they have as teenagers, and about what they would like to 
see government do regarding these concerns.

On Behalf of Andrea Shahan, Danielle Harvey, Reid Garrow, Troy Ault and 
                             Stefanie Gray


                         Regarding CHILD LABOR

                            (April 8, 2002)

       REID GARROW: On the western edge of Dacca, Bangladesh, on a 
     man-made ridge constructed to prevent flooding, dust is 
     everywhere. The air is full of a single-sound sequence: The 
     sharp sing of hammers hitting stone anvils. The sun beats 
     bright as the children with their naked dust-covered bodies 
     hammer away with tiny hammers in imitation of their mothers.
       Many mothers work here. Hundreds, even thousands, are 
     employed in breaking bricks for the foundations of the 
     buildings. And by many mothers' sides, living in horrible 
     conditions, are their children, laboring away. There are many 
     places such as the factory described in Dacca, Bangladesh, 
     all over the world. Children are forced to work in horrible 
     conditions, with extremely low wages, and with no rights 
     whatsoever.
       We are the beneficiaries of child labor. Many of us here 
     today are wearing clothing made overseas, and a significant 
     percentage of it is made by small children. The United States 
     has the world's largest economy, and with just a little 
     effort, our government could drastically reduce child labor, 
     and maybe even someday eliminate it.
       DANIELLE HARVEY: A common way for children to become 
     exploited in the system of child labor is to be sold by their 
     parents to a bondsman in order to pay off a debt. The debt is 
     usually very small, ranging from 500 to 7,500 rupees, which, 
     when converted to U.S. currency, mounts to about $14 to $200. 
     Destitute families are offered these loans, and most families 
     accept them, because they need to pay for the cost of an 
     illness, to provide a dowry for a married child, or perhaps 
     just to keep food on the table.
       A significant job in the workforce is the manufacturing of 
     domestic and export products. Some of these products include 
     silk, bee, which are hand-rolled cigarettes, silver jewelry, 
     synthetic gemstones, leather products, including footwear and 
     sporting goods, handwoven wool carpets, and precious 
     gemstones and diamonds. Some services that bondsmen force 
     bonded children to perform include prostitution, small-
     restaurant work, truck-stop work, tea-shop services, and 
     domestic servitude.
       STEFANIE GRAY: Child labor prevents children from receiving 
     a good education. Without an education, they are unable to 
     receive jobs at reasonable pay as an adult. Children want a 
     good education, and they believe that the only way their 
     beliefs will be fulfilled is if they are willing to work.
       With the lack of support from their parents and their 
     employers, it is hard to be a student and an employee. There 
     are some companies in Nepal, Pakistan, that give classes to 
     employers and parents to recognize the students' education 
     rights.
       Child domestic workers cannot join a normal school. A 
     little twelve-year-old boy cleans utensils, washes clothes, 
     and sweeps the house. He rarely sees outside the small four-
     walled house where he works. He wants to go to school and 
     study, and is unable because of his housework. Children work 
     in the hope they will make enough money to go to school, and, 
     in the end, they realize they won't every make enough money. 
     And it is hard for them to get out of work once they enter. 
     They become disappointed that they won't get the education 
     that they had hoped for.
       TROY AULT: Child debt servitude has been illegal since 1933 
     in India, when the Children Pledging Labor Act was enacted 
     under British rule. There are specific laws which were meant 
     to govern child labor in factories, in commercial 
     establishments, on plantations, and in apprenticeships. There 
     are also laws about the use of migrant labor and contract 
     labor. A recent law established in 1986 was set in place by 
     the Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act, and 
     designates a child as a person who has not completed their 
     14th year of age.'' It purports to regulate the hours and 
     conditions of some child workers, and to prohibit the use of 
     child labor in certain enumerated hazardous industries. Most 
     importantly, there is a law that was established in 1976 by 
     the Bonded Labor System Abolition Act, which strictly outlaws 
     all forms of debt bondage and forced labor.
       Why these laws have not been enforced. The governing 
     systems in Asia feel that child labor is inevitable. They 
     think that it is caused by poverty, and cannot be changed by 
     force, that it must evolve slowly towards eradication.It has 
     been discovered, though, that some governments fund child 
     labor in their country, which isn't making the population of 
     child workers any smaller.
       Many feel that the systems are concerned only with 
     maintaining a lead in the global marketplace, rather than the 
     condition of their nation's youth. The problem at hand is 
     really that, with the laws formed by these nations against 
     having child labor in their countries are not being enforced 
     harshly enough, and that an involvement with the American 
     government, which has much more power, would make much more 
     of an impact on child labor.
       ANDREA SHAHAN: Rosy, from the Philippines, who is 14 years 
     old, has to take care of the household as well as her 
     employer's 14 breeding dogs. She says, The dogs are so big. 
     I'm afraid to go near them. Every day, I prepare kilos of dog 
     food, wash out their pens, and take care of the mother dogs 
     with newly born puppies. Sometimes I can't sleep properly for 
     three nights or the puppies may die.
       All dogs are made in heaven, they say, but some domestics 
     live in hell. My employer doesn't allow me to have any of the 
     leftover food from their table, and I can't just help myself. 
     I'm always hungry. One day, I couldn't tighten my belt 
     anymore, so I ate the food of the dogs.
       Saneena, from Nepal, who is twelve years old, in an 
     interview, says: I have been a domestic worker for the last 
     two years, and recently started going to school. At first, my 
     stepmother didn't allow me to attend, but I used to go to the 
     class anyway, without telling her. A few days later, she 
     caught me, scolded me, and gave me a slap.

[[Page E681]]

       The teacher visited our house and tried to convince her to 
     send me back. To begin with, she was not ready even to talk, 
     but later she agreed, on the condition that I should take my 
     younger brother with me. So I bring my baby brother to 
     school. He can't really understand the class because he is 
     only one and a half years old, but I'm glad at least to have 
     a chance to go to school again.
       Fatima, from Bangladesh, is 14 years old. Fatima came to 
     Dacca to work as a domestic worker. Her employer used to beat 
     her up often. After four months, when her employer beat her 
     up severely, she ran away, and took shelter in another home. 
     Seeing the bruises on her body, the owner of her house took 
     her to the police station when she was a bit better.
       The police brought her back to her old employer's house for 
     investigation. The employers bribed the police and give them 
     a written statement saying that she would be sent back to her 
     village. But after the police left, she was locked in the 
     toilet. She started screaming, and upon hearing her cries for 
     help, the neighbors phoned ASK. ASK Lawyers rescued her and 
     tried to file suit against the employer. While this was going 
     on, the employer offered Fatima's family about 230 U.S. 
     dollars. Fatima's mother took the money and refused to file 
     charges. At present, Fatima is working in a garment factory.
       Johoya has to get up at 5 a.m., wash the utensils, sweep 
     the compound, wash the cloths, attend to the demands of the 
     mistress in the kitchen, attend to the old lady in the house, 
     and also look after the pet dog. One day, Johoya was on the 
     road, crying, holding a dog chain in her hand. When 
     approached, she burst out crying, saying, ``the dog has run 
     away. I am afraid. Tomorrow the master will be returning to 
     the house, and he will kill me for losing the dog. My 
     mistress has not given me food for two days because I have 
     lost the dog. Have you seen my dog anywhere?''
       The next day the house owner arrived, and Johoya was beaten 
     for her carelessness and told she was not to be given any 
     food until the dog was found. Some days later, the dog was 
     found in the house of a neighbor, and money was paid to them 
     for finding and keeping the dog safely. Johoya was happy the 
     dog was returned, but her salary for the previous month was 
     not given to her mother, when she came, as usual, to collect. 
     She was told it had been paid to the neighbor who found and 
     looked after the dog.
       When you look into a child's eyes, you expect to see hope, 
     trust and innocence, but when you see these signs of 
     childhood are replaced by the trail of hunger, fear and 
     suspicion, we need to take serious stock in ourselves and the 
     society we have created.

     

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