In the news…

the other day i was watching an HBO sports special on illegal child labor in foreign countries, India in particular. after watching the report and doing a little more research i found out just how bad the problem really is. every day children are being enslaved, sometimes even by their own parents for pennies a day if that. young children are not suppose to be working long hours a day like they are being forced to do on some of the streets in India. their little bodies are physically breaking down even before they reach their teenage years. long 12 hour days of constantly sewing and stitching together soccer balls has taken a toll on their bodies. their fingers are worn down raw, many will develop eye problems from peering at the fine stitching all day every day, some receive severe cuts and wounds form the young children working with dangerous razor blades, and many of them will develop back problems before they even reach puberty from bending over all hours of the day. some may think that the children would at least get compensated for this literally back breaking work, however they do not. in many cases the kids parents have sold them in this debt bondage for money or a loan. and the interest is so steep on these loans that sometimes the children are forced to serve their whole lives, and when they get to old to do the work any longer their children in many cases would have to take over their duties. people ask why the children. why cant this work just go to the thousands of unemployed adults living in India. the answer is complacency. the children that they make work are so young that they will, for the most part remain quiet. more often then not the children wont form unions and raise hell about working conditions or making little to no money, where as adults would. their childhood is being stolen from them for the simple cheap production of soccer balls. it was made apparent that this problem desperately needed to be addressed and in the 1990′s Mitre, the worlds leading soccer ball manufacture called and meeting with the largest soccer ball manufacturers and distributors to discuss the issue. however, policies are one thing and practice is another. the problem has continued for years after and large business seemed to have turned a blind eye to the problem. even the united states can partially be to blame for this continued problem. even the united states department of labor is partially to blame on the subject because we have also turned a blind eye and just allowed this illegal actions to occur. if something is not done, and soon, many children throughout the streets of India will be continued into this slavery for their lives. something must be done, and soon.