Child Labor

The developed world doesn’t take time to stop and think about where a majority of consumer products are made, or the how it effects the lives of those making them. America’s largest companies like Nike, Wrangler Jeans, General Motors, and Wal-Mart are all guilty of outsourcing jobs in exchange for cheap labor. Unfortunately, a large percentage of these workers are children, and though all countries have child labor laws, they are not all enforced. Child labor remains a serious issue in Malaysia, China and Mexico, and without a considerable effort from local and international governing bodies the problem will continue indefinitely.

Child Labor in Malaysia is not nearly as bad as some other countries in the region, and mainly occurs within families rather than large-scale agriculture. The Children and Young Persons (Employment) Act of Malaysia prohibits the employment of children younger than the age of 14, with the exception of “family enterprises, public entertainment, and work performed for the government in a school.” Those that do work under the legal age are not allowed to work more than six hours a day or six days a week.

While the government believes there can be no accurate estimate on the number of child laborers, some organization believe that is the biggest problem and because of that need to conduct surveys:

The delegation from Malaysia recommends that a solution be implemented that is centered on NGO efforts. The NGO's would perform detailed surveys on where child labor is the largest problem with a focus on domestic child labor, which is often overlooked and unaccounted for.

A domestic servant is someone who works within the employer’s household such as a cook or maid. Aside from these workers who make up a small portion of those child laborers, most are found on plantation fields. The middle and lower class population consider it tradition to have their children help with work and tend their family farms and therefore do not consider it child labor. Though the government doesn’t necessarily agree with this viewpoint, they don’t dispute it either. Child labor goes nearly unchecked in other Asian countries such as China.

Child labor is more rampant in China than any other country. A major portion of the Chinese workforce consists of teenagers and pre-adolescents. The map shows the north-west region of Guangdong, and the route of migration to the developing south and coastal regions, such as Hong Kong, these young people make in hopes of earning money. A study done by the Chinese government, and published in The People’s Daily Report stated that juvenile labor is most prevalent in the following industries:

Toy production, textiles, construction, food production, and light mechanical work. Concerning the latter, the report concludes that child labor is particularly in demand because children have smaller hands and eyesight undamaged by years of labor, making them more desirable than adults for certain kinds of work.

Of these rural migrants working under hazardous conditions, almost all of them send money home to their struggling families. Although many of the parents claim not to know about the hazardous conditions in the factories, it’s difficult to believe they are entirely naïve to the risks involved in manufacturing. Many of these kids are leaving their families, working outside in the fields, harvesting crops and they trade it to work in a sweatbox for 16 hours earning $1 a day. A reporter from Guangzhou’s Southern Metropolis Newspaper investigated a local textile factory:

Workers as young as twelve years old working as much as sixteen hours per day, more during peak production season. When the reporter asked to see the young worker's sleeping quarters, they replied that the cramped 200-square meter workshop was it, and that at night they slept on or under their worktables.

These conditions are among the worst in the world. This is an example of just one building in that region, as it was reported there were many others within the immediate vicinity which had almost the exact same conditions. Another report from a separate district investigated the headmaster of a local school, where he had hired thirty-five of his students ages eight to sixteen to work in his private factory. China’s labor laws do ban children from working, but reports have shown that these rules simply aren’t being enforced by the government, and are being entirely ignored by businesses. Recent regulation was passed enforcing a 5000 Yuan penalty for every child worker; however this cannot be considered a legitimate counter to child labor. The government needs to develop realistic regulations that can end their abusive use of child labor. China needs to take a more aggressive stance in their politics towards child labor, something which Mexico is also having difficulty enforcing.

Child labor in Mexico is mostly in the agricultural industry, and has increased since the North American Free Trade Agreement. There are over 300,000 children working in the fields, gathering all sorts of goods like lettuce, cabbage, and spinach. These kids make up a large percentage of the workforce:

Children under 15 make up 20 percent of Mexico's migrant farm workers, the Mexican Labor Secretariat says. Less than 10 percent of these children attend school, and 42 percent suffer from some form of malnutrition, government studies show.

In recent years however, the government has taken steps to clean up the issue. Mexican Labor Secretary Javier Lozano stated during a conference with agricultural executives:

Enough of this, this making a minor less than 14 years old work without good school conditions or medical care, we cannot approve of what is going on.

Lozano has made it his goal to eradicate the issue of child labor in Mexico, but because of the widespread poverty and increased demand for labor the state faces an uphill battle. Many of the parents are living in poverty and therefore need their children to work to help support the family. This increased demand for labor is also partly due to the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994. The mass opening of free trade to the United States meant a huge potential for export, and businesses took advantage of that. Within 4 years (03-07) “U.S. imports of Mexican fruit and vegetables rose 35 percent, to $4.4 billion from $3.2 billion (3).” Many of the small scale farmers from the Southern part of the country migrated north to work on the larger farms, and brought with them their children. Most of these farms don’t offer child care or school, so the children work instead. Though a decent amount of the kids do go to school, those who do are expected to work after they’ve completed middle school around age 14.

In Mexico, many children are expected to start working after middle school. The cost of books, supplies, school clothes and school-maintenance fees are barriers to many families.

Although students in developed nations have similar needs in buying books, supplies, and clothes, they almost always have a.) Help from a parental figure, b.) Government-funded education or c.) a scholarship from the school. These opportunities do not exist, if hardly at all in the Mexican state. Is the price of a book, worth a human life?

Child farm workers came under greater scrutiny after the Jan. 6 death of a boy at the Los Pinos tomato farm in Sinaloa. He was going to empty his bucket, and the tractor driver didn't see him and went right over him, said Cruz Salgado, his voice choking up. The case made headlines across Mexico and prompted calls by UNICEF to ban child labor. The farm's owner, Agrícola Paredes, paid $3,308 in funeral expenses, according to a report by the Mexican Senate. But it refused to pay any further compensation, claiming that the boy was on a public road and that he was not a formal employee, the Senate report said.

Though the efforts to stem child labor in Mexico have increased, the North American Free Trade Agreement acts as a natural defense for this practice. Though each of these countries have shown they are taking steps to deal with child labor, it remains clear that it is not top priority. The exploitation of child labor will assuredly continue in Malaysia, China, and Mexico unless the national governments and general population consider it an issue.

If I were King...

This piece is from my Contemporary World Issues class and the goal of it was to select a country, and from the point of view of its leader discuss what exactly you would change. I chose the country of Burma, and it's imprisoned but rightful leader Aung San Suu Kyi, rather than it's acting president who is simply another in a line of military dictators.

My name is Aung San Suu Kyi. I was the democratically elected leader of Burma in 1990, but have been under house arrest by the opposing militaristic government for the last twenty years. The people of this country and myself have long been under the thumb of these tyrants, and its time Burma took a step forward with a new attitude. I intend to replace military spending of this oppressive government with a health and education system, work to slow the spread of the AIDS virus, and increase our trade relations with foreign markets to offer greater economic opportunity.

This country has for too long been run by soldiers. From the 1960’s to the late 1980’s it was a military dictatorship, and when elections were finally held in 1989 I was arrested and imprisoned just before I was elected. Spending most of our hard earned money on guns and bullets, when we don’t have any wars to fight, does not make any sense. The military budget is 15-20x larger than the healthcare budget. “The government spends 30-50% of its budget on the military, yet only 2.2% is spent on health, (1)” which is essentially the opposite of what we need. The repercussions for spending half of our money on weapons have led to lack of development in education and health programs.

An estimated 30% of children under age 5 are moderately to severely underweight due to food insecurity, lowering their immune systems and making them susceptible to even more health problems.

These health risks include things like malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, the latter of the three being the worst because 40% of the populations have a drug-resistant form of it. Their health care is comparable to that of the worst in the world, including Rwanda, Congo, Dar fur, and Sudan. These issues are only going to get worse, as international organizations like Doctors Without Borders have been forced to withdraw from the country. Without any international aid, and half of the entire budget continues to go to weapons than the situation can only get worse.

The aids problem in Burma is nearly the worst in Southeast Asia, second only to Thailand. The issue isn’t just sex or the virus going from mother to child, but the increase in aids is due to drug habits and the sharing of needles more than anything else. And these people that develop these habits don’t have access to the proper help to get them back on track.

People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), and drug users or the organizations that represent them, have not been consulted or been able to participate in the formulation of polices and decision-making processes that have such tremendous impact on their health, livelihoods and lives.

What this essentially means is that when the people in need don’t have any say on what action will be taken to address that need, it essentially puts them in a dirt hole looking for answers. This is a fundamental problem because the organization trying to provide the solution doesn’t necessarily know what the people need. They might think they know what needs to be done, but without any sort of dialogue with those receiving the help, whatever sort of development that’s supposed to be taking place, won’t occur at all. It is clear that Burma needs help from the Global AIDS/TB fund, but international organizations have set up a blockade to stop that support from going in.

A recent report done suggests that it’s possible the United Nations is actually a few years with their data regarding presence of HIV/AIDS in Burma, and that it is among Thailand in the worst in the area.

The explosion of the disease in Shan state is even more frightening. Dr Beyrer estimates that more than 10% of the adult male population there is now suffering from HIV. ‘That's the worst ever incidence of the disease in the region’.

Beyrer headed the study and compared it to that of the situation in Thailand 10 years ago. “The difference then was the Thai Government recognized it and did something about it, whereas the military juntas are allowing this one to rage out of control.” This is another example of where the government should be spending our money. Probably the biggest issue with the AIDS epidemic is that the government won’t accept that it’s an issue, and blames it on western media.

Burma's health minister, Major General Ket Sein, told a Word Health Organization (WHO) meeting earlier this month: ‘Contrary to the gloomy picture presented in some reports in the western media, HIV/Aids is not rampant in Myanmar’ (Burma).

The big question is whether or not the military government will take a stance against AIDS, or whether there will be some form of international effort to stem to progression of the virus.

Burma needs to increase its trade with foreign countries in the global market. As of 1999 more than 80% of the exports went to other Asian countries including Singapore, Malaysia, and China. Malaysia also provides 31% of all imports to Burma. The total export to the United States makes up less than 5% of trade, and the number is a little less for Europe. These exports include basic goods like beans, rice, rubber, but the black market is arguably more abundant than the legal one. The smuggling of exotic animals yields extreme amounts of money, and they also smuggle gems, mineral, and teak into surrounding countries. the choices on their imports are not the best either.

During the 1997-98 fiscal year, imports included raw materials, transport equipment, construction materials, and food items. While priority was given to the importation of materials needed for the Yadana natural gas pipeline, the government took measures to control importation of non-essential goods.

Whether or not the people of Burma get fed up with the militaristic government will determine the fate of the country. I want to instate a democracy, where the people of Burma have choices in what they eat, where they work, and so the citizens won’t have to cower in fear of the government. We need education and health reform rather than military spending, foreign aid for the HIV/AIDS epidemic, along with a substantial increase in global trade to the more developed nations like the United States and the European Union.