Posted by on March 22, 19102 at 15:44:26:
At least fifteen million children work as bonded laborers in India. Whether chained to carpet looms, sweating in silver smithies, or working in the field from dawn until dusk, these children endure miserable lives. They earn little and are beaten often. They do not go to school. From the age of four or five, many work for years in appalling conditions in often futile attempts to pay off family debts. Based on interviews with over one hundred children during a two-month investigation in India, this report details their plight in the silk, beedi (hand-rolled cigarettes), synthetic gems, silver, leather, agricultural, and carpet industries. Bonded child labor is outlawed by international and Indian law, but the Indian government has failed utterly to end it. Human Rights Watch calls on the government of India to end bonded child labor by establishing independent bodies to inspect work sites and identify bonded child laborers, prosecuting and suspending licenses for employers using bonded child labor, and implementing a comprehensive rehabilitation program to ensure that bonded child laborers are sent to school. Human Rights Watch also calls on the international community to pressure the Indian government to release and rehabilitate these children.
September 1996
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ISBN: ISBN 1-56432-172-X