Child Labor and Abuse
Child labor is often viewed as a horrific thing. Children who work in sweatshops have to face the same sufferings that adults do, such as long hours of work in deplorable conditions. However, the fact that it is children working in such terrible conditions makes the issue worse. Instead of receiving an education like most children, they are trapped in the world of hard labor, where they will most likely unfortunately spend the rest of their lives working. They more or less miss out on their childhood, as they do not get to spend their time playing and are instead enduring the hardships of sweatshops. Children who work in sweatshops are usually forced to do so. This may be a result of either their family needing more income or their parents selling them for desperately needed money. Either way, child labor is a major issue presented by the use of sweatshops.
The article, “Child Sweatshop Shame Threatens Gap's Ethical Image” talks about how a sweatshop making clothing for Gap in India was caught using child labor. Gap had created policies in 2004 to prevent the use of child labor in sweatshops, in an attempt to stop child abuse. According to their policy, if children were found working in one of the sweatshops, they were to be removed and instead placed in school, and then promised a job again once they were legally of age. However, with the discovery of children still working in these sweatshops a few years later, it is clear that these policies were not heavily enforced.
Unfortunately, the children are not only illegally working in sweatshops, they are also enduring poor working conditions. The conditions are so bad that they are “close to slavery” (McDougall). They work long hours, usually as much as 16 hours a day. One boy said they spent four days in a row working 20 hours straight. The condition of the sweatshop they were in was repulsive. A lot of the children were abused as well. If they weren’t working hard enough, they would be hit with a rubber pipe, and sometimes if they cried, they would have a cloth stuffed in their mouth as punishment. Some of the children worked for free and were not paid at all. Many of the children were forced to work there. A boy, Amitosh, talks about how his father was paid for him to be taken away in a van with several other children to work in the sweatshop.
Gap responded to this discovery of the sweatshop, saying that they do not approve of what is going on and defended the policy they had created. They blamed the contractors who hired the children for this situation. Gap recalled tens of thousands of items so that none of the products the children made recently were sold in stores. The company had previously been caught using child labor, so they are trying to create an image of being an ethical manufacturing company. Whether or not their new efforts to end child labor in their sweatshops were effective has yet to be seen.
McDougall, Dan. “Child Sweatshop Shame Threatens Gap's Ethical Image.” The Observer. 28 Oct. 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/oct/28/ethicalbusiness.india
The article, “Child Sweatshop Shame Threatens Gap's Ethical Image” talks about how a sweatshop making clothing for Gap in India was caught using child labor. Gap had created policies in 2004 to prevent the use of child labor in sweatshops, in an attempt to stop child abuse. According to their policy, if children were found working in one of the sweatshops, they were to be removed and instead placed in school, and then promised a job again once they were legally of age. However, with the discovery of children still working in these sweatshops a few years later, it is clear that these policies were not heavily enforced.
Unfortunately, the children are not only illegally working in sweatshops, they are also enduring poor working conditions. The conditions are so bad that they are “close to slavery” (McDougall). They work long hours, usually as much as 16 hours a day. One boy said they spent four days in a row working 20 hours straight. The condition of the sweatshop they were in was repulsive. A lot of the children were abused as well. If they weren’t working hard enough, they would be hit with a rubber pipe, and sometimes if they cried, they would have a cloth stuffed in their mouth as punishment. Some of the children worked for free and were not paid at all. Many of the children were forced to work there. A boy, Amitosh, talks about how his father was paid for him to be taken away in a van with several other children to work in the sweatshop.
Gap responded to this discovery of the sweatshop, saying that they do not approve of what is going on and defended the policy they had created. They blamed the contractors who hired the children for this situation. Gap recalled tens of thousands of items so that none of the products the children made recently were sold in stores. The company had previously been caught using child labor, so they are trying to create an image of being an ethical manufacturing company. Whether or not their new efforts to end child labor in their sweatshops were effective has yet to be seen.
McDougall, Dan. “Child Sweatshop Shame Threatens Gap's Ethical Image.” The Observer. 28 Oct. 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/oct/28/ethicalbusiness.india
