C H I L D L A B O U R: S W E A T S H O P S @dontfavourchildlabour-blog - Tumblr Blog

The collapse of the Rana Plaza building is, to date, the deadliest disaster in the history of the garment industry worldwide.

Some 3,639 workers toiled in five factories housed in the Rana Plaza building producing clothing for some ## U.S., Canadian and European clothing labels and retailers. Eighty percent of the workers were young women, 18, 19, 20 years of age. Their standard shift was 13 to 14 ½ hours, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 or 10:30 p.m., toiling 90 to 100 hours a week with just two days off a month. Young “helpers” earned 12 cents an hour, while “junior operators” took home 22 cents an hour, $10.56 a week, and senior sewers received 24 cents an hour and $12.48 a week.

On Wednesday morning, April 24, 2013 at 8:00 a.m., 3,639 workers refused to enter the eight-story Rana Plaza factory building because there were large and dangerous cracks in the factory walls. The owner, Sohel Rana, brought paid gang members to beat the women and men workers, hitting them with sticks to force them to go into the factory. Managers of the five factories housed in Rana Plaza also told the frightened workers, telling them that if they did not return to work, there would be no money to pay them for the month of April, which meant that there would be no food for them and their children. They were forced to go in to work at 8:00 a.m.

At 8:45 a.m. the electricity went out and the factories’ five generators kicked on. Almost immediately the workers felt the eight-story building begin to move, and heard a loud explosion as the building collapsed, pancaking downward.

1,137 confirmed dead at Rana Plaza. A year later, over 200 remain missing.

#EXAMPLES

The ILO was created in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, it was to reflect the belief that universal and lasting peace can be achieved only if it is based on social justice.

ILO is the biggest organization contributing against child labour as well as other forms of injustice. Some of their areas of improvement include:

Regulation of the hours of work including the establishment of a maximum working day and week;

Regulation of labour supply, prevention of unemployment and provision of an adequate living wage;

Protection of the worker against sickness, disease and injury arising out of his employment;

Protection of children, young persons and women;

Provision for old age and injury, protection of the interests of workers when employed in countries other than their own.

- (According to the ILO)

#global local

GOODWEAVE: FACTS

Some children are forced to weave up to 18 hours a day, often never leaving the confines of the factory or loom shed.

Children trafficked into one form of labor may be later sold into another, as with girls from rural Nepal, who are recruited to work in carpet factories but are then trafficked into the sex industry over the border in India.

Experts estimate that child labor on South Asia’s carpet looms has dropped from 1 million to 250,000 since the launch of GoodWeave in 1995.

#global local

It is estimated that over 500 million children are victims of violence, exploitation and abuse annually.

UNICEF is a non-profit humanitarian organization focusing on saving children’s lives around the globe. UNICEF Canada is one of UNICEF's 36 National Committees. UNICEF Canada’s main office is in Toronto, Ontario.

UNICEF believes that all children, regardless of gender, culture, religion and socio-economic background, have the right to grow up in safety.

UNICEF has people working in 190 countries around the world. They deliver life-saving packages, feed, console, and educate children even in dangerous conflict zones.

- (According to UNICEF)

DID YOU KNOW?

UNICEF is the only organization listed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child as the global leader for children.

#global local

#WHAT WE THINK

GoodWeave International (GWI) is an international nonprofit organization working to end child labor in the rug industry and offer educational opportunities to children in weaving communities. GoodWeave is currently active in six countries: the communities of Afghanistan, India and Nepal, and in the consumer countries of Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, which oversees licensing in North America.

Goodweave is determined to end child labour in the carpet industry by developing new technical programs of producer support to encourage progressive improvement over time in the other areas.

- (According to Goodweave)

#global local

DEFINITION OF CHILD LABOUR

The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

It refers to work that: is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by: depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work. In its most extreme forms, child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age. Whether or not particular forms of “work” can be called “child labour” depends on the child’s age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries. The answer varies from country to country, as well as among sectors within countries.

(According to the International Labour Organization)

Christian Children’s Fund of Canada is a member of ChildFund Alliance, a worldwide group of 12 child-centred development organizations working in 57 countries to make long-lasting and meaningful changes for children and their families. For more than 50 years, CCFC has been helping children and families of all faiths move from poverty to having their own independence. CCFC supports children and communities in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Nicaragua and Paraguay. Currently, CCFC has over 50,000 children sponsored, benefiting more than 500,000 people around the world.

Chief Executive Officer of CCFC, Mark Lukowski, spoke out at The Rotary Club of Toronto luncheon at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel saying, "Children are our most precious resource. And each one has the right to safely grow, laugh, learn and play free from violence and exploitation. At CCFC, we dream of a world where every child has a voice and the ability to achieve their full potential."

- (According to Christian Children’s Fund of Canada)

#global local

The Root Cause

We believe that root cause is not just globalization, but rather the lack of education in these third world countries such as India, China, Bangladesh etc. The lack of education forces parents to sell their children for money because they were not educated in the past which starts this pattern of poverty because the lack of education causes the poverty, Not only does this affect the children and families but also the economy as the baby generations are responsible for handling the future economy and if these are uneducated, these third world countries will remain third world countries and their economy will deteriorate from the lack of educational jobs.

#WHAT WE THINK

We glorify the models advertising it but do we give credit to the children who made it

SOLUTION

Tackling child labour is further complicated by the fact it is just a symptom of larger problems. Where there is extreme poverty, there will be children willing to work cheaply and susceptible to being tricked into dangerous or badly paid work.

Lotte Schuurman at the Fair Wear Foundation says if parents have no education they will end up in low-paid work; their children will be forced to work, they will miss out on their education, and they too will end up in low-paid work as adults. “You need to get out of that vicious circle of poverty to decline child labour,” she says.

#WHAT WE THINK

#SPIRITUAL

We are all the same in God’s eyes and some were just born more lucky than others and and maybe did have a better and easier life. But because they are more rich or they have better clothes does that really make that person better than you? Everyone is made in God’s image one way or another. No one should have the right to talk about anyone in a rude way because you are no different than anyone other than the way you look and how you act. This is a hard life for some. Most likely half the clothes you wear are purchased from stores that these little children working in slavery made for you using their own two hands hoping they would get some sort of change to help them last through life or poverty. Buying these products made by children who work in slavery, we are indirectly supporting sweatshop child labour.

#SPIRITUAL

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