“Children of Industry” shows how thousands of children in India, as young as age 6, work about 15 hours a day, crouching on dirt floors, stitching soccer balls for five cents an hour or nothing at all. One 12-year-old girl is paid 15 cents for a ball that sells in the U.S. for $15. She tells of having back problems due to being crouched all day, and her eyes hurt from finding the small holes to thread the string. Children regularly cut their fingers cutting the string with a sharp ustensil.
The soccer balls made by child labor in India are made for over 10 international companies, including Mitre, whose soccer balls are used by the U.S. pro soccer league and by the most prestigious soccer league in the world, England’s Premier League.
The soccer industry, from the sporting companies, to the U.S. government, to the stores that sell the balls, all officially prohibit the use of child labor, and there is wide-spread denial that children are used to make these soccer balls. Despite these claims of no child labor, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel traced the UPC codes of the balls made by children in India to balls sold by Walmart in the U.S. All those balls have a label on them that states, “Child labour free production.” Who stitched on those labels? Children!
Hey JPL, I really like your posts, these really interesting facts, and alot of things. Thanks, and hope you post more.
ReplyDeleteIt's so cruel how people would make children of that age work and do labor. How do the people send the soccer balls to stores and other industries?
ReplyDeleteJoseph, you have really good information, I really hate Nike now because of what they have done. They should sued.
ReplyDelete