Child Labor in India (HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel)

[Hot Lips]

Anyone else watch this recent segment? A crew from HBO was able to go to India and without difficulty find workshops were children are hired by international corporations to produce their products - in this case Miter soccer balls - for pennies per day, sometimes as forced laborers to work off debts of their parents. One child was working to pay for medicine that failed to save his baby brother's life. "His brother is dead, but his debt lives on".

Wal-mart sold the balls (investigators tracked shipments and checked bar codes), but they claim to have policies against this and conduct "regular investigations". Miter is against this also and has appropriate policies and conducts their own investigations to ensure this isn't being done.... conveniently they hire sub-contractors to do their business in countries where this might be a problem giving them plausible deniability.

Investigators showed their footage to a US representative that is suppose to ensure that imported goods are not produced by such means. She claims they conduct investigations to ensure this is not taking place and was "shocked".

Yet HBO without any difficulty did their own investigation found this going on.

Amazing. When someone decides to do the right thing (expose wrong doing), they actually get results.

[phigment]

Investigators showed their footage to a US representative that is suppose to ensure that imported goods are not produced by such means. She claims they conduct investigations to ensure this is not taking place and was "shocked".

Yet HBO without any difficulty did their own investigation found this going on.
I'm sure she was unaware of any broken regulations or child-staffed factories. There's always the same answer when something like this happens. The people ultimately responsible for it are always "shocked" and "appalled" and "outraged" then it quietly goes into the background again. Probably nothing will get done about this, unfortunately.

[2Sheds_Jackson]

Very interesting...and sad. Do big corporations actually have employees who go out and check this stuff first-hand? Or do they just ask somebody who asks somebody else and at some point it's just a phone ringing on a desk where the one adult in a room full of kids says "oh yeah, it's all good"? How much would it really cost to outfit Kathy Lee Gifford with a jetpack and a notepad?

[Macs.]

Hello ? We live in a fast world. No one is gonna fly around the globe and do research for 3 years to produce a Ball. They are saying, here is the design and setup and now find someone to build this. They go on the different marketplaces and finally a guy from Duquqsfhue called Jeff (Real name Jsiudduh Diwssi Quabba) after sending a nice eMail is getting the contract because he can produce balls at a grotesque low price... But ofcourse neither the guy sitting in the office that is importing these products or Joe Sixpack buying it can guess that the Ball they just bought for 10 Cent was MAYBE not produces under the best circumstances...

It's a open secret that this, and not only child labor, is happening every day for every laughable product. Child labor is just one part, toxic illnesses, broken bones, removed body parts, death etc etc is all part of today's cheap-cheap-cheap labor. But hey, atleast the little ones are getting a talking slimer to their ****ty McDonalds menu and shareholders can squish the last cent out of that dancing Reindeer.

[Hot Lips]

Macs I'm pretty sure HBO didn't do three years of research ;) these companies wouldn't have to either.

And the fact that Jeff can produce their product and grotesquely low prices is clue #1 in their investigation.

But you are right... the bottom line is greed. That's the sin/crime/problem that needs to be addressed.

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[Adux]

In all honesty,

I condemn Child Labour, But I know 13 and 14 year old kids, who will do anything to get work. This is a very very poor country, Those kids do that to save their families. Heck, I am 26, I left my work and everything abroad to come back to my family as they needed me. It doesnt matter that I cant club or have fun as before. Family first.

There is a issue of culture here.

[California Joe]

Hell, the problem isn't with the children. It's the predatory nature of turning them into indentured servants and the fact that the big companies are lying about any knowledge of it.

[Adux]

Hell, the problem isn't with the children. It's the predatory nature of turning them into indentured servants and the fact that the big companies are lying about any knowledge of it.

As long as they are above 13-14 years, work at their own free will and paid according to their services, equals to their input or as much as the adults. I dont see anything wrong.

The problem is when people take advantage of the fact, that they are children or teenagers.

[Adux]

One of my employee is a drunkard, I pay his salary to his kid daughter or wife, or he will spend everything on getting drunk!

There are lot of small things in this country, which make us really different from the rest of the world, for better as well as worse.

[timetraveller]

Anyone else watch this recent segment? A crew from HBO was able to go to India and without difficulty find workshops were children are hired by international corporations to produce their products - in this case Miter soccer balls - for pennies per day, sometimes as forced laborers to work off debts of their parents. One child was working to pay for medicine that failed to save his baby brother's life. "His brother is dead, but his debt lives on".

Wal-mart sold the balls (investigators tracked shipments and checked bar codes), but they claim to have policies against this and conduct "regular investigations". Miter is against this also and has appropriate policies and conducts their own investigations to ensure this isn't being done.... conveniently they hire sub-contractors to do their business in countries where this might be a problem giving them plausible deniability.

Investigators showed their footage to a US representative that is suppose to ensure that imported goods are not produced by such means. She claims they conduct investigations to ensure this is not taking place and was "shocked".

Yet HBO without any difficulty did their own investigation found this going on.

Amazing. When someone decides to do the right thing (expose wrong doing), they actually get results.


Why do you think so many Massive companies want to set up in such Countries

1 - they can get away with payin less in wages ....

2 - They know fine well the child labour is used ... and turn a blind eye to it .. and yet they claim they knew nowt about it if that what they claim they should be fined heavily for not makin regular on site checks ...

3 - tax reasons and profit from sales ...

[LaoSexMachine]

Don't forget that some of these kids in developing country have to work to help out their families. Sometimes they are the bread winners.