Today, about 21 million people are victims of forced labor. 79% of them, according to the 2016 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, are women and children. Despite the legal prohibition of slavery in all countries of the world, the number of victims of forced labor by the end of the last decade reached the highest level in history. The CNN Freedom Project regularly investigates such practices because it is contrary to ethical standards. It is necessary to analyze the exploitation of child labor by factories and find out why this is unethical.
In the fashion industry, it is difficult to achieve transparency in the supply chain and production. Forced labor, including child labor, begins in the cotton fields, continues at the stage of processing raw materials into cotton yarn, and is used in sewing shops (Guttmann et al. 66). The exploitation of children for the needs of the textile industry has reached the greatest scale in seven countries: Egypt, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and China.
Cotton growers often rely on underage labor, not only because it is cheap but because little fingers do not destroy cotton bolls or damage the fiber. Children are involved in planting and weeding, manual pollination, harvesting. The working day is not standardized, children are exposed to pesticides and receive less than the minimum wage without attending school (Timmerman 11). Numerous cases have been recorded in India where parents actually sell their child into slavery, having received a full advance for the planned years of labor (Guttmann et al. 55). According to Stop the Traffik, 400,000 children worked in India’s cotton fields in 2005, most of them girls aged 7-14, working 14-16 hours a day (Bhukuth and Ballet 27). According to UNICEF, 11% of children — 170 million — are involved in various forms of forced labor globally (Bhukuth and Ballet 27). 6 million of them work involuntarily. At the stage of production, cutting, and assembly of clothes, many operations are performed by children. They are tasked with dyeing, sewing on buttons, cutting threads, embroidering with thread, pleating, folding, and packaging finished products.
It should be emphasized that the use of child labor is a completely unethical aspect of international business. The fact is that in the legal sphere of regulation of labor relations, several Conventions and acts have been drawn up that directly prohibit the employment of minors for hard work. Contradictions to ethics are observed in the severity and long-term work, as well as in low pay or no wages at all. The fact is that children, despite their endurance and energy, are incapable of thinking in terms of legal relations, therefore they cannot fairly evaluate their work. In addition, the sphere of education, socialization, and mental health suffer.
At the stage of production, cutting, and assembly of clothes, many operations are performed by children. They are tasked with dyeing, sewing on buttons, cutting threads, embroidering with thread, pleating, folding, and packaging finished products. The working day can reach up to 18 hours, children work for a meager salary, or even without it. Usually, minors get into such conditions because of their parents, who give them to the manufacturer, believing the promises that the child will receive an education, money, and a chance for a decent life (Bhukuth and Ballet 67). In reality, such criminal cartels only exploit the labor of children, as was the case at a garment factory in Delhi, where 23 children were rescued during a police raid (Bhukuth and Ballet 81). Another example is the clandestine bag manufacturing in Mexico City, where under the guise of a drug rehabilitation center, 107 men and women worked without pay for 16 hours a day with a 30-minute lunch break, being beaten and sexually exploited (Bhukuth and Ballet 92). Most of the girls working in Bangladesh come from poor families.
Families living in comparatively prosperous clothing regions rarely send their daughters to work in factories. Despite recent initiatives to lower the cost of schooling for girls (monetary stipends, elimination of school fees), many young women still drop out of high school even when they have no way to get a paid job. As a result, these girls usually have only one option left – marriage (Guttmann et al. 78). In a country where minimum marriage age laws are rarely enforced, working for a paycheck is the best way to avoid getting married prematurely. With many girls having to choose between factory work and early marriage, a ban on hiring girls under the age of 18 could do more harm than good (Guttmann et al. 31). In order to save girls from this choice and reduce the presence of minors, including girls, in factories, it is necessary to actively combat poverty in rural areas.
Bangladesh’s garment production is projected to quadruple over the next twenty years, which means that millions of new women, young and old, will enter the garment industry. According to our estimates, every tenth new employee will be between the ages of 10 and 17 (Guttmann et al. 70). Consumers around the world are turning away from child labor clothing, and this is commendable. Children under the age of 18 should go to school, learn important skills for life, and not work long hours in poor conditions.
Works Cited
Bhukuth, Augendra & Ballet, Jérôme, editors. Child exploitation in the global south. Springer International Publishing, 2018.
Guttmann, Katherine, et al. Ethical Issues in Child Abuse Research. Springer International Publishing, 2018.
Timmerman, Kelsey. Where am I Wearing? A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People that Make Our Clothes. Wiley, 2012.