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Silk’s dark side: Uzbek kids made to grow cocoons

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By MANSUR MIROVALEV (AP) – August 30, 2010

KOKAND, Uzbekistan — For one month a year, from morning to night, Dilorom Nishanova grows silkworms, a painstaking and exhausting job. She has been doing it since she was 8.

Uzbekistan’s authoritarian government insists that it has banned child labor but Nishanova, now 15, hasn’t heard about it. She and her siblings, aged 9 to 17, think it’s perfectly natural to be helping their father grow silkworms, as well as cotton and wheat.

“We just help our parents,” she said, her braided dark hair covered with a traditional Muslim scarf. “That’s what children have to do, right?”

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Four rescued from child labour

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Printed from
TNN, Aug 29, 2010, 04.44am IST
PUNE: The flying squad of the labour commissioner’s office rescued four boys working as child labourers at a restaurant, a snack bar and a fabrication workshop at Saswad about 40 km from Pune on Friday.

The children were later sent to the observation home in Pune.

The squad had received information that the three establishments near the Saswad state transport bus stand allegedly employed them.

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Ghana strengthens child labour monitoring

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[from the Ghana New Agency]

Accra, Aug. 27, GNA – A database system for monitoring and tracking information on child labour issues in Ghana was launched in Accra on Friday with a call on various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies not to compromise on canker.

The Child Labour Monitoring System (CLMS) would facilitate effective child labour interventions by identifying child labourers and linking them to satisfactory and sustainable alternatives such as schooling and skills training.

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Child labor in Yemen…outlaw phenomenon

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Yemen Observer: https://www.yobserver.com

Posted in: Reports
Written By: Fatima al-Aghbari
Article Date: Aug 26, 2010 – 4:54:28 AM

child_labor_2.jpg

The child labor phenomenon in Yemen has worsened since the 1960s because of the economic deterioration and high rates of poverty, as field studies have shown.

(Saba)- The socialists see that the aggravation of this phenomenon is also linked to the early marriage problem.

Deteriorating economic situations in Yemen, especially in light of the global economic crisis and the accompanying high prices and the individuals› low income, plays a significant role in the growth the of child labor phenomenon.

In recent years, the phenomenon has significantly exacerbated as many children started flocking to the labor market to work in different areas such as restaurants, auto repair shops, construction sites and selling items in streets amongst other work.

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Total Child Workers

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The estimate of child laborers in the world: 168 million

Source: ILO

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1883: NY Labor Movement on Child Labor in the Tenements

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The New York labor movement, under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, attempts to end child labor in the cigar industry by successfully sponsoring legislation that bans production in tenements, where many of young children work in the trade.

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U.S. Government’s Latest Weapon in the Fight Against Child Labor

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Viewpoint/Elizabeth Gardner

In an effort to combat child labor, the U.S. Department of Labor recently updated its list of products made with forced or indentured child labor in foreign countries. Federal contractors are prohibited under U.S. law from using these products.

Under Executive Order 13126 federal contractors are required to make a good faith effort to verify that no child labor was used in the products filling government contracts. It’s a good measure, and the list turns out to be a bit of a Who’s Who among nations with the worst forms of child labor.

Making the most appearances on this list of notoriety is Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar). (They almost completely monopolized the list in its first iteration back in 2001.) The nation’s bamboo, beans, bricks, rice, rubber, sugarcane, and teak (a type of wood) all made the Department of Labor product watch list.

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Gap, Next, and M&S in New Sweatshop Scandal

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By: Gethin Chamberlain

The Observer

Indian workers are paid just 25p an hour and forced to work overtime in factories used by some of Britain’s best-known high street stores

Gap, Next and Marks & Spencer have all launched their own inquiries into abuses of working regulations at their Indian suppliers, which have resulted in children such as six-year-old Bubli being left alone while her parents work. Photograph: Gethin Chamberlain

Some of the biggest names on the British high street are at the centre of a major sweatshop scandal. An Observer investigation has found staff at their Indian suppliers working up to 16 hours a day.

Marks & Spencer, Gap and Next have all launched their own inquiries into the abuses and pledged to end the practice of excessive overtime, which is in flagrant breach of the industry’s ethical trading initiative (ETI) and Indian labour law.

Some workers say they were paid at half the legal overtime rate. Gap, which uses the same factory as Next, confirmed it had found wage violations and gave its supplier a deadline of midnight last night to repay workers who lost out. M&S says it has yet to see evidence to support the wage claims. Read more

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Child Soldier Resources

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There has been a range of data collected about the plight of child soldiers in the world today. For further resources on the ongoing campaigns, on the ground conditions, and diplomatic situation surrounding child soldiers around the world please see the links below:

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