It is easy to get money in exchange for child labor in the silk industry in India. As the amount offered on loan - from 40 to 350 Euros - is higher than in any other industry, parents are encouraged offer their children as payback as a matter of course.
According to South Asia Coalition, 80 million children have been kidnapped or forced by their parents to pay off family debts or payment of loans with high interest rates.
Leela borrowed 2,000 rupees (30 €) to repair her house. As collateral, she committed her ten-year-old son to work twelve hours a day in a local loom and thus pay her debt. The child's work consisted in stretching meshes and manually feeding thread to make the designs of silk saris, earning the paltry sum of 10 rupees (15 cents) a day.
Most of the families that nurture the child labor market are below the poverty threshold, but the main reason for this practice seems to be greed, not poverty. Mothers always express remorse, but the use of cheap child labor continues. In addition, according to The Times of India, contractors cheat the farmers by buying silk cocoons for just 150 rupees (3 €) per kilogram.
Those with vested interests argue that poverty will increase if silk stops being sold, but if such patronage over generations had improved the standard of living of the needy, parents would not continue forcing their children to long working hours for such low pay.
Nowadays, most ‘slaves’ are women and children unable to break free from inhumane working conditions, while many factories of the so-called called civilized world are still crowded with innocent beings - human and nonhuman – who are doomed to be exploited or exterminated.
Source: ivu.org
