Children of the LoomBy: Kayla & Sean

Here are some children working in a factory

#1• Lack of education effect children because their parents might need

them to work to pay for school fees. If the parents never got a proper education they may not be able to get a good paying job therefore they force their kids to work.

• Death or illness in families can force children to get a job to pay for medicine or food because they will need to take care of younger siblings and take their parents place.

• Lack of government supervision allows companies to run with their own rules because the government will not check up on them and make sure they are meeting proper requirements

• Companies use children because they can pay them much less than adults

#2 Child labour in a specific Industry Where in the world is the rug industry happening?

• South Asia, Pakistan, North India

How many children are in the rug industry?

• There is roughly around 250 000 children working in South Asia.

What are the working conditions for these children?

• They are exposed so toxic fumes, inhaling cotton and wool dust, hardworking positions, Poorly designed tools, working in the same position for hours on end, and very stressful working conditions such as: poor lighting, temperature is hard to control and short and terrible rest breaks.

#2• How many hours do they work in one day?

They can work 16 or more hours a day with only one 30 minute break.

How much do they get paid?

The children only get paid $0.21 an hour.

What are their working conditions?

They work in a small dark room with limited lighting and a cramped pace with a few other people. From these working conditions it leads them to having diseases and deformities.

#3A personal story of child labour: Iqbal Masih

Iqbal Masih was born in Pakistan, 1983. His family was poor among many other people in his community. His parents in 1987 borrowed 600 rupees ($16 U.S dollars) from a man who owned a carpet weaving company. The man said “I will have your child work for me until you can return the money”. At this time Iqbal as jut 4 years old. He would rise every single morning before the sun did and make his 2 hour journey to the factory. He would travel by himself along the dark roads and as soon as he got there he was chained down to prevent escaping and worked for 14 hours with just a 30 minute break. He earned about $0.11cents an hour and whatever he made he would bring home to his parents Working in the factory was unbearable. It was very hot and humid, filthy and cramped. Working caused back and neck deformity, malnutrition, hand sores, arthritis and blindness. Iqbal worked through this for 6 years before he attempted to escape. Soon after his escape he was brought back to the factory. He escaped a second time and made sure to help many other kids that were forced into child labour and slavery. Just two years later at the age of 12 years old he was shot returning home from America. Iqbal is now a symbol of child labour in the devolving world

#4• They worked very long and hard days

• Most of the children had to work because they had no choice and their family's needed the money to survive, or there had been a death in the family and all the members needed to be working.

• The wages were too low for any family to truly live off of, so the food they woluld buy would not be very nutritious or good for them.

• They were exposed to very toxic fumes as in wool particles that fly around.

• They were exposed to poor lighting creating bad vision or blindness.

#5 Solutions• The first solution would be to not purchase any items from the

companies that is selling the products

• The second would be to Get the word out, let people know that this is going on and we need all the help we can get

• And the last one would be to donate and support this great website & charity called “Good Weave”. They are helping stop the child slavery in the rug industry, and they make their own rugs with a 100% no children slavery that worked on it.

Citations GoodWeave." Child Labor and the Rug Industry. 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://goodweave.org/index.php?cid=28 "Child Labor in the Carpet Industry RugMark |Carpets | Rugs | Pakistan." Child Labor in the Carpet Industry RugMark |Carpets | Rugs | Pakistan. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://www.rugidea.com/child_labor_carpet_industry.html>. "Sign-up for UPDATES." Anti-Slavery. Web. 20 Nov. 2014. <http://www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/slavery_and_what_we_buy Child Labor Today." Do You Know Who Made Your TShirt. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. <http://laborawareness.wordpress.com/child-labor-today/ NUMBER OF CHILD LABOURERS." What You Can Do / Stop Childlabour / Home. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. <http://www.stopchildlabour.org/Stop-Childlabour/What-you-can-do

Citations

• "Iqbal Masih." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Nov. 2014. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iqbal_Masih.

• Nashrulla, Tasneem. "This Report About Slavery And Child Labor In India's Handmade Carpet Industry Will Horrify You." BuzzFeed. 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. <http://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrulla/xx-shocking-facts-of-slavery-and-child-labor-in-indias-hand>.