Stop Child Labor in China
By: Tate May
Child Labor in China
China in one of many countries in Asia that have a child workforce. Although there is no official figure on the number of children working in China, it is estimated by many that of the 10 million children out of school, over 5 million are working in factories. Twenty percent of the workforce is made up of children. The children are even kidnapped and sold off to factories to work. In 1994, about 48 brick-shop-workers kidnapped 100 children. Forty of those children were put to work for about ten hours a day, with no wage whatsoever. China’s child labor cannot be overlooked.
Schools Allow Child Labor
In China, there is no law stating that children are not allowed to work. The government calls this, “Educational labor”. So that means, children are forced to work in school. After a headmaster of a school was caught forcing the children to work, he said that the kids just wanted to make money. Another case is that 500 children were found working 14 hour shifts and the living conditions were poor, the meals were not enough for them and there was not enough water. Even though the government has a law against child labor, they don’t do a lot to enforce it.