Feb 8, 2012: | Bonded and child labour in Afghan brick kilns, also for NATO projects [update]:
After decades of violence, Afghanistan has few banks, and the people who labor at the kilns would almost surely be too poor to qualify for loans. Instead, they borrow from their employers, who generally pay them pennies an hour for their grueling labor — barely enough to survive and too little to pay off debts that only grow with each passing year.
For a vast majority of workers, there is no escape — for them or for their children, who are bound by their parents’ contracts.....
The use of child labor is also a concern of NATO forces in Afghanistan.
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Oct 31, 2011: | Child rights body wants ban on minor workers in Bt cotton fields (Indian Express):
Aiming eradication of child labour practice in Bt Cotton fields, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has written to the Central Labour Ministry to include the Bt Cotton fields under the prohibited list of hazardous areas where child labourers cannot be employed.
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Oct 13, 2011: | NCPCR irked over dismal state of child labourers in BT cotton farms in Gujarat (Press Information Bureau, Gov. of India):
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) under the women and Child Development Ministry has found child labourers to be rampant in the BT cotton fields of Shihori and Khimana of Banaskantha district here during a visit of the Central body on October 7-10, 2011.
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Oct 9, 2011: | NCPCR raid 'yields' 12 child labourers on cotton farms (DailyBhaskar.com):
At an age when they are supposed to be studying in schools, children are found working in cotton farms as labourers. Child labour, which is a burning issue in most states of the country, also has Gujarat on the list of state 'killers', who are terminating the childhood of children.
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Sep 19, 2011: | Cocoasector has failed to eliminate child labour (Stop Child Labour):
In 2001, the global chocolate industry made a commitment to end the Worst Forms of Child Labor (WFCL) and Forced Adult Labor (FAL). This commitment has proved to be an empty promise: the cocoa sector has not been able to achieve any of the six goals they set themselves.
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Aug 15, 2011: | Seeds of Despair (Countercurrents.org):
The escalating corporatization of the agricultural sector, where the bulk of the Indian workforce continues to be concentrated, has had critical consequences for struggles for the rights of landless labourers and small farmers. Land reforms, critical to the empowerment of these two sections of rural society, seem now to be definitely off the government’s agenda. The growing control of massive corporate houses, including multinational corporations (MNCs), over the agricultural sector has left agricultural labourers and small farmers increasingly at the mercy of market forces, leading, as numerous reports have highlighted, to their increasing pauperization.
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Feb 23, 2011: | Seed producing units asked not to employ children (The Times of India):
The two-day National Seed Association of India Conference, which began in the city on February 22, had child rights protection forums and civil society organisations demanding freedom for over 5 lakh children working in hybrid seed production.
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Jun 21, 2010: | Child labour props up country's seed industry (Mail Today (India)):
The Indian seed industry, dominated by multinational companies, is a major employer of child labour, surveys have revealed. More than half a million children in India are growing cotton and vegetable seeds under hazardous conditions, including long working hours and exposure to pesticides.
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Jun 13, 2010: | New study points to child labour at seed farms, MNCs under cloud (Financial Express):
More than half a million children in India below 18 years are growing cotton seeds and vegetable seeds under hazardous conditions, says a joint study by the India Committee of the Netherlands, the International Labour Rights Forum and Stop Child Labour — School is the best place to work. According to the study, around 2.30 lakh among these children are below 14 years and are putting in long working hours and are exposed to pesticides in these farms.
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Jun 11, 2010: | Indian kids labour in fields in hazardous condition: Survey (Sify.com):
More than half-a-million children below 18 years of age have been working under hazardous condition in cotton and vegetable fields in five western and southern Indian states, a report said Friday. |
Jun 2010: | Mining and its effects on children, women, Adivasi and Dalits (ICN/LIW):
Reports recently released by Indian NGOs reveal the desperate situation for children and
adults living and working in mining areas in India. Among them Dalits, Adivasi and women
are the main victims. The report India's Childhood in the "Pits" published by HAQ,
SAMATA and mines, minerals and People (mmP) shows that districts that are entirely
dependent on mining have a lower literacy rate than the national average. The mortality rate
of children under five years of age is higher. Child labour is rampant. GRAVIS has released
the report Women Miners in Rajasthan, India. The report explores the harsh everyday life and
work for female quarry workers in Rajasthan.
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May 11, 2010: | Roadmap for Achieving the Elimination of the Worst Forms of
Child Labour by 2016 (The Hague Global Child Labour Conference). |
May 2010: | Education and Child Labour - Paper for The Hague Global Child Labour Conference 2010 (Shantha Sinha). |
Apr 7, 2010: | Seven reasons why the world should: Eradicate all child labour, get every child into school (Campaign Stop Child Labour):
Background note to the petition for the Global Child Labour Conference 10-11 May 2010. |
Feb 9, 2010: | Child labour in Gujarat's cottonseed farms (India Together):
Labour contractors and large landowners continue to employ children, often exposing them to vulnerable situations. Extreme poverty in Rajasthan's tribal districts fuels the practice. |
Nov 20, 2009: | Using fashion to fight child labour (Radio Netherlands Worldwide):
Dutch fashion houses and business leaders have come together to launch a shop that only stocks clothes manufactured without the use of child labour in developing countries. The opening coincided on Friday with the 20th anniversary of the international convention on the rights of the child.
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Aug 28, 2009: | Life's cheap in the Bt cotton fields of Gujarat (The Times of India):
It was on the night of August 17 that Punjilal Ahuri received the body of his 16-year-old daughter, Haju Ben. She had apparently died of snake bite while working in the Bt cotton fields of Gujarat.
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Jun 6, 2009: | Statement by President Barack Obama on World Day Against Child Labor (GovNews):
Even in this modern era, children around the world are forced to work in deplorable and often dangerous conditions at a time in their lives when they should be in classrooms and playgrounds. Global child labor perpetuates a cycle of poverty that prevents families and nations from reaching their full potential.
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Dec 2008: | Peacebycycle - Bangalore to Lahore:
Cycle tour against child labour.
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May 15, 2008: | Call to Link Trade With Children's Rights (IPS Inter Press Service):
The European Union has been urged to make its trading relationships with foreign countries conditional on reducing and eventually eradicating child labour.
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Mar 2008: | Dharna (sit-in) for right to quality and equitable education for all children (Campaign Against Child Labour):
Fundamental right to quality and equitable education upto tenth standard through common school system was the long cherished goal of the Indian children. In spite of constitutional amendment, commission’s reports, policies and programs this most basic right of the children could not be ensured fully even after the 60 years of our independence.....
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Feb 25, 2008: | Child labour: That garden stone, handmade carpet or embroidered T shirt you just bought was probably made by Child Labor (Forbes.com):
Jyothi Ramulla Naga is 4 feet tall. From sunup to sundown she is hunched over in the fields of a cottonseed farm in southern India, earning 20 cents an hour. Farmers in the Uyyalawada region process high-tech cottonseeds genetically engineered to contain a natural pesticide, on behalf of U.S. agriculture giant Monsanto.
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Jan 8, 2008: | Child labour: Govt to expand list of hazardous jobs, amend law (The Indian Express):
With instances of alleged child labour coming to light regularly despite a 22-year-old law prohibiting it, the Government is in the midst of launching a multi-pronged attack on the socio-economic menace that some developed countries have begun using as a non-tariff barrier to prevent exports from India.
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Dec 11, 2007: | Abolishing Child Labour and Protecting the Right to Education: A Rights Based Perspective (speech MV Foundation at high-level UN meeting on child rights):
Speech by Mr. Venkat Reddy (MV Foundation, Andhra Pradesh, India) at the commemorative
high-level plenary meeting to evaluate progress made in the implementation of the World Fit
for Children (WFFC) Declaration and the Plan of Action.
The meeting took on 11 and 12 December 2007 in New York.
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Dec 11, 2007: | 'YSR govt spawning child labour' (The Times of India):
A recent international report has revealed that the state government [of Andhra Pradesh] is making a mockery of the recently-enacted Anti-Child Labour Act by actively encouraging the continuance of bonded and inhuman child labour, especially in the cotton fields in the state.
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Dec 2007: | Gujarat Farmers Seek Time to End Child Labour / Crack the Whip to Ban Child Labour in Cotton Seed Farming (Infocus):
December 2007 issue of Infocus, the
newsletter of the National Commission for Protection of Child
Rights (NCPCR) in India.
It includes two short reports on the large scale child labour in
cotton seed farming in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. |
Nov 29, 2007: | India's small workforce: Observations on child labour (New Statesman):
Ineke Zeldenrust may not be able to leave the Netherlands if the decision of an Indian court goes against her. She works at the Clean Clothes Campaign, the Dutch NGO that seeks to end workplace abuses in clothing and sportswear factories around the world.
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Nov 25, 2007: | Bayer CropScience’ response to the report “Child bondage continues in Indian
cotton supply chain” of Dr. Davuluri Venkateswarlu (Bayer CropScience):
Bayer CropScience appreciates that Dr. Venkateswarlu has taken a closer look at the
entire cotton seed production sector of India covering also the major local seed
companies which dominate the market. Without the sincere commitment of these
companies, there is no hope of any relevant change in the current child labour situation of
the seed production sector in India. From that particular perspective, Bayer welcomes the
new report as a step in the right direction. |
Nov 2, 2007: | 'Stick with India in Spite of Child Slave Scandals' Buyers Used (International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF)):
Global brands and retailers sourcing production in India were warned today not to cut and run from existing suppliers or from India but to work with producers and the authorities to build a culture of compliance with national and international legal standards. Quitting errant suppliers without attempting to bring them into compliance would rightly invite condemnation.
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Oct 30, 2007: | Govt threatens EU with retaliatory action (Financial Express):
The government [of India] on Tuesday dismissed allegations of use of child labour against local suppliers of clothing retail major GAP as a motivated campaign on part of the rich nations and threatened Europe of possible retaliatory measures.
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Oct 28, 2007: | Indian 'slave' children found making low-cost clothes destined for Gap (The Observer):
Child workers, some as young as 10, have been found working in a textile factory in conditions close to slavery to produce clothes that appear destined for Gap Kids, one of the most successful arms of the high street giant. |
Oct 28, 2007: | Child sweatshop shame threatens Gap's ethical image (The Observer):
An Observer investigation into children making clothes has shocked the retail giant and may cause it to withdraw apparel ordered for Christmas. |
Oct 26, 2007: | Child slavery thriving in Indian cotton industry (OneWorld South Asia):
India has distinction of having the largest area under cotton cultivation in the world and has been a pioneer in developing hybrid cotton seeds for commercial use. The Indian cottonseed industry is also marked by the highest proportion of child labour in its workforce.
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Oct 25, 2007: | Minister hits out at 'false reports' on child labour by NGOs (The Times):
Foreign social activists are spreading “false reports” about the use of child labourers in India that are damaging its global corporate image, according to the country’s Trade Minister.
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Oct 24, 2007: | NGOs spreading wrong information, India tells Dutch minister (The Economic Times):
The government on Wednesday raised with the Netherlands the issue of some European NGOs spreading "incorrect information" about Indian industry employing child labour and violating human rights.
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Oct 23, 2007: | Monsanto response to “Child bondage continues in Indian cotton supply chain” (Business & Human Rights resource Centre):
The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Monsanto to respond to the following report: “Child bondage continues in Indian cotton supply chain”, Dr Davuluri Venkateswarlu, September 2007. |
Oct 4, 2007: | Is India really independent? (StolenChildhood.net):
In a busy by-lane of a Mumbai suburb a small hut like structure is cramped up with more than twenty kids working on fake handbags, which fetch anything between Rs. 50 to Rs 800 on the street. People who think they have a great bargain when they buy these ‘cheap’ imitations need to think again about the cost of precious childhood that has been lost with the ‘manufacture’ of these items.
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Oct 1, 2007: | Over 4 lakh children work in cotton seed farms (The Hindu):
Notwithstanding the series of `proactive´ steps taken so far to discourage the obnoxious practice of child labour, a study commissioned by five international agencies has revealed that over four lakh children continue to slog on hybrid cotton seed farms across Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
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Sep 29, 2007: | India's cotton fields: Over 4 lakh child labourers (Rediff.com):
More than four lakh children, mostly girls and under 18 years of age, are involved as child labour in cottonseed fields in India, a human rights report has said.
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Sep 29, 2007: | 'Over 4 lakh kids in India are bonded labourers' (Times of India/Press Trust of India/India Express/ZeeNews.com/The Hindu):
More than four lakh children, mostly girls and under 18 years of age, are involved as child labour in cottonseed fields in India, a human rights report has said.
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Sep 27, 2007: | Four lakh children slogging in cotton fields: report (Hindustan Times):
About four lakh Indian children are engaged in hybrid cotton fields in four cotton growing states, says a report by the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN). |
Jun 22, 2007: | EU: European Commission ignores child labor, critics say (IPSNews.net/TradingCharts.com/TMCnet.com):
Each time European Union officials take a coffee break, there is a reasonable chance that the contents of their cups originated from a plantation where young children do grueling work. |
May 13, 2006: | Dutch fashion house eradicates child labour in India (PeoplePlanetProfit.be):
"In about eight years we have been able to get thousands of Indian children out of workplaces and send them to school." This is not exactly the core business of a textile company, but surprisingly it has been achieved by the Dutch fashion house Cora Kemperman. Gloria Kok, one of the two owners: “Our model could easily be implemented by other textile companies, but unfortunately most of them interpret corporate social responsibility as charity."...
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Mar 2, 2006: | India's lost children (IndUS Business Journal):
According to the India-based Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation, there are 80 million child laborers working in India. This non-governmental organization has been working for over 13 years to get the message out about abolishing this practice, but it has also gone a step further — it is helping former child laborers by providing them with an education.
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Jan 16, 2006: | "Ground Zero" for exploited Indian sandstone quarry workers (MinesAndCommunities.org):
A recent report gives a shocking account of the inhuman living and working conditions of workers involved in sandstone quarrying in the state of Rajasthan in India. Child labour, bonded labour, exploitative wages, rampant occupational diseases like silicosis and bronchitus, alcoholism, as well as women's threathened livelihoods, are some of its main features.
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Jan 11, 2006: | Bt cotton seed firms at the receiving end (Financial Express):
The Andhra Pradesh government has expressed concern over the inadequate payment to farmers by seed companies for producing Bt cotton seeds. It has also criticised “aggressive marketing strategies” of Bt cotton seed companies and urged them to educate farmers on pest control measures. The state government has written to the Union government as to why field trials of Bt Okra was conducted in the state without its knowledge. The state agriculture minister, N Raghuveera Reddy, admitted having received some adverse reports about performance of Bt cotton seeds. He said: “We sent a team of scientists from the agricultural universities to verify the situation."
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Jan 5, 2006: | Proagro penalises 11 cottonseed growers for employing child labour (Business Standard):
Proagro, a company of Bayer Cropsciences, has decided to penalise 11 farmers and cancel the contracts with three more for employing child labour in the cottonseed production last year.
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Dec 30, 2005: | Proagro to provide lower interest credits to farmers (Business Standard):
Proagro-Bayer CropScience has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the State Bank of India to arrange lower interest credits to cottonseed growers as a part of its initiative to improve productivity and profitability under its Harvest of Happiness project to eradicate child labour.
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Dec 23, 2005: | Bonded for life (NewIndPress):
In Andhra Pradesh, young prepubescent girls are taken out of school so they can pollinate cottonseed farms.
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Dec 4, 2005: | European Commission cottons on child labour (The Times of India):
Working 13 hours a day under the blazing sun for a measly Rs 25-30 a day is no child's play.
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Nov 25, 2005: | Child labour rampant in AP cotton farms, report (Financial Express):
Production of cotton seeds has become problematic with recent studies revealing extensive use of child labour. Two separate studies conducted recently held that multinationals like Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta and Indian companies like Nuziveedu Seeds, Raasi Seeds and Ankur Seeds as responsible for the situation.
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Nov 17, 2005: | MNC seed cos chalk out action plan for child labour (Business Standard):
Multinational seed companies, Emergent Genetics and Proagro, which have their operations across Andhra Pradesh, have chalked out an action plan in collaboration with non-government organisations to address the problem of employment of child labour in hybrid cottonseed production in the state.
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Nov 9, 2005: | Low cottonseed procurement price spawns child labour (Business Standard):
An inalienable link has been established between the procurement price by seed companies including multinational enterprises and use of child labour in hybrid cottonseed production in Andhra Pradesh.
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Oct 31, 2005: | NGO's role in educating girls impresses EU team (The Hindu):
European Parliamentarians visit bridge school run by MV Foundation.
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Oct 3, 2005: | Earnest drive against domestic child labour (The Hindu):
"A child employed is a future destroyed," argues R. Venkat Reddy of the M.V Foundation, an anti-child labour group. "No child wants to work as a domestic help," says Mr. Reddy.
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Sep 11, 2005: | Withering cotton kids (Mumbai Mirror):
On a hot September afternoon, the hybrid cottonseed farms in this village buzz with activity. However, from a distance, one can only make out a sea of heads bobbing amidst the green plants, not because the cottonseed plants are very tall but because the workers on the field are really young.
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Sep 10, 2005: | Children of the farms (Mumbai Mirror):
Around 82,875 children are employed in the cottonseed farms of Mahbubnagar and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh and the girl child constitutes most of the work force.
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Sep 2005: |  Facing up to the child labour challenge (Ethical Corporation):
The recent report "Our Ming Children" by Indian NGOs has again thrown light on the pandemic that is child labour in the country.
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May 2005: | "Our Mining Children" (MV Foundation, mines, minerals & PEOPLE a.o.):
A report of the fact finding team on the child labourers in the iron ore and granite mines in Bellary district of Karnataka.
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Mar 20, 2005: | The missing children (Asian Age).
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Feb 21, 2005: | One in twelve of the world's children are forced into child labour (Unicef):
A new report launched by UNICEF UK exposes the global exploitation of children as workers, highlighting how one in twelve of the world’s children (180 million young people below 18) are involved in the worst forms of child labour – hazardous work, slavery, forced labour, in armed forces, commercial sexual exploitation and illicit activities. 97% of these are in developing countries.
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Jan 2005: | International Conference on "Out of Work and Into School - Children's Right to Education as a Non-negotiable" (Hyderabad, 2-5 November 2004; Final Report):
Several leading industrial houses have backed the Government's commitment to provide greater opportunities to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as part of affirmative action, including job reservation in the private sector.
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Nov 2-5, 2004: | ‘Out of work and into school - Children's right to education as a non-negotiable’
The international child labour conference in Hyderabad.
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Oct 2004: | India: economic boom masks widespread child labour (ICFTU-rapport):
Despite its record economic performance, India is still plagued by immense social hardship, with 400 million people living below the poverty line. That poverty is a major cause of the widespread practice of child labour: with its 60 million exploited children, India has the largest number of child workers in the world.
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Feb 3, 2004: |  Economic benefits of eliminating child labour will vastly outweigh costs (ILO study):
A new study by the International Labour Office (ILO) says the benefits of eliminating child labour will be nearly seven times greater than the costs, or an estimated US$ 5.1 trillion in the developing and transitional economies, where most child labourers are found.
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Aug 5, 2003: | Striving for better lives (The Hindu)
About Shanta Sinha of MV Foundation.
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May 23, 2002: | Football dreams stitched with children's hands: India, China and Pakistan still harbour child labourers and unfair labour conditions (Cleanclothes.ch):
Child labour and highly unfair labour conditions for adult stitchers in the football industry are still common practices, despite the fact that the contracts between FIFA and sporting goods companies promise the opposite. This was revealed by the Global March Against Child Labour in a presentation of three new reports on China, India and Pakistan.
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Jun 1, 2000: | Child and adult labour in India's football industry (CleanClothes.org):
Find here a summary of a report on India's football industry. The full report can be found on the website of the India Committee of the Netherlands: http://www.indianet.nl/iv.html.
"The Dark Side of Football - Child and adult labour in India's football industry and the role of FIFA":
India Committee of the Netherlands (June 2000).
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....... : | Global March: Spend one thousandth of world's wealth on children's rights (Global March)
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....... : | Child labour in football industry
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....... : | Global March Against Child Labour
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