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January 24, 2003 - American Farmkids
by Stephen Henn
You don't have to go around the world to find kids working in unsafe vocations with little-to-no labor regulation: you'll find them in rural America, on the farm. Stephen Henn reports that farming is the second most dangerous U.S. job after mining, and labor laws don’t apply to kids working on family farms. And, they’re legally allowed to drive tractors as soon as their feet can touch the pedals. There are roughly 1.2 million farm kids in America -- and every year, 32,000 are seriously injured; more than 100 are killed.
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Relevant Web sites and Resources:
SHAUN Network: Support group for parents whose children have been killed in farming accidents , or call (641) 322-4555
Farm Safety 4 Just Kids: Promoting a safe environment for kids on farms
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January 24, 2003 - Kids and Ecuadorian Banana Plantations
by Patricia Nazario
We set out to do our series on child labor with the best of intentions…but if one looks at the media's track record, it’s fair to ask whether child labor exposés have done more harm than good in the long run. As we conclude our series on child labor, correspondent Patricia Nazario offers a case in point from Ecuador: Here’s what happened to a group of Ecuadorian kids after they were fired from their jobs at a banana plantation in Ecuador following a New York Times story about their plight.
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Relevant Web sites and Resources:
Human Rights Watch article: "Ecuador: Widespread Labor Abuse on Banana Plantations"
Profile of Labor Organizer Guillermo Touma
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January 23, 2003 - Child Actors
by Starlee Kine
Child labor is not always about poverty or blatant exploitation. In fact, in the U.S., thousands of kids work in an occupation that seems "glamorous:" acting. The story of the successful child actor whose career ends with adulthood has become something of a pop culture cliché; it hides the fact that for the 300,000 children who call themselves "professional actors," few will realize the dream of stardom. And, the economic heft of a successful thespian kid changes the financial power dynamics at home.
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January 23, 2003 - Newsies
by Maggie Jackson
Issues of child labor may be -- literally -- as close as your doorstep if you get your morning paper delivered by "newsies,” boys and girls with paper routes. The newspaper route is romanticized in American popular culture in countless films, and many families regard the delivery route as a safe first job. But the thousands of kids newspapers employ aren’t, technically, employees - they’re independent contractors, meaning they have no health insurance and aren’t eligible for worker’s compensation when they get injured.
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January 22, 2003 - African Child Soldiers
by Amy Costello
There may be no more gruesome job than that of a soldier: they work in the worst of conditions, with orders to kill. Even if they survive, the nightmares can last a lifetime. It is hardly work fit for an adult, much less a child. And yet, 300,000 children serve as soldiers in more than 60 countries around the world. Amy Costello travels to the tiny West African nation of Sierra Leone, which is just beginning to recover from an 8-year civil war, and found that children are a fighting forces' most valuable asset.
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Relevant Web sites and Resources:
Coalition To Stop The Use Of Child Soldiers
Human Rights Watch
Articles on child soldiers
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January 21, 2003 - Child Labor Unions
by Stephen Henn
Organizations of child workers have sprung up in recent years, demanding the right to work. These unions have forced activists and adult trade unionists that have lead campaigns to eradicate child labor to think carefully about how their actions affect children they're trying to help. Marketplace's Stephen Henn takes us to Bangalore, India, one of globalization's boomtowns. As the city's high-tech elites plot paths to prosperity, thousands of street children working in the shadows are fighting for decent pay and a safe place to work.
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Relevant Web sites and Resources:
Concerned For Working Children
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
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January 20, 2003 - Bonded Labor In India
by Stephen Henn
Human Rights Watch estimates there are nearly 15 million children who have been sold into bonded labor -- a kind of indentured servitude in India. But India's government officially denies the problem exists -- staving off possible trade sanctions and international scorn. Stephen Henn goes to a remote village in south-central India, where children are sold into a kind of agrarian slavery. He speaks to children and parents whose lives have been affected by the system -- and, he found one Indian official who was willing to tell the truth.
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Listen to this story
Speak out on the issue of child labor
Read from the Reporter's Notebook
Relevant Web sites and Resources:
Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org
"The Small Hands Of Slavery, Bonded Child Labor In India:" http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/India3.htm
Free The Slaves Web site: http://www.freetheslaves.net/
Prior stories on Marketplace about child labor: Jocelyn Ford and reporter Sarah Gardner track toys made in China by children under sweatshop conditions, all the way from the factory floors in China to the store shelves in America.
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