violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

248Violence against children in places of workchild is a commodity, and works in conditionstantamount to slavery.Though bonded labour survives elsewhere,much of the problem is concentrated in SouthAsia. India, with its vast population, has thelargest number of children in bonded labour(some estimates suggest that the figure may beas high as 15 million, 81 mostly from the dalitor scheduled caste community). This practicehas long been illegal, and since 1997, undera new Supreme Court injunction, there havebeen efforts to regulate it, bring perpetratorsto justice, and rescue children from servitude.These actions were inspired by strong localactivism. Sector-specific surveys have foundbonded child labour in small-scale mining,brick making, fish processing, gem cutting,carpet weaving, tanneries and fireworks production.Carpet-weaving manufacturers employchildren in conditions of severe bondage, andcoercion is often used for discipline and to curbprotests. 82 According to Human Rights Watchsurveys conducted in the silk industry in UttarPradesh in 1996 and 2003, the level of violencesuffered by children is high. They report thatloom owners abuse the children on a routinebasis; the children are often locked up, andtheir food is far from adequate. 83A similar picture emerges in Pakistan. 84 Feudalsocial structures give landowners power toexact labour from indebted families, and may‘gift’ a bonded servant to another landlord.In Sindh, documentary evidence of murder,sexual assault, kidnapping and physical assaulthas been collected by human rights groups. 85In Nepal, bonded labour involves minoritygroups in the now outlawed kamaiya systemin agriculture. A study which looked into thispractice found that 30% of the children whohad left their employer had done so becauseof ‘harassment or punishment’. 86 In all suchfeudal settings, the writ of law or the assertionof rights are absent. Intimidation, physicalpunishment and verbal humiliation reinforcea deep sense of inferiority and powerlessness.Indigenous groupsIn Latin America, as elsewhere, high levels offorced labour are endured by indigenous peoplesand their children, who typically also facehigh rates of poverty, discrimination and exclusion.People in remote areas are particularlysusceptible to coercive recruitment and debtbondage due to the weak presence of the State.In remote parts of Brazil, children are cheaperto hire and considered more docile. They workin tree-logging, wood-cutting, sugar cane plantations,mining, distilleries, and coal production,all of which are dangerous. 87 Since theyhave been invariably hired deceitfully, theyare indebted and have no chance of returninghome. The intolerable situation of childrenin small-scale gold mining in Madre de Dios,Peru, is well-known to human rights organisationsand the authorities. Around 20% of theminers are 11–18 years old. 88Vulnerability is enhanced by lack of officialidentity. Since they do not register births, indigenouspeople are invisible to national authoritiesand are therefore unable to denounceforced labour or seek redress. In Peru’s remotelabour camps in the Amazon basin, 20,000workers may be in forced labour, many accom-