India

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A decade since extensive efforts were taken in Pakistan to end child labor, the soccer ball industry is again in the spotlight for child labor in India. Though ILRF has made progress in promoting stricter regulation of soccer ball production, there is still a long way to go.

Most recently, the two Indian villages of Jalandhar and Meerut have been under increasing investigation. Research by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) reveals the hundreds of children that must hand stitch soccer balls in order to help support their families. Much of the production takes place in Household Units (individual homes), which are not registered under the Factory Act and receive no supervision by the Formation of Sports Goods Foundation of India (SGFI). These families have no access to the market and are given raw materials from subcontractors to stitch the soccer balls.

Subcontractors know to target the poorest pockets of these villages, where physical labor is their only source of income. For landless villagers, soccer ball stitching is sometimes the only option to support a family. And the poor get poorer for the families that are most vulnerable to the stitching industry; families with low income and the lesser proportion of children enrolled in school. Half of India’s stitchers live below the poverty line, and 90% of these households are part of the ‘untouchables’ caste (BBA). Under such conditions, families have no choice but to make their children work.

In a recent airing of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, the daily routines of these children were exposed. Many work 10-15 hour work days, suffering neck and back injuries. The children’s eyes and hands are also under much strain in poor working conditions. From cutting the string on the soccer balls with sharp razors, children showed the cameramen their overworked hands scarred with cuts. The HBO footage even shows children stitching balls that say "CHILD LABOR FREE" on the panels they are stitching together. When asked what the children’s goals were, they expressed their simple desires to go back to school, or even just get to play with the ball they made. Unfortunately, when they are paid almost 40 times less than the soccer ball’s retail price, these goals are out of reach.

The burden of the soccer ball industry can no longer lie in the hands of children, who have yet to experience a free childhood and decent education.