(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
An investigation by a British newspaper found children as young as 10 making clothes for Gap Inc. in a sweatshop in New Delhi, India, and the good were destined for sale in the West.
The Observer reported today that the children said they had been sold to the sweatshop by their families and they could not leave until they had repaid that fee. The paper quoted on boy identified only as Jivas as saying that child employees who cried or did not work hard enough were hit with a rubber pipe or had oily cloths stuffed into their mouths.
Gap officials told The Associated Press today that the sweatshop was run by a subcontractor hired in violation of company policies and none of the goods made there will be sold in stores.
For more, read this report filed today out of London.
--Paul Chavez
This is definitely a disturbing story. Unfortunately, the Gap isn't the only large retail chain to have been recently found to use child labor. Wal-Mart, America's largest retailer, has been exposed as using child labor in both China and the Dominican Republic. A recent report from the International Labor Rights Forum explains the China abuses.
If you want to take a stand against these illegal practices, go to http://intldayofaction.bbc.wikispaces.net and join the International Day of Action against Supermarkets and Big Box Retailers!
Posted by: LPK | 29 October 2007 at 02:49 PM