YEAR after year for the past six decades, there have been regular reports of garment workers in Third World sweatshops, enduring poor pay, vile workplaces and constant abuse from their bosses. In recent years, these workers’ pains have been sharpened by the actual collapse of these shoddily-built sweatshops.
Worse, many of these garment workers are children, whose parents force them into labour from an early age to help feed their families. Their fate could be worse, these parents reason, because instead of making clothes, these children may be forced to sell themselves in city streets.