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Press Release HR/1846 27 August 1979.
estimated at about three million. Most of the children were working in conditions which were in breach of the law, without cither contract or social benefits, with very low and sometimes even without monetary payment.
The study on child labour in India indicated that India had the largest child labour for cc in the world, numbering about 16.5 million children aged 5 to 14 employed on farms, in industry, in factorics, as street vendors and as domestic servants. The problem was particularly acute in the cities due to the influx of the rural poor. The question of child labour was of great con ccr n to the Government of India, which had recently appointed a committce to evaluate existing legislation and make recommendations.
Another instance of child labour involving the sale of children in Thailand was brought to the attention of the Group by a representative of the Minority Rights Group. She said children were employed in sweat shops to perform unskilled labour in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, and for minimal wages. Children were often sold to the factories for £100-200 by unscrupulous cmployment agencies.
Sale of children: The Working Group received a report from the Incrnational Union for Child Welfare (IUCW) concerning the sale of children for adoption. The representative of IUCW stated that the problem was particularly grave in certain South-East Asian counties, and was of growing proportions. According to her information, some unscrupulous agencies were taking children out of refugee camps and selling them for adoption to Western familics.
Slavery-like practices of apartheid and colonialism: The Working Group considered the interim report on apartheid as a collective form of slavery, prepared by the Secretary-General. The report was submitted to the Group in a preliminary form for comments. (Sec Press Release HR/1832 for details of the report.)
It was suggested by some participants that since the "bantus tans" wcrc the cornerstone of the South African Government's policy of dispossession of the African people, and of appropriation by the whites of the best resources of the land, the final version of the report should include a separate chapter containing information on the political, economic and social aspects of the "bantus tans",
The
The Group also received a paper concerning labour conditions in South Africa prepared by the International University Exchange Fund (IUEF) study stated that conditions of African workers continued to be extremely repressive and tending towards conditions of forced labour.
A representative of the Minority Rights Group said the situation of black workers in South Africa had not changed since the cnactment of the Industrial Conciliation Amendment Act in May 1979. The legislation provided for more sophisticated forms of repression instead of improving conditions.
Thus, while the Government wanted to appear to be making concessions, Africans werc still denied freedom of association and had a job colour bar imposed on them.
(morc)