TNAG-0783-FCO40-987-Employment-of-children-In-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 26

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were

Many of these children start work as young as four, and by 12 are expected to be working full-time. A New York Times survey in 1971 estimated that 800,000 children were working

on farms and plantations making up 25 per cent of the US paid farm labour force; 300,000 of these/children of migrant

workers, and these children had the hardest life, often working in the field from dawn to dusk seven days a week. The

work done by these children includes picking strawberries in

Louisiana, beans in Oregon, potatoes in Maine, tomatoes in Ohio and general farm work in New Jersey. US doctors have testified that work of this sort for long periods could prevent normal growth of children and make them chronically fatigued and susceptible to infection. In 1975, in a total of 50 violations, two agricultural processors were convicted and fined in Franklinville for illegally employing children.to

sort and pack cucumbers; similar convictions are common in other states, and often involve children using forklifts and conveyor belts. Agricultural work is particularly dangerous for children: a 13-state study of fatal tractor accidents showed that 12 per cent of the 789 victims were children between 5 and 14; migrant child workers have died from such hazards as pesticide poisoning. Migrant children are often exposed to pesticides in the air, in empty cans, or on the

1 clothes or hands of members of their families.

In Bolivia and several other Latin American countires

where there are Indian populations, the "criada" system exists by which Indian girls, sometimes as young as 3 years old, are "adopted" by white families and used as unpaid household workers. Although in some cases this system offers

a chance of education and a better life to children from the

poorest families, in many others the children concerned become closely akin to chattel slaves: they are traditionally sexually

1. New York Times, 26 April 1971; New York Times, 3 September, 1973; New York Times, 15 October 1975; US Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Migrant Child Welfare, Washington, DC, 1977.