Child labor is growing in China, a monitoring group said yesterday, underscoring long-standing concerns voiced by human rights groups and even the International Olympic Committee.
A combination of poverty, defects in the educational system and weak laws is allowing the practice to flourish, the Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin (CLB) said.
Authorities need to strengthen enforcement against using children, boost education spending and allow nongovernment organizations a freer hand to help child workers, the group said in a report.
"While poverty is a necessary condition for the creation of child labor, it is by no means the only condition," CLB said.
Eliminating child labor in China "does not necessarily require the prior elimination of poverty," it said.
China's Foreign Ministry did not respond yesterday when asked to comment.
Chinese law bars children under the age of 16 from the job market and has special legal protection for workers below age 18.
However, a large number of children younger than 16 enter the labor market each year -- sometimes even forced to work as slaves, the report said.
Most are middle school dropouts, although they also include "work-study" students transported to factories or farms during the school holidays. The use of "work-study" students was alleged in an investigation into a company found to have used child labor to produce licensed products for next year's Beijing Olympics.
Though the problem is believed to be widespread, reporting on child labor by the entirely state-controlled media is generally sparse.
However, the issue burst into the public consciousness this summer after complaints were posted on the Internet by parents of boys forced to toil under harsh conditions as slave laborers in brick yards. Chinese media reported on rescue efforts, but there has been little follow-up.
Child laborers mostly toil outside the public eye, but some can be seen performing menial labor in restaurants or shops, or handing out advertising cards on city sidewalks.
CLB blamed the high dropout rates on underinvestment in education, leaving Chinese parents with a heavy burden of fees and tuition payments despite the government's claim of nine years of free schooling.
China spends just 2.7 percent of its GDP on education, less than half of what the UN recommends, the report said.
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