Cambodia Struggling to Curb Child Labor

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Cambodia Struggling to Curb Child Labor

PHNOM PENH— On the southern outskirts of Cambodia’s capital, a ramshackle factory turns out tens of thousands of bricks each month. Pale rows of freshly fired bricks wait for buyers under the corrugated iron roof, while a 50-meter-long oven leaks a dull heat as it bakes a new batch.

These bricks are the product of hours of labor by 10 workers, among them 46-year-old Chrup and her daughter Pheap. This is the only work that Chrup, who began working at a brick factory in 1979 at the age of 11, has ever known.

Pheap started here last year, at age 14. That was illegal, but hardly surprising: the laws against child labor are widely ignored in places like this, and the family’s circumstances leave them little choice.

“Working here helps my mother provide for the family, otherwise she can’t earn enough,” said the softly spoken Pheap, who managed two years of sporadic schooling. “It also helps to support my siblings.”

Chrup’s husband, a former soldier, is too ill to work, so the money Chrup and her daughter earn – around $80 each for eight hours work, seven days a week – is vital to support him, a 10-year-old daughter and an infant son.

Read more: http://www.voanews.com/content/cambodia-struggling-to-curb-child-labor/2833593.html

[NeverSure]

Is my brain addled as usual or is that a misprint? "...around $80 each for eight hours work" is $10 per hour or $20 per hour for two?

[BigBadGeordie]

Is my brain addled as usual or is that a misprint? "...around $80 each for eight hours work" is $10 per hour or $20 per hour for two?

Yup your brain is addled, 8 hours a day x 7 days of the week x two people = $80:-) Edited June 24, 2015 by BigBadGeordie

[kerrysum]

Is my brain addled as usual or is that a misprint? "...around $80 each for eight hours work" is $10 per hour or $20 per hour for two?

I have to totally agree with you, especially in Cambodia.... If that was the case, there would be a mass exodus from Thailand to work there....