Did you know that there is still child labours going on in the other side of the world?             And would you believe if there are still some people whose rights are violated because of your want for soccer ball?

Have you ever wondered who make soccer balls? The research found that there are workers stitching soccer balls in Pakistan, India, China and Thailand whose labour rights are violated.

As we know the soccer ball industry signed the “Atlanta Agreement”, which refers to the reports of violations of human rights in soccer ball production. However, the soccer ball industry including FIFA does not live up to their promises. The workers get wages below the legal minimum as it is rated low as US $0.35 per ball despite working 12-13 hours a day. What is worse, since making soccer balls take a long time workers can only produce maximum four balls each day. There are still gender discrimination against female home-based workers, who are paid the least amount of wages and face constant threat of losing the jobs due to pregnancy.

The soccer industry should keep up their promises to protect children’ and women’s rights from the unfair and unethical situations. It should keep outlining steps to improve working conditions, and keep consisting many organizations with campaigning about taking responsibility of the workers’ rights in their supply chain.

Companies should consider, before they produce a thing, if they are keeping promises as human-beings ㅡwhether they are being humane and ethical ㅡ before they take the profits from those unprotected workers. And we should be aware that there are still inhumane activities going on on the other side of the world, and try to help out to the extend we all can help or make the condition better.

References:

http://www.laborrights.org/stop-child-labor/foulball-campaign

http://www.ituc-csi.org/world-cup-soccer-balls?lang=en