Exploitative child labor was banned from the United States in 1938 with the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Not coincidentally, this was also around the same time education for all American children became compulsory. Much of the credit for both of these can be attributed to the National Child Labor Committee, a grassroots social movement to put an end to the horrific conditions children were forced to endure, espcially in factories, coal mines, and in the agricultural sector.

Today, exploitative child labor is banned in every country with UN membership. In fact, ILO Convention 182 (1999), which calls for an end to the worst forms of child labor, has been one of the fastest international treaties ever ratified. However, exploitative child labor and even child slavery is prevalent in a number of countries and regions, most notably Southeast Asia, Sub-saharan Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South and Central America. In India along, the country with the unfortunate distinction of having more child laborers than any other country, conservative estimates put the number of child laborers at well over 100 million and child slaves (those in the worst forms of child labor) at at least 15 million.

But hope exists, and it is this hope that Global Gain hopes to spread-- systematically. In 2007 and beyond, we hope to replicate a blueprint for social change called Child Friendly Villages to thousands of villages throughout India and eventually the other regions where child labor is prevalent (read more).