*The parents of those children had little choice as well*

Oh come on Poirot. You make children, you have children, you
are their guardian, you are responsible for their wellbeing.
Otherwise don't have children. Stop trying to pass the buck
for what is a parents responsibility.

Yabby,

You are a Westerner living in an affluent country with a decidedly "I'm all right, Jack" attitude. Why am I not surprised that you can never fathom lives and circumstances so different from your own.

I'll leave you to your "one-size-fits-all" idea of human experience.

And another thing....

What you fail to take into account is that in traditional societies, children have always "worked". When the paradigm changes to one based on industrialisation, it takes some time before the population adjusts to the new mode of operation. During the British Industrial Revolution, it seemed logical that children who had worked in the fields or in cottage industry should continue to do so. However, the type of work and the conditions therein soon proved cruel and injurious to young bodies and minds. The same is now happening in third world countries where with the increasing urbanisation of the poor, there is a burgeoning industry to cater for the production of trinkets for the world.

*Why am I not surprised that you can never fathom lives and circumstances so different from your own.*

Of course I can. But that does not change some fundamentals of
life. Even in other species, it is the role of parents to care
about the raising and wellbeing of their offspring. It is not
the role of parents to create childen and set them loose for
society to pick up the pieces.

If parents sell their children for mistreatment, blame the parents.

Why is it that parents are seemingly not responsible but society is?

Children were always the responsibility of their parents, nothing
has changed

Yabby my china you are so psychologically removed from the reality that enfolds most of the world. We have three worlds, Fist, Second, and Third, and the nuances and value system of a society that has no resource except that which comes in day by day vary greatly from yours and mine. Once again Yabby your "let them eat cake" mindset shines through, no Samaritan ideals in your psyche.

Poirot

No one likes the exploitation of children. I dare say that you could buy these balloons at the corner deli or at a large shopping centre (which the article is taking aim at). Thankfully in places like India a child has more opportunity to born than in the 'rich'countries. Where we can stop the exploitation of children we should. What that has to do with millions in Asia being lifted out of poverty by exporting goods I am not sure. It seems a different issue altogether.