15-year-old child labor physically abused for near half year at factory

Recently, a post on Sina Weibo exposing that a 15-year-old teenager, named Xiao Hao from a remote village in Hebei province, was physically abused for near half year at a factory he worked, attracted a lot of attention.According to Xia Hao’s mother, Ms. Zhang, Xiao Hao told her he would like to take a job to support their family together last year. And she agreed under the pressure of life and sent him to a factory producing trolley bags in Baigou village on July 23 through someone’s introduction, even though she knew that Xiao Hao was just a minor. The boss of the factory offered a payment of 600-700 yuan per month with accommodation available, so Ms. Zhang let her child stay in Baigou village alone.

More than five months have passed since he started working at the factory, but Xiao Hao had never contacted with the family himself. Ms. Zhang said, she ever made calls to the factory asking about her child’s situation, but she hadn’t come to meet him in person too. On the 16th day of the twelfth month of the lunar year, 2011 when it was coming near to the Chinese New Year, Ms. Zhang suddenly received a call from Xiao Hao saying that he was receiving treatment in a hospital due to the injury in his eye. However, her child demanded her to not visit him, or else he would be murdered. On the 23th day, when Ms. Zhang found that the other children in the village working in the same factory too all came back home except for her child, she then rushed to Baigou to see Xiao Hao with her husband.The couple almost collapsed, when they found out Xiao Hao had been undergoing the continuous physical abuse since he started his work there. Ms. Zhang said, Xiao Hao was often bullied and beaten by his workmates. A day because he did not place the bags neatly, his workmates beat him to the ground, and cut many wounds on his buttocks with a knife. And there was another day, the boss’s wife incited workers to cut on his belly too because Xiao Hao argued with her that he did not eat three steamed buns but two instead.Miserably, the long term physical abuse has left bruises, blood spots and swelling over his body! Besides, his right eye sustained serious injuries and received 6 needles, and his anus was broken too for having being stuck with garlic.Xiao Hao now often hid himself in the corner and avoided to meet strangers, because he was over frightened by the physical abuse at the factory.Outcries followed after the news was exposed online. The local police now have started investigation, and have already subdued the factory owner’s wife, reportedly.