Sweatshops

The most troubling thing that I found within this subject came from the Aulakh article mostly where a nine year old girl who once enjoyed her childhood had the focus of her life change so quickly to being centered around her job in a sewing factory. Even worse was that her aspirations were not to one day get away from working in a sweatshop, but rather to one day work in a larger factory just because there was more money to be made.
When Meem described her day as being a good one, it would seem that it meant that something good actually happened for her that day. Instead, her description of a good day was one in which she was not yelled at for humming too loudly while she sat on the floor and worked, and the electricity did not play hooky in that the three ceiling fans in the building to keep everyone from apparent heat exhaustion kept running throughout her 9 am to 9 pm shift.
This led me to wonder why someone would allow children to essentially give up their current and future lives to work all day every day under conditions that are seemingly detrimental to both their physical and mental health. One opinion that was brought up was that the children are the best workers because they "don't know any better" and they do not complain about the pain that they are subjected to while working (i.e. chronic bodily aches and pains). It seems to me that the reason the children do not complain is because they are in constant fear of the adult individuals that they work for. This nine year old evidently gets yelled at for simply humming or talking while she works. It is also described that she does not look up as she sits on the floor and works. It does not seem to me that these children "do not know any better", but rather their minds have been warped by their working conditions to be fearful of saying anything at all so as not to make their situations worse than they already are.
Finally, it was brought up in the Satyarthi article that many countries use excuses of adult unemployment, illiteracy, and other factors to justify the use of child labor in poverty. I would ask in this case, if the rate of adult unemployment and illiteracy is so high, why would the unemployed adults not attempt to find work in these factories rather than sacrifice the lives and potential to be educated of their children instead? If these children can go to school and be educated so as to better this unemployment situation for future generations, it would seem that the door would open for the potential of decreasing the poverty level in these areas in the future. Rather, it is apparently seen as good for these children to work in these factories in order to avoid resorting to prostitution or starvation, as if those are the only other options presented to all of them in their situation.