Boy's death reflects failure to help rural kids

A 14-YEAR-OLD TEENAGER was found dead on April 11 in his bed near a factory in South China's Guangdong province where he and his mother worked, China Youth Daily commented on Wednesday:

The teenager's sudden death is disturbing and disheartening. He (and many of his kind in rural China) dropped out of school early and started working before he reached 16, which is not allowed by China's Labor Law.

Although recruiting underage workers is illegal, companies still do so from time to time, not only because of the lower cost of child labor, but also because migrant workers' appeal to them to employ their children so the families can be reunited.