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Argumentative essay about child labor
Arguments for and against child Labour
Negative effects of child labor
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The question that typically arises worldwide is… Is child labor beneficial? Many sources state that those who begin work during childhood have yielded harmful effects in the long run; however multiple cultures around the world embrace child workers as active participants in the community. Even in the United States, children were able to hold jobs alongside adults until the early 20th century.
Today, children have the job to go to school and come home to complete their homework. They work to earn money independently around the age of fourteen. While this is beneficial in most cases, many children have their childhood and innocence taken away from them because of child labor. Child labor is primarily caused by extreme poverty. The practice of child labor is very common in poor countries, specifically Bangladesh. That is not to say that child workers in America don’t exist. Children often work on their family farms and restaurants. Yet, there is a difference between child labor and child work. Child work is not necessarily considered grueling work in which a child is responsible for earning income. Child labor, however, does require a child to earn income interferes with his or her normal development. Although child work in America does not seem as cruel as it is in Bangladesh, this does not mean it is not forced.
Bangladesh Child Labor:
In the case of Bangladesh, child labor has both pros and cons. Child labor in Bangladesh is identified as a child in the age group range from five to fourteen years old, who is working for money. “Although Bangladesh with her current population of 130 million accounts for about 2% of the world population, it is the home of 6.9 million working children that accounts for about 6% of the global la...
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...worst forms, should be eliminated. It not only undermines the roots of human nature and rights but also threatens future social and economic progress worldwide. Trade, competitiveness and economic efficiency should not be a pretext for this abuse.” Despite the laws that have been made over the years, child labor still exists because the laws are violated. There is no denying that child labor is essential to certain people in certain conditions; however, child labor is a tragedy in both children’s developments and futures.
Works Cited Page:
Shafiq, N. Najeeb. “ Household Schooling and Child Labor Decisions in Rural Bangladesh.” (2007): Page 36.
Doran, Kirk B. “How Does Child Labor Affect the Demand for Adult Labor?” Volume 28. Issue 3 (2013): Pg 702.
Grootaert, Christiaan. “Child Labour: An Economic perspective” Volume 134,
Child labor is nothing but cheap labor. The big companies loved cheap labor because then they could make an item for not very much money, and make a huge profit margin. Fried continues to state how cheap the labor was, “One glass factory in Massachusetts was fenced with barbed wire ‘to keep the young imps inside.’ These were boys under 12 who carried loads of hot glass all night for a wage of 40 cents to $1.10 per night.” Unlike, children today who are in bed sleeping by 8 pm each night, these children had to stay up all night working to make just enough income for their families.
Shah, Anup. "Child Labor." - Global Issues. Anup Shah, 17 July 2005. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. .
All of my life I have considered myself as a person who loves children. I enjoy playing with them, helping them, and just being around them. So when I first agreed with corporations who use child labor I shocked myself completely. After examining two articles; one “The Case for Sweatshops”, by David R. Henderson, and two “Sweatshops or a Shot at a Better Life”, by Cathy Young, I came to the conclusion that in some cases when young children work under proper conditions it can keep them out of the streets and be helpful to them and their families.
Throughout time children have worked myriad hours in hazardous workplaces in order to make a few cents to a few dollars. This is known as child labor, where children are risking their lives daily for money. Today child labor continues to exist all over the world and even in the United States where children pick fruits and vegetables in difficult conditions. According to the article, “What is Child Labor”; it states that roughly 215 million children around the world are working between the ages of 5 and 17 in harmful workplaces. Child labor continues to exist because many families live in poverty and with more working hands there is an increase in income. Other families take their children to work in the fields because they have no access to childcare and extra money is beneficial to buy basic needs. Although there are laws and regulations that protect children from child labor, stronger enforcement is required because child labor not only exploits children but also has detrimental effects on a child’s health, education, and the people of the nation.
Basu, Kaushik, and Pham Hoang Van. "The Economics of Child Labor." The Economics of Child Labor (1998): 412-27. Print.
Child labor has been around for hundreds of years. “Children of poor and working-class families had worked for centuries before industrialization” (Tuttle 1). Before children were needed in factories they worked on family farms tending the fields or animals, as time went on families moved from farms to the cities where children were still required to work. Children worked for numerous reasons some were that their parents couldn’t work so the responsibilities were passed to the children; others included the simple need for more money to feed the entire family. Large businesses welcomed the increasing number of child workers, for the business it meant cheap labor and cheap laborers that could be replaced easily. The exact number of child workers is unknown and has been estimated as stated in multiple articles such as this, “By 1900 over two million children, mostly immigrant children under the age of sixteen, were employed” (Wagner 1). Parents wanted their children to work as soon as possible so they could get as much income as possible, parents often did illegal things to get their children to work, “Boy’s parents often presented a fake birth certificate with an altered date o...
Think about the cotton in your shirt, the sugar in your coffee, and the shoes on your feet, all of which could be products of child labor. Child labor is a practice that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity and includes over 200 million children worldwide who are involved in the production of goods for companies and industries willing to exploit these kids for profit. Although most countries have laws prohibiting child labor, a lack of funding and manpower means that these laws are rarely enforced on a large scale. However, even for a first-world country like the United States, that has a large number of state and federal law enforcement officers, child labor is still a problem because priority is given to crimes that are more violent or heinous. Child labor must be made a priority issue because it is a global plague whose victims are physically and psychologically scarred, lack a proper education, are impoverished, and whose children are doomed to the same fate if nothing changes.
Child labor refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely or by requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work (International Labor Organization). Child labor has been a big problem ever since the Victorian Era. Many counties worldwide have used and still to this day use child labor. Though there are many laws that have been implemented against using children to work, many countries tend to ignore them. In my paper I will be discussing countries where child labor is present, push to stop child labor, companies that use child labor, the effects on children, and the reasons for child labor.
Child Labor is not an isolated problem. The phenomenon of child labor is an effect of economic discrimination. In different parts of the world, at different stages of histories, laboring of child has been a part of economic life. More than 200 million children worldwide, some are as young as 4 and 5 years old, are slaves to the production line. These unfortunate children manufacture shoes, matches, clothing, rugs and countless other products that are flooding the American market and driving hard-working Americans out of jobs. These children worked long hours, were frequently beaten, and were paid a pittance. In 1979, a study shows more than 50 million children below the age of 16 were considered child labor (United Nation labors agency data). In 1998, according to the Campaign for Labor rights that is a NGO and United Nation Labor Agency, 250 million children around the world are working in farms, factories, and household. Some human rights experts indicate that there are as many as 400 million children under the age of 15 are performing forced labor either part or full-time under unsafe work environment. Based upon the needs of the situation, there are specific areas of the world where the practice of child labor is taking place. According to the journal written by Basu, Ashagrie gat...
Child labor is not only illegal it is also very dangerous. When children unwillingly have to work without being paid it would be called child labor. Today a quarter of the world's slaves are children. Children face challenges when they reach out for help. Children feel like they cannot live a normal life. They do not know what to do. Children are also involved in sex trafficking. Today child labor is common all over the world. Most work children
So I believe that the issue of child labour is not simple. As Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report argued, children’s work needs to be seen as having two extremes. On one hand, there is the destructive or exploitative work and, on the other hand, there is beneficial work - promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest. ‘And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s development.’ My firm belief is that there is a difference between child labour and child work and that in both cases the issue is whether or not the child is deliberately being exploited.
Presently, about 11 crores children of age group 9 to 14 , are working as child labours. This makes 10% of our total population. All these children have missed out pleasant moments of their childhood and ultimately they will remain away from the mainstream of social development. If we as a society ignore these facts and neglect this situation, it may prove to be harmful to all of us.
Since the definition varies drastically in different parts of the world it is hard to decide what is child labour and what is labour. For example the minimum work age in Egypt is 12, this would therefore constitute the 12 year old as an adult in the workforce and therefore would not be put in the child labour category.16 However the basic minimum age recommended by the International Labour Organization is 15.17 The Convention on the Rights of the Child defines child as any person under the age of 18 therefore constituting the full time employment of 12 year olds as child labour.18 While the definition of child may be disputed, I still firmly believe that the full time work of persons under the age of 18, which puts them in harms way and distracts from education, and life outside of work constitutes as a human rights violation.
Child labor is an appalling struggle in Bangladesh. The child labor in Bangladesh today is very comparable to the child labor that occurred in Britain in the 19th century (Brennan, Deirdre. Journal of International Affairs, 2001).Young children may have to work in sweatshops, clothing mills, and as camel jockeys just to support them and their families. Children may have to work at food mills to provide food for themselves and other people as well. Their families live in such harsh conditions, that they cannot even provide for their children. Child labor may be horrifying in some peoples eyes, but in others, it is their way of life.
A question that have been asked a lot by most people is, should there be child labor? It is on of the issues nowadays. Child labor is the employment of children in any work that forbid them from their childhood and their education. people consider that child labor is inhuman and serious. Actually, it is mental, physically, socially and morally harmful and dangerous. Moreover, today’s studies show that there are still more than millions children are forced to child labor. There are three main reasons for why I think that child labor should be stopped. Their work can go from working in factories to military purposes instead of being abused and sexually insulted for the advantage of others, even though those children are working to