Child Labor

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Child Labor The next time when you are out on your shopping trip, chances you may have support a business that exploits children. It is very disturbing and heartbreaking to learn many children are chained to looms for 12 hours a day because families need to have their child bringing home a small amount of moneys. Child labor has always been a difficult subject to address, the topic have become much more complicated and prolific. 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... ... middle of paper ... ...beneficiaries. The hopes of hundreds of millions are a stake; thinking things through is not just good intellectual practice, it is a moral duty because child labor is a human rights issue. By encouraging more child labor in an immoral way, we are not only taking away those innocent years from them but also the rights to be educated and the rights to be free. What is more of human rights than growing up as a free person, attending school without being held in bondage? Bibliography http://www.american.edu/TED/nike.htm http://www.hrw.org/children/labor.htm http://www.saigon.com/~nike/childlabor.html http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-2003011a6.html “Child Labor: Cause, Consequence and Cure with remarks on International Labor Standards”- www.jstor.org http://econ.cudenver.edu/beckman/econ4410/basu.pdf http://slate.msn.com/id/1918

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