Child Labor Current Event

817 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Solution to child labor

Ethan Harris
Mrs. Liebl
World History HON
21 September 2017
Child Labor Current Event
In the article, “Forced Labor and Child Trafficking in India’s Garment Sector”, By Geeta Sekhon, the exploitation of children in the workforce is brought to light as the largest number of child workers is in the Asian-Pacific region. The International Labour Organization reported that almost 11% of the world’s children are working. The International Labour Organization estimated that around 5.8 million children aged 5 to 17 years old work under poor conditions in India alone. This being the highest rate of child labor anywhere in the globe. In India, the agriculture industry currently has the highest number of forced child laborers, but other industries such …show more content…

India has been taking continuous steps to fight these employers of illegal child labor with new Acts such as the 1986 act which aims to regulate employment of children in occupations including handling of toxic, flammable or explosive materials, mining and other hazardous processes, and articles of the constitution, such as article 24 which prohibits employment of children under the age of 14 in factories, mines, and other hazardous fields. However, the 1986 Act only helps those in the organized sector which equates to only about 10% of the child labor force. The other 90% are left out of the regulations still struggling with the employment of children in dangerous jobs. Sekhon says that, “ In response to ongoing criticism,India’s government strengthened the Act last year, establishing that ‘no child under the age of 14 should be employed nor permitted to work in any occupation with the exception if that child helps his family or family enterprise in non-hazardous occupations, after school hours, or during school holidays’.”These steps show a promising outlook for the ban of child labor in India, but the concern is no longer over what laws are in place, more so how much these laws will be enforced to stop the employers …show more content…

Similar to the industrial revolution, India’s garment industry doesn’t have many laws against poor work conditions and those that it does have are not very heavily enforced. This causes a vast majority of the workers to end up being injured at some point in their career, sometimes to the point of being crippled for life. Furthermore, children in India may actually have it worse than the children did during the industrial revolution. During the revolution, most children were made to work about 12 hours a day 6 days a week. Children in India can be forced to work more than 14 hours a day for 6 or even 7 days a week. Lastly, children in India can start work as early as five years old. During the industrial revolution children could also start as early as this and possibly earlier at four years old. This was and still is a problem as it jeopardizes the child's safety, prevents children from gaining the education that they both deserve and need, as well it prevents them from having the ability to experience a childhood. Overall the concerns during the industrial revolution are still present today all over the world, and with efforts are being taken to stop this issue that is currently plaguing the Asian-pacific area we can one day hope to no longer have children stripped of their

Show More
Related

  • Dbq Child Labor During The Industrial Revolution

    339 Words  | 1 Pages

    The kids under the age of fourteen were sent to go assist with the textile workers. They then would beat and verbally abuse the child. And if children would show up late, they would be weighted. Weighted means to put a very heavy weight on the child's back and have them walk up and down the factory aisles for hours, so other children can learn from it. This then resulted in back and neck injuries. (“Child Labor in Factories”) While this all seems really cruel, there were many positives that came out of child labor. Children were still able to contribute to their families. Money was a big struggle, and it had a major impact for poor families. Children were also getting a wide range of opportunities and work experiences for the future ahead. Although it might not be the best way to get experience, they were still helping out there families and showing respect towards them. This shows that during the Industrial Revolution, children were used harshly for labor, and the positives and negatives out of

    Read More

  • Government Corruption In The Progressive Era

    652 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many businesses and factories hired children because they were easier to exploit; they could be paid less for more work in dangerous conditions. Plus, their small size made many children idea for working with small parts or fitting into small spaces. Children as young as four could be found working in factories, though most were between eight and twelve. Despite the economic gains made by the business that employed them, many children suffered in the workplace. The industrial setting caused many health problems for the children that, if they lived long enough, they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. Children were also more likely to face accidents in the workplace, often caused by fatigue, and many were seriously injured or killed. Despite efforts by reformers to regulate child labor, it wasn’t until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that children under 14 were prohibited from

    Read More

  • The Effects of the Factory Act of 1833: The Decline of the Demand and Supply of Child Labor

    1761 Words  | 4 Pages

    Similarly, the change towards a factory-orientated nation was a harsh one for the industrialists. Many of the adult labor force had no training in how to use the machines and took awhile to pick up the new techniques (Basu and Van, 1998). It was more time consuming and costly to teach the adults than it was to hire children during this start of the revolution. Children could be molded into the ideal adult worker as they rose through the ranks in the factory. Studies indicate that about 50% of workers started working in the factories when they were less then ten years of age, from this overall amount 28% of these child workers started working when they were under the age of fourteen, while only 7.8% of workers started working in the textiles from the age of twenty- one or higher (Nardinelli, 1980). The aging of the generation of child factory workers improved the quality of adult factory workers and created a reserve pool of adults with factory experience. This pool of adults was particularly significant for men. As a child worker, they were exposed to many different positions and so learned a great deal amount of experience. Not only were the children fulfilling the basic factory needs but were creating a more work experienced labor force for the future. No longer where adults having to learn how to use machinery when entering the factory market but instead had worked in a textile during their childhood so had already obtained the human capital needed to work. The factory would then profit off of this future human capital and so keep on employing the massive amount of children in order to better themselves for the future while at the same time reaping the present value of cheap labor. With the underlying factors of cheap labor, inexpensive working conditions, and an ever-present labor market full of willing children, the industrial revolution had created a cost

    Read More

  • The Labor Force since the First Industrial Revolution

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    The labor conditions that children faced were very demanding for a human being from such a small age. For example “In the Manayunk district of Philadelphia, children as young as seven assisted in spinning and weaving of cotton and woolen goods” (Wolensky 2). The children working in the factories had their childhood freedom taken away from them. “In 1830 in a sample of 43 Manchester mills, 22.3% of the workforce was under 14 and 32.4% under 16” (Cunningham 412). This means that about 50% of the workforce in the mills were made up of children under the age of 16 and in today in the United States, a person cannot work until the age of 16. “And it is a hard thing for small children to be confined in a tight close room all day long. It affects their growth, makes them pale and sickly” (Nason). The time these children spent in the factories prevented them from spending time with their neighbors, friends, and family. The fact that young children had to work in these textile mills, created changes to American culture on how childhood years are supposed to be spent.

    Read More

  • Human Rights in Ender´s Game by Orson Scott Card

    569 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shah, Anup. "Child Labor." - Global Issues. Anup Shah, 17 July 2005. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. .

    Read More

  • History Of Child Labor In The 1920s

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Child Labor during the British Industrial Revolution." EHnet. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Dec. 2017. (-- removed HTML --) .

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    1721 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Child Labor during the Industrial Revolution

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout history, children have always worked, either as apprentices or servants. However, child labor reached a whole new scale during the time period of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the time frame of late 1800s-early 1900s, children worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for very little wages. They were considered useful as laborers because their small stature allowed them to be cramped into smaller spaces, and they could be paid less for their services. Many worked to help support their families, and by doing so, they forwent their education. Numerous nineteenth century reformers and labor groups sought to restrict child labor and to improve working conditions.

    Read More

  • Child Labour And Social Problems During The Industrial Revolution

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the Industrial Revolution, working conditions for children and adults alike were appalling, worked long hours for very little pay was the norm. For example, two boys worked on pushing a cart up and down a tunnel filled with coal for up to 19 hours and don’t see the light of day. Also in textile factories there were many machines with exposed parts run by unskilled labourers which led to many accidents. Poor working conditions including child labour has been in use for many centuries but in the industrial revolution the work conditions were particularly po...

    Read More

  • Child Labor and England’s Industrial Revolution

    1460 Words  | 3 Pages

    Child Labor and England’s Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution in nineteenth-century England brought about many changes in British society. It was the advent of faster means of production, growing wealth for the Nation and a surplus of new jobs for thousands of people living in poverty. Cities were growing too fast to adequately house the numerous people pouring in, thus leading to squalid living conditions, increased filth and disease, and the families reliance upon their children to survive.

    Read More

  • Progressive Era Dbq

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    Children were great little worker that could fit almost every where, get paid super low wages and just work to help their families. It was proven that more than 1 million kids had worked in America between ages 10-15.(Univ of virginia) None of these little kids were going to get an education due to their social class and on the need to help feed their family. They were “Permitted to work 8 hours shifts, six days a week” (Doc G) The outcome of kids working at factories were terrifying. The children would smoke drink because it would be common for factories workers to do this. They had a mindset to do these thing because that how they were tough their whole life. There was no time for improvement or to get educated. In (doc C) Jane Addam is worry on how we let “admiration of modern industry” make us forget the main focus the “children themselves.“ The purpose of this excerpt is that money and wealth are great but the problem behind all the money are important human being . Company can't just block the harshness and terrible treatment of the kids and get hustled just because their families need food. Europe had this same problem during the industrial revolution, that was child labor as well. They had longer working hours, about 12-15 hours day and if children would get tired and stop the

    Read More

  • The Effects on the Industrial Revolution

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, during the industrial revolution, bad working conditions were almost for sure. So many people had been stuck with a dangerous job, and on top of that the way they worked was even worse. Even little kids had to work in these terrible conditions. Children were forced to work where adults had a hard time working, mostly things that were easier so that way it wasn’t too complicated to where they couldn’t do it or slowed production. People took pictures to show how children worked in industries and factories. Lewis Hine was one of the people who took pictures. In one of his photographs he captures how just kids are working on big machines, these kids are running around these factories barefoot and with no protective gear on (Hine, 1908). Most of these kids are working for money around machines most parents today wouldn’t let their 16yr old kid go near. Many of these bad working conditions caused people to lose an arm or a leg, literally! Because people would work on machines without safety equipment and get their hand or arm caught in a belt...

    Read More

  • Human Trafficking in China

    2246 Words  | 5 Pages

    “There are at least 12.3 million persons in forced labour today” (www.ilo.org). A great number of the victims are poverty-stricken people in Asia, “whose vulnerability is exploited by others for a profit” (www.ilo.org).

    Read More

  • Child Labor Controversy Essay

    1806 Words  | 4 Pages

    A survey done every four years says that there has been less child labor in countries such as India and Morocco than in the United States (Barta and others). Some companies overseas have strict policies against child labor; for example, a toy factory in China will not accept children for work because they feel children should not be forced to do hard labor for any amount of money. On the opposing side, in some places child labor is a huge problem such as Africa and parts of Asia. For example, in Bangladesh several under 18 workers were found working in Rana Plaza and a 15 year old worker died in a factory accident in May, according to Kate O’Keeffe of the Wall Street Journal. O’ Keeffe also writes, “There is concern that child labor will go for the worse rather than for better, especially if Western economies rebound stronger.”

    Read More

  • Essay On Underdevelopment

    862 Words  | 2 Pages

    Census (2011) of India indicates that there are over 12 million child workers in India. They are employed in textile factories, roadside restaurants (dhabas), hotels, domestic workers, in mines and so on. They are even seen doing hazardous work in firecrackers and matchstick industries. This is not a new scenario for India. The Government has been taking proactive steps to tackle this problem through strict enforcement of policies and laws.

    Read More

More about Child Labor Current Event

Open Document