Child Labour Essay

The functioning definition of child labour is; work that deprives children of childhood, their potential and dignity, and that is harmful to physical and or mental development. Someone is considered a child under the age of 18. It refers to work that: Is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous to children, Interferes with their schooling by: Depriving them of their opportunity to attend school; Obliging them to leave school prematurely; or Requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work. The ages of child labourer’s lies between 5-17 and in a statistic from 2012 there are an estimated 168 million child labourers worldwide. On average, one in every seven children is a child labourer. Child labourers are seen to be a great source of employment because they are cheap, easy to control, and unaware of their rights. Many children work long grueling hours in poor conditions and often do not even receive their pay. Challenging the authorities of the workplace often results in beatings on the children and the work quickly becomes slavery. Although cheaper than adults, children suffer much higher risks when working in environments that are deemed safe for adults. Some of these health and developmental risk factors include: Rapid skeletal growth, development of organs and tissues, greater risks of hearing loss, risk assessment abilities are lower, more need for food and rest, higher chemical absorption rates etc. Child labour entitles psychological effects such as social anxiety, depression and retains mental development through social interaction and learning. There are many forms of child labour such as mining, agricultural work (especially in the cocoa industry), domestic work/servi...

... middle of paper ...

...al Labour organization has created conventions to prevent and regulate child labour in all its forms. Child labour violates the principles laid down in various international treaties, which are embedded in human rights framework. The ILO Minimum Age Convention 138 is one of which 135 countries have signed which entitles the factors below: (Per ICCLE). Despite the massive efforts made by the ILO and participation by over 100 countries, child labour still persists to be a big problem in developing nations because there seems to be no alternative. The United Nations supports Human Rights on an international scale and has shown this by creating treaties and conventions to stimulate government participation in equality and human rights movements. In 1989, the Convention On The Rights Of The Child was created to create a human rights framework for children. (Per ICCLE).