Child Labour Hypocrisy

Child Labor: The Hypocrisy Of The Modern Slavery

The term ‘child labor’ is used to define any work that is mentally, physically and morally harmful to children, and interferes with their education (ILO). Children have been used as a labor force throughout most of our history. After decades of struggle aimed to combat the massive employment of child labor, the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 ratified that children have the right to develop harmoniously their personality in a loving family environment. Moreover, it recognized the right of the children to be protected from exploitation, and any form of labor that jeopardizes their physical, mental and moral well-being. However, child labor is still eagerly diffuse in developing countries,

but also an advanced nation like the United States is not immune to this epidemic phenomenon —highlighting that the efforts spent on regulation have not yielded the desired results. Child labor should be banned, not merely regulated. Children are the future of our society, and they must be nurtured not exploited.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated, in 2012, that child labor involves 168 million of children aged 5-17 years old globally, of whom 85 million are employed in hazardous work, threatening their well-being (ILO). Not possessing any qualification that permits them to access to a brain’s work, children are mainly employed in agriculture, accounting for 59 percent of all those in child labor and over 98 million children in absolute terms (ILO). These data leave flabbergasted those who perceive child labor as a plague that belongs to a sad chapter of our past, at least in developed countries. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It was just over a year ago, when Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit and nongovernmental human rights organization, pointed out a reality no one should be proud. The Lax federal labor laws consent at 12 years old kids to work in tobacco fields, despite the well-documented danger posed by the acute nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco leaves (“Tobacco's”). According to a Human Right Watch investigation published in 2014 nearly three-quarters of the 141 children employed on an American tobacco farm admitted to feeling sick, showing serious symptoms of intoxication, as nausea and vomiting, while working in tobacco fields (“Tobacco's”). Most of their symptoms were consistent with acute nicotine poisoning, also known as the Green Tobacco Sickness. The great part of the children, interviewed by HRW, reported to work between 50 to 60 hours for a week in sweltering heat, often without shade or adequate drinking water. Moreover, many kids explained how tractors sprayed pesticides in the fields where they were working, causing eye and skin burn (“Tobacco's”). Paradoxically, in the US, it is illegal for children under 18 to buy tobacco products, as cigarettes, pointing out the hypocrisy of a system that protect consumers, while it has no respect for those who take part in the production process.
One can argue that is only an isolated case, and the phenomenon of child labor must be considered a mere matter of strengthening controls and trimming the current legislation.

Unfortunately, only in the United States there are 500,000 children who work on farms run by their families, and 300,000 children legally hired into agriculture by landowners who are not relatives (AFOP). An estimated 33,000 children have farm-related injuries each year in the U.S. More than 100 of these children die as a result of their injuries (AFOP). The scenario is painted in red, the red of the blood of children to whom our consumerist society stole the childhood first and then life, for mere profit. Can life be worth less than filthy lucre? Indeed, no. Banning child labor is an effective way to solve the problem from the root, by eradicating the eagerly diffused idea that working is a positive way to develop skills, regardless of the

age.
Banning child labor will create occupation. Children typically work for a much lower pay rates than adults, and for even longer hours, hence employers prefer to hire them rather than adults. Increasing unemployment among adults, it originates a vicious circle that sees parents forced to send their children to work, for pure survival reasons. Moreover, the desperation faced by families allows unscrupulous employers to ignore the most elementary sanitary and safety standards, threatening the safety of these poor children. Rendering child labor illegal it will give the dignity back to those parents who currently are forced to 'sell' their children for a few dollars, instead of grant them the deserved education. In this regard, the story of the former child laborer Usman Bilal points out how parents are willing to give to their children an education, as long as they receive an economic support (“I was”). Usman is now a child-labor activist and an MBA student, only thanks to the ILO project that offers free education to children.
However, the prohibition of child labor will initially create more poverty. Companies will strongly oppose to it, considering the increased cost of labor unbearable to the point to decrease the competitiveness in the global market. Hence, employers will try to force parents by ignoring the application of the law, and it will not be difficult since one-fourth of the world's people live in extreme poverty. Therefore, ban child labor requires a great investment of resources, either economic than human, but it will lead to a more balanced distribution of resources. Even if the side effects adversely impact the wallet of the world community, we cannot ignore the consequences of a society that does not have any respect for its most valuable citizens: the children. It is a worthy price that everyone should be willing to pay because it will empower children all around the globe to receive an adequate education, and develop their full potential. Childhood cannot be sold to unscrupulous merchants of children.
Furthermore, eradicating child labor will increase the rate of alphabetization.

According to new data released by the UIS, Unesco Institute for Statistics, literacy rates for adults and youths continue to rise. Despite the progress, 781 million adults still could not read or write; among youths, 126 million are illiterate (UIS). In this regard, the documentary The Harvest/La Choseca —realized in 2011— exposes the blatant exploitation of migrant’s children who working up forth teen hours a day, seven days a week, they no have alternatives other than drop out school. Zulema, Perla and Victor are sacrificing their own childhoods to help their families by earning a miserable salary, which, unfortunately, makes a difference in the daily economy of people living below the poverty line. The Harvest offers a moving insight of a next-door reality where children are desperately trying to have access to education for ‘grasping’ a normal life. Hearing Victor says that money do not bring happiness, it hurts like a punch in an eye. Victor, a child forced to work by an unequal society, knows the meaning of life better than us. Those poor children are legally working, so we are complicit in an evident violation of human rights. How can a child studying after have spent an entire day under a scorching sun? What skills they are developing picking crops in the fields? It is come the time to stop ignoble injustice covered by a hypocrite law system that treats us like a bolt in a gear. Raising

awareness on the issue of child labor must be a priority because only fighting ignorance is it possible prevents it, and consequently eliminate it.
Child labor deprives children of their childhood, preventing the opportunity to receive a proper, and deserved education. In a world that runs faster than light, it is necessary to be fully literate, not to be overwhelmed by the gears of a system that has only one rule: the profit. What right have we to give birth to all those children using them like batteries low consumption and low cost? Children should go to school, lay with friends, cultivate their passions, and dream about a better future for everyone. Children should not die from a tobacco field. The next time we smoke or eat a vegetable we should remember how many lives might have cost it.