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Child labor is inhumane and many children all over the world are being forced to work long hours without pay and in dangerous conditions. Child labor exists because of the high rates of unemployment and in countries where you find civil war. Many children work in such places such as factories, sweatshops, mines, fields, hotels, or in households as servants. Forced child labor should be illegal because it is against human rights and takes away the innocence of children who will grow up with little or no childhood. Forced child labor can be found in many places all over the world and it is mostly centralized in Asia. It is more common in societies where people are uneducated or who live in a lower class society that tends to force children to work. Despite having laws forbidding the practice of forced child labor, the number for child victims is increasing everywhere. More needs to be done to enforce laws to protect children from this cruel life. To begin with, forcing children to work starts a vicious cycle that will affect future generations. “According to UNICEF, there are an estimated 158 million children aged 5 to 14 engaged in child labor worldwide.” Because children are forced to work, they will miss out on getting educated and that will result in them not getting jobs in the future. This will only cause more poverty and lead them to force their own children to work. It is a never ending cycle. Unfortunately, because families are living in poverty, some have no choice but to force their children to work. People who live in extreme poverty often rely upon child labor in order to earn extra income to attain basic living necessities. Sadly, many children are being forced to work beyond their physical ability... ... middle of paper ... ...e high rates of unemployment and civil war. Unfortunately, many of them are made to work beyond their physical ability and under life threatening conditions. This practice is illegal in most countries. There is a move to boycott goods and products made from countries who allow the employment of child labor from developed nations. Child labor is an inhumane practice. Childhood should be a time for children to play and be carefree, enjoying the company of other children and getting a proper education not being obligated to work and feel the stress of adults. Children are not equipped to work as adults and this inhumane practice should be eliminated. The government should enforce the law and make the violators pay heavy fines. “All such adverse practices are to be abolished once for all, without leaving its traces for future generations. -William Wordworth”
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.
Another example is that the children voluntarily join the workforce to support themselves.family. For example, an expert stated, “Poor children can contribute to the family income….Poor children can work to pay tuition fees” (“5 Positive Sides of Child Labor” 1). Child labor may be good for countries in poverty but in rich countries, it is the exact opposite. This is because the economy in rich countries is stable and does not rocket back and forth like countries in poverty. However, child labor is still against the laws because even countries in poverty should employ men instead of
The west has attempted to fight child labor for years now with little dent in curving the use of child labor across the globe. The primary reason has been the failure to find practical means to translate our intuitions on practices that ought to be eliminated into effective solutions. Economically deprived countries in order to compete in the global economy have offered child labor (Low cost Labor) as competitive advantage and companies from the west have let low cost, high profit, blind their morality. Hence, rather then making sure no child labor is in their product cost they have embraced or looked the other way when it comes to child labor.
Child Labour In the past few years, a great deal of attention has been drawn to the global problem of child labour. Virtually everyone is guilty of participating in this abusive practice through the purchase of goods made in across the globe, usually in poor, developing nations. This issue has been around for a great length of time but has come to the forefront recently because of reports that link well known American companies like Wal-Mart and Nike to the exploitation of children. Prior to this media attention, many Americans and other people in developed nation were blind to the reality of the oppressive conditions that are reality to many.
We have all at one point seen or read an article of young girls and boys being abducted or simply forced into manual labor. Many reasons have been given as to why child labor occurs in these foreign countries such as: poverty, low pay, and unskilled work. These foreign companies or sweatshops find it easy to simply abduct poor and uneducated children, and force them into slavery for little to no pay and horrible working conditions. This is because there is greater demand for low skilled, and low cost labor that employers prefer to fill with child labor, instead of having to deal with more expensive and less flexible adult employees. Throughout the years there has been an increase in the supply of child labor mainly because of young kids in
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.
The child laborer can work in different fields. Some are engaged in agricultural labor, manufacturing, mining, domestic service, types of construction and also begging on the streets. Some are engaged in more dangerous conditions such as armed conflicts, commercial sexual exploitation, drug trafficking and also organized begging. These forms deprive children from freedom and human rights. Moreover, they certainly engender harmful effects. Children may receive no payment; they just take advantage of being fed and having a place where to sleep. They don’t have any protection in case they get sick or injured.
One of the worst places for child labor is China. According to Liu, the actual legal age to work in China is 16, but their laws are very lightly enforced. Even though their laws are lightly enforced, children in China are still pushed into working at a young age mostly because of their family’s poverty. Chinese child labor has taken the lives of thousands of young children after the child may have worked to many hours or may have been infected from toxic materials (Children Rights). The most common work that kids participating while doing child labor includes mostly agriculture, industrial work, and services (Children Rights). Chinese child labor has an enormous impact on children physically, mentally also, and deprives them of their
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...
Imagine you are thirteen years old. You are standing in a factory and you are making soccer balls. You are there every day! To some people, child labor is a bad, abusive thing. But, this kid would need this job to support his family and without this job, they would be really struggling.
By Nadira Faulmuller, “The main case for children doing work is poverty- ‘Their survival and that of their families depend on it.” Without the income of children, some families could be in extreme danger. If people are are refusing to buy products made by children, some families could be in extreme danger. Not buying the products those children make could result in the loss of jobs
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.
Children should deserve what that should have and got enough of education in their childhood. Second reason why I think that child labor
Without education children are unable to succeed and break the cycle of poverty therefore being unable to provide for there own family and forcing there own children into the workforce like generations before.6 Child labour often continues the cycle of poverty because children are overworked and economically exploited because they are paid at the lowest rates.7Child labor violates the basic right to a primary education and economically exploits children therefore promoting the cycle of
In addition, child labor started from centuries ago, also before the industrial revelation, and it increased dramatically in the 19th century. Families who suffered from poverty had to send their young children to work, and to earn money for living. Child labor is considered as controversial issue, it also has opponents and supporters all around the globe. Child labor should be banned for a number of important reasons. First reason is the working conditions are often dangerous.