Child Labor
Introduction: -
child labor, use of the young as
workers in factories, farms, and mines. Child labor was first recognized as a
social problem with the introduction of the factory system in late 18th-century
Great Britain. Children had formerly been apprenticed or had worked in the
family, but in the factory their employment soon constituted virtual slavery,
especially among British orphans.
Definition
of child labor: -
refers to work done by children and
which is harmful to them, such as work that is dangerous, illegal, or prevents the child
from attending school.
Early
History
of Child labor
occurs when children get paid to do work. Although they have always had to work
in some way, child labor started to become a major problem when children
started to work in factories and mines in England during the Industrial
Revolution of the 18th century. Factory owners forced them to work long hours
and they got very little money for their work. Working conditions were very
unhealthy. Factories were dirty and the air was bad. In mines children had to
crawl through tunnels that were not wide enough for adults. Most children
worked to help their families survive .During the 19th century the situation of
children started to improve. Most of them were able to go to school and lead a
better life. A child with a factory job might work 12 to 18 hours a day, six
days a week, to earn a dollar.
Nowadays
Child labor: -
Although
many countries have laws that forbid child labor under a certain age, there are
millions of children all over the world who are forced to work, especially in
Asia, Africa and Latin America. Common for children is factory work, working on
farms or even prostitution. Some work as tourists guides; others sell things on
the streets or are beggars. According to the United Nations there are about 200
million child workers all over the world. Among them are about a hundred
million who work in dangerous jobs. Over 22,000 children die in accidents at
work every year.
There can be
no keener revelation of a society soul than the way in which it treats its
children (Nelson Mandela)
Examples
of child labor
1-Forced
Labor in the Mines: - Mining is exhausted work and considered one of the most dangerous professions in
the world. Long hours, hard physical labor, and often-cramped conditions can
contribute to human errors in an already dangerous environment. If it is
dangerous for well-trained adults in regulated mines, imagine how dangerous it
is for the estimated one million children in Africa, Latin America, Europe, and
Asia that work in unregulated mines.
2- Chocolate
Slavery on The Ivory Coast: - Most children light up when given a chocolate
treat, but there are children who are slaves to the chocolate industry. They
are so controlled and abused that many do not even know what chocolate is or
what it tastes like. In places like Ghana and the Ivory Coast, where 60 percent
of the world’s cocoa is produced, illegal child labor is carried out on a daily
basis. Some children have parents who are cocoa farmers, but others are
trafficked and forced into a life tending the fields.
3- Soldiering: - Seventeen
different countries have children involved in armed
conflict. Fighting, spying, mine sweeping, cooking, and servitude are only a few
of the tasks that children perform during violent conflicts. In some cases
schools are used as military grounds for confrontation or negotiation. Congo,
Colombia, and Sri Lanka are just a few of the countries with reported
violations of the international laws that regulate this issue.
Example from UAE: -
Camel Jockeys before they used children to ride camels in
camel racing after that many of them get injury or died they start to use a
robot jockeys rather than taking risk on children health.
Advantages and disadvantages: -
Child laborers can bring money to the family as well as the child gets
to learn a trade that can be of use later in their life. The bad thing is that
they are not educated so once they become crippled from working in fields they
have nowhere to go or doing any job.
Solutions: -
1) Our first solution is to create more unions to protect
and prevent against child labor. With more unions, more people will be
encouraged to help against child labor and they will be aware of what is really
happening inside the work force.
2) Our second solution to stop and prevent child labor is
to give education to these children. By doing this, we can better the chances
that these children will succeed in life and they will be occupied with going
to school and not being forced to work.
3) Our third solution is to change how the public views
this problem. If we can change how the people see what child labor does to the
children, more people will be determined to stop it and want to help.
4) Our final solution is to create a minimum family
income. Many families need child labor or they wind up putting their kids out
on the streets or selling them in order to survive. If we can help these
families come out of poverty and get a steady money income, more and more
children won't have to work in these types of conditions.
Reference:-
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