...What causes child labor? The term “child labor” can be defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is destructive not only to their physical but also mental development. (ILO 1996) Child labor is a pervasive problem throughout the world, but it is more severe in developing countries. Furthermore, child labor is regarded as a curse on humanity due to its impact on the normal up bringing of a child and its influence on the development of a child as a normal human being. There are many organizations, (local and international) which are working towards eradicating child labor from global society. There are various factors that conspire to drive children into employment, none of which is unique to any one country or any one family's circumstances. It is therefore very important to understand what causes children to join the work force at a very young age and under such harsh conditions. Only when we fully understand these reasons can we begin to address the problems associated with child labor. In this essay I will try and show some of the main causes of child labor. One of the root causes of child labor is poverty. (Yasin, Qasim, Ahmad Faiz 2011) Parents of many children in developing countries are extremely poor and unable to support themselves with the basic necessities, they therefore send their children to hazardous jobs. Although they know it is wrong, they have no other alternative, as they need the money...
Words: 1083 - Pages: 5
...What is Child Labor? Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school. Around the world , growing gaps between rich and poor in recent decades have forced millions of young children out of school and into work. The International Labor Organization estimates that 246 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 currently work under conditions that are considered illegal, hazardous, or extremely exploitative. Underage children work at all sorts of jobs around the world, usually because they and their families are extremely poor. Large numbers of children work in commercial agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining, and domestic service. Some children work in illicit activities like the drug trade and prostitution or other traumatic activities such as serving as soldiers. The child is the father of the man”. Children should be imparted noble values and virtues so that they can grow up as good and responsible citizen of the country. It is indeed unfortunately that we find children being forced to wok in order earn their livelihood. Thus the hand should be used for play or studies are used for hard manual work. Thus a childhood is wasted, which comes once in life of a man. Child labor in Bangladesh, it is a very sympathetic also a great sorrow for us we are really unable to take necessary action against them to remove elegy of child labor. Somebody say Bangladesh is a developing country but actually our country is poor. Economic problems are a most...
Words: 2078 - Pages: 9
...Playgrounds, laughter, joy, leisure and so on. Child labor is childhood destruction; children need to be children, they will have the rest of their lives as adults to work, so why rush that? Childhood is the most innocent stage in a human life. It is that phase of life where a child is nurturing, and is free from all the tensions, and health risks. Child labor existed in throughout the American and British history, as the industrial revolution moved workers from farms and home workshops into urban areas and factory work. Children were often preferred, because factory owners viewed them as more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to strike. But how did that end up? Many children died, many more were tortured and were forced to work, basically forced into slavery. So do we want that again? There is nothing wrong with children doing chores; not all work is bad for children. A child who delivers newspapers before school might actually benefit from learning how to work, gaining responsibility, and a bit of money. But what if the child is forced to work? Not paid or is poorly paid? Forced labor is any work performed against a person’s will under the threat of punishment. According to UNICEF, and Free the Child organizations, work that exceeds the min number of hours will deprive children from school, and is also physically, socially and mentally harmful for the child. Such work should therefore be eliminated.” Forced labor and child labor are closely linked. They happen in the...
Words: 595 - Pages: 3
...Child labor was and is still an existing practice in the world today. Manuel, a five-year old worked at a seafood cannery in Biloxi, Mississippi, with a shrimp pail in each hand and a mountain of oyster shells behind his back. He is typical for thousands of working children in the years before the civil war, especially the turn of the century. America's army of child laborers had been growing steadily for the past century. The nation's economy was expanding. Factories, minds and mills needed plenty of cheap labor. Around 1911, more than two million American children under the age of 16 years of age were a regular part of the work force. Many of them worked twelve hours or more a day, six days a week, for pathetic wages under unhealthy and hazardous conditions. Thousands of young boys descended into dark and dangerous coal mines every day, or worked aboveground in the dust of coal breakers, picking slate from coal with torn and bleeding fingers. Small girls tended noisy machines in the spinning rooms of cotton mills, where the humid, lint-filled air made breathing difficult. They were actually kept awake by cold water being thrown in their faces. Three-year-olds could be found in the cotton fields, and twelve-year-olds on factor night shifts. Across the country, children who should have been in school or at play had to work for a living. By the early 1900's, many Americans were calling child labor "child slavery" and were demanding an end to it...
Words: 2327 - Pages: 10
...Human beings have greed in their soul. They seek only profit in every work, no feeling of humanity in them for innocent face. No owner regret on their shameful act of child labor. Children who are small have no sense of “valuable papers”. Actually they don’t worth it they the necessary is education, they have hunger of fact. They have thirst of copy, pencil and bag. The parents, especially in south Asia, pretend as children are the gift of god we need to lose it else almighty will never forgive us and the same parent send their son to wash dishes of other, which is blindly correct. No, that is not blindness; money has covered their eyes and mouth, along with all sense organ that forbid them to understand their child’s pain. Making them work is largest sane in the entire universe. Children who have no knowledge of this cruel world are easily misused. They are forced to do lower class job, sometimes prostitution, which adult demand much higher cost. Child they work days and night to feed their family. They have to screw their entire childhood for their parent’s happiness. Children have sharp eyesight which is always beneficial of art work. It is less expensive to them; they have to give less food to them, they can also make children work overtime without any extra money. They can be easily frightened if they are taking rest instead of working. For instance, in a company if owner is providing food and wedge for daily. He will be benefited if he employs children; in compare to...
Words: 504 - Pages: 3
...Assignment #6: Child Labor: Rights, Risks, and Realities Li-Chung Pan Boston University Metropolitan College AD746 Business Law & Regulation in a Global Environment Prof. Martin L. Saradjian February 20th, 2013 1. Child labor was used extensively before laws and legislations were enacted to abolish child labor. Nowadays, child labor is used in developing countries where child labor laws are not strictly enforced or there aren’t any child labor laws. Where child labor still exists is found in rural settings in developing countries where they are forced to work by their parents or their labor is used to repay debt incurred by their parents. Child labor is used in mostly unskilled labor and is much cheaper than adult workers. 2. Various cultural factors contribute to children working in hazardous conditions. According to “Child Labour: Rights, Risks & Realities” some ethnic and lower classes believe that some are born to rule and others are born to work. This includes children, where their lower caste excludes them from certain rights afforded to other children from a higher caste. If children from these castes drop out of school to work, it is seen as their destiny to do so. 3. The Rotary International is trying to change public attitudes of how some cultures perceive child labor. Rotary clubs around the world are trying to improve the conditions of children by fighting poverty and providing education. 4. The Convention on Rights of the Child is ratified...
Words: 275 - Pages: 2
...Sec 14 4th January 2012 Child Labor Is Child Labor Acceptable in Pakistan? Child labor is a global phenomenon that is defined as the children working under the age of 14 or 16 years. While most of the developed world has been able to overcome with this so-called social evil, child labor has been prevailing in almost all of the developing countries. The International Labor Organization (ILO) and Human Rights Organizations have been active in eliminating the practice of child labor through the agreement on the protection of the rights of children and the labor. The issue of child labor came into consideration in Pakistan when most of the European countries in 1990s declared a boycott on the goods exported by developing countries that involved child labor. As a result, child labor laws were passed in Pakistan in 1991 which banned child labor in certain manufacturing sectors. According to Federal Bureau of Statistics, a survey funded by IPEC (International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor) showed that in 2010, the working children in Pakistan numbered to 3.8 million (Arshad n.p). Although it is argued that child labor deprives children from education and leads to immoral acts such as exploitation and child abuse, it can be justified in Pakistan considering the current economic situation and educational infrastructure in the country and because it could give some economic and social benefits to the nation; therefore, the ban against child labor may have drastic effects...
Words: 3640 - Pages: 15
...In India, about 12% of all children between the age of 5 and 14 are engaged in child labor activities including carpet production2. They often are being trafficked from one form of labor into another, as with girls from rural Nepal, who are recruited to work in carpet factories but are then trafficked into the sex industry over the border in India3. What is child labor? Child labor is characterized as a regular use of children less than 14 years of age for hard manual labor. Usually hiring children is illegal, but that doesn’t stop a lot of factories, especially in third world countries, to hire them anyways. The worst form of child labor is the “bonded labor”. Bonded labor means that children give their children away (they bond them) because they owe people money. These children work to pay off their parents deeds and are being enslaved and forcibly recruited. Overall one in six children under the age of 14 (about 16% of all children in this age group) is involved in child labor in the world4. Discussing those numbers, we have to keep in mind that child labor is different from child work. According to UNICEF (United Nations Children’s fund), children that want to participate in work as an economic activity, and if it doesn’t negatively affect their health, development or education actually can do so. Light work is permitted from the age of 12 years under ILO Convention No.138. Child labor refers to children working in contravention of ILO standards contained in Conventions...
Words: 947 - Pages: 4
...Child Labor: Stymieing a Global Pandemic Axia College Ericka Boice, Cherie Brown, and LaKeisha Wilkerson August 30, 2010 Child labor is a serious moral issue that illegally employs children below the age of 15, which means that one is not under the sole responsibility of parents or illegal guardians. Child labor has been an invasive problem throughout the global economy for a very long time. It first appeared with the development of domestic systems and this problem exists mostly in foreign and developing countries such as Mexico, Asia, India, and Africa. There is an estimated 250 million child workers, between ages 5 to 14. Some are working fulltime and some part-time. Child Labor has been one of the biggest issues around the world because it puts children in unfavorable danger. The awareness that globalization is leading towards child exploitation is a very serious matter for international businesses. This kind of labor is damaging and negative towards the health of children. You can very well say a child’s life in this matter is diminishing towards their future because it is impossible for children to receive enrichment towards an education or enjoy a proper childhood. Child Labor affects the global community because for one it is not an easy issue to resolve and it has been going on for a very long time in so many countries. It is found many issues involving child labor deals with children who are working because their families are very poor. The parent...
Words: 1527 - Pages: 7
...Child Labor Today, Child Labor laws exist to ensure children are able to get an education and be employed under safe conditions. History tells a different story to the meaning of child labor. History explains how the industrial revolution changed the lives of young children during this time. Children as young as four years old were put to work, some worked under very hazardous conditions and were treated cruely. According to the Unicef website,” many children are put to work in ways that often interfere with their education, drains their childhood of joy, and crushes their right to normal physical and mental development”. This paper examines the history of child labor, the hazardous jobs these children endured, and the medical conditions resulting from such conditions. In addition, this paper examines meetings held within communities, and among organizational leaders on both the state at national levels addressing child labor issues and how to combat them. In the United States company owners use to hire children to work in factories because they were not hard to work with. The children would listen and do what they had to. By 1900 the factories moved south. Lots of children were hired in factories that dealt with textiles, agriculture and many others. During the twentieth century the number of child labor increased. The National Child Labor Organization worked to end child labor. They also worked to get children free education. In 1938 the government took control...
Words: 1768 - Pages: 8
...Child Labor: Threatening the economy and well-being of children Child labor has existed throughout American history and throughout the world for many years. A quote from Lewis Hine in 1980 states: "There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profits only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work.” As factories started to assemble, most owners preferred children as their workers because the owners thought them as “more manageable, cheaper and less likely to strike.” The industries children usually worked for were mines, glass factories, textiles, agriculture, canneries, home industries, newsboys, messengers, bootblack and peddlers. During the Industrial Revolution, children at four years old were employed and dealing with dangerous and sometimes fatal working conditions. Now, because of new child labor laws in the United States, industries are going overseas to produce their product in countries that still use child labor. Developed countries consider these actions to be human rights violations and are illegal, while some undeveloped countries will allow or tolerate child labor. These children who are in these factories in different countries are costing the company less because of their wages, when they could have their factories in the States, producing jobs and cash flow in our economy. Child labor violates the common good by threatening the long-term growth of the economy and the well-being...
Words: 3347 - Pages: 14
...Child Labor Melinda Trevathan Global Business Management Dr. Wilson June 5, 2015 Abstract Generally, child labor is described as a broad term that covers a substantial mixture between and within countries in the nature of undertakings in which children play a part. More specifically, child labor is described as economic undertakings that may be harmful or lethal to the welfare of children. It may be difficult to imagine, where some children are chained to factory floors working in horrific conditions, forced into prostitution or even child-forced soldiers. Unfortunately, some countries do not hold the same values as developed or developing nations, where forced or voluntary child labor is regarded as a form of child abuse. It mostly depends on the type of work and what type of work environment that encircles the child or children (Edmonds & Pavcnik, 2005). Keywords: introduction, poverty, child labor statistics, globalization, conclusion Introduction Generally, child labor is described as a broad term that covers a substantial mixture between and within countries in the nature of undertakings in which children play a part. More specifically, child labor is described as economic undertakings that may be harmful or lethal to the welfare of children. It may be difficult to imagine, where some children are chained to factory floors working in horrific conditions, forced into prostitution or even child-forced soldiers. Unfortunately, some countries do not...
Words: 3975 - Pages: 16
...Child Labor Today, Child Labor laws exist to ensure children are able to get an education and be employed under safe conditions. History tells a different story to the meaning of child labor. History explains how the industrial revolution changed the lives of young children during this time. Children as young as four years old were put to work, some worked under very hazardous conditions and were treated cruely. According to the Unicef website,” many children are put to work in ways that often interfere with their education, drains their childhood of joy, and crushes their right to normal physical and mental development”. This paper examines the history of child labor, the hazardous jobs these children endured, and the medical conditions resulting from such conditions. In addition, this paper examines meetings held within communities, and among organizational leaders on both the state at national levels addressing child labor issues and how to combat them. In the United States company owners use to hire children to work in factories because they were not hard to work with. The children would listen and do what they had to. By 1900 the factories moved south. Lots of children were hired in factories that dealt with textiles, agriculture and many others. During the twentieth century the number of child labor increased. The National Child Labor Organization worked to end child labor. They also worked to get children free education. In 1938 the government took control...
Words: 1769 - Pages: 8
...There was a internal audit that was conducted on Apple, they found that 106 children were working at more than 10 factories creating Apple products in the past year alone according to The Guardian. (n.d.). Hiring children means that the child labor laws are being violated. Also this is morally wrong and not for the greater good of the people. Apple conducted an investigation on it's suppliers. The result of that investigation was unexpected. They found out that children were being recruited using fake identity papers. Child labor is obvious because of the harsh working conditions provided by Apple. Most of the children worked for Chinese companies that made supplies for apple. The children were under the age of 16; they employed about 74 children out of the 106 total according to The Guardian. (n.d.). Most of the cases are from 2013, and total there have been 70 companies in Apple's supply chain that have employed children according to The Guardian. (n.d.). There has been a host of other events happening when the whistle was blown so to speak. There have been cases of workers committing suicide, and also deadly explosions at some of the supply chains. This is relevant because workers slowly began to figure out that children were being used for labor, and these were some of the consequences. The children had to lift heavy equipment, and some of them were subject to pregnancy tests as well. If the children got into trouble while working they would be punished by having their pay...
Words: 4443 - Pages: 18
...Child Labor Child labor is a significant global issue and an increasing epidemic in many developing and poor countries. It is a very controversial issue because some people believe that it is just pure unethical, while others believe that their children need to work in order to provide for their family. Often times Americans criticize a third world country’s way of life. Just because their culture is very different from ours we automatically assume that it is wrong. In my opinion child labor is not entirely wrong, but it can be unethical. I believe is unethical for children to be working under deplorable and unsafe working conditions. If a child is going to work, they should be treated with basic human rights and equal pay. Poverty leads many children to work and in some countries it is the only way for some families to survive. These countries often times do not have the necessary education for children and so it is not depriving them from having a good education. By having children work in these undeveloped countries it is raising per capita income and also the GDP, so one-day children will no longer have to work. Child labor has been apart of almost every society recorded in history. The United States was once a developing country and employed many children, but once the economy became stable enough we passed a Child Labor Law. Therefore, I don’t think that child labor should be outlawed worldwide, but I do think there should be laws against having children work under...
Words: 641 - Pages: 3
