The Mines There was a time when there was little child labor and people were forced to work all day for nothing more than a few dollars. Unfortunately, child labor has grown largely recently in the last years. Mainly in Africa and other poor countries, there is about one-fifth of the population of children working because they are poor and because people think it is free since they are children. Laboring children are working endlessly in many countries at toxic and dangerous gold mines. There is always a young child under eighteen that is working constantly to support his or her family in an underground gold mine. We may think that since we are living fine in our nice homes and eating great food that everybody is okay, but they are not and they get only a few dollars a day for working five times harder than you. First of all, children that are working in these gold mines are being forced to submerge deep into gold mines and submit themselves to an almost imminent death. According to Mr. Larry C. Price, there are children who labor endlessly for “as little as $2 a day” (One …show more content…
Some of these children are working for money to help their poor families and have to abandon school to do so. Also, if you think about it, this is just like ancient times how children would have to work to get to adulthood and help their family survive. According to David Roodman, “I look forward to the day when there is no child on earth for whom this is the best choice. But we are not there yet” (Four Arguments Against the Elimination of Child Labor 1). We still have not moved on from children laboring all day to help our families survive as much as we would like to think so. But, that still does not mean that it is okay to force children to work and submit themselves to death or pain. They might be working for the benefit of their families, but they should not die and or lose their education for their
The Article “Children working in the Pennsylvania coal mines” by McClure’s Magazine is about how boys working as “Slate Pickers” in mines in Pennsylvania because they are so poor. The author said he walked up to a child picking up coal. The child threw the coal down because she thought he was a cop. They could only get coal off the ground. A lot of young boys worked at the coal mine as a“slate Picker” so they could make money for their family. The boys all have to sign a paper agreeing that they are the legal age to work in a mine. Most of the time the boss and father of the boy would lie so the boy could get into the mine. The boys would usually be way younger than what they said. In addition, they worked in harsh conditions. They would be
The laborers in the mines are being completely victimized in order to make money, clearly demonstrated by Disraeli’s words. Child labor abuse was not exclusive to coal mines however.
During the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s child labor was a social issue that developed in the United States. In the early 1900’s, so many children ages 16 and under were working in American mine and factories. Our kids should not be forced to work at such an early age, they need education and a good childhood that they will always remember. Some children that are as young as 4 years old are being forced to work in crammed, dangerous factories. These factories are full of poisonous fumes and diseases that can obviously kill. Kids as young as 13 are being forced to work around 13 hours a day. Working these 13 hours is exactly what most adults are working at the time. Kids are also earning a lower wage since they are minors, employers
The children should be going to school so that they do not have to work in a sweatshop for the rest of their time on earth. They should go to school and make something out of their self. One other quote from a person against child labor read, “Families would not send their children to work if they didn't have to. If wages were better, children could have a childhood.” Raise the pay, not just for the workers, but for their families and children. Innocent children don’t need to be working, they should have no worries or cares. They should be out having a fun
Mines had issues such as cave-in’s and explosions, both purposeful and accidental that lead to fatalities in men, women, and children. Most adolescents working in mines would die before the age of
The younger boys who worked at the mines were called breaker boys. They didn’t work in the mine itself, but sat on benches and picked out the bits of rock from the coal. “These children worked in the picking room, a crowded, high-ceilinged vault, crisscrossed with rickety catwalks and crooked stairs, lit only by a wall of grime-choked windows” (Levine, Marvin J. "Mines, Mills, and Canneries." Children for Hire: The Perils of Child Labor in the United States. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. 21. Print.) Within factories, small children had to work fast at the machines, being very careful unless an unfortunate body part happens to get caught in the high-powered, dangerous machinery. For several long hours in rooms without fresh air, ventilation, and sometimes, no windows, the working conditions that the children suffered through were appalling. There are children who work in hazardous industries, risking accident and injury; there are others working in conditions that take a slower but definite toll on the children’s health (Basu, Kaushik, and Pham Hoang Van. "The Economics of Child Labor" The Economics of Child Labor (1998): 412-27. Print.).
These children are threatening physically, mentally and emotionally. Children are being sold by their parents to work off near impossible debts. These children are defenseless against bullying, beating and sexually abuse. Physical harm including stunted growth, permanent injuries, illness, traumatization, rape, and death. Since these children that slave child labor don’t know any better they are easily controlled and threaten into obedience. These children are to grow up to be unskilled, uneducated adults and so is the next generation because this ruthless cycle is going to continue. All these children that are slaving to make these different items share the same basic needs for safety, food, sleep, hygiene, and medical care. When being punished they are giving fines that include forgetting to turn the lights off and showing up to work late. These fines can cost up to two months of pay which devastates many because they are already poor people. Sometimes employers give constant fines so the woman
Introducing children under the age of thirteen to a harsh environment resulted in fifty-eight out of the three hundred forty nine deaths in one mine over duration of one year. Many people believe that child labour is no longer a big problem in the mining industry, but we still see an immense population of children mining. The most popular industries are gold and diamond mining because of their value worldwide. The reason these children are forced into the mining industry is because of the normality
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the main federal law that restricts the abuse and employment of child workers. It prevents children from being employed in jobs that are dangerous and protects the educational opportunities of children. They restrict the hours someone under the age of 16 can work and also have a list of jobs that are too dangerous for children to have. Along with the FLSA, each state has their own set of child labor laws that they follow. Since children generally don’t get jobs until they are 16, they are able to focus on their education and not as many children drop out. The conditions of factories and mines now are overall safer due to innovations that have been made and precautions that are taken to prevent accidents. The children who choose to work are given a reasonable about of hours to work and are also generally paid minimum wage ($7.25/hour). Along with all of this there are many groups that work to make sure child labor laws are just and that no child is forced to work in dangerous
Many countries don’t have enough laws on labor. Many countries still have millions of child laborers, human trafficking for work is becoming more and more common, and many parents cannot support their families on their own because of low paying jobs or not enough jobs so children have to go into labor.
Child labor is the working of young adults slaving away for low payment. Since old times, adolescents have worked to support their household, especially the families that live on a farm. Most children worked to help bring in money because their parents didn’t have jobs.The young children were forced to slave away long hours in risky and unsanitary conditions, with their pay extremely
Some children will work in very harsh conditions which could include drug trafficking, prostitution and sometimes in some countries the young children will work in types of military position for their country. A lot of children work in many types of commercial business if they can. You would never believe what these children work in and it is not safe at all for the these children to be working in it, cause it is not safe for adults sometimes also. What’s not safe for adults should not be safe for children you would think? A lot of the work that these children work in are extremely hazardous and the children that will work in these conditions come from extremely poor families and they may also live in a low economic state also. Sometimes these children will work with either no pay at all for their hard work or just little pay for the jobs that they complete. A lot of the commercial jobs that these children are involved have very extreme health risk and concerns to the children
Not to mention that a large percent of children try to help out their families in any way possible. Many children in these countries are unable to attend school because of the fact that fee’s have to be paid or either they are forced to work. “The International Labor Organization (ILO) has estimated that 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen work in developing countries. 61% in Asia, 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America. Many of these children are forced to
In developed countries children have to go to school to learn skills for the future. Children learn at an early are to run errands, help to cook, and clean the house. The children often work by choice, in order to have extra pocket money for themselves and for the family. Most children work because in third world countries the money is not for extra leisure but for survival. Children have a better chance being less exploited when they work in a family business. The danger rests when the work is outside of the family.
Child labor is work for children, but also harmful to their growth physically, mentally or emotionally. Children were forced to work because of their family’s extremely poor condition where they may be needed to drop out of school. In most kinds of