It's Time to Put an End to Child Labor
People believe that child labor does not affect them, not realizing that the Persian rugs they put their feet on are made by suffering children in a dark, small room. They don’t realize the soccer balls that their children are kicking around outside are made by children themselves, who slave away for little or no pay at all. In 1999, ap-proximately 250 million children are employed or enslaved across the world for little or no money at all (Gay 23). Imagine how these child workers are depraved from experi-ences the joys of childhood. These poor children never get to play outside or enjoy a simple game.
Child labor is a harrowing experience for anyone involved in it. In order to end this travesty
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Children should not be forced to suffer adult maladies. Imagine a child aged seven, who is supposed to be full of vitality and energy, having arthritis, bad back, and cataracts. These are just some of the maladies that child laborers in Indian rug shops suf-fer from. Children often have to work in closet sized rooms, hunched over and squinting from lack of light. The woolen fluff they work with causes skin rashes and lung compli-cations (Williams 18). An even more serious malady happens on the sugar plantations in Brazil. The children use machetes, large knives, to cut the sugar cane crop. This poses a serious threat. Children have cut off appendages, mutilated themselves, and even killed themselves (Gay 14).
Children toiling in Cambodia brick factories drop heavy bricks on their bare feet and hands. No child should be forced to suffer such health complications. Since several countries refuse to buy products created by child laborers, the countries that employ children have faltering economies. An example of this is how there is a coalition called the Foulball campaign that “ensures that ‘children would not longer kick around the balls made by impoverished children half a world away.”(Berry 3) This has lowered the amount of soccer balls purchased from Thailand. Reebok and Nike have guaranteed that children did not make their soccer balls. Another company that puts a dent in the economy of rug based markets, is the Rugmark
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
Child labor is unfair and dangerous profession. From unsafe working conditions to their low pay to how their families depended on them.
Tired muscles, achy feet, and extreme drowsiness are some of the symptoms children feel after working a long day at the factory or mine. Children all around the world are forced to work in factories, mines, or in agriculture every day. They lose their childhood, education, and possibly their families due to child labor. There is a long history of child labor, with many health risks. Along with health risks there is an education deprivation from the children. Child labor needs to come to an end, and that can only happen if we stand together. Although many countries allow children in the workplace child labor should be banned worldwide.
The next time when you are out on your shopping trip, chances you may have support a business that exploits children. It is very disturbing and heartbreaking to learn many children are chained to looms for 12 hours a day because families need to have their child bringing home a small amount of moneys. Child labor has always been a difficult subject to address, the topic have become much more complicated and prolific.
During the Industrial Revolution around the 1700s, child labor spread. Many families during this time struggled financially forcing children to work alongside their parents in order to have enough money to survive. Child labor is a concern and a problem, because children are working in harsh conditions, which can have health risks. They are also required to work long hours, which have appalling effects. These children are paid the lowest wages while being denied an education. It is for these reasons child labor must be abolished.
The year to year increase in consumer demand for cheaper products have led major corporations to outsource labor in foreign countries with little to no laws preventing child labor and the building of sweatshops. Many parents here in America would be disgusted by the idea of forcing their young children to work long hard hours in factory but the truth is because of our desire for cheap products, “As many as a million children ranging in age from 5 to 15 work as debt-bonded laborers in the loom sheds of India, Nepal and Pakistan, according to the U.S. Department of Labor and the ILO” (Razzi 46). Many of the products we enjoy today such as soccer balls are made by child labor, “Eighty percent of the soccer balls sold in the U.S. are produced in a small region of eastern Pakistan, where about 20% of the work force is between 5 and 14 years old, according to the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF)” (Razzi 46). Child labor does not just exist in third world countries, “The International Labour Organization (ILO), an agency of the United Nations that is based in Geneva, estimates that about 13% of the world's children between the ages of 10 and 14 work, along with untold numbers of younger children” (Razzi 46). Even more surprising is the that sweatshops also exists here in America, “More than a quarter of a million people work in U.S. sweatshops, according to the Labor Department” (Razzi
Not only are so many children are living in destitute conditions, unable to survive without extra income, but working while they are young allows children to develop skills and knowledge that will help them become more competitive workers later in life. Skeptics may say that child labor is too dangerous and takes children out of school, but with the proper regulations and monitoring, including a requirement that makes sure they still attend school, allowing children to work can be both safe and beneficial for the children. After all, most children are not forced into child labor, but do so out of necessity and to help their family thrive. If we are to seek a way out of poverty for these children and future generations, we must provide an avenue to rise up. Education is one way, and lowering the legal limit for children to work is another. So for children like Pablo everywhere, give them a chance in life. Give them the chance to both fight for their future by attending school, and to fight for their present by allowing them to work to help provide for their families. Give children living in destitution a fighting chance by allowing them to work in safe
Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, once said, “There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.” There is no denying that children are very precious and important in life. Unfortunately, some children are forced to grown up too soon and face dangerous lives. They are forced into child labor and are forced to grow up too soon; because of child labor many children, at a very young age, are damaged, their dignity is taken away from them and as a result this makes them objects of abuse. Many countries around the world have banned child labor and have labor laws to prevent companies from using and abusing children. Other countries, like Africa and the Philippians have been working
The economy is steadily changing and is an essential part of every person’s basic needs. Families in lower economic brackets are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet, whereas, families in higher income brackets enjoy vacations and the luxuries money can offer. Today’s children in this world are ever more exposed to these diversities and are exploited for labor in today’s child labor black market. You may have imagined children in third world countries working in the fields or in the factories, but what about American born children living within the borders of the United States. Well, if you thought that was impossible, that children can’t possibly be working in United States Factories, or fields, you were wrong. Well according to the article Child Labor of America, over two million children ages four thru sixteen worked in the United States labor force during the 19th century.
According to the International Labour Organization, over 168 million children are child labourers even till now. Children as young as five work ten to twelve hours in factories, but only earning a few dollars, or even cents a day. If they ever try to escape, they are mutilated, raped or even murdered as a punishment. Not only are they treated like slaves, but more than half of the children work in dangerous places, such as gunpowder
One carpet factory in Asia, children as young as five were found to work from 6 in the morning to 7 in the evening for as little as 20 cents a day. Shirts that cost $60 may actually cost 10 cents to make because of cheap child labor. Many child laborers are beaten and abused to do their work. Most children go unpaid everyday. Many employers make children work in their company because they are “ the cheapest to hire, the easiest to fire, and the least likely to protest.” When an adult’s payroll is cut they protest, but when a child’s payroll is cut they don’t protest. The child is scared and shy to speak up and help
Child labour is a very real problem in the world today, and although it is declining, progress is happening at a slow and unequal pace. Child labour by the International Labour Organization is defined as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development (Diallo, Etienne, & Mehran, 2013, p. 2).” In the most extreme forms of child labour it could account for child enslavement, separation from their families, exposure to serious hazards and illnesses and being left to fend for themselves on the streets (Dinopoulos & Zhao, 2007). In order for certain types of work to be included as “child labour” depends on the child’s age, the type of work,
It 's estimated that about 150 million children worldwide are engaged in child labor. Yet for each year a child attends school, their income average can increase
In the past, women and men fought for the children of America to liberate them of the burden of harsh work and give them their childhood back. Although we want to believe that child labor is now history, child labor is still significant in our time, all around the world. Today the number of children, ages 5-14, working around the world are estimated to be increasing. Children are constantly working in dangerous working environments that cost them their lives or hamper their ability them to have a basic normal childhood that children have in America. These children miss the opportunity to run and play with friends, have friends their own age, to explore the world around them that they live in every day, have the opportunities to go to school to learn about the world they live in, and expand their imagination. Instead children in some part of world are going to mines and sweatshops to work instead of to school. They are working in dangerous places instead of playing with kids their own ages, and we in America are helping with the growth of child labor.
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