The Right To Learn

Child labor is something that deprives a child of their childhood. Often the work is harmful, gruelling, and takes away their dignity. Children as young as 5 years old are made to leave their homes and slave over work that is mentally and physically challenging. In extreme cases children are enslaved, raped, and sometimes killed in the workplace. Finding solutions to these cruel actions can be addressed by reducing poverty, ethical consumerism, and enacting laws.

When their work do not affect their “health and personal development or interfere with their schooling,” they do not fit the negative notion of child labor (ILO, 1996). Children sometimes assist their parents with housework and take a part in building family businesses without their working hours affecting primary education. This is indeed a beneficial experience for children, because they learn to be productive within their communities. On the other hand, ILO (1996) applies the term child labor when work “is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by; depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.” When child labor is engaged in enslavement, separation from families, and misplacement of children on the streets, ILO experts refer to it as the most extreme forms of child

When the United States passed the bill that banned the importation of goods made by child labor, Americans thought that it was a victory for children in third world countries. What Americans neglected to consider was the possible negative side effects that the children were to face. Due to the ban, millions of children have lost their jobs and have been left to starve. Prohibiting theses imported materials is not an effective way to make the lives of working children better. When confronting the controversial issue of child labor, one needs to step into the shoes of the children, diminish child labor stereotypes, and focus on regulations and goals to improve working conditions.

One of the major issues faced between third world countries and with western civilization is the question of having child labor laws. Most of the westernization would all agree to get rid of the young under aged children from working in these dark, tight, ill ventilated factories or workshops. However, Chita Divakaruni explains how if the child labor law was to be passed then the children will have no other way to survive and result into being a robber or even worse and lose all their pride that they carry. Divakaruni explains how the passing of the child labor law in the United States, which will prohibit the import of goods from factories that has under aged children working in, would affect the children’s life as a whole and these children will have to result in a worse way of living to survive. On the other hand, Americans see an under aged child working long hard hours in a factory as a huge problem that needs to be stopped. These

Child Labor is considered work that is hazardous to the child’s health, the individual themselves and if it keeps the child away from school to learn. In many cultures around the world that have poor economic statue will eventually have the children’s not be able to attend school, instead they will have to go out and find work in the

There are innumerable propositions projected to improve the conditions that children have to tolerate while working in sweatshops. Ethically it can be said that society is thoughtless, because it tolerates child labor (Enderle 274). Child labor is not wrong from every direction; child labor is understandable in moderation. Hartman states, “The recommendation is not to ban all workers under the age of 18 from the workplace, but instead to investigate ways in which child workers can meet their family’s needs, while also endeavoring to better themselves through a complete education” (Hartman). The proposal is to balance the schedule for a child under the

However it is still a problem in a few areas of the country usually involving migrant agricultural workers. Despite the existing laws limiting the number of work hours for those still attending school, some children continue to labor an excessive number of hours or hold prohibited jobs. The effectiveness in enforcement varies from state to state and there has not been a consistent elimination of the the abuses and violations. In a 2012 NBC investigation of child laborers in the Sacramento area a quote from one of the workers read “I don’t think they do realize children are picking their food, I think Americans are largely clueless about the labor in general that supplies their food. And whether it’s their age or their ethnicity or their legal status or any of the above I think Americans are in the dark about what’s going on.” Unfortunately, this statement is completely accurate and Americans do not realize the injustice happening in their

Alberto’s example is not the only example of child labor. There are 196 countries in the world today, and 46 countries don’t protect children under the age of 18 from performing hazardous work. Globally 168 million children between ages 5-17 are child laborers. Many kids never go to school or drop out limiting future options and forcing children to accept low wage work as adults and to raise their own children in poverty. Children work because work is perceived as the best use of their time in contributing to the needs of the family and preparing them for the life they are expected to

“The International Labor Organization estimates that at least 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working, mostly in the developing world.” Many Americans view child labor as wrong or dangerous, but they do not realize how essential child labor can be in developing countries. In the article “Regulated Child Labor Is Necessary in Developing Countries,” by John Tierney, a current author for the New York Times, focuses on child labor and why it is essential in some developing countries. Tierney creates a sympathetic tone for the readers to try and understand the struggles regarding child labor in developing countries.

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

Modern society is troubled by remnants of the past that exist today, not only due the pervasive exploitation of child labor in developing nations, but also because of the fact that child labor is undeniably at an all time high.

It’s tragic to think that in this day and age, child labor still exists. Poverty and lack of schools are considered to be the main cause of child labor. An estimated 168 million children aged 5 to 14 are forced to work, in developing countries,

Halima is an 11 year old girl who lives in Bangladesh; she works eight hours a day six days a week. She works clipping loose threads off of Hanes underwear for only 53 cents a day. Halima needs to clip 150 pairs of underwear per hour, and she becomes exhausted to the point where she is able to fall asleep standing up. This 11 year old girl should not be working like this. Worldwide, there are approximately 150 million children involved in child labor who shouldn’t be. Child labor is an issue that attacks the rights of children and takes away their ability to be a child, as displayed by the countries of Eritrea and China.

The ILO estimates over 200 million children worldwide are current victims of child labor, with 30% of them in India (WHO). The reasons why this number is remarkably overwhelming lies in the facts that children everyday are abused, starved, and worked for up to 12 hours a day (Kara). Working conditions

For hundreds of years, children have been placed in harsh working conditions without any say. Children are often sold and forced to work in sweat shops, out in fields, in mines, some are sold into prostitution and some are in the military. A lot of these children are forced to do these jobs because they need to help their families. Sometimes families will sell their children to do labor because they are in debt. Some might say that working as a child could be beneficial. It teaches them good work ethic and responsibility. It also teaches them how working hard and earning money is a way of living. But in reality, it robs children of their childhood and it delays their social skills and their basic learning skills as well. A child should not have to worry about working or being physically and mentally abused by their supervisors, co-workers or other people at such a young age because they shouldn’t be in a working environment like that. A lot of these children are denied health care, education, nutrition and the protection of their families. This kind of labor for children takes a toll on them and affects them later in life.