Today the child labor is the major problem of all over the world particularly it is the burning issue of the developing countries. The most innocent stage in human life is the childhood. It is that stage of life when the human foundations are laid for a victorious adult life. It is the stage when we are relaxed, joyful, learning, playing.
There are uncountable children who are agonized and tortured in the world. They extremely dislike the childhood. They try their best to get out of the dungeons of being children and controlled and tortured by others. They want to escape from this world. Some manage to get out and get a better life, but many continue to be where they are, not out of choice, but force.
There are industries and individuals, who employee young innocent children. They put them to work under tough circumstances. They compel them work for long hours weaving delicate threads to make the world’s most costly carpets. They force them work in hazardous factory units manufacturing fireworks. What a cruelty it is! They compel children carry load even heavier than their own body weight.
UNICEF defines child labor as work that exceeds a minimum number of hours, depending on the age of a child and on the kind of work. Such work is considered injurious to the child and should hence be eliminated.
Age 5-11: At least one hour of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week.
Age 12-14: At least 14 hours of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week.
Age 15-17: At least 43 hours of economic or domestic work per week.
An estimated 158 million children aged 5-14 are occupied in child labor – one in six children in the world. Millions of children are busy in dangerous situations or conditions, such as working in mines, working with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture or working with hazardous machinery. They are everywhere but invisible, toiling as domestic servants in homes, laboring behind the walls of workshops, concealed from view in plantations.
In Sub-Saharan Africa about one in three children are occupied in child labor, representing 69 million children.
In South Asia, another 44 million are occupied in child labor.
Children living in the poorest households and in rural areas are most likely to be engaged in child labor. Those burdened with household jobs are overwhelmingly girls. Millions of girls who work as domestic servants are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
Child labor involves at least one of the following characteristics:
Violates a nation’s minimum age laws
Threatens children’s physical, mental, or emotional well-being
Involves intolerable abuse, such as child slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, or illegal activities
Prevents children from going to school
Uses children to undermine labor standards
It is estimated that about 215 million child laborers are all over the world: approximately 114 million (53%) are in Asia and the Pacific; 14 million (7%) live in Latin America; and 65 million (30%) live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Child labor can be found in nearly every industry
Agriculture
An estimated 60% of child labor occurs in agriculture, fishing, hunting, and forestry. Children have been found harvesting:
Bananas in Ecuador
Cotton in Egypt and Benin
Cut flowers in Colombia
Oranges in Brazil
Cocoa in the Ivory Coast
Tea in Argentina and Bangladesh
Fruits and Vegetables in US A
Children in commercial agriculture can face long hours in severe temperatures, health risks from pesticides, little or no pay, and insufficient food, water, and sanitation.
Manufacturing
Electroplate Worker
About 14 million children are estimated to be directly involved in manufacturing goods, including:
Carpets from India, Pakistan, Egypt
Clothing sewn in Bangladesh; footwear made in India and the Philippines
Soccer balls sewn in Pakistan
Glass and bricks made in India
Fireworks made in China, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, and Peru
Surgical instruments made in Pakistan
Mining and Quarrying
Child laborers suffer extremely high illness and injury rates in underground mines, opencast mines, and quarries. Children as young as 6 or 7 years old break up rocks, and wash, sieve, and carry ore. Nine-year-olds work underground setting explosives and carrying loads. Children work in a range of mining operations, including:
Gold in Colombia
Charcoal in Brazil and El Salvador
Chrome in Zimbabwe
Diamonds in Cote d’Ivoire
Emeralds in Colombia
Coal in Mongolia
Domestic Service
Many children, particularly girls, work in domestic service, sometimes starting as young as 5 or 6. This kind of child labor is connected to child trafficking. Domestic child laborers can be victims of physical, emotional, and sometimes sexual abuse.
Hotels, Restaurants, and Retail
Some of the young people work in this sector is considered lawful, but there are indications of significant abuse. Low pay is the custom, and in some tourist areas, children work in hotels and restaurants is connected to prostitution. In at least one example, child hotel workers received such low pay that they had to take out loans from their employers; the terms of the interest and refund often led to debt bondage.
Millions of children are involved in work that, under any situation, is considered unacceptable for children, including the sale and trafficking of children into debt bondage, serfdom, and forced labor. It includes the forced employment of children for armed clash, business sexual misuse, and illegitimate activities, such as producing and trafficking drugs. In 2005, an estimated 5.7 million children were in forced and bonded labor.
Child labor is, no doubt, an evil that should be done away with at the earliest. The occurrence of child labor reflects very adversely on society that is unable to stop this evil. But in a society where many households may have to suffer the pangs of hunger if the children are withdrawn from work, beggars can’t be choosers. These families have to send their children to work, even if the future of these innocents is destroyed, as that is the only preference open for them to stay alive in this world. Therefore, unless the socio-economic status of the poor families is improved, the world has to live with child labor.
Is it possible for us to eradicate child labor? Although it is a desirable goal the fact remains that in the given socio-economic picture that is prevailing in all over the world, it is practically not possible to do away with child labor. One cannot deny the fact that employers exploit children by paying them much less than what they would pay in adult and the future of the working children is destroyed as they will not be able to attend schools and get educated for a better future.
Child Labor frequently interferes with children’s education. Ensuring that all children go to school and that their education is of good quality are keys to preventing child labor.
It is the responsibility of the governments of all the countries all over the world that they must make the hectic efforts seriously to dress the problem of child labor on top priority basis without which their development is impossible.
