Child Labour
Introduction
Child Labour is notorious even in today’s modern world. Child Labour refers
to the work that children are to young to perform. Most of these jobs are
hazardous and have an immense effect on a child’s well being. In its worst
case, child labour can end up in slavery or something similar to slavery
which includes the sale and trafficking of children.
What are the main causes?
They can be forced into armed groups or offered into prostitution. Roughly
160 million children were subjected to child labour at beginning of 2020 and
this accounts for nearly 1 in 10 children worldwide. It is a problem that
lingers in developing countries and cuts children off from their essential
rights like education and safety. This mostly concerns migrant and refugee
children who have been uprooted by conflict, disaster or poverty - also risk
being forced into work and even trafficked.
Reasons why children are forced to work
Children may be forced to labor for different causes. The main cause for
this is that most poverty ridden families face heavy financial issues or
uncertainty. Another reason could be sudden illness of a caregiver or job
loss of primary wage earner. Most of these families believe that the kid’s
education is secondary and money is primary. What they don’t know is that
putting a child to a job creates an endless cycle of poverty that is nearly
impossible to break
Impact on their health
The consequences are immense. Child Labour can result in extreme bodily
and mental harm and even death. The child can face heavy slavery and
sexual or economic exploitation and in most cases, cuts children off from
schooling and health care, defying their rights. In farming, children are
exposed to toxic chemicals like pesticides and dangerous machinery and
forced to undergo strenuous tasks for long periods of time in extreme
temperatures. In mining, they may be forced to work in deep mines to
transport loads of rock or use toxic chemicals to extract minerals or
precious metal from ore. They are just a few of the dangers faced by
children forced to labor. Exposure to these traumatizing experiences can
affect a developing child’s physical and mental health and puts themselves
at significant risk of abuse and trafficking.
Are boys and girls subjected to different kinds of child labor?
Globally, Boys are more common to be in the child labour market than
girls at all age groups. Boys are more prone than girls to work in
construction, mining and manufacturing, while girls in child labour tend to
be in services, including domestic work.
What should government do and what are other organizations doing
to stop this?
The government should ban child workers and inspect all places that
require labor. They should donate more to poverty stricken families and
offer free/cheap education to their children to break the poverty cycle.
Some global organizations like UNICEF have already addressed this
problem. UNICEF works to prevent and respond to child labour, especially
by strengthening the social service workforce. They also focus on
strengthening parenting and community education initiatives to address
harmful social norms
that perpetuate child labor, while partnering with the government to
eliminate all forms of violence, exploitation and abuse.
Word Count : 507
Citations :
https://www.unicef.org/protection/child-labour
