CHILD LABOUR
Child labor can broadly be defined as employment of children or subjection of children to employment often under harsh conditions for very minimal pay.
This is one scourge that has transcended international boundaries affecting both developed and developing nations alike. However, in recent times the response to combating, mitigating the effects and subsequently eradicating this scourge that has affected a vast number of children globally has been more encouraging in the developed nations than the developing ones.
It has been detrimental to the development of affected children and deprived them of opportunities of becoming better people in their adulthood, which would have created an opportunity for them to live better lives, raise better families, and create a new or better future conspicuously different from their childhood experiences.
It would be difficult to trace exactly where this practice began, but it has been known to be an age long problem. It has been discovered to be tied to some traditions in Eastern Africa, Latin (South America), and a lot of Asian countries. Many children born to bond servants were automatically drafted to labor at an early age and were expected to do that for the rest of their lives.
The causes of this practice globally cannot be too difficult to unravel. Poverty is the number one reason for this and why it is becoming so difficult for it to be eradicated. More often than not poor parents are compelled to send their children to work at an early age just to augment the family’s meager income. This most of the times does not make any difference since the children are paid peanuts for their long hours of labor in harsh and most times inhuman conditions.
Another reason is lack of opportunities for development e.g. school, skill development/acquisition. Children who do not go to school either because parents cannot afford the fees or for several other reasons are usually idle and thus very vulnerable to the practice of child labor. Also, child labor is predominant in countries where HIV/AIDS has badly affected their populations. In some localities or villages, adult populations are wiped out by the disease leaving the children to take charge of their survival. This unavoidably makes children assume adult roles they were never prepared for or anticipated to assume roles they were never prepared for or anticipated to assume so early in their lives. Several other reasons for child labor exist, but a critical look at them will reveal that they are all linked to poverty.
The effect of these on children, their development, and by extension development of their localities is quite enormous. For instance, children who are forced to or made to start working at the early stages of their lives do not have access to education. When they are supposed to be going to school to acquire the knowledge/skills that would transform their lives in future, they are held up in factories, plantations, etc working. Since they cannot acquire any knowledge or skill that will empower them to live better more productive lives, their living conditions keep deteriorating no matter how hard they work. The wages are not enough to meet the basic needs of life and sometimes they get into problems. Since the wages are not enough they get trapped or caught in the web, which they will struggle in for a life time to get freed. This affects the children they bear negatively too. Thus, creating a viscous cycle that is becoming difficult to break.
Also, children in labor are exposed to several adverse conditions that are detrimental and hazardous to their health. For instance, children working in plantations and farms are exposed to toxicity from pesticides and fertilizers. Most of these chemicals cause effects which affect these children for a life time as a result of the long durations of exposure to them. A lot of terminal diseases presented by these children in their later ages have been attributed to working under hazardous conditions for a long time.
International multilateral and civil society organizations are leading the cause to fight child labor globally, but the response from many countries has not been very encouraging especially from developing countries. The American, British and Canadian governments have since instituted legislations to ban this menace, but it is still being practiced by some unscrupulous companies and especially in some localities were agriculture predominant.
Furthermore, many Governments/countries need to show a political will and determination towards mitigating and subsequent eradication of this problem. They need to provide increased access to education for all children to be educated and acquire skills that will enable them look towards a better future and thus make them have better and transformed lives and a more promising future.
Child labor can broadly be defined as employment of children or subjection of children to employment often under harsh conditions for very minimal pay.
This is one scourge that has transcended international boundaries affecting both developed and developing nations alike. However, in recent times the response to combating, mitigating the effects and subsequently eradicating this scourge that has affected a vast number of children globally has been more encouraging in the developed nations than the developing ones.
It has been detrimental to the development of affected children and deprived them of opportunities of becoming better people in their adulthood, which would have created an opportunity for them to live better lives, raise better families, and create a new or better future conspicuously different from their childhood experiences.
It would be difficult to trace exactly where this practice began, but it has been known to be an age long problem. It has been discovered to be tied to some traditions in Eastern Africa, Latin (South America), and a lot of Asian countries. Many children born to bond servants were automatically drafted to labor at an early age and were expected to do that for the rest of their lives.
The causes of this practice globally cannot be too difficult to unravel. Poverty is the number one reason for this and why it is becoming so difficult for it to be eradicated. More often than not poor parents are compelled to send their children to work at an early age just to augment the family’s meager income. This most of the times does not make any difference since the children are paid peanuts for their long hours of labor in harsh and most times inhuman conditions.
Another reason is lack of opportunities for development e.g. school, skill development/acquisition. Children who do not go to school either because parents cannot afford the fees or for several other reasons are usually idle and thus very vulnerable to the practice of child labor. Also, child labor is predominant in countries where HIV/AIDS has badly affected their populations. In some localities or villages, adult populations are wiped out by the disease leaving the children to take charge of their survival. This unavoidably makes children assume adult roles they were never prepared for or anticipated to assume roles they were never prepared for or anticipated to assume so early in their lives. Several other reasons for child labor exist, but a critical look at them will reveal that they are all linked to poverty.
The effect of these on children, their development, and by extension development of their localities is quite enormous. For instance, children who are forced to or made to start working at the early stages of their lives do not have access to education. When they are supposed to be going to school to acquire the knowledge/skills that would transform their lives in future, they are held up in factories, plantations, etc working. Since they cannot acquire any knowledge or skill that will empower them to live better more productive lives, their living conditions keep deteriorating no matter how hard they work. The wages are not enough to meet the basic needs of life and sometimes they get into problems. Since the wages are not enough they get trapped or caught in the web, which they will struggle in for a life time to get freed. This affects the children they bear negatively too. Thus, creating a viscous cycle that is becoming difficult to break.
Also, children in labor are exposed to several adverse conditions that are detrimental and hazardous to their health. For instance, children working in plantations and farms are exposed to toxicity from pesticides and fertilizers. Most of these chemicals cause effects which affect these children for a life time as a result of the long durations of exposure to them. A lot of terminal diseases presented by these children in their later ages have been attributed to working under hazardous conditions for a long time.
International multilateral and civil society organizations are leading the cause to fight child labor globally, but the response from many countries has not been very encouraging especially from developing countries. The American, British and Canadian governments have since instituted legislations to ban this menace, but it is still being practiced by some unscrupulous companies and especially in some localities were agriculture predominant.
Furthermore, many Governments/countries need to show a political will and determination towards mitigating and subsequent eradication of this problem. They need to provide increased access to education for all children to be educated and acquire skills that will enable them look towards a better future and thus make them have better and transformed lives and a more promising future.
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