CHILD LABOR.
Introduction.
Child labor is a term used to describe the deprivation of children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity. This kind of work mainly interferes with their leaning by either keeping them off school completely or by combining schooling with extraneous work. This poses a danger to their mental, physical, and social wellbeing. Child labor can take any form, including but not limited to separation from family for the reasons of work, enslavement, and child abandonment, usually observed in street children who are left to fend for themselves at a very young age. The international labor organization notes that for one to be said to be involved in a child, different consideration is taken into account. Such factors include; the age of the child, the type and number of hours the child is involved in. This also does differ depending on the one industry or sectors and the laws of each country.
Due to the many forms that child labor may take and the difficulties that may be encountered in trying to enforce laws that protect children against injurious work, most governments priorities on the worst forms of child labor e.g. trafficking and slavery of children and use of children in prostitution and pornography. Child labor continues to be observed almost everywhere in the world. In the developed nations, more the United Stated child labor exists, especially in the agricultural sector where the wages paid are low, and the number of workers required is usually high in numbers, especially during the harvesting season. In the developing, this vice is very rampant and can be observed in most of the sectors despite there being laws and standards to eliminate the practice. Why does child labor continue to be rampant in the developing world despite the laws intended to curb child labor and the robust advocacy against the practice? Economic empowerment is the main underlying cause that the governments and advocacy groups in these regions have failed to address.
In contrast with the economic gains made in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, Africa continued to lag, and they do not seem to be advancing as fast in terms of development as the other nations of the world. Jobs and employment opportunities are few; this contributes to the level of poverty in the society. Children from an economically disadvantaged background and their family have to rely on child labor to be able to increase the number of resources coming in into one house. This enables them to earn necessities. People in these areas may be aware of the illegalities of a child but still will involve themselves in this practice due to the need to get essentials. The U.N. 2005 statistics estimate that the number of people living in extreme poverty could be more than a quarter of the world’s population. Africa seems to be most affected, but some parts of Asia and Latin America are affected too.
Governments in some parts of Africa cannot provide education that is free or affordable and or accessible. People who are not educated are significantly disadvantaging in recognizing and asking for their rights. Parents of children in some of the areas have been marginalized, and generations have gone without getting a formal education. Most of what these communities do in their time is to engage in economic activities, and children are not spared. Children are sent to work and bring the daily wages back; these payments go into purchasing of daily necessities, little and most times nothing is left for the children. This then begs the question to the governments, ‘what then if there are no schools?’ Florence Kondylis and Marco Manacorda on their research on child labor and relationship to the proximity of school in rural found that the further the school was, the more likely children were to opt-out of school and find work. African parents have viewed children as a means of accomplishing a task, especially those related to farming. This trend is slowly dying with the new generation of parents who are literate, but unless the rural child is educated, this practice is likely to carry on to their ages.
The ability of workers to unionize to be able to protect themselves against the infringement of international core labor standard is hindered this either by design from the governments of the specific countries or by ignorance of some of the workers working in certain sectors of a given country. This makes it more challenging to improve labor standards and therefore living standards in order to be able to eliminate child labor. International Confederation of Free Trade Unions estimates that 2,500 workers were arrested in 2010 as a result of their union activity.
There is the continuous support of industries that utilize child labor because of the revenue earned by respective governments where those industries are set up. There continues to be a competition for investment by multinationals, especially in Africa, where there is an abundance of unexploited natural resources and the availability of workforce. Governments and companies in such cases have been seen to release their child labor law or turn a blind eye to this violation of existing labor laws in those countries, and those that govern international trade. If these governments have vested interests in these companies, then the population that is already impoverished is left vulnerable and at the mercy of this corporation. A child will always have no bargaining power, and whatever is given by the companies is what is taken. These multinationals are always looking to make maximum profits, and one way of ensuring this is by employing children. This is evident in agriculture industries, especially the coffee sectors in parts of Kenya and Ethiopia.
Empowering communities in this region is a complex matter that is intertwined with other may factors. Debts of a country play into aggravating this situation. The loans taken up by these developing countries have to be paid in large interest payments once they mature. A report by Media Global states that Malawi spends 40% of its GDP to repay foreign creditors, while only 15% of the GDP is spent on healthcare and education. We have already seen that these countries cannot be able to increase their GDP output so as to be able to cover for development and the payment of these loans. To meet their loan obligation, these governments have to cut back on the financing of some vital sector, one of them being education, and thus the cycle of child labor continues.
HISTORY OF CHILD LABOR.
The exploitation of children at a very younger age can be traced back form the pre-industrial time. This was associated with the economic value and importance of the same; this is due to the lower level of education that existed by then. This resulted in a country and a world of casual and manual labor. Children as young as the age of 12 years to some communities and civilization were seen to be ready and mature enough to engage in activities and duties that were left for adults. This posted a sad state in the sight of children of those times, especially orphans. This resulted in various drawbacks, and that lead the community backward in terms of development. These were not limited to poor development strategies, low life expectancy, and lower productivity. The main reasons attached to the emergence of child labor is little knowledge and a higher level of illiteracy. There was no need for children to attend school, and this was termed irrelevant by then. This has exposed the real situations and scenarios of non-literate societies.
According to my understanding, several issues are attached to the history of child labor. Firstly, the issue of industrial and agrarian revelation; the days of the past being dark days and days when people who battle with the realization of the impacts of agriculture and economic importance of industrialization. This was seen to needed and increased a higher demand for cheap labor, resulted in child labor in the name of the covered name of employment.
On the same concept of issues attached to the topic, child labor has been had an almost equal share in all parts of the United States and Europe. This was due to the argument that manual and normal labors are good for moral development and personality building for the children. To those people of the old ages, children were to be engaged fully in the technical duties regardless of their age; this was able to allow monitoring of skills and competency in young children. It was tracing back on the relationship between history and the problems posed by this topic. Poor health state, especially during the industrial revolution, was rampant in children who were on the lower side of the optimum age. The climatic condition of the locality where this act was a very common, historical perspective that cannot be omitted when addressing the history of child labor. There is a sense in which communicates the validity and relevance of some issues, and this is evident in this topic. Due to the occurrence of events that are connected to this matter, my thoughts are constituted to reason like one who is against child labor. Child labor is morally wrong since it interferes with the dignity and the normal rights of the children; children living in a society that supports this act is doomed to destruction, and the future of that society is rendered null. During the time of old, children were treated with less concern and their rights were believed not exists, this can be attached to the historical journey of child labor. My thoughts on the understanding of the same differ with the reasoning of the old. During the advent of the 20th century, there was the emergence of the glass-making industries, and to some extent, this initiate and propelled child labor in the name of securing job opportunities in industrial work. Thousands of boys were employed to work in the same industries. Despite being on the hazardous companies by then, this was cumbersome without mechanization of machines and the production process. Despite the state, young boys were taken to undertake the duties that were designed for machines. This included intense heat that was destroying their reproductive system and general heaths a whole.
According to wen institute for teachers, in 1900, an estimate of 1.7 million children who were under the age of 15 years was involved in child labor in America, and increment ten years later, an additional 300,000 children of the same period was noticed in the United States. True evidence that child labor was very common back in the old days of western civilization. It’s again evident that child labor was seen to be attached to drugs abuse and increase in immorality; this is supported in the userpages.umbc.edu, children were so vulnerable to drugs since most of them were working in the cigarettes rolling company, this exposed them to the major destruction and abuse of their rights and dignity. My understanding on history of child labor, can be summarized that it’s because of the dull economic standard of the world by then, agricultural expansion, cultural beliefs which support that children should be allowed to work in various firms to maximize their development physically and intellectually standards. Relying on cheap labor is another mammoth that was eating and fueling child labor, this was affected the business sectors and full realization of the economic potential is not easy. Tracing the historical background, it’s very true that child labor was catalyzed by the lack of enough education and awareness on the rights and freedom of children; this resulted to the total blackout as far as the real roles and responsibilities of children are a concern.
However, despite my understanding of the historical perspective of child labor, there are contradicting viewpoints. These are different ways of trying to oppose my reasoning and knowledge based on the past bit of child labor. According to Hammond and Hammond, child labor was not attached to illiteracy and lack of awareness! In those days, there were movements that were trying so hard to bring child labor to an end; this includes New York Movement, which was operating through Samuel Gompers. Their actions were fueled by the knowledge of the consequences of child labor. This point rules out the reasoning of lack of education and a high level of illiteracy. This also is echoed and confirmed by child labor committees, which was trying to combat this through legislations. There were increasing cases of child exploitation caused by proto-industrialization than was noticed during the industrial revolution. This had firmly rejected my claim and understanding of when did child labor more severe. Opposing my thoughts, Benjamin that child labor should go ahead, and its prohibition has led to the collapse of some companies economically.
Child labor takes many faces looking at it from an ethical viewpoint. Some would argue that for and support the idea of child labor so long as the labor provided is voluntary. It would be argued that for families struggling to make ends meet, without the income of their child, then they would not be able to survive. This, however, can be countered by the argument that a child is not able to understand and evaluate a situation. He or she cannot be able to fathom the consequences and voluntarily agree to take up work. Consent said to be given by children is, in most cases, provided by parents through manipulation. Children are not able to stand up against unfair treatment in the workplace, and even though they cannot make an informed decision they ought to be protected against such practices.
People deeply rooted in culture in some communities are seen to be encouraging child labor. There is a widespread belief that work is useful in strengthening character and increases skill during a child’s growth. Children in these communities will be seen to engage in the work that their parents do from a very tender. Some argue, especially so in the African context, that a girl’s education is not as important as a boy’s education since they will be married off and leave for the husband’s family, and thus it would be a waste of resources to educate girls. The consequences of this being child labor as girls are sent to work, especially as domestic workers. The argument of child labor in a country may be a shocker to them as the employment of children to earn a living is a way of life in some of the impoverished communities., the cultural bias against girls is even more evident.
Parents from African religions argue that hard work, among other things, is an essentially religious value to instill in a child at a young age. This argument is based on the fact that parents have a fundamental right to educate and raise their children. Spiritual salvation plays a central role and the need to see social and intellectual development in their children. Krolikowski, in his research on child labor found that children from a parent affiliated with a traditional African religion were more likely to work than Christians. This argument would be held by parents of Amish children. Amish children learn a trade when they are still children and are expected to provide like an adult would for their community. Education above the eighth grade is seen as going against the norms and values of the community. For these communities, work and faith bring people closer to God.
Those who own industries argue that child labor had evolved to be something that offers better opportunities for children, unlike the legislative arms of governments that prohibit children from taking up the best opportunities that their environment provides. Banning child labor through laws only leads to these children who are desperate in need of sources of income to supplement their family income to take up less desirable alternatives. A dramatic but true story that would be quoted to support this argument is in the 1993 case where Sen. To Harkin introduced a law the would ban imports from countries employing children. This led to the fall of the Bangladeshi textile industry, and an approximation of 50,000 children was out of work. U.S. Department of Labor reports that most of these children sought work in other smaller factories that had a short term of work, making the law counter-productive. Oxfam finds that some ended up in the street and prostitution. It would then stand to reason that a child working in a garment factory is far better than a child engaged in prostitution.
There is a school of thought that all countries were once poor, and as seen in the history of child labor, children were very much used in the period of the industrial revolution. Just as children populated factories in those ages, so goes the same in the Third World today. In fact, throughout history, children have always worked. Increased wealth leads to a decreased need for child labor. The main reason children do not work in countries that are developed is that they are wealthy and have no need for child labor. Laws have been argued that they do not show a significant difference as countries that have a high number of child labor have labor laws against the use of child labor just as much as the developed nations have. This, however, has not helped in stopping child labor, and the main reason why this is so different from developed nations has been attributed to them being wealthy. Thus as a nation gets richer, then they can afford to allow their children leisure activities and education.
Conclusion
There is a need to address poverty and literacy level in these societies as changes in these do leave a community more economically empowered, and economic empowerment as a tool to end child labor is something that those who argue for and against child labor can agree upon. It is also clear that this issue of public health concern cannot solely be addressed by enforcement of the law concerning the employment of children. A holistic approach with a central focus on economic empowerment cannot be overemphasized. It is my view that the protection of children against child labor has way more benefits than ignoring them entirely.
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7 Laura Del Col (West Virginia University). “The Life of the Industrial Worker in Nineteenth-Century England”. victorianweb.org.
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10 Invernizzi, Antonella. The human rights of children: From visions to implementation. Routledge, 2016.
11 Paul Krugman, “Reckonings; Hearts and Heads,” New York Times (April 22, 2001), p. 17. Similarly, UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), http://www.unicef.org/sowc97/, reports that many of these children turned to prostitution.
12 Invernizzi, Antonella. The human rights of children: From visions to implementation. Routledge, 2016.
13 Radfar, Amir, Seyed Ahmad Ahmadi Asgharzadeh, Fernando Quesada, and Irina Filip. “Challenges and perspectives of child labor.” Industrial psychiatry journal 27, no. 1 (2018): 17.