Child Labor in Agriculture

940 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: nature of child labor

There are hundreds of thousands of child farm workers laboring under challenging and bad conditions in the United States of America. This is according to a human rights watch report dubbed, Fingers to the bone: United States Failure to Protect Child Farm Workers. This rights group made discoveries that the child laborers are often made to toil between twelve and fourteen hours a single day and stand a risk of pesticide poisoning, heat exposure effects, injuries and health complications that could last a life time. However, the majority of this population that makes up the child laborers is from Latino. This paper seeks to demystify the issue of Child Labor in agriculture in the United States using information from a Human Rights Watch.

The kind of rules that govern minors who work in agriculture have been found to be less strict when compared with those existing in other sectors of the economy. They unfortunately permit children to work at very young ages and for longer durations in very dangerous situations than children working in other sectors. Previous conducted researches attest to the fact that farm work remains the most perilous work that is available to children in the United States of America. This implies therefore that the laws in the country have to be changed if the health, safety and edification of children are to be guaranteed.

The federal law that was institutionalized in 1938 is the one responsible for the exemption of the child laborers from the minimum age and maximum hour requirement that protects other children. At the level of the state, eighteen of them lack a minimum age for farm work while others even have the minimum requirement to as shocking as nine or ten years. The report from the Human Rights W...

... middle of paper ...

... the already set laws, including least wage necessities, and the Environmental Protection Agency to safeguard the children from contact with pesticides in a more efficient manner (U. S. Department of Labor, 1996). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has to develop strict regulations of the field sanitation and all the federal governments have to increase the minimum age limit to at least fourteen years.

Works Cited

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2000/06/19/abusive-child-labor-found-us-agriculture

National Research Council. Committee on Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children. (1993). Pesticides in the diets of infants and children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

U. S. Department of Labor. (1996). State Workers Compensation Laws. Washington, DC: Author, Employment Standards Administration, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs.

Show More
Related

  • Troubling Issues of Child Labor in Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys

    593 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys does an excellent job illustrating the troubling issue of child labor. The extent of child labor in a country is directly linked by the nature and extent of poverty within it. Child labor deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity. It is detrimental to physical and mental development. Today, there are an estimated 246 million child laborers around the globe. This irritating social issue is not only violates a nation’s minimum age laws , it also involves intolerable abuse, such as child slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, and illicit activities. In Between Shades of Grey , Lina and her ten year old brother are unrightfully charged 25 years of labor at a work camp in Siberia. It prevented the children from going to school and used them to undermine labor standards. In the harsh winter and even worse living conditions, they watched their mother as she starved to death.

    Read More

  • Human Rights in Ender´s Game by Orson Scott Card

    569 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shah, Anup. "Child Labor." - Global Issues. Anup Shah, 17 July 2005. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. .

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    1721 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout time children have worked myriad hours in hazardous workplaces in order to make a few cents to a few dollars. This is known as child labor, where children are risking their lives daily for money. Today child labor continues to exist all over the world and even in the United States where children pick fruits and vegetables in difficult conditions. According to the article, “What is Child Labor”; it states that roughly 215 million children around the world are working between the ages of 5 and 17 in harmful workplaces. Child labor continues to exist because many families live in poverty and with more working hands there is an increase in income. Other families take their children to work in the fields because they have no access to childcare and extra money is beneficial to buy basic needs. Although there are laws and regulations that protect children from child labor, stronger enforcement is required because child labor not only exploits children but also has detrimental effects on a child’s health, education, and the people of the nation.

    Read More

  • Child Labor during the Industrial Revolution

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    Levine, Marvin J. "Mines, Mills, and Canneries." Children for Hire: The Perils of Child Labor in the United States. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. 21. Print.

    Read More

  • Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Oil Workers

    750 Words  | 2 Pages

    The health and wellbeing of workers is said to be a top priority for many companies, but the reality is that many individuals suffer from symbolic violence; images and representations that naturalize or normalize violence().The need for better working conditions for these laborers has been brought to light by the documentary The Globalization Tapes, and the work of Seth M. Holmes, Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United State. Both The Globalization Tapes, which highlights the working conditions of the palm oil workers in Indonesia, and the Fresh Fruit, Broken; which explores the lives of migrant farmworkers in America, expose the harsh realities of the poisonous, both figurative and literal, working conditions of these

    Read More

  • Human Rights Issue in Ender's Game

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Report Says Child Farmworkers Are Working Under Dangerous Conditions."The Daily Transcript. N.p., 19 June 2000. Web. 2 Jan. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Government Corruption In The Progressive Era

    652 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many businesses and factories hired children because they were easier to exploit; they could be paid less for more work in dangerous conditions. Plus, their small size made many children idea for working with small parts or fitting into small spaces. Children as young as four could be found working in factories, though most were between eight and twelve. Despite the economic gains made by the business that employed them, many children suffered in the workplace. The industrial setting caused many health problems for the children that, if they lived long enough, they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. Children were also more likely to face accidents in the workplace, often caused by fatigue, and many were seriously injured or killed. Despite efforts by reformers to regulate child labor, it wasn’t until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that children under 14 were prohibited from

    Read More

  • Child Labor in the United States

    1478 Words  | 3 Pages

    What is Child Labor?Child Labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school. Around the world and in the U.S., growing gaps between rich and poor in recent decades have forced millions of young children out of school and into work. It is estimated that 215 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are currently working under conditions that are considered illegal, hazardous, or extremely exploitative.1 Underage children work many different types of jobs that included commercial agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining, and domestic services. Some children were involved in illicit activities that included drug trade, prostitution, and other traumatic occupations that included serving as soldiers. Child Labor involved threatening children’s physical, mental, or emotional well- being. It involved intolerable abuse, such as slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor or illicit activities and prevented children from going to school.

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    477 Words  | 1 Pages

    Christopher Hibbert’s The English: A Social History, 1066-1945, harshly reflects child labor. The author uses graphic details to portray the horrible work environment that the children, sometimes as young as four and five, were forced to work in. Hibbert discusses in much detail the conditions the children work in, the way they are mistreated, and what was done to prevent child labor.

    Read More

  • Child Labor Controversy Essay

    1806 Words  | 4 Pages

    Child labor laws need to be enforced more because governments are paying little attention to those who abuse the laws; therefore children are being abused physically by long hours and economically by low pay. Farmers and many businesses in third world countries are accused of taking major advantage of these laws. This topic is highlighted as one of the highest controversial issues in labor politics. Child labor is a major issue in countries such as Africa, Argentina, and Bangladesh. For example, in Africa, some children do the work of a grown man for as little as one dollar a day. On the other hand, in the United States some studies show that child labor is a bigger problem in the U.S than some third world countries (Barta and others). Many farmers are facing a huge problem; the government is attempting to keep children from working long hours on their family farms.

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    1869 Words  | 4 Pages

    Child Labour In the past few years, a great deal of attention has been drawn to the global problem of child labour. Virtually everyone is guilty of participating in this abusive practice through the purchase of goods made in across the globe, usually in poor, developing nations. This issue has been around for a great length of time but has come to the forefront recently because of reports that link well known American companies like Wal-Mart and Nike to the exploitation of children. Prior to this media attention, many Americans and other people in developed nation were blind to the reality of the oppressive conditions that are reality to many.

    Read More

  • Child Labor Argumentative Essay

    1669 Words  | 4 Pages

    Think about the cotton in your shirt, the sugar in your coffee, and the shoes on your feet, all of which could be products of child labor. Child labor is a practice that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity and includes over 200 million children worldwide who are involved in the production of goods for companies and industries willing to exploit these kids for profit. Although most countries have laws prohibiting child labor, a lack of funding and manpower means that these laws are rarely enforced on a large scale. However, even for a first-world country like the United States, that has a large number of state and federal law enforcement officers, child labor is still a problem because priority is given to crimes that are more violent or heinous. Child labor must be made a priority issue because it is a global plague whose victims are physically and psychologically scarred, lack a proper education, are impoverished, and whose children are doomed to the same fate if nothing changes.

    Read More

  • Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Child Labor in U.S. History.” Child Labor Public Education Project. 2011. Web. 2. April. 2014

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    2143 Words  | 5 Pages

    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 years old, are slaves to the production line. These unfortunate children manufacture shoes, matches, clothing, rugs and countless other products that are flooding the American market and driving hard-working Americans out of jobs. These children worked long hours, were frequently beaten, and were paid a pittance. In 1979, a study shows more than 50 million children below the age of 16 were considered child labor (United Nation labors agency data). In 1998, according to the Campaign for Labor rights that is a NGO and United Nation Labor Agency, 250 million children around the world are working in farms, factories, and household. Some human rights experts indicate that there are as many as 400 million children under the age of 15 are performing forced labor either part or full-time under unsafe work environment. Based upon the needs of the situation, there are specific areas of the world where the practice of child labor is taking place. According to the journal written by Basu, Ashagrie gat...

    Read More

  • Child Labor Essay

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    The child labor was create back in eighteen century. It was a situation where young Children at age fourteen to sixteen was able to work in the United States and United Kingdom. During this period of time children were forced to work in factories. Some children as young as five were force to work to help their family, but at same time it was limited in some states where they considered to be illegal and people think it was violation of human right.

    Read More

More about Child Labor in Agriculture

Open Document