Correlation Between Poverty And Child Labor

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

Many kids have to work and are pressured to work by their families to make money for them to pay for common necessities like food, water, clothing, and housing. To find the correlation between poverty and child labor, a study was conducted by Qassim University in the Malir district of Karachi, Pakistan between April and July 2008. 200 random children(ages 5-15)were chosen for a survey with questions about each person’s workplace, themselves, their family, and socio economic status. The results showed that 83% of these children came from from poor families, 82% were working due to their poverty, and another 13% were being forced to work. This example shows how impoverished children tend to work to provide money for their family and how this cycle occurs over and over again. With child laborers making small amounts money and having little to no education, they are not able to get another job with a higher salary and are stuck in their current situation. This causes their kids to have to be child laborers as well and this can continue for centuries. This might explain why child labor reduction rates are stagnating. On the other hand, consumers buying products from these companies remain oblivious to how the product was made and by whom that progress cannot be made to fix this issue. The consumers need to step up and refuse to support companies that allow this to go on. This creates a clash because

Boycotting companies that use child labor is an effective and proven way of fighting child labor. Nearly two decades ago, a report was released that Nike was paying their workers, including child laborers, as little as 14 cents per hours and were abusing them as well. Due to public protests and mass boycotts of the company, Nike began to cut down on this and employ regulations to end their flawed practices. They increased the wages of employees, made factory conditions cleaner, monitored factory conditions, and stopped the use of child labor. Now, Nike releases their own reports about their employees and wages and has gained back their reputation as well as their control over the athletic footwear market(A. Lutz). With less demand for products made by child labor, companies will be forced to comply with the consumer and stop the use of child labor. You can also donate to organizations such as UNICEF or the Ark of Hope to raise efforts and awareness. Not only do they take donations for projects with the goal of helping child laborers, but you can also volunteer your time to the cause by spreading the message either virtually or in your community or helping victims of child labor. All of these actions help child labor get one step closer to being dissolved, and that one step begins with one