The problem with viewing child labour in third world countries Exploitative labour has been a problem worthy of concern since the industrial revolution, more so with the ongoing human rights and equality movements around the world. Some may argue that it is the equivalent of modern slavery, others such as Karl Marx attributes exploitation as a by-product of capitalism. Exploitative labour is not slavery but it does contain some qualities thereof, “[being] given or sold into domestic work/as a means of debt repayment” (Blaghrough and Glynn 52) or the “forced appropriation of the unpaid labour of workers” as stated by Marx (Lapon). These definitions are by no means exhaustive but they do highlight a very common characteristic of exploitative work, specifically the unfairness of gain that workers receive in comparison to the gains of the employer. This makes it extremely unlikely that exploited workers will improve their socioeconomic prospects. Although in recent times International Institutions, which are often established under Western standards, tried to remedy this global predicament, many attempts were ineffective particularly in the context of child labour (Blaghrough and Glynn 51). However these attempts does not take into the consideration of circumstances in regions in which the child labourer does gain a respectable amount of benefits and even “spoke of enjoying working” (Nieuwenhuys 213). This raises the question of to what extent should we eliminate child exploitative labour and by what means. It is fairly understood in the West that child exploitative work is morally unacceptable and socioeconomically crippling but in developing regions of the world could it be argued that it is acceptable to a degree, under certain cir... ... middle of paper ... ...lishments simply because it is the best choice (Zwolinski 155). Within the current political atmosphere dominated by Western nations, Zwolinski questions the logic of how neglect is more acceptable than exploitation. That is to say how institutions are more concerned with reducing exploitative work, even if it brings benefits to both parties than to address the unemployment and struggle that arise from child labour laws, which prohibits under aged children from working full-time (Blagbrough and Glynn 55). Moreover, Blagbrough and Glynn dispute the numeric age standard as being too arbitrary. Why is a person seventeen years of age treated differently than an eighteen year old person? Zwolinski further criticises these laws by challenging the morality of banning exploitative work, which causes people with consent to lose their only stead source of income. It is ironic
While we, as Americans, are currently living in the most advanced civilization up to this time, we tend to disregard problems of exploitation and injustice to nations of lesser caliber. Luckily, we don't have to worry about the exploitation of ourchildren in factories and sweet shops laboring over machines for countless hours. We, in the United States, would never tolerate such conditions. For us, child labor is a practice that climaxed and phased away during and then after the industrial revolution. In 1998 as we approach the new millenium, child labor cannot still bea reality, or can it? Unfortunately, the employment and exploitation of children inthe work force is still alive and thriving. While this phenomenon is generally confined to third world developing nations, much of the responsibility for its existence falls to economicsuper powers, such as the United States, which supply demand for the cheaply produced goods. While our children are nestled away safely in their beds, other children half way around the world are working away to the hum of machinery well into the night.
Child labor has become an ongoing global concern for many years. The practice sweatshops in places such as South America and Asia are responsible for much of the manufactured goods people own today. While hundreds of organized unions and corporations look for answers to this unheal...
The west has attempted to fight child labor for years now with little dent in curving the use of child labor across the globe. The primary reason has been the failure to find practical means to translate our intuitions on practices that ought to be eliminated into effective solutions. Economically deprived countries in order to compete in the global economy have offered child labor (Low cost Labor) as competitive advantage and companies from the west have let low cost, high profit, blind their morality. Hence, rather then making sure no child labor is in their product cost they have embraced or looked the other way when it comes to child labor.
An estimated 200 million Children around the world go to work every day. Their ages ranges between 5 and 17 years. According to the International Labor Organization, nearly 171 million children are engaged in unsafe work environment, of which 111 million are younger than 15. Some 8.4 million children are trapped in the worst forms of child labor, including slavery, t...
Based upon the situation some specific sectors where the practice of child labor is taking place. Depending upon the economic conditions of a country, and other external factors, some families could be faced with the prospect of starvation if their child is not earning some income to ensure the survival of the family. One question that is raised early in the analysis of child labor is, is child labor categorically wrong? The practice of child labor was a long standing institution in many western European countries, and had a general glint of acceptance. It was only in the nineteenth century that we find the rise of the contemporary ideal of childhood emerge, and the wave of anti child labor sentiment reach a stage where it faded away ...
some 78 million children between the ages of 5 to 14 were in engaged in some sort of manner of child labour. It is pointed out that advocates of the free market are in the belief that once families overcome poverty, child labour will not exist. The author disagrees with the statement and states himself that “What is true for our own children is true for the, world’s poor as well.” Winner proceeds to explain the beliefs of folk that slavery has ended are false and that issues such as economy
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.
What if your young son or daughter was working in a big factory, breathing in bad chemicals, and losing fingers in the machinery? Would you be okay with that? I highly doubt you would be. The conditions of factories can be terrible, unsafe, and unhealthy for children to work in for extended periods of time. These children can get respiratory problems, diseases, and many other conditions, just because they are working there. These things would be happening if the government never stepped in and made rules. I therefore believe the government should be allowed to restrict child labor, including the hours, the pay, education requirements,
We are often unaware or pick to disregard the problem of child labor in sweatshops. However, even though most people are not conscious of this, it is a reality that many children are deprived of their childhood and are enforced to work. It has been estimated by the International Labor Organization (2013) that 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen work in emerging countries. More than half of these child laborers are hired in Asia, others work in Africa and Latin America mostly.
Child Labour has been in existence in different forms from the beginning of time but it wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution that it became the problem it is today. With the arrival of the factory system in the 18th century, Children as young as 5 were being used as workers in England. During this period, a law called the English Poor Act gave the government the responsibility to care for children that had no parents or whose parents were too poor to care for them. Under this law, the government would take these ‘pauper children’ and place them in jobs where they could become apprentices and learn a trade. The law was not usually affective because when the children were handed over to the factory owners, they usually became slaves. Other children were sold by their parents as indentured servants. Children were used to tend to machines in factories and many worked in the dark, damp coalmines, carrying coal on their backs up ladders. Many children would work 10 to 15 hour days with a small break for lunch. On top of this, the children were paid a starvation wages.
“Many children are employed in horrible conditions in many countries around the world” (Sebastian, 1997). Child labour is a problem that was seen in not only England specifically, but exists in most third-world countries during the early stages of the eighteenth century. Child labour is an important issue because it affects the lives of millions of children around the world who are suffering from severe mental and health problems due to the poor working conditions with which they are forced to work in as well as the mistreatment they receive from whom they work for. Child labour dates back to the eighteenth century where children were forced to work in harmful conditions for extremely low wages, from as early as the ages of six or seven. Howeve...
By the end one should be able to understand why child labor is in violation of human rights and should not be accepted and what is currently being done to put an end to it. Many people want to put an end to this plight, but they feel overwhelmed by the complications and the enormity of it that it becomes difficult to find a the right way to tackle it. There have been many implications that have succeeded in aiding this predicament and enabled progress to be ma...
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...
So I believe that the issue of child labour is not simple. As Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report argued, children’s work needs to be seen as having two extremes. On one hand, there is the destructive or exploitative work and, on the other hand, there is beneficial work - promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest. ‘And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s development.’ My firm belief is that there is a difference between child labour and child work and that in both cases the issue is whether or not the child is deliberately being exploited.
Child labour is an issue that has plagued society since the earliest of times. Despite measures taken by NGOs as well as the UN, child labour is still a prevalent problem in today’s society. Article 23 of the Convention on the Rights of a Child gives all children the right to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child 's education, or to be harmful to the child 's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.1 Child labour clearly violates this right as well as others found in the UDHR. When we fail to see this issue as a human rights violation children around the world are subjected to hard labour which interferes with education, reinforces