Many problems are created because of child labor. There are two main problems that are going to be addressed. One problem is that children are missing large amounts of school or dropping out of school because they need to work. The other is health care issues such as sickness, work related accidents and cruel treatment.
There are a lot of plausible examples and causes of why kids work or are forced to work. One issue is that they might have family issues such as the death of their parent or parents, or other extenuating circumstances of that sort. Another is if they are forced into servitude. An example of that would be to pay off debts. Finally they have to work in order to survive. An example would be if you got kicked out of the house for some reason and have nowhere to go.
Human Right's that are being violated:
- Article 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
- Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
- Article 23: (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
- (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
- Article 24: Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
- Article 26: (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
- (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
"The Fair Labor Standards Act was designed to protect the educational opportunities of youth and to prohibit their employment in jobs that can harm their health and safety. It regulates child labor by setting minimum ages for jobs that have been determined to be particularly hazardous, setting minimum ages for all other jobs that is, jobs that are not considered particularly hazardous, and limiting the hours that children are permitted to work. There are also exceptions to some of these requirements."
The Children’s Aid Society was founded in 1853 by philanthropist Charles Loring Brace in order to “ensure the physical and emotional well being of children and families, and to provide each child with the support and opportunities needed to become a happy, healthy and productive adult.” Brace, a minister by training, was appalled by the thousands of abandoned, abused and orphaned children living in the slums and on the streets of New York at that time. The only option available to such street children at that time was commitment to jails, almshouses and orphanages. Now the Children’s Aid Society is a private charitable organization based in New York City. It serves 150,000 children per year, providing foster care, medical and mental health services, and a wide range of educational, recreational and advocacy services through dozens of community centers, camps and other locations in the New York area.
Individuals can help by adopting children from bad families and helping them find work or giving work to children who need it and making sure they are treated fairly. Another thing that I think could help would be to have people that visit a group of cities in random orders, that check on places that have children working in them all over the world. Another idea of mine would be to make it illegal for children under the age of 16 to work everywhere in the world. And finally my last idea would be to find known places that abuse or mistreat the children that work there and either shut them down after so many warnings or to give them to different owners, or place someone there to enforce the rules on a daily basis.
These issues are happening everywhere, albeit some places are worse than others, but it needs to stop everywhere not just in certain places. No matter the reasoning for it children should not have to suffer or miss getting an education because they are humans and they have rights.
A boy repairing a tire in Gambia
A young boy recycling garbage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 2006
Young girl working on a loom in Aït Benhaddou, Morocco in May 2008.
Sites
Youth and Labor. (n.d.) From U.S. Department of Labor. Retrived from -http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/youthlabor/
Child Labor Coalition- Child Labor in the US. (n.d) From U.S. Department of Labor. Retrived from
http://www.stopchildlabor.org/USchildlabor/fact1.htm
Children's Aid Society. (28 July 2009) From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Retrived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Aid_Society
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (n.d.) From united nation website. Retrived
from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
Child Labour. (23 September 2009) From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Retrived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour#Present_day