Child Labor

One of the areas where human rights is being violated is child labor. These children work for reasons like helping support their families financially, or because of cultural and social standard. While child labor has some positive attributes like experience, it is an economic issue because it often takes away a child’s right to education. Child labor has been an issue for a long time. It is a problem being tackled by organizations like the International Labor Organization (ILO). This organization has adopted conventions that protect children under a certain age form labor. Since 1973, the minimum age to work is when the child completed compulsory schooling, which is about 15 years old. In 1999, the ILO considered the minimum working age to be 18. While the ILO encourages these conventions, about 218 million children are still victims of child labor. 



Globalization is essentially a growing trend of independent markets. It is when a small occurrence transforms into a well-known entity. Child labor is related to globalization because, while it is more popular in some nations, it is a global issue and concern. This impacts people in modern and developing regions in the world because like a fad, these trends often spread quickly and easily. 



Ravi, Prashant. Child Labor Banned in India. 9 Oct. 2006. India, Patna.

Affect on People and Business in Nations

In developing nations like Africa, China, Indonesia, Latin America, and Bangladesh, and child labor is most common.
Because Africa is the poorest continent, child labor is widespread. About 32% of the 250 million children are subject to labor. Majority of these children in Africa work in agriculture. Nearly half of the chocolate purchased in the United States links to children in Africa who produce cocoa.
China is the next largest country where child labor is popular. It is estimated that 10 million children do not have an education and work instead, 5 million of which work in factories. While many choose to help their family financially, other children are kidnapped and sold to factories to work.
Child labor in Indonesia is continuously growing. Many children work on jermals, which are fishing boats. The children often work twelve hours a day under unbearable conditions, catching, sorting, and boiling fish.
In Bangladesh, 55 million people are considered below the poverty line, about 6.6 million children work as child laborers in Bangladesh. Most of the jobs that the children work in are hazardous areas. It includes work like shrimp processing, auto repairs and electrical work, but children can be found working in all jobs in Bangladesh. Trafficking is common in Bangladesh. The children are smuggled out of the country and sold. Girls can be sold several times to different owners, and boys are transported to the Middle East.
There is an estimated 250 million child workers ranging between 5 and 14 years old in Latin America. Many of the children work in agriculture, harvesting coffee, bananas, sugar cane, sisal, tobacco, oranges and other fruits and vegetables. Only 60% of all the children in Colombia complete primary school. Five thousand children were found in secret illegal workshops in Guatemala making explosives. The children worked under terrible conditions, and some of died working in the industry.

Even in developed and high-developed nations are guilty of child labor.
In Russia, there are specific laws for childhood employment unlike China and Africa. For example, the minimum working age is 16, or 14 with parental approval. Forced or bonded labor is prohibited. Still though, many children are involved in illegal drug sales. Children are given drugs so that they are obedient.
In the United States, all types of child labor exist from agriculture, factory work, and sexual slavery. Most of the child laborers work on farms in on the west coast. The children are often beaten for low quality work. For example, in Augila, Arizona, the only work in for a large cantaloupe farm. The farm owners do not provide water and sell all beverages. Child laborers are rarely ever educated. Sex slaves are the most common in the U.S. Around 10,000 sex slaves are smuggled from Europe, Eastern Russia, and Mexico into the U.S. The children are sold from 10 thousand to thirty thousand dollars. The slaves are promised a better life but instead forced into slavery. The fewest child laborers work in factories in the U.S, however, injury is the highest in factories.


EJF. Cotton Picking. Uzbekistan.

Impact on Economic Systems

Market Economy
In a market economy, the country’s citizens and businesses guide the economic decisions and pricing of goods and services. There is little government intervention in a market economy. In a market economy, individuals own their own businesses, which can be farms and factories. Child labor is common because owners choose to hire children over adults because children are more affordable. Since the government does not play a role in the market economy, the children are often unnoticed.

Command Economy
In a communist command economy, the government sets all limits to supplies and prices. This impacts child labor because if the minimum limit for supplies is unmet, the government must take alternatives, like child labor.


Shaw, Jayanta. Child Labor Banned in India. Dec. 2000. India, Raichak.

Positive and Negative Aspects

Positive
While many are quick to assume that child labor is negative, there are unfortunately several positive aspects of it. Of the 250 million children involved in child labor, many work to help their family. Most of the children are from developing countries, where poverty is common. Child labor is also a cultural and social standard in some places. Moreover, the jobs allow the children to gain experience and obtain a skill in a particular area.

Negative
Child labor is a violation of human rights. Despite the positive aspects mentioned, children work under hazardous conditions and are denied the right to education. The children work in terrible conditions that hinder their health dramatically. Also, their education is taken from there so that they can work. These children work for merely any money, and work too many hours in the day. Although there are many organizations working to help the children, the violations still occur.

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