Child
labor means employment of a child in any kind of work other than household chores etc. The age, until which a person will be considered a
child, is dependent on respective countries, although an age limit has been suggested by the Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to
Employment 1973,
adopted by the International Labor Organization, which vary
from 14 to 16. The childhood of a person is required to be used in education and leisure activities which are necessary for their
physical and mental growth. The developed world has come forward to ban child
labor in the last century, before that the child labor played an important role
in the
industrial revolution. In the developing world, it has been argued that
the main reason behind child labor today is poverty of the parents. Parents often cannot afford to send their
children to school and rather expect their children to earn and support the
family.
Broken
families are another big reason, where neither of the poor parents is willing
to take the responsibilities of the child and the child is left to fend for
him/herself. Another reason may be this that an employer employing a child
usually pays only a fraction of the remuneration he would pay to an adult worker. So, employing child labor
means more profit for the employer and many employers are therefore willing to
employ child worker.
It is good news that the number of children worker has been decreased in recent years. International Labor Organization (ILO)’s second Global Report on Child Labor which came out in 2006 stated that significant progress have been made in the fight against child labor. Based on that progress trend, ILO expected that the child labor would be eliminated totally, at least in its worst forms, by 2016. But that target may be difficult to achieve, as recent statistics show. The war on child labor is still on, as according to information provided by the ILO, still a staggering 215 million children are engaged in some form of child labor of which 115 million are exposed to hazardous work. As stated above, children in most cases take up employment because of poverty, international community and the respective countries need to come forward and provide for the young children, so they can stay home and continue their education. Child labor today is a shame for the world as we have accumulated unheard of wealth but still our children need to take up employment to feed themselves.
It is good news that the number of children worker has been decreased in recent years. International Labor Organization (ILO)’s second Global Report on Child Labor which came out in 2006 stated that significant progress have been made in the fight against child labor. Based on that progress trend, ILO expected that the child labor would be eliminated totally, at least in its worst forms, by 2016. But that target may be difficult to achieve, as recent statistics show. The war on child labor is still on, as according to information provided by the ILO, still a staggering 215 million children are engaged in some form of child labor of which 115 million are exposed to hazardous work. As stated above, children in most cases take up employment because of poverty, international community and the respective countries need to come forward and provide for the young children, so they can stay home and continue their education. Child labor today is a shame for the world as we have accumulated unheard of wealth but still our children need to take up employment to feed themselves.
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