Child Labour

       Child labor has always existed both at home and outside home. Wells explain that most children work outside home to help family with financial contributions. The International  Labor Organization (I L O ) defines child labor as when underage children work under unsafe conditions for long periods of time. The labor could be both paid and unpaid.  Since it’s a global issue, the I LO has placed laws to protect children from worst forms of labor. The I LO article 32 forbids children from working in poor and dangerous conditions. While Convention 138 sets the minimum age as 14 years and expects them to do light work. At 18 years children are allowed to work in hazardous conditions. To employers child labor is cheap labor to maximize profits under precarious conditions. To the private sphere, when children do chores, they are learning skills to help them work in public sphere when they are adults as well as contributing to the community economy. They are also helping the family with extra income to assist with the budget.  Child labor has always existed since we cannot separate families and the economy, However the western way to define child labor and setting labor standards is not acceptable in other regions.Children have always helped parents with house chores, farming and working in family small business. The class conflict theory questions how systemic poverty allows exploitation of child labor in the capitalist system. 

http://www.theonion.com/articles/industrial-revolution-provides-millions-of-outofwo,2877/

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During industrialization , children worked  in factories to augment the family income since families had lost their means of production from hunting, farming and small family businesses.  Children worked under dangerous conditions for long hours and were paid meager wages until laws were placed to force children to go school as a way to remove them from working under dangerous conditions. Child labor continues both in private and public sphere because of poverty. In third world countries, children as young as nine years are send to work in order to repay the parents’ debt, or work in order to help family economically. Globalization also encourages companies to relocate in search of cheap labor (mostly women and children) in order to maximize their profits. The children do precarious jobs because they are easy to manipulate and the international laws to protect them are not enforced by their governments. Most children get permanent injuries and are easily replaced without any compensation by other children looking for economic survival. 

[Chinese child labor products cartoon]. Retrieved November 7, 2014, from: http://www.henry4school.fr/Civilization/images/labour/chinalabor.jpg

Child labor can affect the children’s childhood experience in a negative way. Most children don’t enjoy their childhood, they miss playing with their friends, and break their social networks because they are busy working either at home or outside home to help the poor family. They also miss educational opportunities by dropping out of school because it’s hard for them to balance work and school at the same time.  They also miss work opportunities when they work at home looking after siblings, or chronically ill parents. 

Child labor is a global problem because it is experienced in both western and developing countries both in the homes and outside homes. It is important that society continue to monitor how children are exploited by families and employers because of their vulnerable ages. Society should give every child the chances to experience their childhood with rights to participate in their decision making to do paid or unpaid job.  Children should be taught to refuse to work under dangerous conditions. Children should also be appreciated for the work they do, whether paid or unpaid, in the home or outside home. It will make them feel proud of themselves and willing to contribute more in the family and in their community economies. 

        The neoliberal policies that privatize poverty should be revised to enable governments to channel more funding to assist poor families and their children with programmers that help them meet their basic needs. Programs to train children for future jobs in the economy should be increased and funded by the government to assist citizens who need them. The free trade policies approved by governments should be reversed in order for multinational companies to be restricted from rellocating jobs to exploit children for maximum profits. The labor laws should also be applied and be accessible to all states in order to protect all workers and stop exploitation of young workers from other regions of the world. Companies should be educated to value human life over their profits because without human labor they would not flourish. Society should also support companies that respect employees by buying their products and stop buying products from companies without moral values. This global problem needs people across all nations to have the agency to stand for the right thing, speak up for our children and to place laws that help them to speak out for themselves and be protected from the continued exploitation.