CHILD LABOR!

Have you ever encountered minor children commonly working in dhabas, workshops or hotels in bid to make a living wage? What a pity state it is to see minor children working diligently while they ought to be at school studying or playing rather than working for hours at a minor age. Child labor is an inexorable truth prevailing in our societies and seen as a social malevolent in present situation. It is the truth in the present day picture of social and economic experiences. It is an old age problem that has been in practice for many many years and regardless of its consequences for the minor children, nobody has taken crucial steps to put an end to this problem.

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MEANING OF CHILD LABOR:

The term "Child labor" is determined as jobs/tasks that deprives minor/young children of their youth or childhood, their potentiality, capabilities and their nobility since they're just forced upon doing work that they never even asked for and the sad part is the children goes on doing these works for earning some wages for their families and they're hardly given alternate options or choices. Child labor is portrayed by international standards as unsafe, risky, perilous work forced upon minor children. Moreover, long working hours that is impairing physical and mental health of children. Child labor means the employment of children at frequent and prolonged labor. Child labor is the round-the-clock employment of children under a minimum legal age. People, despite being well acquainted of the consequences for the minor aged children still force them to do risky tasks and works, exploiting the children for economic purposes.

PROBLEMS OF CHILD LABOR:

Child labor is more of a rustic phenomenon than an inner city. Owing to severe poverty and needy families dwelling in rural areas, send off their children to metropolitan regions to earn some wages in working in an unsafe environment which is damaging both to their physical and mental health. The children gets emotionally and physically drained working in an unsafe environment. Mostly all of the minor children end up working since they belong to an impoverished families. The children are either dropouts or have never been to school at all. The conundrum is incredibly much immense in its aspect. Children are forced to do work in hazardous environment which is toxic to their health overall and eventually they are exposed to many health difficulties which poses another problem to the poor families. Mostly many people who bring in minor children to make them work in an unsafe environment, do not provide the health facilities to the children despite them being working in perilous environment, they just exploit the young kids for their own purposes and leave the kids in the worst condition. The minor kids are not provided with any health facilities, it seems as if they just exploit the kids for their own good and leave them in an unhealthy circumstances. Child labor is one of the ongoing issue that arise due to the reactions of the economic challenges confronted by defenseless and poor children. However, in developed countries where poverty is very less, the exploitation of minor children is counted as violation of human rights and is considered as an illegal act, on the contrary, poor developed countries do endure and permit child labor without posing this horrendous practice as illegal.

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TYPES OF CHILD LABOR:

Minor/young children work in

• productions of wood and furniture
• printing publishing activities
• lather, rubber commodities, transport equipment
• personal essential services like laundries dying and cleaning
• Innumerable children are hired as domestic servant workers in households, hotels, shops, seller, shoe polishing
• helpers in service stations and repair shops.
• chartered with their own parents in construction works such as mining, street works, glass and marble cutting, agriculture, glass factory and much more.

Child trafficking and child prostitutes are the worst type of child labor, they are coerced to give over the rest of their lives living in deprived circumstances.

CAUSES OF CHILD LABOR:

There are plentiful foundations of child labor like suppression of child rights, poverty, improper education, restricted rules and laws on child labor etc. The question of child labor is multifaceted one. There are several causes for the rise in child labor, some of the causes are reviewed as under:

• Economic insecurity:
  Children are forced to work our of necessity, the family income in many cases are dependent upon minor/young kids since in many cases the children families are not capable of working so they send off their kids to work and earn for the family otherwise the standard of living of their families would decline.

• Condition of family:
  Unhealthy environment of families is one of the reasons why child labor is prevailing, faulty socialization, family violence, lack of concern or care for their children gives rise to the child labor.

• Population:
  Increased population with limited resources is also one of the other reasons giving rise to child labor since there are more mouths to feed and the minor ones go out there and work out of necessity.

• Poverty:
  When there is no one in the family who's earning a standard amount for living or when the families are not educated enough to earn some wages they get forced to send their children to work instead of educating their children. The country is to blamed for the poverty which forces the poor families to follow this step since they are left with no other choice.

• Illiteracy:
  Illiteracy is one of the major causes for child labor, the parents do not have a proper understanding or realize the utmost need for a proper physical, emotional and cognitive development of a child.

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CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD LABOR:

Child labor is a global human and labor rights issue that affects all of us. It deprives the minors of their childhood, good education and the right to grow up safely. These children work long hours, have little or no wages and are unware of their rights, most of them work in dangerous situations leading to injuries and diseases which may have life-long effects on children.

• Emotional ties between the parents and child are disturbed.
• As a result of the disturbance, the child slips off from the family bondage and step into the world of disorganization.
• Emotional affectionate relation between the parents and children turns into commercial interaction.
• Perilous working conditions negatively affect the minors in every possible way and due to this, most of the children have sunken chest and thin bones which give them a fragile look, since obviously they belong from poor families so they don't have the enough resources to provide proper food and care to the children.
• The children's dignity and self-esteem gets damaged because of the child labor. Some of them go through the worst traumatic experiences which results in damaged self-esteem and what not.

And the worst part, the children do not get the appreciation they deserve for working day and night in unsafe environment providing a living to their families. The children despite working tirelessly do not get protection or health facilities which should be a thought of concern.

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IMPACT OF CHILD LABOR ON MINORS:

1. Physical development:

Underage laborers are far more prone to sustain injuries than responsible adults due to the vulnerability of the minor and their bodies are still growing, most of the children are coerced to perform extraneous tasks which lead to accidents and serious injuries. The effects range from immediate bruises and cuts to life threatening injuries.

2. Emotional development:

For the most part child laborers work under tense environments which are degrading, isolating and exploitative, they go through verbal and physical abuse from their employers leading to lowered self-esteem, damaged self-confidence and sense of individuality.

3. Social development:

Children who are forced to work at a very young age gets deprived of social activities which are crucial for growing up and their development such as going to school, making friends, partaking in outdoor activities and so on. They are deprived of grasping the feeling to enjoy their lives and their rights and forcefully pushes into adulthood and earning before their age.

4. Illegal activities:

Under the wrong influence and guidance from their employers, children succumb to various illegal activities such as drug addiction, prostitution, extortion, smuggling, trafficking. Not being well acquainted of the consequences and without proper education, children get trapped into illegal activities and their lives becomes stagnant.

WHY CHILD LABOR SHOULD BE ERADICATED:

1. Hinders enrollment in institutes:

Even in communities with schools, child labor is often considered the best use of children's time.

2. Barrier to education:

Children who partake in both schooling and labor, experience difficulty in focusing on their studies as compared to those children who study full-time. Limited time and fatigue greatly hinder their performance as a whole and they are not able to reap the full benefits and eventually fall behind.

3. Giving rise to generational poverty:

The ability of working children to take advantage of educational opportunities is very limited and these opportunities help them to find higher paying jobs as adults. As a result, people who have been working since childhood can continue to participate in dangerous and low-paying jobs for the rest of their lives, without improving their financial situation and that of their future families. Parents will force the same concept upon their children and push them into the workforce at an early age without giving them the opportunity to educate themselves.

Achievement 1

@ssyraa

Much obliged to you all for giving it a read!