Child Labor
By: Sam Brook
Iqbal Masih
Child Labor happens in many different ways. 168 million children are involved in some form of child labor. Many child labor activists are trying to end it. The causes and conditions of child labor are alarming and the kids being forced into it can't unionize or stop because the people that control them won't let them. But we help stop that.
There are many child labor leaders and activists but Iqbal Masih really stands out. When Iqbal was 4 he was sold into child labor. He worked 12 hours a day making carpets with little to no pay at all. Iqbal was a victim of child labor, because of what he did every day and how he had no control over it. He wanted to stop this so he did, at the age of ten Iqbal Masih escaped from child labor. After that Iqbal wanted to fight against child labor. So he went to North America to talk to middle school children about it. But unfortunately a few months after he came back Iqbal Masih was shot in the head on his way home riding his bike. His death inspired people and in many ways saddened them, but they were inspired to speak out against child labor.
Child labor is a big problem right now, here are some causes and conditions of it. Child Labor conditions are very bad why? Because the people who control child labor don't care they only care if they are benefiting from it and in this case they are not. More than half of kids that labor work in hazardous places, that can be harmful and sometimes deadly. Poverty is a big part of child labor. Parents feel obligated to send their kids off to do labor because they cannot provide for their family financially. In 2006 approximately 75 million kids were not in school, limiting children’s future and in turn making the child labor community bigger.
Child labor is a very serious thing but people make it not such a big deal, it is. Imagine waking up and going to work in a gold mine miles underground. With lots of chemicals that can kill you, working twelve hour days everyday. Waking up the next morning doing it all over again. You have no control over it, you have no education, no freedom.I do not want to do that and im sure the kids doing it wouldnt. So next time you think about child labor and how it isn't that big of a problem, think about the children who have to endure it. Waking up everyday not knowing where, and when your next meal will come and having no rights. That is a big deal.