Child Labor
Is Child Labor Ever Okay?
Backround
- Australia annually imports $16 million worth of tobacco produced by child labor, including tobacco produced in the U.S. Tobacco cultivation is extremely labor intensive and children are often subjected to serious health risks including nicotine poisoning. Most cigarette smokers in Australia are unaware of the origins of the tobacco they consume.
- According to the ILO, 168 million children worldwide are engaged in child labor as of 2013.
- In Yemen, more than a million children have to work just to stay alive.
- Examines the lives of the nearly 10,000 Pakistani children who make a living scavenging through garbage and trash heaps in search of valuable items. At risk for contracting serious medical afflictions or disease.
- Child trafficking and forced labor are grievous human rights violations.
- Trafficked youths, some as young as 4 years old, may be subjected to beatings, starvation, 14- to 18-hour workdays, and other inhumane working conditions.
- To most Americans the problem of exploitative child labor disappeared generations ago with the passage of child labor laws and the elimination of dangerous "sweatshop" conditions.
- The death of a 14-year-old housemaid abused by her employer sparked a public outcry in Morocco, giving ammunition to those demanding an end to the exploitation of child workers in the kingdom.
Pros
- The kids raise money to buy food for their family.
- Not all of the working conditions are bad.
- Child labor is not always in bad conditions, some of the kids work in good conditions.
- The kids bosses sometimes feed them.
- some children work so that their families wont go into poverty.
Cons
- Child Prostitution is also common, particularly in Asia. Thailand for example, has earned an international reputation for this offense, with thousands of girls kidnapped and sold to brothels in Bangkok and other Thai locales. This practice also takes place throughout the major urban centers of India, Pakistan, Africa, and Latin America.
- Child labor is also common in small scale mining and stone quarrying throughout the developing world. The number of children in this sector is relatively small, but the percentage of injuries is high. ILO statistics list one in every five girls and one every six boys employed in mines and quarries as being affected by illness or injury.
- Most child labor in manufacturing occurs in small workshops or in home-based work. Hazardous conditions include dangerous and unsupervised machinery, long hours, lack of protective gear, intense heat,poor lighting, bad ventilation, loud noise, and exposure to toxic substances.
- In the global fishing industry, children are employed to dive for fish, to work on docks or boats, or to peel and clean the catch. They often spend long hours in the water without protective gear and face hazards such as drowning, skin diseases, and shark attacks.
- Children throughout the developing world work in a number of service-related tasks. Over 300,000 Filipino children work as domestic servants. In Bangladesh, a survey found that 24 percent of domestics were less than 10 years old. A study in Brazil found nearly 260,000 domestics between 10 and 14. In Peru, 80 percent of domestics are girls.
- Australia annually imports $16 million worth of tobacco produced by child labor, including tobacco produced in the U.S. Tobacco cultivation is extremely labor intensive and children are often subjected to serious health risks including nicotine poisoning.
- Hazards in agriculture include sharp and unwieldy tools, bites from insects and snakes, unsafe vehicles, and regular exposure to toxic substances such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Common jobs
The most common jobs in child labor are car washing, cleaning, dish washing, begging, shoe polishing, and Trash collecting.
Conclusion
I think that child labor is good on some conditions because most of the children who work work for their families so that they wont go into poverty and so that they can get food. But child labor does not need to be abused, if some one is using a child to do work or something they should put him or her in great working conditions. A total of 22,000 children have died due to bad conditions or some type of punishment/consequence from their bosses or owners.
The conditions are....
- The children should work in good working conditions
- They should get paid a fair amount
- The kids have to be at least 7-8 years old
- There shouldn't be any brutal beatings from owners
- Injuries should be treated not ignored