Child Labour - Causes and Effects
79Child Labor – A Challenge the World is Facing
Childhood is the most innocent stage in a human life. It is that phase of life where a child is free from all the tensions, fun-loving, play and learns new things, and is the sweetheart of all the family members. But this is only one side of the story. The other side is full of tensions and burdens. Here, the innocent child is not the sweetheart of the family members, instead he is an earning machine working the entire day in order to satisfy the needs and wants of his/her family. This is what is called 'CHILD LABOUR'. There are various causes and effects of child labour. Eliminating child labour is one of the biggest challenges that the whole world is facing.
Child labour includes working children who are below a certain minimum age. This practice is going on since long and is one of the worst forms of child exploitation. Child labour not only causes damage to a child’s physical and mental health but also keep him deprive of his basic rights to education, development, and freedom. According to statistics provided by UNICEF, there are an estimated 250 million children aged 5 to 14 years employed in child labour worldwide and this figure is continuously increasing.
Child labour is not only affecting under-developed and developing countries, but developed countries are also facing this though the rate is comparatively very less. Child labor in Asia accounts for the highest percentage of child labour (61%) followed by Africa (32%). According to International Labour Organization (ILO), if child labor will be banned and all children gets proper education, world's total income would be raised by nearly 22% over 20 years, which accounts for more than $4 trillion. Banning child labor will help in boosting the economy of a country.
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Causes of Child Labour
The main causes of child labor include poverty, unemployment, and excess population. Among these, poverty is the primary cause of child labour. You must have observed that poor families have more number of children, so it becomes very difficult for them to survive on the income of only one family member which is also quite less. So they make their small children their source of income. They make their children work in factories, shops, even selling items on streets. Some parents even carry infants on the streets to earn money from begging. Some percentage of child labour also comes from harassment by parents, step-parents or relatives.
There are many cases of child labor where a child has to work against the repayment of a loan which was taken by his father who was unable to pay it off. This is called as 'bonded child labour'. Bonded child labor normally happens in villages. Such children work like slaves in order to pay the loan taken. Not only poor families, but some well established business families also put their children into business at a quite young age instead of making them complete their education.
Effects of Child Labour
There are very bad effects of child labor for our society, which forces some children to steal things from others in order to satisfy their daily living. Many small girls are even made to indulge in prostitution. A recent case of child labor came into picture where a 10 year old kid was beaten to death because the innocent kid was slow at things. The cruel owner went angry and threw the child across the room resulting in the most extreme punishments. It was not only the cruel owner who was at the fault, but the parents of the child were also equally involved in this incident. They took $10 as advance and sent their child to work for the sake of getting some monthly income. May be even the parents would never have thought that a little sum of money could lead to such horrible incident.
There are various organizations which are fighting against child labour by helping children and imparting education among that part of society from where majority of the child labour comes. Poor families should be given knowledge about family planning/control so that they are not burdened by children. It would be advisable not to keep small children at home for taking domestic help in daily household chores. Let us all take some step in this direction so that we can bring smiles to many faces and make this world a beautiful place for a child to live in.
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Thanks Jyoti for the wonderful work done by you to promote Indian hubbers.
Hi Anuj,
I came here from http;//hubpages-india.blogspot.com and find this article very informative.
Thanks for your article.
Anima
Thanks Anima for the nice comments.
This is an extremely sad realities that many developing and underdeveloped countries face. I believe that the west has to do something about this issue. What can they do? In their search for cheap labour, they MUST ensure that child labour is not a factor. Big American Cooperations have to do better at selection who make their products for cheap North American markets. This is a responsibility for EVERYONE; domestic as well as international governments as well as the community and families.
Thanks for writing so eloquently and from a place of knowledge about a worthwile topic. Keep up the good work.
Thanks DynamicS for the comment. Eliminating Child Labour should be considered as a challenge by the whole world, be it a developed nation or under-developed. Poor families needs to be more educated and government must take some steps to educate them and reduce poverty.
It's horrible that so many children are in this situation, but it always worries me when people try to prevent this kind of thing directly. You are right that it is about education and eliminating poverty, but I worry that if you don't do these things and just punish employers to stop them taking on child workers, the children (and their families) will just be pushed into crime or suffer malnutrition instead - which would not be a better life. They need to be offered a better alternative before you stop them working.
You are absolutely right kephrira, providing education is the first step that needs to be initiated. But for the sake of cheap labour, no one is trying to understand the real effects.
you rock anuj.you are doing a wonderful job by making people aware about such a big problem which ,not only children in India but children from all over world is facing.
Thanks for the comment Aditya and showing your concerns on this unfortunate issue.
Thanks for the comment iqbal88.
this was very informative and it helped me a lot. thanks, u r doing a great job. seriously we need to make people aware about this serious situation. we need to do something for stopping child labor
Thanks Ranita for the comment. Really, it is our duty to do something to stop child labour and aware others about the ill-effects of this sad problem.
excellent topic, thanks 4 writing about child topic.
Thanks for the comment Samir.
I only became aware of this (child labour)when they made television programmes about it which were shown in the UK.
It now seems that some people are rightly concerened about people and children being exploited in the making of the fashion clothes they wear. This has lead to some 'ethical fashion companies' being set up - to enable the people who work in the factories to be treated fairly.
I hope that one day all children will be able to go to school, and then have better lives because of their education.
Thanks for showing your concerns 2uesday and hope to see all children getting basic education at least.
hi anuj u r doing much impressive work.being a student it impressed and influenced me a lot.go on yaar.bst wshs.
Thanks Sona for the encouraging comment.
The globalization "race to the bottom" is having horrific results around the world. You did well to share this aspect of this issue..
Peace...
this is soooo sad:( i feel sooo bad for them:( keep doing
good work!!
u know wut??
i find this piece of writing very2 informative and i gratefully thanks to u for this article..
i want to use yours as my supportive points for my debate comp tomorrow..
wish me luck!!
@fahmi - Hope you had a rocking debate competition and thanks for the nice comment.
i saw your work and i think its great i hope u succeed and continue to help others and me
hi dear u r doing very well the main purpose is stoped the child labour wish u all best 4 u r work thnks ..........
@lillian @shaikh-javed-ali Thanks for stopping by and it will be great if everyone of us will try to stop child labour.
THIS IS A FANTASTIC WORK I MUST SAY U DID A GREAT JOB .
Thanks Abhishek for the kind comment.
Your article is so interesting. Can you give me feedback of "why should child labor be banned?"
Thanks for your reply and reading this!
vitiea_bb@yahoo.com
@Vitiea: There are various reasons for 'why child labor should be banned'. The age when child work is meant for studies and fun; not to provide a living for his/her family. Give me some time, I'll write a short article on that and will update you.
WELL, YOU HAVE GIVEN SUPERB IDEAS,BUT ONLY IDEAS CANNOT HELP TO FEEL THE REAL SITUATION,THEY ARE SUFFERING WITH.YOU MUST TAKE STEPS REGARDING THE NIBBING IN THE BUD.
Thanks for the Comment Nasira. I appreciate your concerns, personally I do not hire any child to get my work done. If everyone will do this, there will be no child labour. Moreover, I write on the subject to aware and remind others about the ill effects of child labor.
FIRSTLY I THANK YOU FOR TRUE ASSESMENT OF OUR COMMENTS.SECONDLY LET ME CLEAR YOU THAT SUCH COMMENTS ARE SUGGESTED BY BOTH OF US, (NASIRA & RIZWANA) AND WE WISH TO BE SUMMONED WITH OUR NAMES EQUALLY
ANUJ WE REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR ATTITUDE REGARDING CHILDERN
Glad to see your follow back on the article. Hope you both will also contribute your best to fight against child labour.
good infomation up
but i think some rea stories should be put in
Thanks for dropping by peter. This article is basically to make people aware of the ill effects of child labor. I will elaborate if I will find something worth.
Hi Anuj,
thanks for writing this topic. it helped me im my essay and i wish you best of luck and keep on writing these knowledge providing topics.
You are most welcome Kanika. I'm glad it helped you and suggest you to share the article to create awareness and help world fighting this issue.
Anuj,
Great understanding, very impressive writing, please include stats atleast for last 5 years....
Keep up the good work.
Clarence Vas
Thanks for the valuable suggestion Clarence. I'll surely update it with stats.
i really need more information about child labor issues or what are the effects of child labor in the society.. I conducted studies about that topic to my term paper.. can you please help me?
A very impressive article about child labor. it helped me a lot in my debate about the given topic. Thumbs up!
Thanks Abbie for the appreciation. Glad it helped you.
These words & paragraph are helpful to me being a cxc/gcse exams Iappreciate your time and energy .I LOVE IT !!!
for me it's a shame that children in underdevolopped countries act as men . they shoulder a huge responsability instead of being at schools'learning and devolopping their educational and social level as a free citizens
Dear anuja,i am a student of maria montessori school in ghana. iam final year student about to write my b.e.c.e thanks to your article iwas able to write article formy teacher thaks alot
Thanks Semekor for finding the article useful. Wish you all the best for your studies.
Thanks a lot . It's really a serious problem especially for developing countries.I enjoied reading this article
this is amazing information, good to know you care. thank you!
ANUJ AAP ACHA KAAM KAR RAHE HAI....CARRY ON
Thank you everyone for the appreciation.
I think it is a very useful matter 4 everyone who search in internet about these matters. Keep going n all d best!!!
great article.very heart touching . brought a tear in my eye
hey man... u rock.. ths article must be posted in every newspaper so tht ppl realize who really students are..
and thnx fr the article.. it was very helpful fr my project!! :)
Thank you everyone to find it useful. I hope all of you will certainly do your best to educate the society about this sad issue.
we need more people like you.keep up the good work.best wishes and love..
I'm also doing a term paper on this subject and I was wondering to what point your statistiques were reliable??
Where did you found them??
@snowflake: The source of statistics are already mentioned wherever required. Thanks for dropping by.
this is horrible and unfair. keep on doing this research. but can you comment on the hazards as well? please send me information on the hazards of child labour to kufac1@yahoo.com
hey u r so nice. ur article is so valuable for evry poor family.this article must be posted in newwpepar.
hi anoj, this is very impresed, and i have an essay about childlabor and this can help me a lot and i can score better grades, thanks!
u hv rellay written very well n ur writing will help me in getting good marks in my assignment.
wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am spell bound with your short owesome essay on child labour
I am for child labor, you really have no idea what those kids would get into if they didnt have a job, their family may die of hunger, even them, and they may sell themselves for prostitution, heres a really nice article to read: http://www.sbindependent.org/node/775
It seems you take child labor in a wrong note. It does not mean opposing a child to work but to provide the basic rights of the children like education, that he/she must get in order to build a better and corruption free nation. The link mentions prices of goods will go up but it may be just a temporary increase in the price, imagine the world when these children will also have a job and then the buying capacity of the families will certainly increase and none will feel such pressure. STOP Child Labor!
thnx for helping with my homework due to this hub
hey Anuj, which year did you post this?
October 2009.. well I'm wondering why you want to know this?
hey Anuj,
the reason why I want to know is because i have to cite my references in MLA format and since i am citing certain part of your text I need the date. BTW this is very helpful for my paper, thanks!
Infact, your article has been very helpful in my term paper at the Masters level. I love the dichotomy in the introduction to show the two sides of the coin. Thanks Man
Learning about this in school and its really said feel bad for the kids:[
your article is informative bec. someone would directly understand about the real condition of children through the clear words you have wrote..
CONGRATULATION ANUJ,IM VERY APPRECIATE IT.YOU ARE RIGHT WE MUST ELIMINATE CHILD LABOUR IN DIS WORLD,I LOVE CHILDREN SO MUCH AND IT PAIN WHEN I SEE THEM SUFFER.
hi anuj
u r right we really hav to eliminate child labour.ur article is very informative too.ur article has been very helpful.i hope child labour is eliminated frm dis world
hi anuj u r absolutetly right. we hav to work against child labour. and thank u this article has helped me in my project.thanxx once again
Poverty as a major factor of child labour has devastated most of the developing countries especially the Eastern and Southern world.Measures to eliminate such a chaos is undefined.
I really liked the information. It was awesome.. This should be shown to the whole INDIA...
Child break labour should be break off.
governmen should pass strict laws to stop the child labour.
your article was very effective and helpful for me. i also protest against child labour. this article says and expresses everything in details. i hpoe that one day all children will be free from child labour and they will be our bright future1
It is good to hear that there are many people around who also protest against child labor.
hi anuj, im doing a term paper regarding child labor too, and ur ideas was so great and impressive, so may i ask some information from this to finish my term paper? and, ill credit u ofcourse.
im lovely from phil. thank u and more powers
you are doing a great job by giving this information.i think everyone should be against chidlabour ,it is direct violation of childrens right for education.
Thank you Prajakta for the appreciation. I hope everyone will do their bit to fight against child labour.
Its a great step to stop childlabour .
New generation is the future of our country
& if they are in darkness then imazine the future of
our country
good job my brother ********** this stars for u as my pleasure
what a great information .....
may i ask you something ???? what is the impact of child exploitation also what is the ways of protecting children before they been exploited
I Hope This Powerful Information Should Reduce Child Labour
by reading this many people would come to know about the custody of peple making children to work............
Child labor is a global issue,We need to get rid of this ..Thanks for the nice post
getting rid of child labor is never been easy and obviously it is a long process. i am not fully persuade that the government is doing the best it can, and if it is...they must think or come-up with a new approach right now.
Though, Government must take better steps to ban child labor but it is also the responsibility of each individual to stop hiring kids just for the sake of saving little money.
i agree that we need to stop the CHILD LABOR !!!
That was a very heart breaking article that truly brought the problem of child labour into the light. What child labour fact strikes you as the most shocking? Thanks and keep up the great work!
JYOTI KOTHARI Level 2 Commenter 2 years ago
Dear Anuj,
You are writing very well. I have rated this up and posted to blog Hubbers India.
http://hubpages-india.blogspot.com/
Thanks,
Jyoti Kothari