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Causes of child labour essay
Child labour causes and solutions
Negative effect of child labor
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The issue of child labor has long been a subject of discussion that -------. In her cogent essay, “Live Free and Starve,” directed at liberals and those in support of a bill passed by the U.S. congress that bans the import of goods from countries that have child labor, Chitra Divakaruni reasons on the subject of child labor in developing countries. In a persuasive tone, Divakaruni contends that the aforementioned bill is misguided in its intent. She argues that while the intentions behind the bill are good-willed, the bill would not be effective in its goal of helping the children. Divakaruni offers a unique perspective on child labor in foreign countries to increase awareness on how there is more to the situation of child labor than meets the eye.
Everyday in the Ivory Coast, as well as in Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon, about 300,000 children are forced to pick cocoa beans that will be sold to big chocolate companies like Nestle and Cargill. About 6,000 of these children are treated like slaves.” (“Is It Fair to Eat Chocolate?” Paragraph 3 by Deborah Dunn). The big chocolate industries who buy from cocoa farms that have child labor often don’t pay close to a fair amount of money.
“Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time” (Grace Abbott). The issue of child labor has been around for centuries. Its standing in our world has been irrevocably stained in our history and unfortunately, our present. Many great minds have assessed this horrific issue and its effect on our homes, societies, and ultimately, our world.
The implications of stopping the use of child labour in the cocoa industry in Cote d'Ivoire spread far and wide, affecting the government, cocoa farmers, chocolate companies and children themselves. The UN's Food & Agriculture Organisation states that more than a third of the world’s cocoa is supplied by Cote d'Ivoire. Cocoa is the country's largest export, earning around 2.5 billion dollars in 2010. According to a report by Tulane University that investigated the 2013, 2014 harvest season, there were around 1,203,473 child laborers aged 5 to 17 in the cocoa industry, of which 95.9% were engaged in hazardous work. Stopping child labour in Côte d'Ivoire will improve children's education & health levels.
Child labor during the 18th and 19th century did not only rapidly develop an industrial revolution, but it also created a situation of difficulty and abuse by depriving children of edjucation, good physical health, and the proper emotional wellness and stability. In the late 1700 's and early 1800 's, power-driven machines replaced hand labor for making most manufactured items. Many of America 's factories needed a numerous amount of workers for a cheap salary. Because of this, the amount of child laborers have been growing rapidly over the early 1800s.
In the late 1800s, the Industrial Revolution was brought to the United States from Great Britain. The Industrial Revolution was a time period which brought people from the rural areas to the city. Most manufacturing took place in people’s homes using home-made tools, and basic machines. Henceforth, innovation was needed to speed the process of making clothes, enhancing the transportation system, better mass production of iron and more.
Shockingly, The chocolate industry makes a total of eighty-billion dollars a year, and over ten million cocoa farmers depend on this for income. Surprisingly, this averages out to about eight thousand dollars a year. If you think about it, eight thousand dollars in not a lot of money per year, but in Africa the value different. The average income in Ivory Coast is about 1,400 dollars, therefore the workers have enough money to pay the children, for they are making just under 6 times the amount of an average worker in Ivory Coast. The children are not paid to work, but the man owning the plantation does.
Child Labor is the practice of hiring children to work in factories or other professions. Child Labor Laws in the United States address issues related to the employment and welfare of working minors and children in the U.S. Many of these children often came from poor families and were immigrants or orphans. A various amount of owners chose to employ children because they could be paid less than adults and were smaller so that they could fit between machines or even inside when the machinery needed to be clean, they were dirty and sometime very dangerous. Being forced to work was hard for children to possess an education.
Child Labour in Colombia and Around the Globe Child Labor in Europe: The ILO made an estimation about some 246 million children from ages 5 to 17 years old are working instead of older people. In Europe the exploitation of children is low because the economy increases and the poverty decreases, thanks to the politic compromise to fight against the child labor. With the support from the social partner of the countries, IPEC has begun to elaborate exit strategies in projects in Central and Eastern Europe.
Child labor is definitely not a simple issue because there are so many influences and reasons for its existence. It is not an issue that can be solve so simply as well because there are pros and cons with interventions. Children, who are working, may be working because they have to in order to survive. Or they may be working to help bring in extra income for the family. There are many sides to why children take part in the labor-force.
Clearly, child exploitation is a difficult problem to fix. However, the children of today are responsible for the future of society. How can we hope to have a bright future if those who will build it are being exploited? Children should not be forced to harvest crops; they should be harvesting the fruits of knowledge.
In many countries, employing children or teens, keeps them out of trouble and teaches them to keep a strong work ethic. An obvious reason of child employment would be poverty. In countries where the sole breadwinner only brings home a dollar a day, it 's helpful to have multiple income sources. To expand on that point, Nadira Faulmuller of Oxford University, mentioned in her article that, “The main cause for children doing work is poverty – ‘their survival and that of their families depend on it’.
In the process, they expose themselves to particles that can lead to lung-related illnesses, and risk getting beaten or exploited financially.” (“Is Your Cell Phone Powered by Child Labor?”). III.Poverty in the Dominican Republic of Congo leads to child labor in mines A.Background information on the Dominican Republic of Congo’s resources. 1.The DRC has enough precious mining materials to make itself rich and ensure the wellbeing of its population. Despite all of their resources, the country is facing poverty.
There are many reasons that cause child labor: Poverty and unemployment levels are high – As you see, the most of employed children work in less developed countries by economy. In such countries poor families and children may rely upon child labor in order to improve their chances of attaining basic necessities. According to U.N statistics more than one-fourth of the people around the world live in poverty that is caused by the high unemployment levels. Free education is limited – U.N estimated that approximately 75 million children were not attending school. The education for the whole world’s children costs 10-30 Billion dollars that is 0.7% - 2% of the annual cost of global military spending.
With approximately 1.2 billion children throughout the world between the ages ten and nineteen, an estimated 186 million are child laborers, going to workplaces instead of school (Srivastava). Illegal child labor is a widespread issue that has been depriving underage children of their essential education, as it politically and socially affects children in third world countries. Generally, there are children from ages five to seventeen, who would work in prohibited employments to support their poor families, with poverty as a major cause of the difficulty. On various occasions, children would work long hours in places such as factories and restaurants, receiving less pay and loosing their education. Despite efforts made by the authorities to prevent it, children continue to work excessive hours, receiving low wages and remaining in unsanitary conditions.