Child labour Essay Example

Child labour Essay Example Child labour Essay Child labour Essay A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement of Business Communication and Ethics: Report Writing 2014 October I PREFACE It is clear that the practice of child labor in the society would deprive the child of his basic human rights; his right to education and learning; his right to entertainment ND interact with peers as also his right to enjoy the beauty of the world around him and to develop a rounded personality. The children drawn to the labor force are not themselves choosing to work at such an early age. They are rather compelled to Join the labor force against their will by certain familial and social circumstances. The circumstances which bring the minor children to work in the labor force can be characterized as socioeconomic compulsion such as poverty, unemployment of the adult family members etc. The present study has been conducted in the urban localities of Iambi. The study focuses mainly on the factors, which compel the children to adopt occupational roles at a tender age. This study is based on primary data collected from our volunteers. The study contains six chapters. Poverty coupled with rapidly growing population, ignorance and increasing dependency load are behind the grim incidence of children employment in the villages and towns of developing countries. Though India is signatory of various international Conventions and Agreements, there is growing number of child labor in India. They work under very hazardous conditions. Given the magnitude and complexity of the problem, this article is an attempt to formulate integrated approach and various intervention strategies towards eradication of the problem of child labor. Child labor is an integral part of labor force, especially in poor countries. These children are the most deprived section of population forced to enter labor market at tender age to earn a pittance or to contribute to family work, sacrificing personal development. Poverty coupled with rapidly growing population, ignorance and increasing dependency load are behind the grim incidence of children employment in the villages and towns of evolving countries. The exploitative structure, lopsided development, iniquitous resource ownership with its correlation of large scale unemployment and abject poverty have contributed towards increasing child labor among the countries. Child labor hampers the normal physical, intellectual, emotional and moral development of a child. Children who are in the growing process can permanently distort or disable their bodies when they carry heavy loads or are forced to adopt unnatural positions at work for long hours. Children are the greatest gift to humanity and Childhood is an important and impressionable stage of human development as it holds the potential to the future development of any society. Children who are brought up in an environment, which is conducive to their intellectual, physical and social health, grow up to be responsible and productive members of society. Every nation links its future with the present status of its children. By performing work when they are too young for the task, children unduly reduce their present welfare or their future income earning capabilities, either by shrinking their future external choice sets or by reducing their own future individual productive capabilities. Under extreme economic distress, children are forced to forego educational opportunities and take up Jobs which are mostly exploitative as they are usually underpaid and engaged in hazardous conditions. Parents decide to send their child for engaging in a Job as a desperate measure due to poor economic conditions. It is therefore no wonder that the poor households predominantly send their children to work in early ages of their life. One of the disconcerting aspects of child labor is that children are sent to work at the expense of education. There is a strong effect of child labor on school attendance attest and the length of a childs work day is negatively associated with his or her capacity to attend school. Child labor restricts the right of children to access and benefit from education and denies the fundamental opportunity to attend school. Child labor, thus, prejudices childrens education and adversely affects their health and safety. India has all along followed a proactive policy in addressing the problem of child labor and has always stood for constitutional, statutory and developmental measures that are required to eliminate child labor. The Constitution of India has relevant provisions to secure compulsory universal primary education. Labor Commissions and Committees have gone into the problems of child labor and made extensive recommendations. Indians Judiciary, right up to the apex level, has demonstrated profoundly empathetic responses against the practice of child labor. 1. 1 DEFINITION 6 Child labor refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful. The term child labor is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their attention and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that: is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by: depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or Requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work. Child labor involves at least one of the following characteristics: Violates a nations minimum age laws Threatens childrens physical, mental, or emotional well-being Involves intolerable buses, such as child slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, or illicit activities Prevents children from going to school Uses children to undermine labor standards The phrase child labor conjures images of children chained into factories, sold as slaves, or forced into prostitution. 7 1. 2 History Child labor in some form or the other has always existed in societies all over the world. Children used to accompany their parents while working in the fields. Moreover they were also expected to help with household chores as well as taking care of the sick and elderly. As most of the work was being done under the watchful yes of the parents, instances of exploitation were rare. Even today work of this sort is not considered exploitative. The worst forms of the exploitation of children started during the Industrial Revolution. It was at this time that machinery took over many functions formerly performed by hand and was centralized in large factories. There was a large scale structural shift in employment patterns. Many artisans lost their jobs and were forced to work in these factories. But the owners of these factories realized that operating many of these machines did not require adult strength, and hillier could be hired much more cheaply than adults. Children had always worked, especially in farming. But factory work was hard. A child with a factory Job might work 12 to 18 hours a day, six days a week, to earn a dollar. Many children began working before the age of 7, tending machines in spinning mills or hauling heavy loads. The factories were often damp, dark, and dirty. Some children worked underground, in coal mines. The working children had no time to play or go to school, and little time to rest. They often became ill. Many of the Jobs that these children specialized in were very dangerous. E. G. The youngest children in the textile factories were usually employed as scavengers and pieces. Scavengers had to pick up the loose cotton from under the machinery. This was extremely dangerous as the children were expected to carry out the task while the machine was still working. While the pieces had the Job of fixing broken threads. It is estimated that these pieces walked almost 20 miles in a single day. Another barbaric practice followed in Victorian times was the use of children as chimney sweeps. Children were also employed to work in coal mines to crawl through tunnels too narrow and low for adults. They also worked as rand boys, crossing sweepers, shoe blacks, or selling matches, flowers and other cheap goods. Some children undertook work as apprentices to respectable trades, such as building or as domestic servants. By 1810 about 2,000,000 children were working 50 to 70 hours a week. About 2/3rd of the total workers in the textile industry were children. Church and labor groups, teachers, and many other people were outraged by such cruelty. They began to press for reforms. The English writer Charles Dickens helped publicize the evils of child labor with his novel Oliver Twist. Two Factory Acts were implemented in 1802 and 1809. Both these acts set limits on the maximum number of hours that a child was allowed to work in a day. But the implementation of these laws was lax and it had very little effect. Non the United States it took many years to outlaw child labor. Connecticut passed a law in 1813 saying that working children must have some schooling. By 1899 a total of 28 states had passed laws regulating child labor. Today all the states and the U. S. Government have laws regulating child labor. These laws have cured the worst evils of childrens working in factories. But some kinds of work are not regulated. Children of migrant errors, for example, have no legal protection. Farmers may legally employ them outside of school hours. The children pick crops in the fields and move from place to place, so they get little schooling. Len India child labor has always existed in the agricultural sector. Children and their parents used to work together in the farms. Moreover the task of taking the cattle to graze was always allotted to children. Although this work was hard and tiring, it did not lead to a worsening of their future prospects. Schooling was not available in most villages and most of the Jobs were still in the agricultural sector. So this work served as training for their future. Large scale exploitation of children in India began with the arrival of the British. Just as the case was in Great Britain, the new industrialists started hiring children who were forced to work in inhuman conditions. Laws against child labor were passed under Employment of Children Act of 1938. These attempts at legislation failed as they failed to address the root cause of child labor in India: poverty. Until and unless the populace was brought out of poverty, it was impossible to take the children out of the labor force. 10 2. CHILD TRAFFICKING Child trafficking, according to EUNICE is defined as any person under 18 who is recruited, transported, transferred, harbored or received for the purpose of exploitation, either within or outside a country. [l] There have been many cases where children Just disappear overnight, as many as one every eight minutes, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Children are taken from their homes to be bought and sold in the market. In India, there is a large number of children trafficked for various reasons such as labor, begging, and sexual exploitation. Because of the nature of this crime; it is hard to track; therefore making t impossible to have exact figures regarding this issue. India is a prime area for child trafficking to occur, as many of those trafficked are from, travel through or destined to go to India. Though most of the trafficking occurs within the country, there is also a significant nonbelligerent trafficked from Nepal and Bangladesh. Legally, children in India are allowed to do light work, but they are often trafficked for bonded labor, and domestic work, and are worked far beyond what is allowed in the country. They are often forced to work, in the use of contraptions that bound them to be unable to escape and then forced to submit to control. Others may be bound by abuse whether physical, emotional, or sexual. Those forced into labor lose all freedom, being thrown into the workforce, essentially becoming slaves, and losing their childhood. Children, over adults are often chosen to be trafficked for illegal activities such as begging and organ trade, as they are seen as more vulnerable. Not only are these children being forced to beg for money, but a significant number of those on the streets have had limbs forcibly amputated, or even acid poured into their eyes to blind them by gang masters. Those who are injured tend to make more money, which is why they are often abused in this way. [5] Organ trade is also common, when traffickers trick or force children to give up an organ. 1 Poverty in India can be defined as a situation when a certain section of people are unable to fulfill their basic needs. India has the worlds largest number of poor people living in a single country. Extreme poverty, lack of opportunity for gainful employment and intermittent of income and low standards of living are the main reasons for the wide prevalence of child labor. Though it is possible to identify child Barbour in the organized sector, which form a minuscule of the total child labor, the problem relates mainly to the unrecognized sector where utmost attention needs to be paid. The problem is universal but in our case it is more crucial. Poor people have very less or no income because of which they use their children as the source of income by making them to work instead of sending them school. The children below 14 years who work instead of going school are considered as child laborers. Significant logic behind the psychology of poor people for more births is as many children are there that many are the child labor income sources for them. With many children all will get two times meal at least when all go for the work or beg. However, with less (one or two) that may not be possible. In this view, poor people go for more children. They think that their children will either work or beg to feed themselves as well as to their parents at the time when they get old. The poverty, illiteracy and old age dependency are considered as the main reasons for production of Child Labor. In India 14. 4 % children between 10 to 14 years of age are employed in child labor. Children under fourteen constitute around 3. 6% of the total labor force in India. 5 Of Hess children nine out of every ten work in their own rural family settings. Nearly 85% are engaged in traditional agricultural activities. Less than 9% work in manufacturing, service and repairs. Only about 0. 8 work in factories. Child labor in India is a serious problem and a human right issue for the whole world. Quiet a high number of children below poverty line are working in sweet shops, cycle repair shops as helpers and waiters in hotels and restaurants, glass blowing units and carpet making factories. The 2001 national census of India estimated the total number of child labor, aged 5-14, to be at 12. Million. Worldwide, about 215 million children work as child labor, many full times. Industries pay very low wages to child laborers and make them work for long hours in unhygienic conditions. Extreme poverty that exists due to poverty and illiteracy is the main cause of child labor and over and above, psychology of poor people to depend on earnings of their children for their survival 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. 4. Illiteracy and Child Labor Child labor is one of the worst effects of illiteracy. This social stigma has stolen away the childhood of millions of children! The child labor trade is NOT something that can be stopped by a mere change in government because it is the lack of knowledge, rather than the lack of political freedom, that causes children to become laborers. India is the largest democracy in the world. Unfortunately however, India is also home for the largest number of child-laborers in the world. Some 24 million children work more hours each day than the number of their age. The child who becomes a laborer is often end up at abusive work places because they are defenseless and do not say no to an obnoxious master. More accurately, child laborers do not know if they have any rights, including the right to ask for their wages. The grievances of child laborers are muted by their biggest weakness; illiteracy. The burden of life is already on their shoulders. Illiteracy and child labor feed off each other. Parents illiteracy limits their earning potential, causing their children to work to supplement their families incomes. 13 5. Overpopulation and child labor If a country is over populated then child labor is a regular problem to deal with. South Asian countries like Bangladesh are the best example to give in this regard. Over population creates unemployment and the ultimate result is poverty. As I have told before that poverty is one of the main reasons of child labor. Now amusingly its not always true that excess of population create child worker. Because if a country has enough resources and Job opportunities to feed the mouth of all then poverty issue should not bear any importance. But if the resources and Job opportunities are emitted then to feed the excess population cheap source of labor like children can be employed in different forms of work. 14 6. National Legislation and Policies against Child Labor in India The Constitution of India (26 January 1950), through various articles enshrined in the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy, lays down that: No child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment (Article 24); The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age six to 14 years. Article 21 (A)); The State shall direct its policy towards securing that the health and strength of workers, men and women and the tender age of children are not abused and that they are not forced by economic necessity to enter vocations unsuited to their age and strength (Article 39-e); Children shall be given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth shall be protected against moral and material abandonment (Article 39-f); The State shall endeavor to provide within a period of 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years (Article 45). Child labor is a matter on which both the Union Government and state governments can legislate. A number of legislative initiatives have been undertaken at both levels. The major national legislative developments include the following: The Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986: The Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in 16 occupations and 65 processes that are hazardous to the childrens lives and health. These occupations and processes are listed in the Schedule to the Act. In October 2006, the Government has included children working in the domestic sector as well as roadside eateries and motels under the prohibited list of hazardous occupations. More recently, in September 2008 diving as well as process involving excessive heat (e. G. Irking near a furnace) and cold; mechanical fishing; food processing; beverage industry; timber handling and loading; mechanical lumbering; warehousing; and processes involving exposure to free silica such as slate, pencil industry, stone ringing, slate stone mining, stone quarries as well as the agate industry were added to the list of prohibited occupations and processes; The Factories Act, 1948: The Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years. An adolescent aged between 15 and 18 years can be employed in a factory only if he obtains a certificate of fitness from an authorized medical doctor. The Act also prescribes four and a half hours of work per day for children aged between 14 and 18 years and prohibits their working during night hours. The Mines Act, 1952: The Act prohibits the employment f children below 18 years of age in a mine. Further, it states that apprentices above 16 may be allowed to work under proper supervision in a mine. 5 The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, 2000: This Act was last amended in 2002 in conformity with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child covers young persons below 18 years of age. Section 26 of this Act deals with the Exploitation of a Juvenile or Child Employee, and provides in relevant part, that whoever procures a Juvenile or the child for the purpose of any hazardous employment and keeps him in bondage and withholds his earnings or uses such raring for hi s own purposes shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable for fine. In some States, including Karakas and Maharajahs, this provision has been used effectively to bring to book many child labor employers who are otherwise not covered by any other law and to give relief and rehabilitation benefits to a large number of children. The Minimum Wages Act, 1948: Prescribes minimum wages for all employees I n all establishments or to those working at home in certain sectors specified in the schedule of the Act. Central and State Governments can revise minimum wages specified in the schedule. Some consider this Act as an effective instrument to combat child labor in that it is being used in some States (such as Andorra Pradesh) as the basis on which to prosecute employers who are employing children and paying those lower wages. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009: Provides for free and compulsory education to all children aged 6 to 14 years. This legislation also envisages that 25 per cent of seats in every private school should be allocated for children from disadvantaged groups including differently bled children. 6 The fact that many people are unaware about child labor inspired us to take up this topic for the report. To start with the report, we delegated different topics amongst our fellow members, each choosing the topic of their interest. Everyone was asked to collect information pertaining to their topic and condense it in no more than three pages. Each one of us has gone through minor details regarding the researches, exploration and more aspects which are interesting too. We have searched the internet , gone through every article on encyclopedia related to the topic and have ride to keep our matter as short simple and precise as possible.