Child Labour Result of Globalization - Research Paper Example

? Globalization Promotes Child Labor ILO has defined child labor as work that deprives children from exercising their right of having a childhood. Globalization is a term used to refer to integration between different countries all over the world and this integration leads to increase in exchange of goods, services and ideas between different countries. Globalization is a major cause of child labor as globalization increases employment opportunities in developing nations and to take advantage of these opportunities, parents tend to put their children to work. Child labor is low in cost and thus multinationals promote it in order to decrease their cost of production. Child labor leads to violation of natural right of human beings, is unethical, increases poverty, damages the image of a nation and organization and causes health issues for children. Child labor is promoted because of its short term benefits including, decrease in poverty, increase and increase in economic development. This paper will discuss the impact of globalization on child labor, the consequences associated with it and the arguments in the favor of child labor along with a conclusion. Globalization Promotes Child Labor Introduction International labor organization defines child labor as tasks that are denying children with the right to have a childhood and tasks that are not good for the mental and physical health of the children (International Labor Organization (a), 2013). Globalization leads to increase in exchange of goods, services and ideas between different countries (Ritzer, 2012). Cigno states that increase in globalization has resulted in heavy debate over whether globalization is increasing or decreasing the incidences of child labor (Cigno, 2002). Those in the favor of globalization believe that globalization leads to decrease in child labor. They state that as developing countries, where the rate of child labor is quite high, starts operating in a global market, their use of child labor declines. Those against globalization state that increase in globalization leads to an increase in need of child labor. On the other hand are those who believe that globalization does not suppress child labor and instead promotes its use. They are of the idea that the decision of engaging child labor is dependent on the decision making of the parents. They state that if parents perceive that the return of education is lower than the return gained through their child’s labor, they tend to send their children for work. Globalization leads to increase in incidences of child labor and child labor should not be practiced because it deprives children from deciding what is good and bad for them, it promotes poverty and intervenes in the cognitive and physical development of children, children are made to work in hazardous conditions, child labor is unethical and destroys the image of the nation that is practicing it. Body Globalization as a Cause of Child Labor Globalization has been held responsible for increasing the gap between the rich and the poor. World Bank states that the per capita income throughout the world of developed nations was 120 times higher than the poor nations during 1990 and this gap increased by 2 times within a period of 9 years (Raghavan, 2002). Since globalization leads to increase in the level of inequality as well as poverty, it even results in increased usage of child labor. According to the Government of India, a huge portion of the work that was paid and conducted outside the households have shifted to work that is being conducted within the households. Due to this, several activities such as making of carpets, matches and glass are conducted within the household and heavy populations of children are involved in this work. According to Kailash Satyarthi as the profits obtained from the international market rises, the use of child labor even increases and this is why there has been a tremendous amount of increase in the number of children working in industries that are export oriented in nature in developing nations such as India, Pakistan as well as Nepal (Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights, 2013). Organizations that compete in a global environment tend to look for regions for operational purposes where there are relaxed rules and regulations and the implementation of these rules and regulations is quite weak. They even try to locate markets where unions are weak and human rights are neglected. Organizations in the globalized world try to compete with each other, they tend to follow the race to the bottom hypothesis which means that these organizations try to compete on the basis of cost of production and try to decrease their production cost to the lowest (Dagdemir, 2010, p.40). After figuring out such locations, they tend to start their operations in these locations to manipulate the low cost of labor in these nations. Child labor tends to cost lower than adult labor, thus organizations in these regions tend to exploit child labor in order to save labor cost and decrease production cost. Arguments against Child Labor The issue of child labor has been hotly debated, one of the reasons due to which child labor is considered as a wrong practice is that child labor is against the rights of a child to choose what is right and what is wrong for him. Every human has a right to choose what is right and wrong for him. In the case of child labor, it is not the child who decides whether he should work or not, it is the parents of the child who decide whether their children should work or not. Parents consider both the interest of their child as well as their own interest while deciding regarding the employment of their child (Ersado, 2002). Since the decision of working is not in the hands of the children, making them work is means that they are coerced into employment and thus child labor is wrong. Liberty is a natural right and children should have the liberty to choose what is right and wrong for them (Tierney, 1997, p.313). Another issue with child labor is that it promotes poverty and does not help in making the lives of poor families better. Parents usually make their children work because they believe that the money their child earns will help them and that money will contribute towards the financial situation of the entire family. Jensen states that if a child starts working at an early age, he she ends up remaining uneducated and his cognitive skills do not develop and those children who work at an early age end up being counted among the unskilled labor force of a particular nation (Jensen, 2013). According to a survey conducted by All-Pakistan Labor Force, 21 million children who are between 10 and 14 years are employed and are not attending educational institutes (KHAN, 2011, p.1). According to Khan’s findings it can be assumed that in Pakistan alone, there these 21 million children will remain uneducated and fall in the category of unskilled labor when they grow up which will lead to an increase in the number of unskilled employees in the region. Child labor even needs to be countered because children are being forced to work in hazardous conditions and this is not good for their physical as well as mental health. Children who are working in such difficult conditions are experiencing injuries and several of them even end up dying. ILO (International Labor Organization) reports that around 115 million who are within the age bracket of 5 to 17 are employed in hazardous conditions and around 22000 of these children experience death due to their work environment (International Labor Organization (b), 2013, p.1). When children work in such conditions they come in contact with similar hazardous situations that are experienced by adult employees but the impact of such conditions is much worse on children. Child labor is unethical according to the standards of utilitarian view of ethics. The utilitarian view suggests that actions that result in higher number of consequences and lower number of benefits are unethical (Weiss, 2009, p.104). Child labor results in higher number of consequences and lower number of benefits and the benefits experienced by child labor are short term in nature while the costs associated with child labor are long term in nature. The few short term benefits associated with child labor is benefit of low cost of production for organization as figured out by Dagdemir, money for poor families and short term economic growth (Dagdemir, 2010, p.40). While in the long run child labor has several consequences such as infringement of a child’s rights, wellbeing of the children who work is hampered in the short as well as the long term, development of the intellect of the children and their physical development is even vulnerable, the goodwill of those organizations that practice child labor even declines, and child labor contributes to an increasing rate of illiterate children as well as adults and this further leads to increase in the count of untrained and unskilled labor force. Arguments in Favor of Child Labor There are various individuals who support child labor and the main reason they give for supporting child labor is that it decreases poverty rate. According to Burkina Faso and Guatemala, participation in child labor is dependent on the family’s income and as families tend to experience income shocks, their participation in child labor even varies (Jimenez, 2006, p.103). This means that when families are experiencing decline in household incomes, they participate in child labor to earn more to satisfy their needs and wants. They believe that if children of a family work along with the adults, there will be more working hands within the family and this will lead to increase in the families earnings and will help in solving the financial issues of the family. Edmonds conducted a research in which he surveyed various households in the region of Vietnam and figured out that due to the attempts of trade liberalization, prices of rice grain have increased by 30% and this has led to a decrease in the participation of children in the labor market by 9 to 10 percent (Edmonds, 2003, p.3). Those supporting child labor even believe that child labor leads to development of a nation. According to Yale, during the period of 1990s, Vietnam experienced trade liberalization and due to this, the import of rice that was grown in the region increased substantially and led to an increase in the living standards of the rice farmers of the region (YaleInsights, 2013). This is because when more members of the family work together they tend to earn more and spends more which increases the consumption of the goods and products produced by a nation. Those supporting child labor even believe that through child labor, issues such as low literacy rate can be eliminated. They believe that if children work, they will have money to finance their own education and this will lead to an increase in the number of educated individuals. Conclusion The International labor organization identifies child labor as work that violates a child’s right to have a childhood and this work even negatively effects their physical as well as emotional wellbeing. A huge percentage of children are currently working in several households as well as factories in the developing as well as developed nations in various sectors such as agriculture. These children even work in their households and it is quite hard to quantify the total quantity of children that are employed within their own houses and are working on outsourced assignments. Child labor should be banned because it is not helping the society at all and is leading the underdevelopment of children. The benefits that are associated with child labor are selfish in nature and are available for a very limited period of time. References Cigno, A., Rosati, F. C., & Guarcello, L. (2002). Does globalisation increase child labour?. Bonn: IZA. Dagdemir, Ozcan, & Acaroglu, Hakan. (2010). The effects of globalization on child labor in developing countries. Prague Development Center. Edmonds, E. V., & National Bureau of Economic Research. (2003). Does child labor decline with improving economic status?. Cambridge, Mass: National Bureau of Economic Research. Ersado, Lire. (2002). Child labor and school decisions in urban and rural areas. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI. Healy, T. (2008). Gendered struggles against globalisation in Mexico. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate. International Labor Organization (b). (n.d.). Hazardous child labour. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from ILO hazardous conditions 115 million children International Labour Organization (a). (n.d.). What is child labour. Retrieved May 15, 2013, from http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/lang--en/index.htm Jensen, E. (n.d.). How Poverty Affects Behavior and Academic Performance. Membership, policy, and professional development for educators - ASCD. Retrieved May 15, 2013, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109074/chapters/how-poverty-affects-behavior-and-academic-performance.aspx Jimenez, E. (2006). Development and the next generation. Washington, DC: World Bank. KHAN, M. A. (2011, January 1). Alarming increase in child labour | Newspaper | DAWN.COM. DAWN.COM | Latest News, Breaking News, Pakistan News, World News, Business News, Science and Technology News , Entertainment News, Sports News, Cricket News. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from http://dawn.com/2011/01/01/alarming-increase-in-child-labour/ Raghavan, C. (2002, June 20). Poor hurt by deregulation of trade and capital markets, says new study. Welcome to Third World Network (TWN). Retrieved April 30, 2013, from http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/twe283a.htm Ritzer, G. (2012). Globalization A Basic Text.. Chicester: Wiley. Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights. (n.d.). Kailash Satyarthi. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from http://rfkcenter.org/kailash-satyarthi.com Tierney, B. (1997). The idea of natural rights: Studies on natural rights, natural law, and church law 1150-1625. Michigan: William B. Eedmans. Weiss, J. W. (2009). Business ethics: a stakeholder and issues management approach with cases (5th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. YaleInsights. (n.d.). How has globalization benefited the poor?. Retrieved May 15, 2013, from http://qn.som.yale.edu/content/how-has-globalization-benefited-poor Read More