Sociology - Article Critique - Assignment Example

There are many questions involved in this article that target the laws and regulations, causes of child labor, working conditions and environment, education and training, consequences of child labor, and so on. However, the author didn’t ask any questions directly, instead Menelievich gathered all the information and statistics in the article and then discussed them and finally summed everything up with own solutions and ideas. This is what makes this article a succinct but well bodied research.

The writer talks about the causes of child labor by covering up the most important factors in a very succinct manner. Following are the causes of child labor in a brief manner to make the topic clear: I. Poverty & Ignorance of parents Poverty is of course the foremost reason of child labor. When a family is poor and the guardian is unable to feed their kids, they find no other way but to put their children on work despite of the fact that the children’s age is for studying and not working. .

not expect to be totally supported by its family and this is what makes the child see no abnormality in missing school and to start working (Menelievich,1979, p. 560). III. Lack of schools and adequate educational infrastructure When there will be less schools and inadequate educational infrastructure, there are fewer chances that the children will be educated. So it’s essentially important that there are enough schools in each country, city and town so the children can get education. When the children will be involved in educational activities, their parents will not consider taking them out from the schools and putting them in on work. IV. Parent’s unawareness about the harms of child labor As mentioned at by Menelievich, “The age at which children start working varies but in a good many countries there are still children who are working at as early an age as 6.

For example, a study carried out in India revealed that 24.6 percent of the children surveyed had started work between the ages of 6 and 9, 48.4 percent between 10 and 12, and 26.9 percent between 13 and 15 (Menelievich, 1979, p. 562).” Furthermore; “In Bombay it was found that children employed in hotels and restaurants were working an average of over 11? hours a day, while in Santiago de Chile they were putting in between 10-13 hours a day (Menelievich, 1979, p. 562).” Now anyone can realize how an early age labor life can crush a child’s innocence and personality.

6-12 is the age of children when they are growing up and their emotions, personality talents are being built so when they are put on labor; they lose their childhood. Furthermore, prolonged exposure to heat, sun, dust, insects, chemicals, wind etc effects the physical health of the child immensely which can cause skin diseases,