Issues Surrounding Childhood Labor - Essay Example

Child labor INTRODUCTION: Child labor in any society or nation is a peculiar but pervasive syndrome of the soil in which the mother drinks her own milk. The problem of child labor consumes much of the downtrodden children only. In countries like America, where the cultural and social permissibility allows children to work, their plight is still worse because the employers’ focus in getting low cost production is in no way diluted but fueled further. The attitude of parents to get their children endowed with more responsibility by way of sending them to work for earning simply hinders the kid’s opportunity to improve their academic skills. Although not all the children get spoiled in child labor, most of them are deprived of their educational prospects. In developing countries that aim education to provide chiefly employment prospects, child labor plays a catastrophic role. The very essence of education is lost in such nations. The entire mass of children, adolescents and even adults get numbed to the health risks involved in child labor. The most unbearable but never spoken out tragedy is that the meager earnings and ‘the altogether changed life style’ veils their biological sufferings. The approaches of Governments in this regard vary from time to time and places. The main lacuna in attainment of the governments’ goal of reducing child labor in several countries is the employers’ ambition to get low cost production fueled by the poor peoples’ need for basic needs. Historians and thinkers view this issue of child labor vehemently against the practice. Their recordings of changes, cult and vision reveal that we have just begun the journey in the way of getting the practice eradicated. I have picked the following works to get a clear idea on how child labor had plagued throughout in America and other countries too. 1. Levine. M. (2003), Children for Hire: The Perils of Child Labor in the United States, Westport Connecticut, Praeger. 2. Hindman. H. (2002), Child Labor; An American History. Armonk, NY. M.E.Sharpe. 3. Polakoff. E. (2007), Globalization and Child Labor, Journal of Developing Societies, 23. 4. Gratton B. Moen J. (2004), Immigration, Culture and Child Labor in the United States, 1880-1920, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 34. Levine M The author has expressed the magnitude of ill-effects of child labor in his preface itself by way of presenting the huge volume of child population that never came to the screen of data collectors’ endeavors. The blindness of fatty employers towards the pathetic plight of child laborers and the highly numb practices adopted both by the employers and parents are depicted by the author elucidating the full scenario of child labor. The author has admonished the practice of child labor and hinted the usage of the terms ‘legal employment’ and ‘illegal employment’ as a measure of simple quantification of the problem. But unfortunately legal employment has been misconstrued as a license to practice the ill. That is, legal employment has just opened a fresh gate to the employers for getting their goal accomplished by way of continuing child labor. This has exacerbated the condition of the problem. People in general believe that children, who are to grow in all aspects including education, health, and psyche, are in safe position if they simply grow well in their earning capabilities. The ambivalent views of Americans about child labor add much to the motivation of several employers never to think of child labor as a malpractice. (p.3). The earnings and the resultant sops and doles out of child labor have tragically wiped out the other aspects of growth like health and education. The seeming awareness of fatty employers against child labor creates an illusionary faith that only illegal employment is harmful to children. If at all, this is true, why the kids of those employers/wealthy aristocrats are not put in this groove of child labor? This assertion may seem rebellious and is liable to be labeled as anti-social or communist view. The still more tragedy is that any affirmative answer to the above question is deemed anti-social. Although the author has neared the crux of the problem – the economic pressures of the families – the magnitude of the problem is prudently highlighted that many governments trying to alleviate are chiefly engulfed in focusing the hazardous realm, time of extraction of work from children, and violation of child labor laws only. Industries and mills that pose much health related risks are to be attended with much more priority. Violation of child labor laws is concerned in most area to the extended hours of work extraction and the age of the kids employed. While placing the historical record of child labor, the author puts forth the social aspect that lead to a culture in which child’s work was seen as a process of socialization and apprenticeship (p.17). The areas, where the growth and prospects of children are held back such as mines, mills, canneries, sweatshops and agricultural arena are garnered meticulously by the author and displayed in such a way how youths were exploited. Hindman H. This author has put the areas of child labor that sucks the sweat and blood of youths in an elaborate manner. The author statistically proves that industrial and economic developments in several countries including United States are running over this ‘dirty’ phases of child labor (p.5). The book gradually passes light on the slow realization of these inhumane practices of child labor in U.S. Children’s working along side of their parents in pre-industrial ages have lead to a generalization that children always worked. The author demeans this as a dangerous generalization (p.7). The author ascribes child labor disease mainly to the industrialization, which needed several young bloods to reach dramatic elevation globally. The author is strong enough to name the generalization as dangerous because a thorough analysis of pre-industrial child labor is conducted in the work of the author. A serene atmosphere in which children of pre-industrial age worked consisted of their parents ever watching, observing and monitoring the growth, development and education of the kids (p.14). The careful study of historical evolution of child labor laws in America by the author delineates in detail how child labor in slave economy contributed much to the budding of child labor laws. As such, the author considers abolition of slavery as the first petal of child labor reform in America (p.20). While pointing the fingers towards industrialization as the cause of child labor problems, the author names it as ‘Great Transformation’, since industrialization has made child labor as a problem rather than a good practice (as considered in pre-industrial age) simultaneously showed the path to eliminate the problem. The statistical decline depicted by the author in respect of children workforce from 5.92% to 1.37% during the period of 1870-1930 throws light on how slow U.S has reached a point of realization that the practice of child labor is something stinky. An unbiased analysis of family wage system prevalent in America during early industrialization periods speak loud of the low cost production effected by several employers. A total hiring of entire family had provided a non-break workforce for many employers. At the same time the families that were hired also enjoyed a sort of limited liberties within the framework of their work allocation and timings. Recruitment costs were dramatically reduced and a secured procurement of workforce was available for employers in the family wage system. Perhaps this may be a different and refined form of the hoary bonded-labor (p.35). The book has thoughtfully harnessed the photographic display of Lewis Wickes Hine National Child Labor Committee. A photograph in page 39 of the book captioning “wanted a backbone” satirizing the dependent widower is really poetic. The author debases the fathers of children that worked to feed their fathers as cowardly fathers. Laziness and mere loafing were the main vocation of these burdensome males. The author’s perception of historical development of child labor system and child labor reforms is laudably chronologic. The author sees the different angle of the child labor problem in early twentieth century in which child unemployment was the problem rather than child employment. The child labor, during when industrialization was in its full swing was physically hampered by the youngsters who turned to be inert in their working hours. The administrations, employers and even parents were simply cornered to use force in order to push youths into more work. Thus child labor entered into an illusionary revolving around its own centre generating a constant prevalence of itself. Erica G.Polakoff: The author an eminent professor of Sociaology and Women Studies has penned this work on “Globalization and Child labor”. She attributes economic globalization and its impact on poor families to the continued practice of child labor. She is concerned much about the incapacity of domestic laws in annihilating child labor. She has hinted the dictum ‘rich getting richer and poor getting poorer’ as the trade off of globalization. She assumes a great concern over child labor in many areas and sex trade. The processes and practices in globalization are ascribed to the ill effects of child labor. Protection of child’s rights is not to be simply restricted to their survival. The work of E.Polakoff deals mainly with the current plight of children subjected to exploitative child labor and present economic culture, which focuses nothing but money. She suggests in her article that addressing basic processes of globalization and the manner in which poor class people are pushed into the vicious cycle of child labor would pass light on finding a way out for the problem. Children’s becoming the prey for the flame of child labor is considered to be emanating from their economic downtrodden plight alone. E. Polakoff’s thoughts on child labor and its roots are similar to that of Olga Sanmiguel-Valderrama in her article, “The Feminization and Racialization of Labor in the Columbian Fresh-cutFlower Industry” wherein she envisages that women from low-income and mixed-race rural backgrounds alone face precarious labor eventualities. (Olga Sanmiguel-Valderrama, 2007) Gratton B.Moen J: The article, “Immigration, Culture and Child Labor in the United States, 1880-1920”, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 34. puts forth the child labor in its dark side of social ill-will. The authors have given a clear-cut definition of child labor and the geographically varying modalities in execution of child labor. The chronological presentation of development of child labor and reforms are in a regular way as we have seen with previous books and articles. However, the authors have highlighted the conditions of schools and educational institutions, which push young generations into an aversion towards education altogether. The drift from schools out of such drop-outs lays carpet for inviting them to work for petty doles. The authors have given a practical suggestion to parents to be altruistic towards their kids and send them to schools for the development of them. This suggestion of the authors go along with a similar suggestion provided by the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives in its hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International operations on 13.09.2005. The report gives a pragmatic approach in sending children in the morning to schools and allowing them to work in the afternoon so that they can live a long life away from criminals and touts who often sell them at cheaper rates to employers for exploitative child labor. CONCLUSION: Child labor has long time back been cried against. It is unquestionably scorned as an nasty practice. But still the practice remains in many societies and nations. This is because the core of the problem is yet to be neared. The disease has reached an advanced ailment of the societies that it is felt concentrating on the nucleus of the problem would be time consuming and may result in unwanted eventualities. As analyzed from the fore going articles it is neared that economic pressures and less skilled educational systems pave way for effective child labor, which in many cases lead to exploitative trend alone. The laws enforced and devised are quite ineffective because they are restrained to focus mainly on the risks and untoward outcomes of child labor. Nearing the nucleus can never be materialized by minor groups involved. Political thinkers, educationists, historians and above all the parents of the children should think of minimizing the risks of child labor at the first phase. Secondly, parents have to bear and spare certain part of their earnings for the educational, social and cultural developments of their kids. While considering the employment to inculcate a sort of responsibility in the minds of young, it is most important on the part of parents to monitor the movements and developments brought out or the demerits faced by their children during their working phase. Simultaneous provision of education is also obligatory in which case the school administrations and governments have to lay their better hands in affording effective and non-aversive education to children. * * * * * * * * * * * * Reference list – Gratton B. Moen J. (2004), Immigration, Culture and Child Labor in the United States, 1880-1920, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 34 Hindman. H. (2002), Child Labor; An American History. Armonk, NY. M.E.Sharpe Levine. M. (2003), Children for Hire: The Perils of Child Labor in the United States, Westport Connecticut, Praeger. Olga Sanmiguel-Valderrama, 2007, “The Feminization and Racialization of Labor in the Columbian Fresh-cutFlower Industry”, Journal of Developing Societies, Vol. 23. No.1-2, 71-88 Polakoff. E. (2007), Globalization and Child Labor, Journal of Developing Societies, 23. Read More