The Economics of Child Labour - Essay Example

Running Head: Child Labour Child Labour [Institute’s Child Labour Introduction For the past many decades, humans have evolvedvery quickly and unlike any other species on this planet; they have been able to develop a solid societal framework, which is mainly responsible for the grooming, development, nurturing, maturity, and progress of the humankind as a whole. More importantly, this strongly bonded societal system, extensive parental care lays the foundation of a stronger, healthier, and more empowered upcoming generation, and the same has been the formula of success for humans on this planet. Children which go through this system find themselves empowered and ready to face the challenges of the future however not all of the children are blessed. Child labour refers to the illegal practice of using children below a certain age for labour work. Despite of the fact that the legal and moral definition differs in some parts of the world but the basic idea is the same. Unfortunately, almost all the countries have been in the frontline to condemn and oppose child labor; however, very little has been done by these countries to actually prevent it and still today the numbers regarding child labour are alarming (Nangia, pp. 20-21, 1987). This paper is an attempt to look at the serious issue of child labor, and present some arguments, sufficient for opposing child labour under all possible circumstances. Discussion As mentioned in the introductory section of the paper as well that every child undergoes a process of emotional, physical, mental, social, and moral development under his introductory years of life. In fact, as psychology tells us that these years are crucial in determining the overall personality of that individual. Lessons learnt in these early years stay there forever and leave such significant impact that it becomes virtually impossible to separate a person from his or hr childhood influences. This explains why parents try their best to give their children an environment of understanding, comfort, mutual consensus, love, affection, care, consideration, devotion, and respect because they want them to learn and value all these things in their early childhood. The reason is that if they do it now, this would most probably stay with them until the rest of their lifetime (Gabalawi, pp. 54-55, 2009). Very common is to see a mother teaching his son the value of speaking truth and helping others and a father telling her daughter the importance of unity and respecting their elders. More importantly, parents put in their maximum effort to keep their children out and away from any tough, stressful or violent situation because they know that it have negative effects on the mind of the child. They try not to show their children any violence at all, either on the television or outside, they make sure that they their children do not hear any abusive language at least not from their side and they do not do any work which could be stressful for them either mentally or physically (Wal, pp. 3-9, 2006). Now let us divert our attention to the children that suffer this curse of child labour. Quite understandably, the reverse of whatever has been said in the above lines applies to them. They fail to learn moral values from their family; they are unable to understand the true meaning of love, affection, devotion, care and others. Moreover, the brutal work environment of outside exposes them to everything that a child should not see in his early ages. Physical and mental stress, negative perceptions about the people and world, violence, sexual abuse, crime, hatred and brutality of the world are some of these (Bishoyi, pp. 78-79, 2005). The age, in which a child deserves to hold books and pens in his hand, he has to work hard in the scorching heat of sun risking his life and health. Obviously, not only the child misses out the opportunity to receive the mental and physical development, which he very much deserves, but also ends up learning things that he should not learn (Lieten, pp. 16-17, 2005). Quiet surprisingly, still a few people advocate child labour under certain circumstances. For many African and South Asian countries, more than half of the population live below the poverty line and performs task that are considered humiliating and inferior in the developed countries. Most of the child labour has its roots in these places. This extreme poverty is compounded with low per capita income, high population growth, lower income standards, pathetic health services, low infant mortality rates, and lower average life span (Cigno & Rosati, pp. 42, 2005). Quite understandably, all these factors act at the same time and create a society where the expenses are more than what a family can earn, higher probability of deaths of the head of the family and this then leaves the children on their own to earn and live in the brutal world (Gabalawi, pp. 54-55, 2009). Some people say that if children are working to solve the problems of these extremely poor families in these areas than it is somewhat acceptable because in this way at least these children would provide their family with a little more income (Wal, pp. 3-9, 2006). However, this is an extremely shortsighted view and it is like putting the whole future on stake for the present. If child labour could have increased the per capita income of these families than many of these African and South Asian countries would not have been in such trouble today (Hobbs, McKechnie & Lavalette, pp. 92, 1999). Moreover, it restricts the potential of the child to unfold and since he would be educated, he would work like a labour for his whole life. Thus, child labour even in long runs hampers the overall productivity and output of any country. This leads to an awful generation of people who are actually nothing more than a liability for their country in economic terms. Even numbers from the books of economics tells us the same story. Countries with the most evidences of child labour are the ones that rank last in terms of gross domestic product, purchasing power parity, sovereignty, per capita income, higher living standards, human developmental index, and others. Moreover, there is a heated debate that child labour should be acceptable, if the working conditions are satisfactory and that allows the children a better or even best possible standard of living. However, even this “best possible standard of living” comes with strings attached. As argued in the above sections of the paper, this best possible standard of living would not be able to compensate for the hindrance caused in the emotional and physical development of the child. Moreover, there is little chance that a working child would go to school and even if it does then the probability of concentrating on studies and excelling at the same decreases drastically. Even if child labour can guarantee “best possible standard of living” it cannot guarantee “continuous or persistent best possible standard of living”. As the pace of competition and globalization is increasing, nothing is permanent and a good standard of living of today is not guaranteed to stay the same tomorrow. Conclusion At the end of this paper, we are in comfortable position to conclude that child labour is a curse any society in both long term and short term and are not acceptable in any possible conditions. It should be avoided and discouraged because neither it has been able to deliver the desired results or bring any good to the society nor does it seems like it would be able to do so in the future. References Bishoyi, K.N. (2005). Plight of child labour. Discovery Publishing House. Cigno, Alessandro, & Rosati, Furio C. (2005). The economics of child labour. Oxford University Press. Gabalawi, Nabila EL (2009). A Better Life for Child Labourers and Their Families in Egypt. GRIN Verlag. Hobbs, Sandy, McKechnie, Jim, & Lavalette, Michael. (1999). Child labour: a world history companion. ABC-CLIO. Lieten, Georges Kristoffel (2005). Child labour: burning questions: inaugural lecture. Aksant Academic Pubs. Nangia, Parveen. (1987). Child labour: cause-effect syndrome. Janak Publishers. Shukla, C K., & Ali, S. (2006). Child Labour Socio-Economic Dimensions. Sarup & Sons. Wal, S. (2006). Child labour in various industries. Sarup & Sons. Read More