The Fashion Industry Did Not Exploit Their Labour Base - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... The essay "The Fashion Industry Did Not Exploit Their Labour Base" concerns the fashion industry and the question of exploitation. At eleven for a child to be doing this instead of schooling is a most despicable thought; however we also need to look at this situation through young Mantheesh’s eyes, for her this work brings home Rs. 40 or 60p per day; much better than what she could’ve done in her native war torn Sri Lanka or in some refugee camp in India. These 60p are better than anything else that life has doled out to her so far, her only hope, and when the protest over the unfairness of child labour reaches this young child; neither does she understand the debate nor does she feel that its fair for people to take away from her the last modicum of hope that this job allows her. These are the questions that this essay will attempt to answer. Let’s start by peeping into the conditions of child labour. According to UNICEF, there are an estimated 250 million children aged 5 to 17 in child labour worldwide, excluding child domestic labour. In terms of geographical distribution, the Asia-Pacific region harbours the largest absolute number of working children between the ages of 5 and 14, with some 127 million, or 60 per cent of the world total. Sub-Saharan Africa is second with 48 million, or 23 per cent of the total, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean with 17.4 million, or 8 per cent, and the Middle East and North Africa with 13.4 million, or 6 per cen. Some of the countries are India....
In terms of geographical distribution, the Asia-Pacific region harbours the largest absolute number of working children between the ages of 5 and 14, with some 127 million, or 60 per cent of the world total. Sub-Saharan Africa is second with 48 million, or 23 per cent of the total, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean with 17.4 million, or 8 per cent, and the Middle East and North Africa with 13.4 million, or 6 per cent ( ILO, 5.1.2008). Some of the countries which are battling this issue are India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Nepal, Malawi, Kenya, Zimbabwe,( Andvig, J.C. 5.1.2009) ( IPEC, 5.1.2009) Tanzania, Ethiopia Morocco, Egypt, Brazil, Argentina.
The fact that most of these countries are developing nations is where the similarity ends, on one hand we have a country like Ethiopia teetering on the brinks of a civil war and on the other we have a India touted to be the economic super power of the next generation; yet both countries haven't been able to curb the rampant flouting of child labour laws. So can we safely conclude that child labour is only a problem of developing countries Not really, even the United States has its own issue of child farm workers (AFT, 5.1.2009).
In order to take a closer look at this problem, we need to first understand it. "Child labor" is, generally speaking, work for children that harms them or exploits them in some way (physically, mentally, morally, or by blocking access to education). BUT: There is no universally accepted definition of "child labor". Varying definitions of the term are used by international organizations, non-governmental organizations, trade unions and other interest groups. Writers and speakers don't always specify what definition they are using, and that often ...Download file to see next pagesRead More