The International Social-economic Impact of Child Labor - Essay Example

The International Social-economic Impact of Child Labor of the of the The International Social-economic Impact of Child Labor Introduction Child labor is a major crisis that the world is facing nowadays and it requires solution for the betterment of the whole world. Child labor is essential for families that cannot afford the burden of educating their children and running their households. The children belonging to the families living under the poverty line are forced to do labor for the survival of their families. However, this child labor is weakening for the economy as well as for the society. The child laborers never get chances for improving their education or skills to become better workers. The paper scrutinizes the issue of child labor, the socio-economic impact on child labor internationally and role of international organizations in dealing with the issue of child labor. What is Child Labor? Children who have not reached the age of doing laborious work are harmed or stopped from attending the schools in order to do work that is disadvantageous for them overly. Globally, children belonging to poor families who are unable to meet both ends meet easily are forced to do child labor in place of attending their schools. There are millions of children who work for the survival of their families. The International Labor Organization that is abbreviated as ILO has informed about a ratio of two hundred and fifteen million children ranging from five years of age to seventeen years of age that are working under hard working situations that are probably unlawful, dangerous and highly abusive. The children who do labor are forced to do all kinds of works in diverse fields such as agriculture, fishing, production, mining and household chores. In addition, children are also made to do illegal works such as drug trafficking and prostitution. Children are also made to do activities that are beyond their age such as becoming soldiers1. Usually, child labor includes many features that are unlawful such as violation of national age limits for working, endangering children’s bodily, psychological or emotional betterment, unendurable mistreatment, such as child slavery, trade, debt burden, pressurized work or other unlawful activities, to deter children from attending schools and destabilizing labor standards by employing children2. Socio-Economic Impact of Child Labor Internationally Child labor is not able to make a country or international economy to grow manifold or gain a better economic status because the child workers are mostly unskilled. In addition, with continued child labor, poverty remains constant even in developing economies or countries that are developing. Usually, parents want their children to get educated and advance in life, however, with inadequate income levels, they are forced for child labor. They are in miserable conditions due to which, they want their children to do labor for their economic and social survival. However, those children who are involved in doing labor for full time for just meager wages do not have a probability of gaining skills or education for improving themselves. Therefore, the cycle of poverty moves from one generation to the other3. According to ILO, the elimination of child labor is only possible if children are bestowed with elevated living standards, better schooling and advantageous means. The children who are poor are accepted and cannot be rejected in terms of their participation in a country’s economy. The rise in labor costs decreases the participating children in child labor. Child labor is because of poverty and also gives rise to poverty because of its continued relation to poverty. A child is pressurized to adopt child labor in order to support his family in survival or to add to his family income. The overall national economic and social growth are affected because of child labor, as it is shown that decreasing growth of human capital results in increasing poverty rate, which eventually enforces child labor4. The acknowledgement of the issue of child labor on national and international grounds took long time. The labor markets and governments got diplomatically upset at understanding the results of child labor. The developed countries of the world handled “social movements, antiglobalization activists and children’s advocates”5. United States that is the leading country of the world has faced the issue of child labor, as in the colonial era, child labor was part of the society. Children were required to work in family farms or their employment in trade apprenticeships was common when they reached the ages of ten to fourteen. 19th century led to the initiation of industrial system where children worked as cheap workers. Minimum wages for workers and attendance in schools was encouraged in the mid nineteenth century with the help of education reforms. Immigrants from South and east Europe entered US and their entrance called for the social safety of children. Along with the immigration of Europeans, improved US legislative system and powerful interests along with economic reasoning required for taking steps for children protection. Till nineteen hundred, the child labor figure was nearly 1.75 million and these children were only ten to fifteen years old6. In 1904, a committee was created with the entitlement of National Child Labor Committee for dealing with the issue of child labor. Child labor laws got passed by Congress between 1916 to 1918, however, these laws got approved in 1924 because of allies of child labor. The New Deal along with Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 introduced legislation for minimum wages, maximum hour rules and restrictions on child labor. The production and mining based employment was restricted for children under the age of sixteen and legislation was also accepted by the people and political parties. The businesses then required skilled workers in place of unskilled child workers7. The developed countries saw a change in handling child labor, however, in developing and poor countries, the case of child labor still needs consideration and solution. Children are working under heavy burden of poverty for the support of their families. As far as their futures are concerned, they are quite desolate as their compensations are only enough for their substandard survival with no education at all. All over the world, the activists and opponents of child labor are struggling hard to make people aware of the crisis and its aftereffects for their societies as well as economies along with children’s own development8. International Organizations and their Role in Addressing Child Labor UCW abbreviated as Understanding Children’s Work is involved in taking steps for controlling child labor globally with the support of ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank. The UCW program got initiated in December 2000 and this program highlighted the requirements for involving global communities to fight against child labor. The UCW program is intended to provide comprehensive framework for understanding child labor, its reasons and consequences, their measurement and introduction and implementation of influential policies for dealing with the issue9. The program prioritizes spending in human capital growth that involves ‘education, health and elimination of child labor’ and these preferences will address the economic predicaments and child protection. The poverty control programs need to be re-monitored and influential societal areas should be scrutinized for controlling the crisis. The labor-intensive schemes should be encouraged for controlling child labor. Human capital investments should be improved by encouraging private sector and preventive steps should be taken to decrease child labor and increase steps to restrict school-aged children to work by making better the quality of schooling and access to education10. Overall, the organizations for human rights and other international and national organizations such as NGOs and others are working towards elimination of child labor, as it is not making the economy of a country better, but downsizing its economy. In addition, children also suffer in terms of their educational, social and future development. Conclusion The issue of child labor is thought provoking, as the children who are the future of any country are affected negatively because of this crisis. Children who are required to study in schools and gain better skills and education for better acquirement of wages and career are forced to do labor because of financial deprivation of their families. Children who face the issues of survival of their families and themselves are forced to join the labor force of children. However, they are mostly unskilled laborers. They never get a chance to bring improvements in their skills or education because of their full time involvement in their assigned works. These children affect the society, both economically as well as socially. They are never able to change the economic status of their families because they are offered with wages that are substandard for sustenance. Hence, the cycle of poverty goes on with no improvement to the child labors. International organizations are working for the elimination of child labor. However, they have to consider it as a global challenge and should involve influential organizations to fight the crisis. Bibliography Herring, M. (2014). What is Child Labor? - The Child Labor Education Project.Continuetolearn.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 10 May 2014, from https://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/what_is_child_labor.html ILO, World Bank and UNICEF. (2009). UCW, Child labour and the global financial crisis: an issues paper, Rome. Retrieved 10 May 2014 from http://www.unicef.org/protection/files/UCW_Summary_Financialcrisis_TCfinal.pdf Perusek, G. (2004). Child Labor in the World Economy, by Glenn Perusek, New Politics. Newpol.org. Retrieved 10 May 2014, from http://newpol.org/content/child-labor-world-economy Read More