Child labor is basically exploiting the underage children in any form forcing them to work illegally which harms or abuses them. This abuse may be physical, mental or sexual depriving the children (child laborers) of their rights of basic education. Generally, every school of thought believes that child labor would be absent in the developed countries due to their higher economic strata. Sadly, this is far from true. Be it any country, the degree of abuse is just the same. We have landed on moon but failed to revolutionize our society and politicians to take up the cudgels on behalf of small children who do not even know that they are being exploited.
Child labor is a human rights issue prevalent in many countries, developed and underdeveloped. In many cases, it occurs away from public eye. However, it most often occurs in the poorest of places, where people must put their children to work in order to help support the rest of the family. Child labor also comes in a variety of forms. Some children work at home while others are involved in intense manual labor or hazardous work in factories or mines. Since circumstances vary from country to country.
Children living in the poorest households and in rural areas are most likely to be engaged in child labour. Those burdened with household chores are overwhelmingly girls. Millions of girls who work as domestic servants are especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
UNICEF DEFINITION OF CHILD LABOR
“UNICEF defines child labour as work that exceeds a minimum number of hours, depending on the age of a child and on the type of work. Such work is considered harmful to the child and should therefore be eliminated.
- Ages 5-11: At least one hour of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week.
- Ages 12-14: At least 14 hours of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week.
- Ages 15-17: At least 43 hours of economic or domestic work per week.”
Children who work usually are engaged in domestic work, agriculture, trade or services, with 70 percent of child laborers working in the agricultural sector. Mining is also a common form of child labor. Generally fewer children are employed in manufacturing and construction.
Additionally, children are often forced to work in pornography, prostitution and armed conflict.
SOURCES FOR RESEARCH
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/index.htm -- The IPEC homepage detailing initiatives made by members of the international community and goals that have been set regarding child labor.
http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_childlabour.html -- UNICEF’s homepage provides a great overview of the child labor issue. There are statistics here that give a broader understanding of the problem on a global scale.
http://www.globalmarch.org/worstformsreport/world/regions.html -- This web site provides a regional overview of where child labor is occurring and will help you place your country to see how heavily it is affected by child labor issues.
http://www.hrw.org/children/labor.htm -- The Human Rights Watch homepage provides a wealth of knowledge about child labor going into specific detail about the different sectors where child labor is found.
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ -- This is the homepage that describes each of the Millennium Development Goals. Goal number two regarding education has come up in discussion of child labor.
