Child Labor Essay Research Paper Child LaborUntil

Child Labor Essay, Research Paper

Child Labor

Until recently, child labor has not been recognized as an issue of important global concern. Developing countries continued, as they had for centuries, the accepted practice of using children as young as four and five to labor in conditions of bondage, serfdom, and slavery. International public attention regarding the plight of the young workers has grown steadily over the past few years, provoking world wide discussion of the problem and possible ethical solutions. The International Labor Organization estimates that at least 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen are working in developing countries. The majority work under harmful and exploitative conditions. These children labor in a wide range of economic activities such as:

. agriculture

. animal husbandry

. commercial sex industries

. construction

. fishing

. garbage scavengers

. manufacturing

. mining

. quarrying

. tourism

Child labor is the single most important source of child exploitation and child abuse in the world today. Companies utilizing underdeveloped countries must be willing to accept the social responsibility that a further developed society expects. This includes meeting the legal, economic, ethical, and philanthropic elements of social responsibility.

The first element of social responsibility is the legal element. The legality and illegality of child labor varies from country to country. The Department of Labor and Bureau of International Labor Affairs defines child labor as any economic activity performed by a person under the age of 15. Not all work performed by children is detrimental or exploitative. Child labor does not usually refer to performing light chores around the house, or youths helping out in the family business. Rather, the child labor of concern is generally work that prevents effective school attendance or is performed under conditions hazardous to the physical and mental health of the child (Dept. of Labor 2). Although this minimum age requirements and guidelines apply to the 34 participating countries of the International Labor Organization, there are many other countries where there is no official age or defining line between when children become adults, and/or restrictions as to what type work should or should not be performed by children.

In 1998, the Department of Labor and Bureau of International Labor Affairs collected data from 16 countries where child labor had been identified as a major problem. It is estimated that just from these 16 participating countries, that a low figure of 250 million children, between the ages of five and fourteen were reported as working. One-half of these children are reported to work full-time. One-third of them working in extremely dangerous conditions and 90 million of them never attend school (Douglas and McIntyre 26). The Department of Labor and International Labor Affairs considers this figure to be low. In developing countries children helping out and child labor are synonymous with family survival and households may be reluctant to report when children are working. Also, each country chooses its own definition of what constitutes a child and what classifies as labor . Some countries do not count children working in either paid or unpaid work, while other countries count children as laborers only when the child is a full-time paid laborer. Additionally, certain countries do not classify students as child laborers no matter how many hours they work outside the home, while others count students working even one hour a week as employed . The International Labor Organization distinguishes three types of child labor. There are children who work with their families-on the farm, in the home or for a family business. Second, there are those who are paid to work in factories or who have been hired out or even sold by their families. Third, there are the street children (Dept. of Labor 4).

Children working at home or within a family-like arrangement are regarded as a socially acceptable practice in most countries. Additionally, this type work generally entails doing strenuous household work in exchange for little or no pay and/or room and board. Children who work as domestic servants, within their own home or for another family, often times suffer physical, mental, and sexual abuse. However, this type of child labor is hardest to detect and curtail since it does have a level of socially acceptable status. The same situation also applies to children who work on the family farm or for the family business. The fact that children are not paid makes the work seem insignificant, yet children working on the farm and family business greatly contributes to a family s survival.

The second type of classification of child labor that the International Labor Organization identifies are those children who are paid to work in factories or who have been sold by their families. In most developing countries there is no social welfare system set-up and the majority of the socioeconomic status of the people are poor. In these countries, you will find the worst and most exploitative types of child labor. Commonly refereed to as sweatshops, children are paid as little as legally possible. Furthermore, the child may have been sold to the business as an unpaid ser

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