How can we fight against child labour
There is a lot of children around the globe that are part of unpaid and paid forms of work that might not be harmful, but are classified as child labourers because they are way too young or are involved in hazardous activities that may affect their physical, mental social or educational development. According to the World Bank 168 million children aged 5 to 17 are engaged in child labour. But how as a society can we fight against child labour?
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This mentally and physically dangerous work interferes with schooling and long-term development, the worst forms include slavery, trafficking, sexual exploitation. Child labor can be defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity. Sadly, child labourers are vulnerable to abuse, and their families are often trapped in a cycle of poverty.
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In many countries, it is illegal for someone that is under 18 years old to have a job. Family or employers hide what they are doing because they can go to prison, or taken to court. This situation is very corrupted.
Children in poor circumstances work, because work is the best way to use their time, and contributing to the needs of their family. It is also a way to prepare them for the future, since this is going to be their life.
“There is no room for complacency when 215 million children are still labouring to survive and more than half of these are exposed to the worst forms of child labour, including slavery and involvement in armed conflict. We cannot allow the eradication of child labour to slip down the development agenda – all countries should be striving to achieve this target, individually and collectively,” said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia
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Stepping up the fight against child labour. (2012, June 11). Retrieved July 28, 2020, from https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_182508/lang--en/index.htm
Statistic & Facts
*There are 46 countries who do not have laws to protect children under 18 years old from doing dangerous work
*More than 200 million children today are child labourers, 120 million are engaged in hazardous work, 73 million are below 10 years old
*689,540 is the number of children sold as slave this year (2020)
*Eritrea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Yemen are the 10 places where child labor is more prevalent. We can see that the countries that tend to be high in child labor are in the high poverty rates, due to the need for children to supplement their family income