What A Concept Of Childhood For The Child Laborers And The Military Use Of Children

Child Labor refers to the employment of children under a certain age that is determined by law or custom. We find variable extents of child labor throughout the historical period but this issue became a major concern after the birth of the concepts of workers’ and children’s rights. As per the estimates provided by the International Labor Organization, around 218 million children between the ages 5 to 17 years across the world are engaged in factory works, mining, agriculture, parents’ business or their own small business where they sell food or apparel.

Many children work in the restaurants as waiters or they do repetitive works like assembling boxes, storing stocks in the shelves and clearing. Most of the children work as domestic help and this prevents them from getting noticed by officially appointed labor inspectors and from media inspections as well. The most degraded form of child labor includes child prostitution and the military use of children.

The wealthy and the developed nations are quite concerned about the exploitative nature of child labor. These nations firmly believe that it is unethical to employ children in any work if they are below certain age limit. But this does not include the household chores and any form of schoolwork. The restrictions on age vary from one country to another and in The US this age limit is 16 years. During the Industrial Revolution, children were employed as laborers and some of them were even 4 years of age. Many wealthy nations of the world now believe child labor to be a violation of human rights.

But this is not the picture for the poorer and the developing nations. Many poor families depend on their children’s income to raise the costs of living. In this case, the followers of child labor prohibition have to make sure that these children are provided with sources of short term income that would benefit them in the long run. The Youth Rights groups have again pointed out that putting a ban on child labor would restrict a child from choosing a job which is a highly-paid one. We find many countries like India and Bangladesh in which employers hire children below 14 years to work in the sweatshops for even up to 20 hours per day and they get as less as seven six and a half cents per items. These companies make items for some of the renowned companies in the US like Wal-Mart, Target and Hanes.

We can see that issues regarding child labor were raised since the period of Karl Marx. He had mentioned about the abolition children’s factory labor in his Communist Manifesto. Some people have often suggested banning the purchase and use of products manufactured by child laborers. But others have resented this idea because this would push the children to other forms of arduous jobs like prostitution and agriculture. Such was the case with 5000- 7000 children in Nepal who had to resort to prostitution after the carpets produced by them were refused to be imported by the US.

Debates were there and would be there regarding the legality and the necessity of child labor. But a lost childhood would never come back. Childhood blessed with the memories of fun, mischief, moments spent in the beaches and moments spent with pets, guidance of school teachers, parents and grandparents are all that these children have missed and would be missing for a life time. One satire is that the production of cocoa powder involves child labor. Cocoa is used as the primary ingredient for chocolates; a child’s all time favorite food! The difference is that some tiny hands help to make it and some enjoy it! Child labor