Thoughts on Child Labor

It is 2016 and there is still child labor in the world. To be honest, it is very sad. In some countries in Asia, like India and China, it is relatively common to see children on the street helping their parents to sell items or working in people’s house as a servant. I feel very sad whenever I see children on the streets begging or selling things. I believe those kids should be in school, they should be getting an education. They should not be selling items on the streets or in the marketplace. These children are vulnerable. They are regularly exploited by their employees as they are children. They have no choice but to work to earn a living for their family. I believe everyone has a right to an education.

Knowledge is power.Unfortunately, not all kids are as blessed to get an education. Their parents cannot afford to do so. It is a Catch-22 situation. The children work because their parents cannot afford to send them to school. This results in them not getting a formal education which results in them working for a low-pay job even in their adult life which results in those individuals living in poverty for the rest of their life. The cycle of poverty is never-ending.  If I have the chance in the future, I would like to help those kids. Because I, personally, am really fond of children, so I would like to help them or to teach them if possible. I would like to help them get out of the cycle of poverty. I think everyone has a right to an education. People should not turn a blind eye to child labor; it is a very serious issue. We should all work together and put a stop to child labor.

http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_215170/lang--en/index.htm

Freeing the Slaves

My topic will be on Child Labor in China. The children are usually between the age of 5-17. The factory workers just pay them a little.They have to work for long hours in extreme conditions in the factories. They have to work under risky circumstances. But those kids still work because their family needs that source of income. Their families are poor so they have to work to support their family.They leave school to help support their family because  the school fees are too high, they can't afford it.Some of these kids would even use fake ID cards to show they are 16 or older.

Here is an example: a headmaster of a school employed students from his school to work in his private toy factory. When he was caught, he said he was just giving these kids an opportunity to earn money. In China, they have a law that doesn't allow children under the age of 16 to work. But they say under special circumstances, these kids can work Ex:"Educational Labor"~basically schools would have their students do some work like growing and harvesting crops. But most employers end up abusing this law and make their students do a lot of heavy labor. Ex: In Sichuan, 500 children were found working 14 hour shifts in a factory. Their school employed to work during the summer. The living conditions were poor, not enough food etc.The problem is that China doesn't do much to enforce its laws. International Labor Standards- their job is to make sure that there is no child labor in poor countries etc. They try to help by organizing labor unions to do that.

Sources:
http://childlabour.in/child-labour-in-china.htm
http://www.china-labour.org.hk/en/node/15889

http://china.hrw.org/press/news_release/china_end_child_labor_in_state_schools

http://homeport.tcs.tulane.edu/~rouxbee/kids99/china2.html

http://www.glica.org/topics/show/11
http://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/sweat/china.htm

http://www.hrw.org/news/2007/12/02/china-end-child-labor-state-schools