CHILD LABOR One of the biggest discussions about human rights in the world is child labor, which includes either legal and illegal types of labor for children. According to “The Children’s Rights Convention(CRC)”, everyone who is under 18 is agreed to be a child, and has the rights as those mentioned in the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. As adults, children also have rights about their work life, which are mentioned in the Article 32 of the CRC.
Although this article declares that the children have right to protection from work that harms them, and is bad for their health and education and paid fairly; it’s still possible to see children working in inappropriate conditions or being forced to work illegally. Child labor also has many reasons which lead people to force their children to work. People usually work for money, to continue their life and meet their basic needs. This is same between adults and children.
With many other reasons, the major reason for child labor is poverty of the family. It means that the families make their children work because of their insufficient family income. This may be related to the conditions of the region they live, or the parents abuse their children for their non-basic needs. The first type can occur as the father and mother work; however, they can’t afford their basic needs and as a result, their children have to work. The other situation which includes parents avoiding their responsibilites is more unacceptable.
A father may tend to avoid working or doing anything except drink or smoke, and force his children and maybe his wife to work. The children of a family can also be forced to work because of the lack of certain opportunities. This is an unfortunate fact as people cannot decide where they are to be born, or who their parents are to be. This uncertainty may lead to some inhibitions which are based on people’s prejudiced behaviours. This may happen when a child’s father or mother is a criminal or a person who is known for his/her unacceptable acts in society.
A movie by Zana Briski, “Born Into Brothels” illustrates that situation very well, which is about children born in a district of Calcutta, that is known with prostitution. The children of the prostitutes are never accepted into a school because of their families, and everyone expects the girls to be prostitutes. These kinds of discrimination force the children to work as a slave, make them clean everything or have sex for money. Another factor which increases the rate of illegally working children is the development in industry.
Before the Industrial Revelation, little workshops or agriculture were beneficial, and these jobs required expertise and strength. Therefore, children weren’t supposed to work as much as now. After the revelations, factories took over the business life, and cheap workers gained importance. Children became the best option for these kind of factories, so the owners of these bigger factories such as textile or automobile factories found children to work for long hours with a little money.
Numerous reasons exist which lead to child labor, but generally they can be told in these titles. In the last decades, lots of works or campaigns have been made by governments or NGOs(non-governmental organizations) in order to prevent illegal child labor. In spite of the fact that there are still many children being forced to work unfairly, these activities have come up with successful results, and created hope for the future of children.
