A Dream for a Better World

The New Year was coming. Two boys with ragged clothes were opening car door for rich people in cold winter. It seemed that they were incompatible with the bustling city. The scene didn’t occur in novels but in the real world of Chengdu. Since the end of the 20th century, the number of street boys has increased too much. Street boys can not only be found in India and China, which are two big countries with large population but also can be found in other countries, especially those undergoing great changes in economy and politics. From 1980s to the beginning of the 21st century, we can find more and more street boys who beg, work or do other hard work.
Why so many kids have become street children? Actually, they should stay at home and enjoy the love from their parents. But the destiny gives them another life. There are several causes which change lovely kids into poor street children. Firstly, they are from poor families. We can find that most street children are from poor families and they have to drop out and earn money to support family though they are very young. Secondly, family is an important and indispensable part for kids’ growth. Divorce and family violence impose bad effect on children’s growth. So some kids have to leave home because they can not bear unharmonious family. Thirdly, street children can not get care from the society. They are neglected, discriminated and even maltreated by other people. However, some people also give a little money to street children because of compassion. But such kind of benefaction will result more and more street children. Fourthly, social security is not perfect. Most street children are from rural or poor regions where social security is far enough. If the government can provide enough social security for poor families, there will be no street children. After all, street children do have human dignity in others’ mind. Fifthly, government should publish favorable policies to supply assistance to street children. As for Help Station, the government can not offer reasonable education which is quite necessary for children.
Street children can also cause some social problems. For example, they may set up organizations to steal or rob other people. Different organizations consisted of street children from different regions also fight for domains. In addition, street children are made use of selling drugs by drug traffickers. In order to live in the world, they have to do that to get a little money though they do not know what they do is illegal.
In order to reduce the number of street children, government ought to take the following pressures. First, government should develop economy rapidly. If a country becomes rich, perfect assistance can be offered to street children. Second, functional departments have to perform their duties. Some departments often ignore their duties and Help Station seems to exist in name only. Third, perfect social security system should be set up as soon as possible. Many kids become street children because they are poor. In addition, disabled kids need social security more.

Most countries worldwide acknowledge the fact that exploiting children for regular and sustained labor should be prohibited and in most developed countries, laws do exist that prohibit the use of children under a certain age from economic exploitation.  But instituting laws against child labor may cause more harm than good in developing countries.  Many youth rights groups, other organizations and some scholars argue that banning child labor or boycotting companies that use children in their workforce only forces these children to turn to more dangerous and exploitive professions such as stone-crushing, street hustling and prostitution.  For example, in the 1990s, the U.S. banned carpet exports from India due to child labor issue and this action caused 5,000 – 7,000 Nepalese children to turn to prostitution.  As long as extremely poor families in developing countries are struggling to survive, children will be forced to work; and laboring away in sweatshops and the garment industries is a far better alternative than hustling and prostituting in the streets.

UNICEF estimates that there are approximately 250 million children, ages 2 to 17, in child labor today.  Although child labor is a practice considered exploitative by many developed countries and international organizations, poorer countries still accept the use of children in regular and sustained labor.  Poor families often depend on their children to provide a very much needed income for survival.  Some of the jobs performed by these children include working in sweatshops, agriculture, family businesses, selling food and wares in the streets, polishing shoes, cleaning and other menial and tedious jobs – all done for minimal pay and mostly in poor working conditions.  But with the child’s income the only source of revenue for a lot of families, the governmental officials of these countries intentionally ignore the exploitation of the children.

    When I was teenager,the world is beautiful.Green playground,blue sky……my friends and I ran and play happily.My only trouble is how to get high score so that my parents are no longer swear me.However,lots of children in other place haven’t happy life like me.They are child labor.

    Why they have to work at so young age?There are a lot of reasons perhaps,and it’s very different form one to one. This phenomenon is serious in the poverty place.The parents cann’t offered the fee of learning knowllage at school,so,they have to find a job for their children to earn more money for family.And these child labor have to do some heavier and dirtier works because lakeing of knowllages. This phenomenon is more serious when there are several children in a poor family.But,the key is,they shoulden’t work so early.It’s not humanity whether for their body health or their psychological development.

Child labor is a problem being faced by several governments around the world. The problem is particularly acute in poor countries, where poverty deprives children of a normal childhood and they are forced to earn for the family. Although eliminating child labor overnight is not possible, the efforts of many governments and also non-government organizations are slowly beginning to yield results. Stricter laws are one of the best ways to eradicate this problem. Total eradication of child labor would depend on the joint efforts of government institutions and the private sector, which is the number one employer of children in many countries, non-government organizations and advocacy groups.

While travelling through South America I continuous came across, what I consider, the worst type of forced child labour. Child begging. Obviously, people are more willing to give money out to a poor suffering child than an adult and if that poor child is homeless or with nothing it can be heartbreaking. But a regular thing that I came across was 2 or 3 children going from stranger to stranger begging while their mother or older brother or sister waited sitting in the shade. Not only will this make people lose faith in the plight of the children, the parents of the children are, to me, the lowest of the low.

Many country use the child labor . In 2008 a lot of children labor has a dream they don’t want work with another person they need free life~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Child labor is a problem that has hardly disappeared despite of several conscious efforts on the part of many governments. The problem continues to exist with millions of children generally aged below 14 working to earn a living in many parts of the world. Statistics also indicate that nearly 20,000 children lose their lives in some form of work-related accident, each year. The number of children working is unusually in the Sub-Sahara African region. It is not that there are no strict laws preventing child labor. The problem lies in no one enforcing these laws. There is also a limit to what non-profit organizations and advocacy groups can do. Finally it is the respective governments who have to compliment the effort of non-profit organizations and advocacy groups.

We all agree child labor is wrong, and that we should try to combat it where ever we find it. But in countries that do not have a welfare system, this is not as easy as saying “its wrong”. I live in a country where you will see children working everywhere you look. Most will never have a chance to get a decent education and will spend most of their lives working mundane repetitive tasks for a pittance. But this pittance is what their family needs, and that’s the problem. As long as the families need the money, getting everyone to contribute (whether it is work, crime or begging) comes before funding an education.

I don’t think this is right !I think we are all equal! Nomatter we are rich or not !no one  have  right to decide others life .That means,if they do something that the government are not allowed. they should be treated same .It’s no reason that he or shi must be punished,he or she must go to jail because he or she is very poor or they go free,because they are poor!

I remember seeing an expose on how a young girl would sell herself on the street for a small amount of money and for a few dollars more would do it without condom.  Risking her life for just a few dollars more.  Is poverty really affecting the judgement of people or are they not informed enough of the risks?

We need to stop this.

I have seen children on the streets begging for money on a school day.  I have heard of children being used to fight wars.  I have heard of young girls selling themselves for money.  How is this possible in today’s world?  Can’t we do enough to stop these atrocities?