A Dream for a Better World

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.

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.

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.