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.