Essay: Causes and Consequences of Child Labor

Sample Essay

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Abstract

Child labor is one of the greatest evils and challenges faced by world. Nowadays, almost every country is trying to eliminate and reduce this evil because the want to communicate to the rest of the world that childhood of every child is innocent and so it must not be snatched from them due to unfair distribution of wealth and inability on account of their parents to feed them. This essay is focused on causes and consequences of child labor.

CAUSES OF CHILD LABOR
One of the major causes of child labor is undoubtedly poverty. There are many other factors that combine to drive children into employment, none of which is unique to any one country or any one family’s circumstances which are as follows:

• With little or no access to schooling, children are forced into employment at an early age in order to survive.
• A very common form of child labor may not even be recognized when children work as part of the family unit. This is particularly common in agriculture, where an entire family may have to work because they cannot afford to utilize or pay for outside help.
• Parents may effectively “sell” their children in order to repay debts or secure a loan and these eventually are employed by their masters and are forced to work.
• The demand for cheap labor by contractors means that children are often offered work in place of their parents.
• Child soldiers are forcibly enlisted into military service and operations. As young children are unaware of their rights and less likely to complain or revolt because their parents find it honorable that their children are working for military.
• Employers often justify the use of children by claiming that a child’s small, nimble hands are vital to the production of certain products. (Mike H.)

CONSEQUENCES FOR CHILDREN

A lot of consequences have emerged as a result of increase in child labor which are as follows:

• A large number of accidents of physical injuries and mutilations are caused by badly maintained machinery on farms and in factories.
• Pesticide poisoning is one of the biggest killers of child laborers. The global death toll each year from pesticides is supposed to be approximately 40’000.
• Growth deficiency is prevalent among working children, who tend to be shorter and lighter than other children of their age; these deficiencies also impact on their adult life
• Long-term health problems, such as respiratory disease, asbestosis and a variety of cancers, are common in countries where children are forced to work with dangerous chemicals in chemical industries and factories.
• Exhaustion and malnutrition are a result of underdeveloped children performing heavy manual labor, working long hours in unbearable conditions and not earning enough to feed themselves adequately. (Henry L.)

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