Child Labor ( A Major issue in an Economy)

Introduction:

Child labor is the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood  , interferes with their ability to attend regular School, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful.

What is Child Labor?

Child Labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school. Around the World and in the US growing gaps between rich and poor in recent decades have forced millions of young children out of School and into work. The International Labor Organization estimates that 215 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 currently work under conditions that are considered illegal, hazardous, or extremely exploitative. Underage children work at all sort of jobs around the world usually because they and their families are extremely poor. Large number of children work in commercial agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining and domestic service.

Causes And Effects of Child Labor:  

The main causes of Child labor includes poverty, unemployment, and excess population. People of poor families have a large number of children but very low income so, they cannot meet their expenses. As a result they make their small children source of income. Among these poverty is a primary cause of child labor. They make their children to work in factories, shops, Even selling items on streets. Some parents even carry infants on streets to Earn money from begging. There are many cases of child labor where a child has to work against the repayment of  a loan which was taken by his father who was unable to pay it off. This is called a bonded child labor. This kind of labor normally happens in the villages. Many of children work like slaves in order to pay the loan taken.

There are very bad effects of child labor for our society, which forces some children to steal things from others in order to satisfy their daily living. Many small girls are even made indulge in prostitution. A recent case of child labor came into picture where a 10 years old kid was beaten to death because the innocent kid was slow at things. The cruel owner went angry and threw the child across the room resulting in the most extreme punishments. It was not only the cruel owner who was at the fault, but the parents of the child were also equally involves in this incident. They took 10$ in advance and sent their child to work for the sake of getting monthly income. May be the parents would never have thought that a little sum of money could lead to such an horrible incident. 

The various Organizations which are fighting against child labor by helping children imparting education among that part of society from where majority of the child labor comes. Poor families should be given knowledge about family planning/control so that they are not burdened by children.

So the Major causes and effects of child labor are due to;

.Poverty and over Population

.Lack of Education

.Cut back production costs

.Apathy by the Government

.Women are denied formal education

.Migrating from Rural to Urban areas

To put an end of socio-economic problem, the government must target the root causes namely poverty, unemployment among adults, and take measures to control population growth. Steps must be taken to educate ignorant people from poorer sections about the benefits of education so that children are not deprived of their right to go to school, and they can turn into civilized adults, get decent jobs, and contribute to the economic growth of the nation.

International Child Labor Laws:

. A number of laws contain provisions prohibiting child labor, or regulating the working conditions of children. The most important laws are;

. The factories Act 1934. 

. The West Pakistan Shops and Establishments Ordinance 1969.

. The employment of children act 1991.

. The bonded labor system Abolition Act 1992.

. The Punjab compulsory education Act 1994.
CREDITT::https://youtu.be/cdqrvlQNJMs