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Child labor is the employment of children under an age determined by law or custom. This practice is considered exploitative by many countries and international organizations. Child labor was utilized to varying extents through most of history, but entered public dispute with the beginning of universal schooling, with changes in working conditions during industrialization, and with the emergence of the concepts of workers\' and children\'s rights. Child labor is still common in some places.
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Child labor is very common, and can be factory work, miningChild labor in Kyrgyz coal mines. BBC News. Retrieved on 2007-08-25. or quarrying, agriculture, helping in the parents\' business, having one\'s own small business (for example selling food or apparrel), or doing odd jobs. Some children work as guides for tourists, sometimes combined with bringing in business for shops and restaurants (where they may also work as waiters). Other children are forced to do tedious and repetitive jobs such as assembling boxes, polishing shoes, stocking a store\'s products, or cleaning. However, rather than in factories and sweatshops, most child labor occurs in the informal sector, "selling on the street, at work in agriculture or hidden away in houses — far from the reach of official labor inspectors and from media scrutiny."The State of the World\'s Children 1997. UNICEF. Retrieved on 2007-04-15.
According to the International Labor Organization, there are an estimated 218 million children aged 5 to 17 in child labor worldwide, excluding child domestic labor.ILO - Child labor The most widely rejected forms of child labor include the military use of children as well as child prostitution. Less controversial, and often legal with some restrictions, are work as child actors and child singers, as well as agricultural work outside of the school year (seasonal work) and owning a business while operating it out of school\'s hours.
...States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child\'s education, or to be harmful to the child\'s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.
In most countries,Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Retrieved on 2006-10-05. it is considered inappropriate or exploitative if a child below a certain age works, excluding household chores or schoolwork. An employer is often not allowed to hire a child below a certain age. This minimum age depends on the country; child labor laws in the United States set the minimum age to work in an establishment without parents\' consent and restrictions at age 16.
In the Industrial Revolution, children as young as four were employed in production factories with dangerous, and often fatal, working conditions.E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, (Penguin, 1968), pp. 366-7 Based on this understanding of the use of children as laborers, it is now considered by wealthy countries to be a human rights violation, and is outlawed, while some poorer countries may allow or tolerate it.
In the 1990s every country in the world except for Somalia and the United States became a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC. The CRC provides the strongest, most consistent international legal language prohibiting illegal child labor; however it does not make child labor illegal.
Poor families often rely on the labors of their children for survival, and sometimes it is their only source of income. This type of work is often hidden away because it is not always in the industrial sector. Child labor is employed in subsistence agriculture and in the urban informal sector; child domestic work is also important. In order to benefit children, child labor prohibition has to address the dual challenge of providing them with both short-term income and long-term prospects. Some youth rights groups, however, feel that prohibiting work below a certain age violates human rights, reducing children\'s options and leaving them subject to the whims of those with money. The reasons a child would consent or want to work may vary greatly. A child may consent to work if, for example, the earnings are attractive or if the child hates school, but such consent may not be informed consent. The workplace may still be an undesirable situation for a child in the long run.
In an influential paper on "The Economics of Child Labor" in the American Economic Review (1998), Kaushik Basu and Pham Huang Van argue that the primary cause of child labor is parental poverty. That being so, they caution against the use of a legislative ban against child labor, and argue that that should be used only when there is reason to believe that a ban on child labor will cause adult wages to rise and so compensate adequately the households of the poor children.
Child labor is still widely used today in many countries, including India and Bangladesh. Even though country law states that no child under the age of 14 may work, this law is ignored. Children as young as 11 go to work for up to 20 hours a day in sweatshops making items for US companies, such as Hanes, Wal-mart, and Target. They get paid as little as 6 and a half cents per item. One of the largest companies in Bangladesh is Harvest Rich, who claim not to use child labor.
Two girls wearing banners with slogan "ABOLISH CHILD SLAVERY!!" in English and Yiddish. Probably taken during May 1 1909 labor parade in New York City.
Concern has been raised about the buying public\'s moral complicity in purchasing products assembled or otherwise manufactured in developing countries with child labor. Others have raised concerns that boycotting products manufactured through child labor may force these children to turn to more dangerous or strenuous professions, such as prostitution or agriculture. For example, a UNICEF study found that 5,000 to 7,000 Nepalese children turned to prostitution after the United States banned that country\'s carpet exports in the 1990s. Also, after the Child Labor Deterrence Act was introduced in the US, an estimated 50,000 children were dismissed from their garment industry jobs in Bangladesh, leaving many to resort to jobs such as "stone-crushing, street hustling, and prostitution," -- all of them, according to a UNICEF study. "more hazardous and exploitative than garment production". The study says that boycotts are "blunt instruments with long-term consequences, that can actually harm rather than help the children involved."
Today there are several industries and corporations which are being targeted by activists for their use of child labor.
On 21st November 2005 a big raid on factories employing child labor in zari work in Delhi was mounted by Junned Khan, an activist with the help of Police, Delhi Labor Department and an NGO Pratham. During this rescue operation nearly 480 children were rescued who ranged between aged 6 years to 14 years. This world\'s largest rescue operation opened the eyes of the government and civil society towards the ills of child labor and how small children are kept in bonded conditions within the four walls of a factory.
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company operate a rubber plantation in Liberia which is the focus of a global campaign called Stop Firestone. Workers on the plantation are expected to fulfill a high production quota or their wages will be halved. As a result, many workers are forced to bring children to work. The International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit against Firestone (The International Labor Fund vs. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company) in November 2005 on behalf of current child laborers and their parents who had also been child laborers on the plantation. On June 26, 2007, the judge in this lawsuit in Indianapolis, Indiana denied Firestone\'s motion to dismiss the case and allowed the lawsuit to proceed on child labor claims.
A UK investigative report in October of 2007 found children as young as nine working sixteen to nineteen hours a day without pay in India producing Gap for Kids clothing. One child, Jivaj, from West Bengal told The Observer that some of the boys in the sweatshop had been badly beaten. \'Our hours are hard and violence is used against us if we don\'t work hard enough. This is a big order for abroad, they keep telling us that. \'Last week, we spent four days working from dawn until about one o\'clock in the morning the following day. I was so tired I felt sick,\' he whispers, tears streaming down his face. \'If any of us cried we were hit with a rubber pipe. Some of the boys had oily cloths stuffed in our mouths as punishment.\' http://business.guardian.co.uk/retail/story/0,,2200599,00.html
On October 28, Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America, responded, "We strictly prohibit the use of child labor. This is a non-negotiable for us – and we are deeply concerned and upset by this allegation. As we’ve demonstrated in the past, Gap has a history of addressing challenges like this head-on, and our approach to this situation will be no exception. In 2006, Gap Inc. ceased business with 23 factories due to code violations. We have 90 people located around the world whose job is to ensure compliance with our Code of Vendor Conduct. As soon as we were alerted to this situation, we stopped the work order and prevented the product from being sold in stores. While violations of our strict prohibition on child labor in factories that produce product for the company are extremely rare, we have called an urgent meeting with our suppliers in the region to reinforce our policies.
Child laborer, New Jersey, 1910. Click image for more background on the specific child.
Children\'s participation in economic activity was commonplace prior to the Industrial Revolution as children performed labor on their farms or for their families. The economist Milton Friedman, author of the phrase Miracle of Chile and educator of the economists at the University of Chicago, popularly referred to as the Chicago Boys, claimed that the Industrial Revolution saw a net decline in child labor, rather than an increase.Friedman, Milton. Take it to the Limits: Milton Friedman on Libertarianism." Interview. February 10 1999.<http://www.uncommonknowledge.org/99winter/324.html#top> He claimed this to be supported both by both economic theory, referred to by some journalists as Market fundamentalism, and empirical evidence.Nardinelli, Clark. "Child Labor and the Factory Acts." Journal of Economic History, Dec. 1980.<http://www.jstor.org/view/00220507/di975653/97p03175/>Hugh Cunningham, "The Employment and Unemployment of Children in England c.1680-1851." Past and Present. Feb., 1990 According to Friedman\'s theory, before the Industrial Revolution virtually all children worked in agriculture. During the Industrial Revolution many of these children moved from farm work to factory work. Over time, as real wages rose, parents became able to afford to send their children to school instead of work and as a result child labor declined, both before and after legislation.
However, the British historian and socialist E.P. Thompson in The Making of the English Working Class draws a qualitative distinction between child domestic work and participation in the wider (waged) labor-market. Further, the usefulness of the experience of the industrial revolution in making predictions about current trends has been disputed. Economic historian Hugh Cunningham, author of Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500, notes that:
Big Bill Haywood, a leading labor organizer and leader of the Western Federation of Miners and a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World famously claimed "the worst thief is he who steals the playtime of children!" WOBBLIES! A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the world edited by Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman p.294.
Yet Friedman\'s theory posited that the absence of child labor is a luxury that many poor states cannot yet afford, and that to prohibit it is to prevent the overall economic growth necessary to eventually relieve a society of the need for child labor. In poor societies he claimed that children will be put to work by their families by whatever means necessary. Moreover, in addition to possibly increasing family costs on a depleted family income, in the absence of a public school program, parents may have to forego potential labor time and income, to care for their children.
According to Thomas DeGregori, an economics professor at the University of Houston, in an article published by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank operating in Washington D.C., "it is clear that technological and economic change are vital ingredients in getting children out of the workplace and into schools. Then they can grow to become productive adults and live longer, healthier lives. However, in poor countries like Bangladesh, working children are essential for survival in many families, as they were in our own heritage until the late 19th century. So, while the struggle to end child labor is necessary, getting there often requires taking different routes -- and, sadly, there are many political obstacles."DeGregori, Thomas R., "Child Labor or Child Prostitution?" Cato Institute. .
summary: During the Progressive Era child labor was a problem that needed to be addressed. Child labor involved young kids working instead of going to school. The average age of child labor was four to sixteen years old. Many of these kids did not go to school at all. Studies have shown that one-fifth to one-sixth of all children were employed on a full-time basis. Child labor was an important economic factor. One reason for child labor was poverty. Poor children and their families relied on children working in order to improve their chances of attaining basic necessities. Kids worked all day for a low income. Kids usually worked in mine’s, mills, factories, sweatshops, and selling newspapers. In another photo by Lewis Hine there is a young child selling newspapers. This child is on a sidewalk leaning against a light pole. This picture has to do with the problem because this child is young and is not in school. He has a sad face on like he was scared and tired. Child labor is also bad psychosocial because long hours of work on a regular basis can harm children’s social and educational development. (Child labor b, Child labor c) Kids who worked all day in mines, factories, and sweatshops had many health issues. Miners had rapid skeletal growth, smaller sizes, greater risks of hearing loss, and lower heat tolerance. One quarter of working children’s’ injuries or illnesses occurred while working in unsafe conditions. In the picture by Lewis Hine there is a five year yr old shrimp picker. This child is dirty, bare footed, and is holding two buckets with some shrimp. This child was also wearing ripped clothes. This child can have many health issues due to being dirty and bare foot. There were many hazards of agriculture. These included working with machinery and sharp tools, lack of clean water, facilities and toilets, and work beginning at a very early age. Children who worked in sweatshops usually had injuries because sweatshops were unsafe and crowed places. Children have more of a chance of getting injured then an adult because they are less experienced. (Child labor b, Health issues) Marry Harris (Mother) Jones got interested in child labor when became a full-time trade-union organizer. She thought that it was wrong. She went to Kensington, Pennsylvania in 1903 were seventy-five thousand textile workers were on strike. Out of all these ten thousand of them were little children. Mother Jones got upset that there were kids missing hands, thumbs, fingers and know one cared or did anything about it. She gathered hundreds of children at Independence Park and started a march. This march known as “March of the Mill Children” was organized to try to end child labor. Newspapers wouldn’t publish what was happening in the mills because the mill owners had stock in the papers. This march was from Pennsylvania to New York City. This march helped the nation to see the crime of child labor. Thousands of children were sent out of the mills and many were not allowed in until they were fourteen. (Jones) The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) was formed in 1904 to try to persuade congress to end child labor. One of its members, Jane Adams, reported that there were over two million children under the age of sixteen in paid employment in the United States. She explained that there were five hundred and eighty thousand children between the ages of ten and fourteen who can’t read or write. The NCLC employed Lewis Hine as there lead investigator and photographer. Hine traveled the country taking pictures of children working in factories, mines, sweatshops, and mills. (Child labor c) The Keating Owen Act was the first law passed by congress. It forbid the transportation among states of products of factories employing children under the age of fourteen, or mines employing children under the age of sixteen and a maximum workday of eight hours, prohibition of night work for workers under the age of sixteen and a documentary proof of age. The Supreme Court ruled that the Keating Owen Act was unconstitutional because congressional power to regulate interstate commerce did not extend to the conditions of child labor. (Labor)
Austrian school economist Murray Rothbard also defended child labor, stating that British and American children of the pre- and post-Industrial Revolution went "voluntarily and gladly" to work in factories. [1]
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