A Brief article and research on the way child labor exists in this century and a scan at the brutal scams in which the employers get benefitted by injuring their poor little children by forcing them to work, resoning their poor working conditions.

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ABSTRACT
• “Child is your heart not born to push your cart”
As a part of the world’s most luckiest souls we all are here enjoying
world’s most irresistible flavors and all shades of luxury. Have you ever
wondered how you ever got all these? Is it becauseof your money?
Fame? Power? The answer is NEVER any if these, it is only because of
the fragrance of love our parents have showered upon us.
What is then the situation of those who don’thave any..
Or those who lack the beautiful fragrance we get….
• The life of a child worker is a definite nightmare. Though measures
and laws are being framed, never are they activated. Factories still
enjoy the horrible freedom to kill the childhood of a child and pull out
the essence of his entire life.

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1. INTRODUCTION:
• Rosycheeks pinched away can be tolerated, how come can it be torn
away….
• Same is the situation of millions and millions of children all over the
world. Parents send their children to work to quench their thirst,
forgetting to feed them. Children are introduced into the world of
horror soonbefore they learn to react. India is sadly a home to the
largest number of child laborers in the world. Despite the sad state of
working, the child’s treatment in factories are more cruel and their
safety is usually neglected. Being too young they are made to assist in
machineries and are subject to severe punishments.
2. WHAT IS CHILD LABOR?
 Child labor” as defined, is employing children below 15 yrs of age
that harms them or exploits them in some way (physically, mentally,
morally or by blocking access to education).
 It is the work that exceeds a minimum number of hours depending on
the age of a child and on the type of work
3. THE STATISTICS:

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 One in every six children aged 5 to 17 worldwide is exploited by child
labor.
 There are approximately 9million children involved in unconditional
worst forms of child labor.
 In sub-Saharan Africa around one in three children are engaged in
child labor, representing 69million children.
 According to certain experts approximately 10 million bonded child
laborers are working as dome in south Asia.
 Beyond this there are almost 55 million bonded child laborers hired
across various other industries.
 Less than 5% of child laborers make products for export to other
countries.
 61% in Asia, 32% in Africa, and 7% in Latin America, 1% in US,
Canada, Europe and other wealthy nations.
 In Asia, 22% of the workforce is children. In Latin America, 17% of
the workforce is children.
 Africa accounts for the highest number of children employed and
exploited.
 246 million child workers aged 5 and 17 were involved in child labor.
 Out of which 171 million were involved in work that by its nature is
hazardous
4. STATUS OF INDIA:
 INDIA accounts for the second highest number where child labor in
the world.
 According to certain experts approximately 10 million bonded
children laborers are working as domestic servants in India.

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 246 million child workers aged 5 and 17 were involved in child labor.
 Beyond this there are almost 55 million bonded child laborers hired
across various other industries.
5. COMMON FIELDS OF CHILD LABOR:
 Agricultural Areas
 Industrial and factory sites
 Construction work
 Mine industry
 Scrapebusinesses
 Home maids in India like 3rd world countries
 Road side hotels
 Mills
 Workshop purposes
6. LIFE STORIES:
Story as told by a child minor in Africa:
My dad loves to chill his grandchildren with stories of his summer
working in an African gold mine. He had grown up in Rhodesia (now
Zimbabwe) and was helping pay for his upcoming university education.
My boys love hearing how he was lowered down narrow shafts in cage
elevators hung from a cable. The heat was so oppressive that his clothes
were immediately soaked with sweat. At the bottom, my dad sometimes had
to traverse tunnels flooded with water up to his neck.
But nothing stuns the kids more than Grandad’s near-drop off a huge
subterranean cliff. Shining his flashlight on the floor of the tunnel, there was
suddenly nothing but black. Had dad fallen, the team would have come to
find him. But he would almost certainly have died. Life with useless arms or
legs would have been the best-case scenario.
These stories are strangely exciting when told over hot chocolate at a kitchen
table in Canada, to two children who will likely never face such dangers. My
boys can shudderto think about life in a mine, without having to work in a
mine themselves.

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“I would hate any of my kids or grandkids to work in a place like that,” says
my dad. “The danger was immense – and very, very real.”
Immense and real danger
But far too many children do work in mines in developing countries around
the world. I’m not talking about adult children, as my father was, but girls
and boys as young as six.
In a report released today, World Vision explores the harsh reality of child
labor and children mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Child
Miners Speak takes readers to a place in which adults like my dad would
shudder to think of their own loved ones working.
7. WHY NO TO CHILD LABOR
1) Children are miners, too. An estimated 1 million are working in mines
worldwide. Most of the time they work as “artisanal miners”, meaning there
are no powerful machines to help them along. They use sharp tools and even
their bare hands to chip away at the rough ore.
2) It’s dirty. This kind of mining can endanger a child’s health. In World
Vision’s study, 67 per cent of the children experienced frequent or persistent
coughing. Girls who were working waist-deep in acidic water reported
experiencing genital infections. Cobalt, mined in the DRC, can damage a
child’s heart, thyroid and lungs.
3) It’s dangerous. Mine sites often have deep holes into which children
can fall. Because children are small, they are often chosen to dig in tight
tunnels and underground areas where cave-ins can happen. Children can slip
down steep slopes at mine sites while carrying heavy loads. They can even
drown in bodies of water around the mine sites.
4) It’s degrading. Children as young as six years old are forced to work in
mines. Their families’ survival often depends on it. They are usually paid
less than adult workers. Since most artisanal mining is illegal, most have no
rights. They work long hours, with few breaks or time to rest and play.
5) It hurts. In addition to the back-breaking work, 19 per cent of the
children in our study said they had seen another child die on an artisanal
mining site.

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6) It’s wrong. Poverty, not parents, is forcing children to work in mines.
Children should be playing, learning to read and write, and experiencing
happy, healthy childhoods. But when there’s not enough money to put a
meal on the table, children have no choice but to earn their keep. It’s a
growing problem, particularly in countries like the DRC that don’t have
strong governments, laws and regulations to make sure children are going to
school, not down mine shafts.
8. BASED ON SURVEY:
Recent ILO report says that about 80 per cent of child laborers in
India are employed in the agriculture sector. Generally, the children are sold
to the rich moneylenders to whom borrowed money cannot be returned.
'Street children' is another type of child labor where children work on the
streets as beggars, flower sellers, etc, instead of going to school. Sometimes
they are made to go hungry for days together so that people feel sorry for
them and give alms.
Among the industries, glass and bangle industry is estimated to employ
around 60,000 children who are made to work under extreme conditions of
excessive heat. An equal number are estimated to be employed in matchbox
factories, where they are made to work over twelve hours a day, beginning
work at around 4 a.m., everyday. The brass and the lock industries also
employ an estimated 50,000 children each. However, it is the carpet industry
in India which employs the largest number of children estimated to be more
than four lakhs.
9. PRIMARY CAUSES:
 International Labor Organization (ILO) suggests poverty is the
greatest single cause behind child labor. For impoverished households,
income from a child's work is usually crucial for his or her own
survival or for that of the household. Income from working children,
even if small, may be between 25 and 40% of the household income.
Other scholars such as Harsch on African child labor, and Edmonds
and Pavcnik on global child labor have reached the same conclusion.
 Lack of meaningful alternatives, such as affordable schools and
quality education, according to ILO,is another major factor driving
children to harmful labor. Children work becausethey have nothing

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better to do. Many communities, particularly rural areas where
between 60–70% of child labor is prevalent, do not possessadequate
schoolfacilities. Even when schools are sometimes available, they are
too far away, difficult to reach, unaffordable or the quality of
education is so poorthat parents wonder if going to schoolis really
worth it.
10. CULTURAL CAUSES:
 In European history when child labor was common, as well as in
contemporary child labor of modern world, certain cultural beliefs
have rationalized child labor and thereby encouraged it. Some view
that work is good for the character-building and skill development of
children.
 In many cultures, particular where the informal economy and small
household businesses thrive, the cultural tradition is that children
follow in their parents' footsteps;child labor then is a means to learn
and practice that trade from a very early age. Similarly, in many
cultures the education of girls is less valued or girls are simply not
expected to need formal schooling, and these girls pushed into child
labor such as providing domestic services.
11. MACROECONOMICCAUSES:
 Biggeri and Mehrotra have studied the macroeconomic factors that
encourage child labor. They focus their study on five Asian nations
including India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. They
suggest that child labor is a serious problem in all five, but it is not a
new problem.
 Macroeconomic causes encouraged widespread child labor across the
world, over most of human history. They suggest that the causes for
child labor include both the demand and the supply side. While
poverty and unavailability of good schools explain the child labor
supply side, they suggest that the growth of low-paying informal
economy rather than higher paying formal economy is amongst the
causes of the demand side.
 Other scholars too suggest that inflexible labor market, size of
informal economy, inability of industries to scale up and lack of

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modern manufacturing technologies are major macroeconomic factors
affecting demand and acceptability of child labor.
12. REGULATION AND PROHIBITION ACT:
 This was declared by the parliament on 23rd December, 1986.
 It includes Prohibition of employment of children in certain
occupations and processes.
 No child shall be employed or permitted to work in any of the
occupations which are hazardous by its nature.
 The UN published the children’s rights in the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, which was adopted in 1989.
 Article 32 stated that government need to recognise: the right of the
child to be protected from economic exploitation, likely to interfere
with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or
physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.
 Article 28 Every child’s right to education
 Article 34 Governments must protect children from sexual
exploitation and abuse.
 European Union (EU) also decided in the meeting of council of
Europe that the children rights should be protected in the EU policy
and action.
 EU emphasises that Child Labor is a legal obligation based in
international treaties and conventions like convention on the Rights of
the Child and ILO convention 138 and 182.
13. ACHIEVEMENTS:
• The enforcement of Laws on child labor has been increased, for
example, in UK Fast food giants McDonald’s have been fined
£12,400 for allowing children to work there.
• Even third world country like Bangladesh had also enacted the Labor
Act in 2006 which prohibits employment of children under 14 years
of age
• Garment manufacturers of Bangladesh also put an end to the
employment of children under 14 years in their 200 factories because
there was a threat of boycottfrom the consumer countries.
14. WHETHERTHESEREGULATIONS ARE SUCCESSFUL?

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• Drawbacks
• The Laws on child labor may seem inadequate becauseeven though
more than130 country signed in the international conventions for not
allowing children to work under 14 or 15 but to some countries these
laws are still confusing or vague and not enforced.
• The laws to regulate child’s health and safety at work are rarely
enforced.
• Poorinfrastructure like systematic birth registration in the developing
countries fails to recognise the actual age of the children and
employers take advantage of such loopholes.
• According to ILO Director general Juan Somavia reduction rate of
child labor is not satisfactory i.e. From 2004 to 2008 only 3%
reduction of child labor.
15. CONCLUSION:
 The social malady of child labor can be brought under control, if each
individual takes responsibility of reporting about anyone employing a
child below the age of 14years.
 Thus, instead of ignoring on should find out about reporting child
labor and how suchchildren can actually be saved.
 Child labor can be controlled if the government functions effectively
with the supportof the public.
16. REFERENCES
Websites:
Child Labor in Bangladesh (2010)<
http://www.unicef.org/protection/files/Child_Labor.pdf >accessed
23rd october 2010
Child Labor (2010) <
http://www.unicef.org/protection/files/Child_Labor.pdf>accessed
23rd october 2010

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End Child Exploitation <
http://www.unicef.org.uk/publications/pdf/ECECHILD2_A4.pdf>
accessed 24thoctober 2010
Councilconclusionson Child Labor (2010)
<http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/
EN/foraff/115180.pdf > accessed 24thoctober 2010
New ILO global reporton child labor (2010)
<http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/Media_and_public_informa
tion/Press_releases/lang--en/WCMS_126840/index.htm> accessed
25thoctober 2010
McDonald’sfined over child labor (2010)
<http://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/legal/search/commentarysubmitFor
m.do > accessed 26thoctober 2010
Child Labor in Bangladesh (2010)
<http://www.bdix.net/sdnbd_org/world_env_day/2001/sdnpweb/sdi/
international_day/childrens_day/bd&childlabor.htm> accessed 25th
october 2010
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