Abstract
This paper would talk about what child labor involves and the era in which it get bigger and become a social issue. It would also review the different factor that led to child labor and statistical information that give the opportunity to the reader to have a picture of the problem. The review introduces the function of the National Child labor Committee founded in 1904 and the minimum age for a child to work and the total number of hours he or she can work. This paper would give a wide and open view of the issue, but at the same time an educated review of the main points that involve child labor.
Human Rights: Child Labor. A Review of the Literature
Child labor is one of the many different types of child abuse. In the early industrialization years on the United States the child labor increase and become a more common issue, and by the early decades of the twentieth century it decrease. Child labor had more power in America during the 1920’s and the 1930’s. During this period of time the United States and many other countries around the world suffered a strong and difficult recession that let the American families in a difficult economic situation, obligating every member of the family, if possible, to work in order to buy food and survive, that started child labor at a bigger label. Child labor is a social problem that has appeared since history. On today’s days the number of families that live on poverty decrease in the United States and the number of children on the labor market decrease too. However it hasn’t disappeared. The reasons for child labor are different; there are various factors that led to that type of abuse. On this review, four main aspects would be discussed.
What is child labor and how it develops?
Child labor corresponds to the force employment of children and young adolescents. Some of the characteristic that the children have to suffer are the low wages and the long working hours. This is a very common issue around Latin America and around the world; statistics have shown that child labor still exist. Poor countries such as Africa, Asia and least develop countries have the largest number of child labor. Throughout the history many reasons has economic recessions, war events and other situations had force children to leave school and start working, in the majorly of the situations under hazardous, illegal, dangerous work areas. An example is the largest number of children working in the United Stated during the great depression. During those periods of time the percentage of child labor increases. Approximately during the 1800’s and the 1900’s 2,000,000 children were working in the United States (Fried, n.d). One quarter of economically active children suffer injuries or illness while working, according to an International Labor Organization (ILO), founded by the United Nations, survey of 26 countries (Radcliff, 2000). “ILO typically classifies data into three categories: economically active children, child labour, and children in hazardous work” (Fassa, Parker, and Scanlon, 2010). According to Fassa et al. economically active children includes who work at least one hour, child labour is the economic activity of any children below 15 years violating the international standards, finally children in hazardous work consist of any child under 18 years working 43 hours or more, children expose to pesticides, children who use heavy machinery, and any other hazardous condition. The areas where kids have to work in the majorly of the cases conduce to a lot of diseases. The most common disease are rapid skeletal growth, development of organs and tissues, higher chemical absorption rates, greater risk of hearing loss and others. In the United States during the 1930’s industries had a considerable amount of children working. In the United States the government has specific laws and organizations that describe the legal age for a person to work such as the National Child Labor committee.
Is child labor considerate child abuse?
Child abuse corresponds to force a kid to do physical works that they don’t want or that put their life, integrity or moral in danger. There are different types of child abuse; it could be physical, mentally or emotionally. Neglect, miss care of a child by their parents or legal guardians, is an example of child abuse. Child labor in the Unites States is categorized under child abuse, an act that affects the children in a physical, emotional and mental way. “While no clear… in general the term child labor refers to work that impedes children’s access to education and is harmful to their physical, mental, moral, developmental, and social well-being”(Schmitz, Traver , Larson, and Pieris, 2004). Children who have to work spend at least 40 hours working per week, hours that consume post of their time that absorb the energy, lacking the child to do other activities. In some cases, families live on extreme poverty and there are needed as many working hands as possible. Countries with low economy level have a greater number of children on the working labor. On the other hand, in some other situations, the parents or legal guardians obligate the kids to work in order to benefit themselves, these types of cases are rare but they exist. In either case, child labor is under the child abuse category. Child labor has become a social issue where different laws have being needed in order to protect the children human rights. Children who work suffered for different disease because of the dangerous places where they have to work.
What are the factors that led to child labor?
The main factor that is being study for child labor is poverty. Poverty around the world let to critical economic situations for those of low income. “Poverty is what causes child labor” suggest Eric Edmonds (2002). Africa is one of the countries with the largest number of children on the labor marker. In sub-Saharan Africa more than one in four children below age 14 works (NYT, 2006). In 2000 according to the records of the New York Times in sub-Saharan 1.3 million of children were estimated by the United Nation on the working labor, in 2004 the number increase to 49 millions. The International Organization for Labor revealed that 10 percent of the children on the working field are approximately 14 years old in Africa. In Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean the number of working children decrease in four years. The most common areas of working for a kid are as domestic servant, in agriculture fields and industries. The next,(at the bottom of the page). chart shows the percentage of sub-Saharan children on the working labor.
Figure 1. Child labour by background characteristic, sub-Saharan Africa.(the figure is at the bottom of the page).
Note: The graph at the bottom of the pag was adapted from http://www.childinfo.org/labour. It shows the percentage of children on the working labour on sub-Saharan Africa. This graph is divided into different background categories. The graph includes male, females, rich, poor and other categories that could be analyzes. Sub-Saharan is one of the places with the highest number of children that work. The number of children between 7 and 10 years old is higher than the category of kids between 11 and 14 because young children needs to work only one hour in order to be considerate on the working labor, on the other hand, older kids have to spend at least 14 hours to be count on the labor field. The graph show that the largest percentage of children working is between the poor families, the rural areas and the caretakers with no education level. Latin America has also countries with large numbers of children involve in the labor market. “Today Latin America not only has countries with negligible child labor, including Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, but also has countries with some of the highest incidence: Bolivia, 25%, Peru, 28%, and Ecuador, 34%” (Orazem, Sedlacek, Tzannatos, 2009).
Globalization is being presented has a factor of child labor. “Globalization refers to the term of free market, economic liberalization, and the growing dominance of western form of political, economic and cultural life, in other words Americanization” (Scheuerman, 2002). Globalization is the word used to describe the union of the society, economy, politics, culture and technology of different places that has been brought together. A small survey conducted online, majorly to the students of the University of Texas at El Paso, with a wide range of age on the participants conclude that the majorly of the respondents agree, in a open question, that the big companies hired children because they seem them as vulnerable and easy to handle, this as part of globalization, if the income increase, child labor as a consequence decrease. Some of the comments printed on the survey were that the low income of the families and the poor education led to child labor. (Survey, March 23, 2011). A study in over 4,000 Vietnamese households during the 1990’s suggests that when globalization improves the income of impoverished households, this additional income helps parents reduce the workload of their children and send more of them to school (Edmonds, 2002).
Does the United States have any laws and/or organizations that protect the children?
The Labor committee is a private organization in pro of the human rights. It is in charge of staying the hour wage, the working hours, and the legal age of a person to work. The National Child Labor Committee was started on April 25, 1904 on New York, and it created different laws to protect the human rights and to try to make a more save and educated environment for children. One of the purposes of the committee is to provide and improve the health and education opportunities in all States for every child in the United States. It also wants to prevent the exploitation of children and youth adults on the labor market (National Child Labor Committee, n.d.). The International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2002 estimates that 246 million children between the ages of 5-17currently works. Approximately 11 percent of children between 2002 and 2006 were involved in the labor market at a globally point (Gamlin 2009). Children in poor areas are more likely to be involved in child labor. The table bellows highlights some of the countries with the largest number of children involve on the working field. Some of the regions include on the table are sub-Saharan Africa, west and central Africa, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and the least developed countries.
Table 1 percentage of children aged 5-14 engaged in child labour. (shown at the bottom at the page).
Note: The table at the bottom shows the results of statistics of child labor from 1999 to 2007 of countries around the world. The percentage is based on the total number of children on the population on each country. The children included on the statistic were children between 5 and 14 years old. This table was adapted from http://www.childinfo.org/labour, this webpage includes some other percentage from countries such as Mexico, United States and others. These numbers were retrieved from different surveys, governmental agencies, calculations, and some organizations such as UNICEF.
The laws for children in the United States in order to be accepted in the labor market depend on the type of work that they have to do and the States. Each state in the US is responsible to give their own definition of child abuse and make their own laws. The minimum age for non-hazardous employment in the majorly of the states around the US according to Radcliff is 14 years old with some exceptions such as newspaper delivery, performing in radio or television or family business. The minimum age for hazardous employment is 18 years old, no exceptions. Laws specified that kid cannot work during school hour. There are some exceptions to this clause if the children work on school days, he or she can only work three per day, adding a total of 18 hours per week. When school is out of session the child could work eight hour per day, a total of 40 hours per week. On Labor Day the work must occur between 7 am-7 pm. The Iowa state requires for any child less than 15 years old a work permit and a school certification to deliver newspaper.
Conclusion
Child labor is the act the force the children to work and lose the opportunity to realize activities according to their age such as study, play, and develop a normal healthy body and a healthy childhood. The majorly of the places where the children have to work put them in risk of suffer many diseases that in most of the cases can’t be treated because of the low income. Dangerous places are very common on the markets where children work. Many of the jobs that children practice are on the agriculture field, factories, mines, newspaper boys, servants and others. Children receive low wages and the working hours are long. In Africa, the children who make powder with rock make $3 per day (NYT, 2006). One of the countries with the largest number of child labor is Africa. Africa is a country with a bad economic situation and with a large number of populations. The National Child Labor Committee is an organization that describes the legal age for a child to work and the conditions in which they have to be working. Child labor is considerate child abuse, because it affects the children in a physical, mental and emotional way the development of the children.
This paper would talk about what child labor involves and the era in which it get bigger and become a social issue. It would also review the different factor that led to child labor and statistical information that give the opportunity to the reader to have a picture of the problem. The review introduces the function of the National Child labor Committee founded in 1904 and the minimum age for a child to work and the total number of hours he or she can work. This paper would give a wide and open view of the issue, but at the same time an educated review of the main points that involve child labor.
Human Rights: Child Labor. A Review of the Literature
Child labor is one of the many different types of child abuse. In the early industrialization years on the United States the child labor increase and become a more common issue, and by the early decades of the twentieth century it decrease. Child labor had more power in America during the 1920’s and the 1930’s. During this period of time the United States and many other countries around the world suffered a strong and difficult recession that let the American families in a difficult economic situation, obligating every member of the family, if possible, to work in order to buy food and survive, that started child labor at a bigger label. Child labor is a social problem that has appeared since history. On today’s days the number of families that live on poverty decrease in the United States and the number of children on the labor market decrease too. However it hasn’t disappeared. The reasons for child labor are different; there are various factors that led to that type of abuse. On this review, four main aspects would be discussed.
- What is child labor and how it develops?
- Is child labor considerate child abuse?
- What are the factors that led to child labor?
- Does the United States have any law and/or organizations that protect the children?
What is child labor and how it develops?
Child labor corresponds to the force employment of children and young adolescents. Some of the characteristic that the children have to suffer are the low wages and the long working hours. This is a very common issue around Latin America and around the world; statistics have shown that child labor still exist. Poor countries such as Africa, Asia and least develop countries have the largest number of child labor. Throughout the history many reasons has economic recessions, war events and other situations had force children to leave school and start working, in the majorly of the situations under hazardous, illegal, dangerous work areas. An example is the largest number of children working in the United Stated during the great depression. During those periods of time the percentage of child labor increases. Approximately during the 1800’s and the 1900’s 2,000,000 children were working in the United States (Fried, n.d). One quarter of economically active children suffer injuries or illness while working, according to an International Labor Organization (ILO), founded by the United Nations, survey of 26 countries (Radcliff, 2000). “ILO typically classifies data into three categories: economically active children, child labour, and children in hazardous work” (Fassa, Parker, and Scanlon, 2010). According to Fassa et al. economically active children includes who work at least one hour, child labour is the economic activity of any children below 15 years violating the international standards, finally children in hazardous work consist of any child under 18 years working 43 hours or more, children expose to pesticides, children who use heavy machinery, and any other hazardous condition. The areas where kids have to work in the majorly of the cases conduce to a lot of diseases. The most common disease are rapid skeletal growth, development of organs and tissues, higher chemical absorption rates, greater risk of hearing loss and others. In the United States during the 1930’s industries had a considerable amount of children working. In the United States the government has specific laws and organizations that describe the legal age for a person to work such as the National Child Labor committee.
Is child labor considerate child abuse?
Child abuse corresponds to force a kid to do physical works that they don’t want or that put their life, integrity or moral in danger. There are different types of child abuse; it could be physical, mentally or emotionally. Neglect, miss care of a child by their parents or legal guardians, is an example of child abuse. Child labor in the Unites States is categorized under child abuse, an act that affects the children in a physical, emotional and mental way. “While no clear… in general the term child labor refers to work that impedes children’s access to education and is harmful to their physical, mental, moral, developmental, and social well-being”(Schmitz, Traver , Larson, and Pieris, 2004). Children who have to work spend at least 40 hours working per week, hours that consume post of their time that absorb the energy, lacking the child to do other activities. In some cases, families live on extreme poverty and there are needed as many working hands as possible. Countries with low economy level have a greater number of children on the working labor. On the other hand, in some other situations, the parents or legal guardians obligate the kids to work in order to benefit themselves, these types of cases are rare but they exist. In either case, child labor is under the child abuse category. Child labor has become a social issue where different laws have being needed in order to protect the children human rights. Children who work suffered for different disease because of the dangerous places where they have to work.
What are the factors that led to child labor?
The main factor that is being study for child labor is poverty. Poverty around the world let to critical economic situations for those of low income. “Poverty is what causes child labor” suggest Eric Edmonds (2002). Africa is one of the countries with the largest number of children on the labor marker. In sub-Saharan Africa more than one in four children below age 14 works (NYT, 2006). In 2000 according to the records of the New York Times in sub-Saharan 1.3 million of children were estimated by the United Nation on the working labor, in 2004 the number increase to 49 millions. The International Organization for Labor revealed that 10 percent of the children on the working field are approximately 14 years old in Africa. In Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean the number of working children decrease in four years. The most common areas of working for a kid are as domestic servant, in agriculture fields and industries. The next,(at the bottom of the page). chart shows the percentage of sub-Saharan children on the working labor.
Figure 1. Child labour by background characteristic, sub-Saharan Africa.(the figure is at the bottom of the page).
Note: The graph at the bottom of the pag was adapted from http://www.childinfo.org/labour. It shows the percentage of children on the working labour on sub-Saharan Africa. This graph is divided into different background categories. The graph includes male, females, rich, poor and other categories that could be analyzes. Sub-Saharan is one of the places with the highest number of children that work. The number of children between 7 and 10 years old is higher than the category of kids between 11 and 14 because young children needs to work only one hour in order to be considerate on the working labor, on the other hand, older kids have to spend at least 14 hours to be count on the labor field. The graph show that the largest percentage of children working is between the poor families, the rural areas and the caretakers with no education level. Latin America has also countries with large numbers of children involve in the labor market. “Today Latin America not only has countries with negligible child labor, including Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, but also has countries with some of the highest incidence: Bolivia, 25%, Peru, 28%, and Ecuador, 34%” (Orazem, Sedlacek, Tzannatos, 2009).
Globalization is being presented has a factor of child labor. “Globalization refers to the term of free market, economic liberalization, and the growing dominance of western form of political, economic and cultural life, in other words Americanization” (Scheuerman, 2002). Globalization is the word used to describe the union of the society, economy, politics, culture and technology of different places that has been brought together. A small survey conducted online, majorly to the students of the University of Texas at El Paso, with a wide range of age on the participants conclude that the majorly of the respondents agree, in a open question, that the big companies hired children because they seem them as vulnerable and easy to handle, this as part of globalization, if the income increase, child labor as a consequence decrease. Some of the comments printed on the survey were that the low income of the families and the poor education led to child labor. (Survey, March 23, 2011). A study in over 4,000 Vietnamese households during the 1990’s suggests that when globalization improves the income of impoverished households, this additional income helps parents reduce the workload of their children and send more of them to school (Edmonds, 2002).
Does the United States have any laws and/or organizations that protect the children?
The Labor committee is a private organization in pro of the human rights. It is in charge of staying the hour wage, the working hours, and the legal age of a person to work. The National Child Labor Committee was started on April 25, 1904 on New York, and it created different laws to protect the human rights and to try to make a more save and educated environment for children. One of the purposes of the committee is to provide and improve the health and education opportunities in all States for every child in the United States. It also wants to prevent the exploitation of children and youth adults on the labor market (National Child Labor Committee, n.d.). The International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2002 estimates that 246 million children between the ages of 5-17currently works. Approximately 11 percent of children between 2002 and 2006 were involved in the labor market at a globally point (Gamlin 2009). Children in poor areas are more likely to be involved in child labor. The table bellows highlights some of the countries with the largest number of children involve on the working field. Some of the regions include on the table are sub-Saharan Africa, west and central Africa, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and the least developed countries.
Table 1 percentage of children aged 5-14 engaged in child labour. (shown at the bottom at the page).
Note: The table at the bottom shows the results of statistics of child labor from 1999 to 2007 of countries around the world. The percentage is based on the total number of children on the population on each country. The children included on the statistic were children between 5 and 14 years old. This table was adapted from http://www.childinfo.org/labour, this webpage includes some other percentage from countries such as Mexico, United States and others. These numbers were retrieved from different surveys, governmental agencies, calculations, and some organizations such as UNICEF.
The laws for children in the United States in order to be accepted in the labor market depend on the type of work that they have to do and the States. Each state in the US is responsible to give their own definition of child abuse and make their own laws. The minimum age for non-hazardous employment in the majorly of the states around the US according to Radcliff is 14 years old with some exceptions such as newspaper delivery, performing in radio or television or family business. The minimum age for hazardous employment is 18 years old, no exceptions. Laws specified that kid cannot work during school hour. There are some exceptions to this clause if the children work on school days, he or she can only work three per day, adding a total of 18 hours per week. When school is out of session the child could work eight hour per day, a total of 40 hours per week. On Labor Day the work must occur between 7 am-7 pm. The Iowa state requires for any child less than 15 years old a work permit and a school certification to deliver newspaper.
Conclusion
Child labor is the act the force the children to work and lose the opportunity to realize activities according to their age such as study, play, and develop a normal healthy body and a healthy childhood. The majorly of the places where the children have to work put them in risk of suffer many diseases that in most of the cases can’t be treated because of the low income. Dangerous places are very common on the markets where children work. Many of the jobs that children practice are on the agriculture field, factories, mines, newspaper boys, servants and others. Children receive low wages and the working hours are long. In Africa, the children who make powder with rock make $3 per day (NYT, 2006). One of the countries with the largest number of child labor is Africa. Africa is a country with a bad economic situation and with a large number of populations. The National Child Labor Committee is an organization that describes the legal age for a child to work and the conditions in which they have to be working. Child labor is considerate child abuse, because it affects the children in a physical, mental and emotional way the development of the children.
