Child Labor around the world
According to the United Nations, child labor is defined as: work that is prohibited for children of certain age groups. It is work performed by children who are under the minimum age legally specified for that kind of work, or work which, because of its detrimental nature or conditions, is considered unacceptable for children and is prohibited.
Current Affairs
Child labor is present all over the world. Everyday, businesses employ children as young as four years old to work in dangerous conditions for little pay. Many of these countries have laws prohibiting businesses from hiring children, but in many cases they have loopholes or are simply not enforced. Children are exploited for their size and because of their desperation. Hundreds of millions of children are working under age in our world today.
Most of the offenses take place in developing countries. Large companies use children because they will work for cheaper than most adults. They can also accomplish jobs that can only be done by small people, such as mining. Many of these children would much rather be in school, but their financial state forces them into the work force. They work to feed themselves and their families. As previously mentioned, almost every country in the world has laws prohibiting child labor. However it is rare that these laws are strictly enforced. Only in the US is it common that a perpetrator is found guilty and punished in a reasonable time period. Other countries have maneuverable loopholes that allow them to hire children. For instance, Nepal has a law prohibiting children from working full time jobs unless the job is brick laying, in which it is legal. In Kenya and Bangladesh, child labor laws do not pertain to those working in domestic or agricultural jobs. |
To the left is a graph of the most at risk countries for child labor. Asia, Africa and Latin America are the largest participants. Asia has over 127 million followed by Africa with 48 million. Of these millions of children: -70% work in agriculture, commercial hunting and fishing or forestry. -8% in manufacturing; -8% in wholesale and retail trade, restaurants and hotels. -7% in community, social and personal service, such as domestic work. (Pie chart below) -8.4 million children are trapped in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities. An astonishing 1.2 million of these children have been trafficked. Source: https://laborawareness.wordpress.com/statistics/ |
Pictured below are percentages of children working by country. To the right of that are which sectors these children can be found working.