Do you still complain about the childhood you have been through, then look at them..

Will the world stop fighting and look at the other side please ….Child Labor…

Stop for a minute and think!

India accounts for the second highest number where child labour in the world is concerned. Africa accounts for the highest number of children employed and exploited. The fact is that across the length and breadth of the nation, children are in a pathetic condition.
Children are compelled to work for long working hours with inadequate or no rest period. Moreover, they are paid with minimum wages and enjoy no job security. Many people prefer to employ young boys to maximize services for those minimum wages. 17.5 percent of children in the aged 5 are engaged in economic activities. Many of these children are engaged in various hazardous occupations in manufacturing factories..

Causes of Child Labour

Today one of the greatest maladies that has spread across the world is that of child labor, coupled with child abuse. It is a very scary thought when each year statistics show increasing numbers. And this is not a problem afflicting under-developed or developing nations, but also developed countries, though the numbers are comparatively less.

There are a number of experts around the world who are working towards controlling the numbers, and eventually eradicating the problem. Seems like a difficult and nearly impossible task, but then all the same immense efforts are being made in this direction.

The first step to solve any problem is to be aware of it. And the prime focus is to be aware of the causes of child labour. The following causes listed, though from the Indian prospective, are also the contributing factor to child exploitation in other nations…

The leading reason is poverty. Families need additional sources of income. And unfortunately their poverty-stricken way of life makes them so ruthless that they sell their children as commodities to exploitive employers. Most such employers pay a lump sum for the child and then keep him or her imprisoned within the factory unit till the child cannot work due to deteriorating health as a result of harsh living and working conditions. A hard and terrifying truth about child labor in India!

Truth about child labor in India!
Most traditional families believe that a child is born to them to earn more money for the family. The child is just another source of income. And traditional business families in fact put the child into the business rather than sending them to school. Under the pretext of training them, they make them work long hours, sometimes resorting to physical torture in case the child makes mistakes.

Child abuse is another cause for child labor. This is more so in the case of the girl child, who has probably been abused by someone at home, and to hide this fact she is sold to an employer from a city as domestic help, or then as a bride to an old man.

Lack of proper educational facilities force parents to send their children to work, rather than keeping them at home and giving them a home-based education, along with a happy and innocent childhood playing amongst other children.

“The parents of child labourers are often unemployed or underemployed, desperate for secure employment and income. Yet it is their children – more powerless and paid less – who are offered the jobs. In other words, says UNICEF, children are employed because they are easier  to exploit.”