Why should we care about child labor?
Taking advantage of children should be illegal everywhere in the world, but unfortunately it’s not. It is also wrong. Instead of going to school and experiencing their childhood, nearly 300,000 children in India, Nepal and Pakistan are spending most of their lives working in bad conditions. Child labor also keeps the entire community in poverty. Ending child labor would also help the global economy. It shows that it would cost $760 billion over 20 years to end child labor. Products made in corner stores are made by these child labourers. Oranges picked by Brazilian children are the same oranges you use to make your juice. Medical tools used in hospitals are also made by child labourers. We benefit from these cheap wages. Since children are paid half of the adult's wages, it drives down the adult’s payments and it makes adults harder to hold on to wages, jobs and even to the unions.
Will child labour decrease as poor countries develop?
Not really. Even when economic growth was high in the early and mid 1990s in Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines, child labor was still increasing.Real development will only happen if adults have jobs and if kids go to school. Until then, only a small amount of people will gain from child labor, but communities will have to suffer the cycle of poverty and underdevelopment. They won’t be able to have what they need for a positive and bright future, which is a healthy and educated workforce.
A small boy, about the age of 6, carrying cement to the pile of cement blocks, in a hot and dusty day.