Child Labor Informative Essay

In the 21st century, our whole economy is depended upon technology. However, from the end of the Civil War and into the early 1900s, the economy was industrializing. However, industrialization created a larger need for larger workforce. The working conditions changed, but it often caused hardships for workers. As a result, the government, groups and individuals attempt to solve many problems such as low wages, child labor, and unsafe working conditions through the passing of laws and workers’ union.

Throughout history, children have always worked, either as apprentices or servants. However, child labor reached a whole new scale during the time period of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the time frame of late 1800s-early 1900s, children worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for very little wages. They were considered useful as laborers because their small stature allowed them to be cramped into smaller spaces, and they could be paid less for their services. Many worked to help support their families, and by doing so, they forwent their education. Numerous nineteenth century reformers and labor groups sought to restrict child labor and to improve working conditions.

This led to high levels of unemployment among adults and more children took their places in the work place. Itwas an on going cycle (Green, p 29-31). One of the most disturbing parts of child labor was the fact that the general public agreed with it. Often with the approval of political, cultural, and religious leaders, children were aloud to work in hazardous conditions, without any second thoughts about the situation (Child Labor, p. 132). Public felt that child labor was both beneficial to the children and also to the community. They felt that work would keep children out of trouble and they also felt that working at a young age would give the children a early sense of self-reliance and discipline. The community also agreed that child labor was good for helping the families to survive and make a better living. Children bringing home money for their families was perhaps the only positive side of child labor .If the community saw child labor from the inside, there optimistic views towards the situation may have changed. Working conditions were horrible. Children worked in shipyards, in construction, and in many kinds of

"Seated on the rough boards and coated with black dust, the breaker boys bent over their work in silence, banging away with their tiny mallets, gathering little piles of slate by their sides. Sean Flannery was a "breaker boy" who longed to join his older brother and father down in the mines. Breaker boys spent their time above ground pulling rocks and slate from coal cars as they rushed by. To accomplish this task these young boys would sit on boards that hung over the coal chutes. "Trapper Boys" opened the doors for speeding coal carts. Often young workers fell or were hit by rushing carts." (Child labor, 1) Child labor through out history has been proven to affect child. Many things have happened in the past, which ruined the lives of

Kids working in factories, handling dangerous equipment, potentially hurting themselves. This is everyday life for children in other countries. Everyday kids lose their innocence, they experience something that is grueling and back-breaking everyday for, most likely, for their lives.

Rafael is a young boy at the age 7 who works in the mines. As he separates the coal from the rocks, he has blood coming out of one finger and blood dripping out from another. He inhales black coal dust and when he coughs, all you see is a big black cloud of dust. He walks home hoping that one day there would be someone who would help him and the other workers. Later that day he was informed about the progressives. As a progressive, I have decided to give $600,000 to child labor, $300,000 to food safety, and $100,000 to woman's suffrage.

In developed countries children have to go to school to learn skills for the future. Children learn at an early are to run errands, help to cook, and clean the house. The children often work by choice, in order to have extra pocket money for themselves and for the family. Most children work because in third world countries the money is not for extra leisure but for survival. Children have a better chance being less exploited when they work in a family business. The danger rests when the work is outside of the family.

Kids deserve an education, if they work in fields all day, or if kids are sifting through garbage all day they're not getting an education.

Child labor is considered as a form of child abuse, it being the exploitation of a child’s rights and freedoms. Therefore, child labour is when underage children are employed, this happens because a child labourer is paid less than an adult labourer. Consequently employers have more children working for them because they spend less paying the children.

In the United States, child labor and sweatshops are illegal, and society frowns upon any business that exploits children in the production of goods. Though most would say that they would not support a company that uses child labor to produce its goods, almost everyone has, in fact, knowingly or unknowingly, supported these businesses in one way or another. Children are involved in the production of many of the everyday goods we import from overseas, including the manufacturing of clothes, shoes, toys, and sporting equipment, the farming of cocoa, cotton, sugarcane, and bananas, and the mining of coal, diamonds, and gold (The U.S. Dept. of Labor). Often, we are blinded to this fact.

This means that shocks that force parents to send their children to work might have a permanent effect on the child's future earning potential," (Child labor: myths, theories, and facts). When children start working early in their childhood, it is most likely that they are in poverty and trying to support their families, but by working at such a young age is taking away from the children's developmental process. When children do not attend school anymore, to work they are losing a lot of their potential. Americans should not support businesses where children have to quit school to work day and night, losing most of the potential that they have, and maybe not receiving any of it back, because they have to work to support their families. Child labor usually occurs within poverty, or difficult living situations/conditions. "Child labor tend to be a phenomenon related to poverty and difficult social conditions rather than the perverse preferences of the parents," (Child labor: myths, theories, and facts). Mostly no parent wants to see their young child working in an unsanitary factory, where children are receiving abuse, but they have no choice because of the poverty they are in, and the difficult social conditions. Yes, by having your child work at a young age is somewhat going to improve your life, but they are working in horrible conditions, where it is unsanitary, and unhealthy for children to work

The next time when you are out on your shopping trip, chances you may have support a business that exploits children. It is very disturbing and heartbreaking to learn many children are chained to looms for 12 hours a day because families need to have their child bringing home a small amount of moneys. Child labor has always been a difficult subject to address, the topic have become much more complicated and prolific.

It is hard to imagine that in 2009 that child labor still exists. However, it is true that children all over the world are waking up and going to work instead of going to school. As the gap between the rich and poor grows, more children will be forced to give up school for work. Is there an answer to this problem that will lead to the elimination of the dilemma? Has the practice been in place for so long that it has become so accepted that the there is no viable solution? Is it possible to protect the children of the world by speaking up for those who are unable to speak for themselves?

The statutory minimum age for employment of children is 15 years, although children between the ages of 13 and 15 years may work in certain jobs outside of school hours. The law restricts employment of those under the age of 18, for example, by prohibiting night shift or overtime work.

Child labour is the practice of having children engage in economic activity, on part or full-time basis. The practice deprives children of their childhood, and is harmful to their physical and mental development. Poverty, lack of good schools and growth of informal economy are considered as the important causes of child labour in India.