Child Labor Is Wrong

Child labor generally involves agricultural or industrial work, often putting young children in very dangerous working conditions. So that’s problably why there is still child labor is other countries and not in the U.S. United states knows is not good to have kids working like that.

West African chocolate producers have been at the heart of shocking allegations that they are using children as slaves to work on their plantations. Children (usually ages 12-16) are involved, because they work on the plantations under very poor conditions and with low pay. Many popular chocolate companies are also involved, considering the fact that they buy chocolate from these plantations. The chocolate industry is determined to grow cocoa that profits the government and their country, but in order to gain a larger profit, they distribute below-poverty wages for the farmers who produce it. Low wages mean farmers cannot hire the labor needed to harvest the crop, and encourages the use of child slavery and the worst forms of child labor.

Child Labor is not an isolated problem. The phenomenon of child labor is an effect of economic discrimination. In different parts of the world, at different stages of histories, laboring of child has been a part of economic life. More than 200 million children worldwide, some are as young as 4 and 5

Child labor is historically defined as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development” (Hansan, 2013). Legally, to be considered child labor, work must involve at least one of the following characteristics:

With secret filming and inside sources, Mistrati and Romano proved the use of child labor to supply cocoa to many chocolate companies. There was even a lot of denial from all higher-ups and even government officials. The ethical standards were low and little was done, most people just brushed it off making the situation even sadder. It is a case of poor nationalism in an effort to cover the main exports with little effort from of-aged professionals, and something that needs to be addressed. There may be measures taking place today, but companies need to come together to adhere to the no-tolerance

Many of the products that are used and consumed in the United States are made in other countries. One of the main reasons for multinational corporations to produce goods in countries other than the United States is the cost of production. It is far cheaper to produce goods such as blue jeans, paper goods, and plastic toys to name a few. In recent years the conditions in sweatshops in China, Japan, and elsewhere have garnered public outcry from Countries like the U.S. and most of Europe. The main contention, child labor in dangerous and horrid conditions. However one often overlooked example of child labor in sweatshop-like conditions exists were many people never thought. The chocolate we eat. “From 2013 to 2014 more than 1.1 million children in the Ivory Coast were engaged in the most common Worst Forms of Child Labor as recognized by the United Nations… up from 791,181 children from 2008 to 2009” (Berman, 2015). The benefactors of this child labor are huge multinational enterprises such as Nestle, Mars Inc., and The Hershey Co.

The Effects of Child Labor in the Chocolate Industry: December 6, 2015, was an important day for many Americans, as it marked the 150th year since the abolishment of slavery when the U.S. authorized the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to end what can be described as the darkest chapter of American history. Many in Western Society seem to be unaware of the contemporary slavery still plaguing many developing countries, particularly involving children. The 2010 documentary film called The Dark Side of Chocolate explored the modern day slavery that is occurring within many West African countries, where children are being exploited and trafficked in order to harvest chocolate. In fact, the United States Department of State estimates that approximately 109,000 children in the Ivory Coast’s cocoa industry work under “the worst forms of child labor” (Mustapha, 2010, p.3).

Child labor a common thing in the 20th century, kids working… whats next kids voting,drinking,driving and other adult like responcibilitys or privileges. Child labor the employment of children in any working position such as fast food chains, grocery stores, and many more jobs. Child labor is anything that interferes with schooling, mentally, physically, socially, or harmful to the child employe. Child labor can not be justified due to the harm it can cause to children aka americas feature.

When their work do not affect their “health and personal development or interfere with their schooling,” they do not fit the negative notion of child labor (ILO, 1996). Children sometimes assist their parents with housework and take a part in building family businesses without their working hours affecting primary education. This is indeed a beneficial experience for children, because they learn to be productive within their communities. On the other hand, ILO (1996) applies the term child labor when work “is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by; depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.” When child labor is engaged in enslavement, separation from families, and misplacement of children on the streets, ILO experts refer to it as the most extreme forms of child

Chocolate is the one of the famous snack in the world and consumed by a lot of consumers all around the world. Chocolate is made from cacao beans and cacao beans are produced by smallholder farmers. Most of the world’s cacao beans comes from West Africa, mostly the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire more than 40% of the world’s cacao beans. The cacao beans they grow sold to the most of the chocolate company. I found out the cacao beans may be the result of unfair labor, child labor and the slave. In the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, there is about 800,000 children are working at the cacao farm. These children are forced to work under such harsh condition due to reason such as economic factors, political factors ,and/or kidnaping. A survey on child labor

Lastly another reason why child labor still exist is because the lack of enforcement of laws from the government. The government has not done enough to help protect these young children’s. 168 million of children are still involved in child labor, which is a ridiculous amount. 85 million children are still forced to work in a hazardous environment that could either injure or kill them. There are even 21 million children in forced labor, meaning these

Although there are many positives to the social and economic sustainability of chocolate for consumers, those who harvest these commodities may not say so. As we saw in “Chocolate The Bitter Truth”, there are huge amounts of child labour used in the harvest of coca plants. These children are most often taken away from their parents in poor cities, and are forced to work for a man they are sold to. These kids do not attend school, and work with machetes for

“Child Labour; the Effect on Child, Causes, and Remedies to the Revolving Menace,” defines child labor as referring to “children who miss their childhood and are not able to have the basic amenities which a child should have.” There are many different reasons and causes for child labor. For some countries, child labor is considered to be a cultural norm. From the time children are old enough to be taught a skill, they are often trained in that field and put to work in order to help provide for their families. Other times, it is the sheer exploitation of a family’s struggle and desperation that leads these children into the industry.

The Dark Side Of Chocolate is a documentary for all people in the society that changes people’s mind to cocoa industry since they are aware aware of the existence of child labour who are trafficked to do some difficult and dangerous work. “according to a study conducted by Tulance University, the number of children involved in hazards for in cocoa increased by 46% in the Ivory Coast between 2009 and 2014.” (Fair Trade USA, 2017). There are a large amount of children working in the cocoa industry and they are deprived their childhood in recent years. Those children can not escape from the situation and they are

Child Labour as defined by the International Labour Organisation, work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. This includes interference with their schooling. Child Labour in extreme forms also involves children being separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and despises or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities at an early age. (ILO, n.d.). In Cote d’ Ivoire, a major child labour form is agriculture where children as young as five work in Cocoa farms for cocoa industries, which have been the major revenue of 60% of export for Cote d’ Ivoire. With the rapid growth of the cocoa industry, cheap cocoa is in demand.