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People in the rich world tend to assume that child labor, like slavery, is something that was abolished a century ago and that now only exists in third world countries. This can not be any further from the reality of this issue. In fully developed countries like Canada and the United States, parents encourage their children to have a job at an early age, as a way of letting their children gain experience of the real world. Few people see it as exploit that a child should work (for example to have a paper route) even if they are paid less than adult wages and local child-labour laws are infringed by their working before seven in the morning and after seven oclock in the evening. Child labour in general is too explosive and negative a word to be applied to all children workers. It is insulting to those whose lives are ruined by hard labor to lump them into the same category as those children who help out in the family shop after school.
If people treat all work by children as equally unacceptable they are trivializing the whole issue and making it less likely to be able to root out the most damaging forms of child labor. It is simply the nature and conditions of childrens work that determines whether they are exploited, not the plain fact of their work age. Another term that is too loosely used in the business world and elsewhere is that of a sweatshop. The term sweatshop stems from the word sweating, originally used in the late 19 th century America.
It was thought to describe a subcontracting system in which the middlemen earned their profit from the margin between the amount they received for a contract and the amount they paid workers. This margin was said to be sweated from the workers because they received minimal wages for excessive hours worked under unsanitary conditions. Unlike some problems that are just surfacing in the world today and are not too predominant, child labor is well developed with around 500 million children enslaved in its trap, including those working as domestic slaves. Out of these there are over 73 million children that are under the age of 10. Children, who should be out in the sunshine having fun with their friends, or playing on a local soccer league are in actuality slaving over machines in factories or serving families as a domestic slave. These frail beings work in places like India making rugs that need 4000 knots per square inch.
They are sold as slaves in Sudan for a mere $ 15 per child or in Africa for domestic work. In Pakistan they are enslaved in the brick industry, in Turkey they work in textile industries, and in Italy they sweat over making shoes that people all over the world buy and proudly wear. The mines in which some children are forced to work in Columbia and Peru collapse upon them and severely injure or kill hundreds of workers. What is unbelievable is the amount of money that these children are paid for their long hours in the factory. While most children prefer to work in a factory over doing domestic chores the conditions are not that much better. Granted there are hundreds of other children their age surrounding them, but they are not allowed to talk with them, if they do, they are beaten.
They work between 16 and 18 hours a day, are sometimes shackled to their looms and can not go to the bathroom or take breaks of any kind. This is indeed unfortunate, but what may be more regrettable is that children in Canada complain that they earn only $ 6. 85 an hour as minimum wage. For doing what, flipping burgers or serving drinks? What they do not realize is that they can eat when they are hungry, they are allowed to take breaks (in fact it is mandatory), they can socialize while working and they work under sanitary conditions with benefits. These children that are being exploited earn only 31 cents an hour in Honduras, 24 cents in Nicaragua, and a whopping 56 cents in El Salvador. In Sri Lanka they are given 18 cents an hour and in China and Vietnam they reportedly receive 11 cents an hour for their hard work.
This may indeed seem like a very small amount, but it is more than what domestic workers are usually paid. These invisible millions have money constantly taken away from them to pay for their shelter, food and clothing. It is very hard to recognize why as they sleep under the kitchen table in some instances and their nourishment only consists of whatever falls off that table. They are denied sleep as they are on call 24 hours a day and are also sometimes expected (especially if it is a female worker) to provide sexual favors for the master of the house. As a direct result of this the girl is beaten by the wife, as she is taking over her role in the family structure. What is incredibly horrific is that in most cases people refuse to admit that their worker is a slave.
They claim that they did him or her a favor as they brought them from their poor village and gave them shelter and a job. The owners admit that they do household chores, but why wouldnt they? They are now part of the household and have some responsibility to keep it up and functioning. Are these unfortunate village children slaves or are they to be considered foster children? Ignorance, then, obviously plays a huge role in discovering child laborers and being able to identify their situations in order to help them.
How are people supposed to determine whether or not what they are purchasing is made by children who are being exploited? It is a very difficult task and can only be curbed when companies take responsibility for their actions, factories and employees. Unfortunately not many companies are willing to do this, as they are receiving a greater profit by employing young children because they do not have to pay them as much money. It is true, however, that some businesses are beginning to take action, like The Gap, Sears, and Kathy Lee Gifford's clothing line with Wal-Mart. However, there are far too many companies out there that are not. J.
C. Penny, a clothing line, refused to check into their factories that are stationed abroad even after four warnings from the Labour Department. Parents are unknowingly buying products from companies like Walt Disney, where their workers only earn 5 cents for every $ 11. 99 item they produce. They proudly give these items as gifts to their own children, children that are the same age as those working in Haiti, not realizing that they are stained with others fingerprints. Another widely known company that exploits children is Nike. This company pays its workers in Indonesia about $ 2. 20 a day while the founder of this business has over $ 4. 5 billion in Nike's stock alone.
Although most of the companies that have been mentioned have factories in third world countries, this is not the only place that one can find child laborers, or sweatshops. A 1994 study by the General Accounting Office found that 2, 000 of the 6, 000 garment shops in New York City could be called sweatshops, and 4, 500 out of 5, 000 in Los Angeles were given the same title. If sweatshops and child labor are to vanish from the earth, a multi-prolonged effort will be needed to tackle some sizable related problems such as illegal immigration, intemperate corporate profit-seeking and inadequate schooling for the developing worlds children. Although the above jobs sound dangerous and difficult, the most risky form of child labor has yet to be discussed: child prostitution. People in todays society, and especially those in developed countries, refuse to admit that this is indeed a large problem. They view children as innocent beings, not as sexual objects.
The fact still remains that there are enough people out there that are willing to exploit children in this way. There are over 300, 000 children who sell their soul in the United States, 20, 000 in Sri Lanka, while Venezuela is home to over 40, 000. India is reported to have between 400, 000 and 500, 000 and Thailand has once been quoted to have over 800, 000 child prostitutes invading their streets. There will be an expected one million child prostitutes joining the industry every year if current conditions do not change. 6 Most of the children enter the industry around the age of 9. This is not always the case as Bob Matthews, an OPP officer of the anti-pornography unit, has seen a case where a young girl of 18 months was depicted in child pornography. This child has only lived for a year and a half and already she is scarred for life.
Children around her age are also being portrayed through the media. There is a picture that was published in Marie Claire, a US printed magazine, which shows a naked boy (of about 2) standing beside a bent over woman (refer to page 10). The item that was trying to be sold were the shoes that the woman was wearing. Why does it seem necessary to exploit children in this manner? Why do people of influence like Anne Geddes, a renowned photographer, find it essential to portray young naked children as her sole subject? Most of these children have no idea what is going on around them, they have no say and no authority over what is happening to them.
This is probably one of the main reasons that they are becoming victims, they are easy to manipulate. They are more willing to believe what is told to them, as is the case of Nok (age 14) and Tong (11). A foreigner came into their village one day and promised them happiness and fortune if they came into the city and worked as waitresses. Three weeks later, Nok and Tong were not selling drinks, they were selling their bodies.
They were trafficked across borders into a Bangkok brothel called Max 29. 7 they were told that their freedom would cost them $ 2000, but this money would not be easy to earn. 8 Just as money was taken from the domestic workers, so too was it confiscated from these young girls. Money was constantly deducted for the 4 birth control pills they were forced to take a day, the clothes they had to wear, makeup, hairstyles, food, and the condoms that were purchased but never used. 9 without using condoms and having to serve between 6 and 10 customers a day, these children are very susceptible to diseases like HIV and AIDS and are dying as a result. One girl mentioned that she felt just like a machine which is understandable as she works 22 hours a day, 7 days a week. 0 The girls are forced to take drugs that the customers bring into the brothel, if they refuse, they are beaten. Every Wednesday at this brothel there are ritual beatings that take place between 3 pm and 5 pm. The captains, men in charge of the organization, come into a room in which all the 37 girls are lined up against a wall and hit them, kick them, and beat them with iron rods and metal balls on chains. In brothels like Max 29, a girls virginity is sold from anywhere between $ 40 and $ 4000. 1 something so sacred should never have a price tag attached to it, but unfortunately it does.
In fact, a young females virginity is no longer sacred. These girls are forced to go through a reconstructive surgery so that to their customers it feels like they are having sex with a virgin, and a higher profit can be made. The search for pure virgins is a great quest that many people take to heart. In China it is believed that if a man has sex with a virgin, power and luck with business will come to him. 2 there is also the wide belief that a virgin is a safer bet when thinking about STDs and AIDS. Companies that are involved in the sex tourism industry, like Bushwhackers in Las Vegas, advertise where people can find these virgins or cherry girls that are usually between the ages of 10 and 15. 3 Another well known company is called Big Apple Oriental Tours, located in New York City. This organization offers an incredible deal for just $ 2000.
For that money the customer will receive, airplane tickets, car transportation, luxury hotel accommodations, free drinks, free food and a personal tour guide that will introduce them to 400 girls. Out of these 400 children the client can pick one or two and for $ 20 a night they can do whatever they please with them and throw them out like trash in the morning. Or, if they took a shining to the girl, Big Apple Oriental Tours will arrange the immigration papers, for an additional fee, if they wish to take the youngster home with them. 4 One of the biggest problems that these child prostitutes face is that they have no where to turn. In some cases their parents sold them into the industry as part of a bondage agreement. This means that they had a debt to pay that they could not afford and therefore had to sell their children to do their dirty work for them. Even when a child gathers up enough courage to go to a local authority their pleas are often ignored.
In one case, a girl who had been a prostitute for a few months, went to the police and told them her story. The officer in charge took half an hour to change her statement from one of sexual harassment to that of rape. 5 Why does this happen? It is because authority figures are profiting from exploiting children. They are paid to turn a blind eye to several problems like when tourists come into their country looking for cheap sex and when prostitutes are trafficked across borders, because this brings much needed revenue into their country. As for the sexual tours that are arranged the laws regarding them are very discouraging as well. It is not against the law, in the United States, to organize tours to exploit erotic nightlife in other parts of the world.
However, it is illegal to sexually exploit children at home and abroad, which is why most of the U. S. sex tour operators are very careful about how they word their advertising brochures. 6 The problem here is obviously that there is a very fine line between what is legal and what is not, and this is why many people can slip through the judicial cracks. There are also laws aplenty dealing with child labor, but again they do not seem effective. In India no employer has ever been imprisoned for employing children. Of 4, 000 cases registered against Indian employers for violating child labor laws, 3, 500 were dismissed or the fines were less than $ 6.
The rest remain before Indias courts. 7 In the Declaration of the Rights of a Child, which became a resolution of the UN general assembly in 1959, article 9 states that: the child shall be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation. He shall not be the subject of traffic in any form. The child shall not be admitted to employment before an appropriate minimum age; he shall in no case be caused or permitted to engage in any occupation or employment, which would prejudice his health or education, or interfere with his physical, mental or moral development. 8 Who is supposed to decide for these children about what an appropriate age should be, so that they are not put in danger but are still allowed to work to support their families? In 1819 there was a prohibition of children under the age of 9 working in mills. 9 Is this really an acceptable age? Child labor has been around since the Industrial Revolution, why then are there still no solutions? If poetry, like Elizabeth Barrett Brownings poem The Cry of The Children (refer to pages 11 - 13), books and music address the issue, why can people not come to terms with it?
It is because individuals can not relate to the lives that these children are forced to live. People in Western society find it impossible to identify with children who are faced with such cruel and deceiving circumstances. What is desperately needed is a form of education for these less fortunate children so that they are free to learn and can determine for themselves what is right and wrong, thus developing their own moral beliefs. This is essential so that they will be less likely to enter exploited circumstances in the first place.
Governments and people in general are so concerned about finances that they refuse to acknowledge that they do have spare cash that could be spent on furthering education. Sub-Sahara Africa currently pays $ 12 billion in servicing its debts, yet just $ 2 billion would be enough to ensure that every child in the region could have a place in school and a better chance of Survival. Are people willing to just sit idly by as the children, the future, fall one by one into the deadly trap of exploitation? Is it possible to say to them, that this problem will eventually solve itself, and just hope and pray that they do not die in the meantime? Children are losing their innocence and their childhood because people refuse to admit that this issue of child exploitation can affect them in their town, in their country. These children are not free to play or to socialize at all.
This deprivation leaves scars that can take years to heal. They lose trust in others, particularly adults and become vulnerable to further exploitation. Can people still use children as sexual objects, or keep them in working conditions that are unacceptable after they realize the devastating results these acts can have on children? This is the question that must be answered. People must find it in themselves to protect these children and no longer ignore them.
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Research essay sample on Third World Countries Cents An Hour
