Child Labor

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that child labor has a negative impact on a country's economic development. The paper discusses the reasons why child labor is used and how children find themselves in a situation where they can be exploited. It describes the negative impact that child labor has on the child and his family, as well as on society, due to lack of schooling and other problems for these children.

From the Paper:

"Whilst children are often forced into work to aid their family financially, the result of child labor can sometimes be the opposite. Though children generally work for poverty reasons, they are not well paid. Children are exploited in that they are forced to work for long hours for low pay. Bonded labor, for instance, occurs when a family takes an advance payment (usually quite low, sometimes as little as U.S. $15) to hand a child over to an employer. Typically in these cases the child cannot "work off" this debt and the family can rarely raise the money to reclaim their child (Human Rights Watch). Workplaces are also typically structured so that workplace "expenses" are deducted from the child's earnings and the family cannot earn a reasonable amount of money. In some cases, contracts exist so that labor is generational, e.g. a child may be sold into labor on the condition that their offspring and their offspring's offspring work for the employer for free (Human Rights Watch). This perpetuates a cycle of negative economic activity to the detriment of the family and the country. Bonded labor has been proven to exist amongst millions of child workers in India alone (in the Human Rights Watch 2003 report)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Child Labour." Human Rights Watch. Date accessed: November 6, 2006. Available: <http://hrw.org/children/labor.htm>
• "Ending Child Labour." Child Labour Public Education Project. Date accessed: November 6, 2006. Available: <http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/ending.html>
• "Factsheet: Child Labour." Unicef. Date accessed: November 6, 2006. Available: <http://www.unicef.org/protection/files/child_labour.pdf>
• Siddizi, Faraaz & Patrinos, Harry A. "Child Labour: Issues, Causes and Interventions." Worldbank online. Date accessed: November 6, 2006. Available: <http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/hnp/hddflash/workp/wp_00056.html>

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