Make a debate against child labour
Answers
UNICEF defines child labor as, “work that exceeds a minimum number of hours, depending on the age of a child and on the type of work. Such work is considered harmful to the child and should therefore be eliminated.”From our Western point of view, child labor is absolutely not acceptable in any case and governments, labor institutions, NGOs and companies should work together to eliminate this terrible plague, which hinders the poorest countries’ development. Nevertheless, eliminating child labor can “sometimes” do more harm than good…which is very difficult for us to admit. Let’s check the pros and cons of this complicated and hot debate, which keeps dividing child protection associations.
These days, about “158 million children from 5 to 14 are engaged in Child Labor” says the UNICEF, mainly in South Asia (60%) and South-Saharan Africa (30%). Child labor is particularly developed in poor countries, where children often work to help their families survive financially. The reality is, many families can’t do without supplemental earnings and encourage their kids to go to factories instead of schools. In our Western culture, we condemn these practices by developing programs with NGO or institutions to forbid the use of children as workers in local factories, without understanding that we are “not always” improving the system and are at odds with the reality of extreme poverty.