what is child labour ?explain
Answers
Answer:
Child Labour
Child labour is the exploitation of children and taking advantage of their poverty to work thereby denying them their basic rights. In spite of the ban on child labour, children are being exploited through child labour. According to estimates there are as many as 18 million child labourers in the country. They are being exploited both in the industrial and agricultural sectors. They can be found working in hazardous conditions and exposed to harmful chemicals, toxic pesticides or fertilizers and dangerous machinery tools. They are compelled to carry heavy loads in construction sites.
Hazardous working environment put children at risk of injury and death. They may contract diseases leading to lifelong disability or death. Due to malnutrition and exhaustion they suffer from different physical health problems. The long-term health problems include both mental and psychological harm. Child labourers suffer mentally and physically. It prevents them from getting basic school education. It affects their mental well-being and physical development.
India is becoming a highly developed country and the presence of child labour is a great shame. It is a curse and a lost to the country. Children are the future of our country. We need to educate them. Give them good health care. Only then will they grow up to be of great assets to the nation.
Preventive measures:
National laws on child labour must be reviewed and implemented in letter and in spirit.
Employers must check the age of their employees and held accountable for employing underaged children.
Basic and primary education must be given free to the children of families living in poverty.
The workplaces must be assessed to identify risky and dangerous conditions.
The public in general must stop hiring child domestic helpers which is illegal.
Let us stand up as one and stop child labour in our beloved nation. Let us stop child labour to give our nation a happier, a healthier and a brighter future.
Explanation:
The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that: is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children
Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially or morally harmful.[3] Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation worldwide,[4][5] although these laws do not consider all work by children as child labour; exceptions include work by child artists, family duties, supervised training, and some forms of child work practiced by Amish children, as well as by indigenous children in the Americas.[6][7][8]
Child labour has existed to varying extents throughout history. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, many children aged 5–14 from poorer families worked in Western nations and their colonies alike. These children mainly worked in agriculture, home-based assembly operations, factories, mining, and services such as news boys—some worked night shifts lasting 12 hours. With the rise of household income, availability of schools and passage of child labour laws, the incidence rates of child labour fell.[9][10][11]
In the world's poorest countries, around one in four children are engaged in child labour, the highest number of whom (29 percent) live in sub-saharan Africa.[12] In 2017, four African nations (Mali, Benin, Chad and Guinea-Bissau) witnessed over 50 percent of children aged 5–14 working.[12] Worldwide agriculture is the largest employer of child labour.[13] The vast majority of child labour is found in rural settings and informal urban economies; children are predominantly employed by their parents, rather than factories.[14] Poverty and lack of schools are considered the primary cause of child labour.[15]
Globally the incidence of child labour decreased from 25% to 10% between 1960 and 2003, according to the World Bank.[16] Nevertheless, the total number of child labourers remains high, with UNICEF and ILO acknowledging an estimated 168 million children aged 5–17 worldwide were involved in child labour in 2013.
Child labour forms an intrinsic part of pre-industrial economies.[18][19] In pre-industrial societies, there is rarely a concept of childhood in the modern sense. Children often begin to actively participate in activities such as child rearing, hunting and farming as soon as they are competent. In many societies, children as young as 13 are seen as adults and engage in the same activities as adults.[19]
The work of children was important in pre-industrial societies, as children needed to provide their labour for their survival and that of their group. Pre-industrial societies were characterised by low productivity and short life expectancy; preventing children from participating in productive work would be more harmful to their welfare and that of their group in the long run. In pre-industrial societies, there was little need for children to attend school. This is especially the case in non-literate societies. Most pre-industrial skill and knowledge were amenable to being passed down through direct mentoring or apprenticing by competent adults.
With the onset of the Industrial Revolution in Britain in the late 18th century, there was a rapid increase in the industrial exploitation of labour, including child labour. Industrial cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool rapidly grew from small villages into large cities and improving child mortality rates. These cities drew in the population that was rapidly growing due to increased agricultural output. This process was replicated in other industrialising countries.[citation needed]
The Victorian era in particular became notorious for the conditions under which children were employed.[20] Children as young as four were employed in production factories and mines working long hours in dangerous, often fatal, working conditions.[21] In coal mines, children would crawl through tunnels too narrow and low for adults.[22] Children also worked as errand boys, crossing sweepers, shoe blacks, or selling matches, flowers and other cheap goods.[23] Some children undertook work as apprentices to respectable trades, such as building or as domestic servants (there were over 120,000 domestic servants in London in the mid-18th century). Working hours were long: builders worked 64 hours a week in the summer and 52 hours in winter, while servants worked 80-hour weeks.[citation needed]