Child Labour

Child Labour

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 32.1Child labour means, work done by children under the age of 18 which interferes with his/her education, harmful to their health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.

Worst form of Child Labour include prostitution, pornography, drugs-related work, child trafficking, children used in armed conflict, domestic slavery etc.

Reasons

The main reasons are family breakdown, poverty, minority group, war & natural disasters.
http://www.unicef.org.uk/publications/pdf/ECECHILD2_A4.pdf

Child Labour all over the world

61% in Asia, 32% in Africa, and 7% in Latin America, 1% in US, Canada, Europe and other wealthy nations, In Asia, 22% and in Latin America, 17% of the workforce is children.http://www.childlaborphotoproject.org/childlabor.html

UNICEF 

Works all over the world to protect children from harm like, affectted by violence, abuse, exploitation particularly to the girls so that they can attend school.  UNICEF pressurizes governments to increase expenditure on children welfare and raises funds. www.unicef.org.uk/publications/pdf/ECECHILD2_A4.pdf

 1973 Minimum Age Convention 138: Establishes the obligation for countries to work towards a minimum age of 15 for legal employment.

1999 Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 182: Governments are bound to pass preventing laws by ratifying convention 182.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): convention gives children’s some rights such Article 19: Children will be protected from all kind of Physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, negligence and exploitation.

Article 27: Right of adequate living for Physical, mental, moral and social development

Article 28 and 29: Right to education

Article 31: Right to play

Article 32: Right to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing hazardous work

Article 38: Prohibited from being recruited into arm forces or direct participating in hostility.

Coroners and Justice Act 2009: According to section 71, if a person holds someone in slavery or servitude or force to perform compulsory labour then the maximum punishment is 14 years imprisonment. The offence must be interpreted in accordance with Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights.http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/newsrelease250310c.htm

Child Labour(Prohibition and Regulation)Act 1986 (India): Children under 14 could not be employed in hazardous occupations. <http://www.indianchild.com/child_labor_india.htm>

 Labour Act 2006 (Bangladesh) sets the minimum age for work to 14 years and 18 years for hazardous work.

Conclusion

Child Labour is a curse to the society and economy. Along with the government we also have to know about our responsibilities and should take corrective measure to stop child labour so that we can get a better developed society.

Resources:

1. www.unicef.org.uk/publications/pdf/ECECHILD2_A4.pdf

2. http://www.childlaborphotoproject.org/childlabor.html

3. www.unicef.org.uk/publications/pdf/ECECHILD2_A4.pdf

4. http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/newsrelease250310c.htm

5. http://www.indianchild.com/child_labor_india.htm