CHILD LABOR

Child labor refers to the employment of children

in any work that deprives children of their
childhood, interferes with their ability to attend
regular school, and that is mentally, physically,
socially or morally dangerous and harmful. This
practice is considered exploitative by
many international organizations. Legislation
across the world prohibits child labor. These laws
do not consider all work by children as child labor;
exceptions include work by child artists, family
duties, supervised training, certain categories of
work such as those by Amish children, some forms
of child work common among indigenous
American children, and others.
Child labor has existed to varying extents,
through most of history. During the 19th and
early 20th centuries, many children aged 514
from poorer families still worked in Europe, the
United States and various colonies of European
powers. These children mainly worked in
agriculture, home-based assembly operations,
factories, and mining and in 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 labor laws, the
incidence rates of child labor fell.
In developing countries, with high poverty and
poor schooling opportunities, child labor is still
prevalent. In 2010, sub-Saharan Africa had the
highest incidence rates of child labor; with several
African nations witnessing over 50 percent of
children aged 514 working. Worldwide
agriculture is the largest employer of child labor.
Vast majority of child labor is found in rural
settings and informal urban economy; children are
predominantly employed by their parents, rather
than factories. Poverty and lack of schools are
considered as the primary cause of child labor.
Globally the incidence of child labor decreased
from 25% to 10% between 1960 and 2003,
according to the World Bank. Nevertheless, the
total number of child laborers remains high,
with UNICEF and ILO acknowledging an
estimated 168 million children aged 517
worldwide, were involved in child labor in 2013.
HISTORY
Child labour in preindustrial societies
Child labor forms an intrinsic part of preindustrial economies.[18][19] In pre-industrial
societies, there is rarely a concept of childhood in
the modern sense. Children often begin to actively
participate 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 preindustrial societies, as children needed to provide
their labor for their survival and that of their
group. Pre-industrial societies were characterized
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.[19]
The Industrial Revolution
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 was process
replicated in other industrialising counties.
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 summer and 52 in
winter, while domestic servants worked 80-hour
weeks.
Child labour played an important role in
the Industrial Revolution from its outset, often
brought about by economic hardship. The children
of the poor were expected to contribute to their
family income.[23] In 19th-century Great Britain,
one-third of poor families were without a
breadwinner, as a result of death or

abandonment, obliging many children to work

from a young age. In England and Scotland in
1788, two-thirds of the workers in 143 waterpowered cotton mills were described as
children.[24] A high number of children also
worked as prostitutes.[25] The author Charles
Dickens worked at the age of 12 in a
blacking factory, with his family in debtor's
prison.
Child wages were often low; as little as 1020% of
an adult male's wage.[26]
Karl Marx was an outspoken opponent of child
labour,[27] saying British industries, "could but live
by sucking blood, and childrens blood too," and
that U.S. capital was financed by the "capitalized
blood of children".[28][29].
Throughout the second half of the 19th century,
child labour began to decline in industrialised
societies due to regulation and economic factors.
The regulation of child labour began from the
earliest days of the Industrial revolution. The first
act to regulate child labour in Britain was passed
in 1803. As early as 1802 and 1819Factory
Acts were passed to regulate the working hours
of workhouse children in factories and cotton mills
to 12 hours per day. These acts were largely
ineffective and after radical agitation, by for
example the "Short Time Committees" in 1831, a
Royal Commission recommended in 1833 that
children aged 1118 should work a maximum of
12 hours per day, children aged 911 a maximum
of eight hours, and children under the age of nine
were no longer permitted to work. This act
however only applied to the textile industry, and
further agitation led to another act
in1847 limiting both adults and children to 10hour working days. Lord Shaftesbury was an
outspoken advocate of regulating child labour.
As technology improved and proliferated, there
was a greater need for educated employees. This
saw an increase in schooling, with the eventual
introduction of compulsory schooling. Improved
technology and automation also made child labour
redundant.
Early 20th century
In the early 20th century, thousands of boys were
employed in glass making industries. Glass
making was a dangerous and tough job especially
without the current technologies. The process of
making glass includes intense heat to melt glass
(3133 F). When the boys are at work, they are
exposed to this heat. This could cause eye trouble,
lung ailments, heat exhaustion, cut, and burns.

Since workers were paid by the piece, they had to

work productively for hours without a break.
Since furnaces had to be constantly burning, there
were night shifts from 5:00 pm to 3:00 am. Many
factory owners preferred boys under 16 years of
age.[30]
An estimated 1.7 million children under the age of
fifteen were employed in American industry by
1900.[31]
In 1910, over 2 million children in the same age
group were employed in the United States.[32] This
included children who rolled cigarettes,[33]engaged
in factory work, worked as bobbin doffers in
textile mills, worked in coal mines and were
employed in canneries.[34] Lewis Hine's
photographs of child labourers in the 1910s
powerfully evoked the plight of working children
in the American south. Hines took these
photographs between 1908 and 1917 as the staff
photographer for the National Child Labor
Committee.
Household enterprises
Factories and mines were not the only places
where child labour was prevalent in the early
20th century. Home-based manufacturing across
the United States and Europe employed children
as well.[10]Governments and reformers argued that
labour in factories must be regulated and the
state had an obligation to provide welfare for poor.
Legislation that followed had the effect of moving
work out of factories into urban homes. Families
and women, in particular, preferred it because it
allowed them to generate income while taking
care of household duties.
Home-based manufacturing operations were
active year round. Families willingly deployed
their children in these income generating home
enterprises.[35] In many cases, men worked from
home. In France, over 58 percent of garment
workers operated out of their homes; in Germany,
the number of full-time home operations nearly
doubled between 1882 and 1907; and in the
United States, millions of families operated out of
home seven days a week, year round to produce
garments, shoes, artificial flowers, feathers,
match boxes, toys, umbrellas and other products.
Children aged 514 worked alongside the parents.
Home-based operations and child labour in
Australia, Britain, Austria and other parts of the
world was common. Rural areas similarly saw
families deploying their children in agriculture. In
1946, Frieda Miller - then Director of United
States Department of Labour - told the
International Labour Organisation that these

home-based operations offered, "low wages, long

hours, child labour, unhealthy and insanitary
working conditions."
21st century
Child labour is still common in many parts of the
world. Estimates for child labour vary. It ranges
between 250 and 304 million, if children aged 5
17 involved in any economic activity are counted.
If light occasional work is excluded, ILO estimates
there were 153 million child labourers aged 5 14
worldwide in 2008. This is about 20 million less
than ILO estimate for child labourers in 2004.
Some 60 percent of the child labour was involved
in agricultural activities such as farming, dairy,
fisheries and forestry. Another 25 percent of child
labourers were in service activities such as retail,
hawking goods, restaurants, load and transfer of
goods, storage, picking and recycling trash,
polishing shoes, domestic help, and other services.
The remaining 15 percent laboured in assembly
and manufacturing in informal economy, homebased enterprises, factories, mines, packaging
salt, operating machinery, and such
operations.[42][43][44] Two out of three child workers
work alongside their parents, in unpaid family
work situations. Some children work as guides for
tourists, sometimes combined with bringing in
business for shops and restaurants. Child labour
predominantly occurs in the rural areas (70%) and
informal urban sector (26%).
Contrary to popular beliefs, most child labourers
are employed by their parents rather than in
manufacturing or formal economy. Children who
work for pay or in-kind compensation are usually
found in rural settings, then urban centres. Less
than 3 percent of child labour aged 514 across
the world work outside their household, or away
from their parents.[14]
Child labour accounts for 22% of the workforce in
Asia, 32% in Africa, 17% in Latin America, 1% in
the US, Canada, Europe and other wealthy
nations.[45] The proportion of child labourers
varies greatly among countries and even regions
inside those countries. Africa has the highest
percentage of children aged 517 employed as
child labour, and a total of over 65 million. Asia,
with its larger population, has the largest number
of children employed as child labour at about 114
million. Latin America and Caribbean region have
lower overall population density, but at 14 million
child labourers has high incidence rates too.[46]
Accurate present day child labour information is
difficult to obtain because of disagreements
between data sources as to what constitutes child

labour. In some countries, government policy

contributes to this difficulty. For example, the
overall extent of child labour in China is unclear
due to the government categorizing child labour
data as highly secret. China has enacted
regulations to prevent child labour; still, the
practice of child labour is reported to be a
persistent problem within China, generally in
agriculture and low-skill service sectors as well as
small workshops and manufacturing enterprises.
In 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor issued
a List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced
Labor where China was attributed 12 goods the
majority of which were produced by both underage
children and indentured labourers.[50] The report
listed electronics, garments, toys and coal among
other goods.
Maplecroft Child Labour Index 2012 survey
[51] reports 76 countries pose extreme child labour
complicity risks for companies operating
worldwide. The ten highest risk countries in 2012,
ranked in decreasing order, were: Myanmar,
North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, DR Congo,
Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Burundi, Pakistan and
Ethiopia. Of the major growth economies,
Maplecroft ranked Philippines 25th riskiest, India
27th, China 36th, Viet Nam 37th, Indonesia 46th,
and Brazil 54th - all of them rated to involve
extreme risks of child labour uncertainties, to
corporations seeking to invest in developing world
and import products from emerging markets.
CAUSES OF CHILD LABOR
Primary causes
International Labour Organisation (ILO) suggests
poverty is the greatest single cause behind child
labour.[15] For impoverished households, income
from a child's work is usually crucial for his or her
own survival or for that of the household. Income
from working children, even if small, may be
between 25 and 40% of the household income.
Other scholars such as Harsch on African child
labour, and Edmonds and Pavcnik on global child
labour have reached the same conclusion.[14][52][53]
Lack of meaningful alternatives, such as
affordable schools and quality education,
according to ILO,[15] is another major factor
driving children to harmful labour. Children work
because they have nothing better to do. Many
communities, particularly rural areas where
between 6070% of child labour is prevalent, do
not possess adequate school facilities. Even when
schools are sometimes available, they are too far
away, difficult to reach, unaffordable or the

quality of education is so poor that parents

wonder if going to school is really worth it.
Cultural causes
In European history when child labour was
common, as well as in contemporary child labour
of modern world, certain cultural beliefs have
rationalised child labour and thereby encouraged
it. Some view that work is good for the characterbuilding and skill development of children. In
many cultures, particular where the informal
economy and small household businesses thrive,
the cultural tradition is that children follow in
their parents' footsteps; child labour then is a
means to learn and practice that trade from a very
early age. Similarly, in many cultures the
education of girls is less valued or girls are simply
not expected to need formal schooling, and these
girls pushed into child labour such as providing
domestic services
Macroeconomic causes
Biggeri and Mehrotra have studied the
macroeconomic factors that encourage child
labour. They focus their study on five Asian
nations including India, Pakistan, Indonesia,
Thailand and Philippines. They suggest[59] that
child labour is a serious problem in all five, but it
is not a new problem. Macroeconomic causes
encouraged widespread child labour across the
world, over most of human history. They suggest
that the causes for child labour include both the
demand and the supply side. While poverty and
unavailability of good schools explain the child
labour supply side, they suggest that the growth
of low-paying informal economy rather than
higher paying formal economy is amongst the
causes of the demand side. Other scholars too
suggest that inflexible labour market, sise of
informal economy, inability of industries to scale
up and lack of modern manufacturing
technologies are major macroeconomic factors
affecting demand and acceptability of child labour.
CHILD LABOR BY COUNTRY
Colonial empires
Systematic use of child labour was common place
in the colonies of European powers between 1650
and 1950. In Africa, colonial administrators
encouraged traditional kin-ordered modes of
production, that is hiring a household for work not
just the adults. Millions of children worked in
colonial agricultural plantations, mines and
domestic service industries.[63][64] Sophisticated
schemes were promulgated where children in
these colonies between the ages of 514 were

hired as an apprentice without pay in exchange

for learning a craft. A system of Pauper
Apprenticeship came into practice in the 19th
century where the colonial master neither needed
the native parents' nor child's approval to assign a
child to labour, away from parents, at a distant
farm owned by a different colonial
master.[65] Other schemes included 'earn-andlearn' programs where children would work and
thereby learn. Britain for example passed a law,
the so-called Masters and Servants Act of 1899,
followed by Tax and Pass Law, to encourage child
labour in colonies particularly in Africa. These
laws offered the native people the legal ownership
to some of the native land in exchange for making
labour of wife and children available to colonial
government's needs such as in farms and
as picannins.
Beyond laws, new taxes were imposed on colonies.
One of these taxes was the Head Tax in
the British and French colonial empires. The tax
was imposed on everyone older than 8 years, in
some colonies. To pay these taxes and cover living
expenses, children in colonial households had to
work.[66][67][68]
In southeast Asian colonies, such as Hong Kong,
child labour such as the Mui Tsai (), was
rationalised as a cultural tradition and ignored by
British authorities.[69][70] The Dutch East India
Company officials rationalised their child labour
abuses with, "it is a way to save these children
from a worse fate." Christian mission schools in
regions stretching from Zambia to Nigeria too
required work from children, and in exchange
provided religious education, not secular
education.[63]Elsewhere, the Canadian Dominion
Statutes in form of so-called Breaches of Contract
Act, stipulated jail terms for uncooperative child
workers.[71]
Proposals to regulate child labour began as early
as 1786.
Africa
Children working at a young age has been a
consistent theme throughout Africa. Many
children began first working in the home to help
their parents run the family farm.[73] Children in
Africa today are often forced into exploitative
labour due to family debt and other financial
factors, leading to ongoing poverty.[73] Other types
of domestic child labour include working in
commercial plantations, begging, and other sales
such as boot shining.[74] In total, there is an
estimated five million children who are currently
working in the field of agriculture which steadily

increases during the time of harvest. Along with

30 percent of children who are picking coffee,
there are an estimated 25,000 school age children
who work year round.[75]
What industries children work in depends on if
they grew up in a rural area or an urban area.
Children who were born in urban areas often
found themselves working for street vendors,
washing cars, helping in construction sites,
weaving clothing, and sometimes even working as
exotic dancers.[74] While children who grew up in
rural areas would work on farms doing physical
labour, working with animals, and selling
crops.[74] Of all the child workers, the most serious
cases involved street children and trafficked
children due to the physical and emotional abuse
they endured by their employers.[74] To address
the issue of child labour, the United Nations
Conventions on the Rights of the Child Act was
implemented in 1959.[76] Yet due to poverty, lack
of education and ignorance, the legal actions were
not/are not wholly enforced or accepted in
Africa.[77]
Other legal factors that have been implemented to
end and reduce child labour include the global
response that came into force in 1979 by the
declaration of the International Year of the
Child.[78] Along with the Human Rights
Committee of the United Nations, these two
declarations worked on many levels to eliminate
child labour.[78] Although many actions have been
taken to end this epidemic, child labour in Africa
is still an issue today due to the unclear definition
of adolescence and how much time is needed for
children to engage in activities that are crucial for
their development. Another issue that often comes
into play is the link between what constitutes as
child labour within the household due to the
cultural acceptance of children helping run the
family business.[79]In the end, there is a consistent
challenge for the national government to
strengthen its grip politically on child labour, and
to increase education and awareness on the issue
of children working below the legal age limit.
With children playing an important role in the
African economy, child labour still plays an
important role for many in the 20th century.[80]
Australia
From European settlement in 1888, child convicts
were occasionally sent to Australia where they
were made to work. Child labour was not as
excessive in Australia as in Britain. With a low
population, agricultural productivity was higher
and families did not face starvation as in

established industrialised countries. Australia

also did not have significant industry until the
later part of the 20th century when child labour
laws and compulsory schooling had developed
under the influence of Britain. From the 1870s
Child labour was restricted by compulsorry
schooling.
Child labour laws in Australia differ from state to
state. Generally, children are allowed to work at
any age, but restrictions exist for children under
15 years of age. These restrictions apply to work
hours and the type of work that children can
perform. In all states, children are obliged to
attend school until a minimum leaving age, (15
years of age in all states except Tasmania and
Queensland where the leaving age is 15).
Child labour has been a consistent struggle for
children in Brazil ever since the country was
colonised on April 22, 1550 by Pedro lvares
Cabral.[82] Work that many children took part in
was not always visible, legal, or paid. Free or
slave labour was a common occurrence for many
youths and was a part of their everyday lives as
they grew into adulthood.[83] Yet due to there
being no clear definition of how to classify what a
child or youth is, there has been little historical
documentation of child labour during the colonial
period. Due to this lack of documentation, it is
hard to determine just how many children were
used for what kinds of work before the nineteenth
century.[82] The first documentation of child labour
in Brazil occurred during the time of indigenous
societies and slave labour where it was found that
children were forcibly working on tasks that
exceeded their emotional and physical
limits.[84] Armando Dias, for example, died in
November 1913 whilst still very young, a victim of
an electric shock when entering the textile
industry where he worked. Boys and girls were
victims of industrial accidents on a daily basis.[85]
In Brazil, the minimum working age has been
identified as fourteen due to continuous
constitutional amendments that occurred in 1934,
1937, and 1946.[86] Yet due to a change in
the dictatorship by the military in the 80s, the
minimum age restriction was reduced to the age
of twelve but was reviewed due to reports of
dangerous and hazardous working conditions in
1988. This led to the minimum age being raised
once again to 14. Another set of restrictions was
passed in 1998 that restricted the kinds of work
youth could partake in, such as work that was
considered hazardous like running construction
equipment, or certain kinds of factory
work.[86] Although many steps were taken to

reduce the risk and occurrence of child labour,

there is still a high number of children and
adolescents working under the age of fourteen in
Brazil. It was not until recently in the 80s that it
was discovered that almost nine million children
in Brazil were working illegally and not partaking
in traditional childhood activities that help to
develop important life experiences.[87]
Brazilian census data (PNAD, 1999) indicate that
2.55 million 10-14 year-olds were illegally holding
jobs. They were joined by 3.7 million 15-17 yearolds and about 375,000 5-9 year-olds.[88] Due to
the raised age restriction of 14, at least half of the
recorded young workers had been employed
illegally which lead to many not being protect by
important labour laws.[88] Although substantial
time has passed since the time of regulated child
labour, there is still a large number of children
working illegally in Brazil. Many children are
used by drug cartels to sell and carry drugs, guns,
and other illegal substances because of their
perception of innocence. This type of work that
youth are taking part in is very dangerous due to
the physical and psychological implications that
come with these jobs. Yet despite the hazards that
come with working with drug dealers, there has
been an increase in this area of employment
throughout the country.[89]
England
Many factors played a role in Britains long-term
economic growth, such as the industrial
revolution in the late 1700s and the prominent
presence of child labour during the industrial
age.[90] Children who worked at an early age were
often not forced; but did so because they needed to
help their family survive financially. Due to poor
employment opportunities for many parents,
sending their children to work on farms and in
factories was a way to help feed and support the
family.[90] Child Labour first started to occur
in England when household businesses were
turned into local labour markets that massproduced the once homemade goods. Because
children often helped produce the goods out of
their homes, working in a factory to make those
same goods was a simple change for many of these
youths.[90] Although there are many counts of
children under the age of ten working for
factories, the majority of children workers were
between the ages of ten and fourteen. This age
range was an important time for many youths as
they were first helping to provide for their
families; while also transitioning to save for their
own future families.[91]

Besides the obligation, many children had to help

support their families financially; another factor
that influenced child labour was the demographic
changes that occurred in the eighteenth
century.[92] By the end of the eighteenth century,
20 percent of the population was made up of
children between the ages of 5 and 14. Due to this
substantial shift in available workers, and the
development of the industrial revolution, children
began to work earlier in life in companies outside
of the home.[93] Yet, even though there was an
increase of child labour in factories such as cotton
textiles, there consistently was large numbers of
children working in the field of agriculture and
domestic production.[93]
With such a high percentage of children working,
the rising of illiteracy, and the lack of a formal
education became a widespread issue for many
children who worked to provide for their
families.[94] Due to this problematic trend, many
parents developed a change of opinion when
deciding whether or not to send their children to
work. Other factors that lead to the decline of
child labour included financial changes in the
economy, changes in the development of
technology, raised wages, and continuous
regulations on factory legislation.[95]
The first legal steps taken to end the occurrence of
child labour were enacted more than fifty years
ago. In 1966, the nation adopted the UN General
Assembly of the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[96] This act
legally limited the minimum age for when
children could start work at the age of 14. But 23
years later in 1989 the Convention on the Rights
of Children was adopted and helped to reduce the
exploitation of children and demanded safe
working environments. They all worked towards
the goal of ending the most problematic forms of
child labour.
India
In 2015, the country of India is home to the
largest number of children who are working
illegally in various industrial industries.
Agriculture in India is the largest sector where
many children work at early ages to help support
their family.[97]Many of these children are forced
to work at young ages due to many family factors
such as unemployment, a large number of family
members, poverty, and lack of parental education.
This is often the major cause of the high rate of
child labour in India.[98]
On 23 June 1757, the English East India
Company defeated Siraj-ud-Daula, the Nawab of

Bengal, in the Battle of Plassey. The British thus

became masters of east India (Bengal, Bihar,
Orissa) a prosperous region with a flourishing
agriculture, industry and trade.[89] This led to a
large amount of children being forced into labour
due to the increasing need of cheap labour to
produce large numbers of goods. Many
multinationals often employed children because
that they can be recruited for less pay, and have
more endurance to utilise in factory
environments.[99] Another reason many Indian
children were hired was because they lack
knowledge of their basic rights, they did not cause
trouble or complain, and they were often more
trustworthy. The innocence that comes with
childhood was utilised to make a profit by many
and was encouraged by the need for family
income.[99]
A variety of Indian social scientists as well as
the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have
done extensive research on the numeric figures of
child labour found in India and determined that
India contributes to one-third of Asias child
labour and one-fourth of the world's child
labour.[100] Due to a large number of children
being illegally employed, the Indian government
began to take extensive actions to reduce the
number of children working, and to focus on the
importance of facilitating the proper growth and
development of children.
International influences help to encourage legal
actions to be taken in India, such as the Geneva
Declaration of the Right of Children Act was
passed in 1924. This act was followed by The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 to
which incorporated the basic human rights and
needs of children for proper progression and
growth in their younger years.[101] These
international acts encouraged major changes to
the workforce in India which occurred in 1986
when the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act was put into place. This act
prohibited hiring children younger than the age of
14, and from working in hazardous conditions.[100]
Due to the increase of regulations and legal
restrictions on child labour, there has been a 64
percent decline in child labour from 19932005.[102]Although this is a great decrease in the
country of India, there is still high numbers of
children working in the rural areas of India. With
85 percent of the child labour occurring in rural
areas, and 15 percent occurring in urban areas,
there are still substantial areas of concern in the
country of India.

Action against Child Labour in India

Main article: Child labour in India
Child maid servant in India. Child domestic
workers are common in India.
India has legislation since 1986 which allows
work by children in non-hazardous industry. In
2013, the Punjab and Haryana High Court gave a
landmark order that directed that there shall be a
total ban on the employment of children up to the
age of 14 years, be it hazardous or non-hazardous
industries. However, the Court ruled that a child
can work with his or her family in family based
trades/occupations, for the purpose of learning a
new trade/craftsmanship or vocation.[142]
Soviet Union and Russia
Although formally banned since 1922, child labour
was widespread in the Soviet Union, mostly in the
form of mandatory, unpaid work by schoolchildren
on Saturdays and holidays. The students were
used as a cheap, unqualified workforce
on kolhoz (collective farms) as well as in industry
and forestry. The practice was formally called
"work education".[103]
From the 1950s on, the students were also used
for unpaid work at schools, where they cleaned
and performed repairs.[104] This practice has
continued in the Russian Federation, where up to
21 days of the summer holidays is sometimes set
aside for school works. By law, this is only allowed
as part of specialised occupational training and
with the students' and parents' permission, but
those provisions are widely ignored.[105] In 2012
there was an accident near city of Nalchik where
a car killed several pupils cleaning up a highway
shoulder during their "holiday work" as well as
their teacher who was supervising them.[106]
Out of former Soviet
Union republics Uzbekistan continued and
expanded the program of child labour on
industrial scale to increase profits on the main
source of Islam Karimov's income, cotton
harvesting. In September, when school normally
starts, the classes are suspended and children are
sent to cotton fields for work, where they are
assigned daily quotas of 20 to 60 kg of raw cotton
they have to collect. This process is repeated in
spring, when collected cotton needs to be hoed and
weeded. In 2006 it is estimated that 2.7 million
children were forced to work this way.[107]
Switzerland
As in many other countries, child labour in
Switzerland affected among the so-

called Kaminfegerkinder ("chimney sweep

children") and children working p.e. in spinning
mills, factories and in agriculture in 19th-century
Switzerland,[108] but also to the 1960s socalled Verdingkinder (literally: "contract children"
or "indentured child laborers") were children who
were taken from their parents, often due to
poverty or moral reasons usually mothers being
unmarried, very poor citizens, of Gypsy
Yenicheorigin, so-called Kinder der
Landstrasse,[109] etc. and sent to live with new
families, often poor farmers who needed cheap
labour.[110]
There were even Verdingkinder auctions where
children were handed over to the farmer asking
the least amount of money from the authorities,
thus securing cheap labour for his farm and
relieving the authority from the financial burden
of looking after the children. In the 1930s 20% of
all agricultural labourers in the Canton of
Bern were children below the age of 15. Swiss
municipality guardianship authorities acted so,
commonly tolerated by federal authorities, to the
1960s, not all of them of course, but usually
communities affected of low taxes in some Swiss
cantons[111] Swiss historian Marco Leuenberger
investigated, that in 1930 there were some 35,000
indentured children, and between 1920 and 1970
more than 100,000 are believed to have been
placed with families or homes.
10,000 Verdingkinder are still
alive.[111][112] Therefore, the socalled Wiedergutmachungsinitiative was started
in April 2014. In April 2014 the collection of
targeted at least authenticated 100,000 signatures
of Swiss citizens has started, and still have to be
collected to October 2015
CHILD LABOR LAWS AND INCENTIVES
Almost every country in the world has laws
relating to and aimed at preventing child labour.
International Labour Organisation has helped set
international law, which most countries have
signed on and ratified.
According to ILO minimum age convention
(C138) of 1973, child labour refers to any work
performed by children under the age of 12, nonlight work done by children aged 1214, and
hazardous work done by children aged 1517.
Light work was defined, under this Convention, as
any work that does not harm a child's health and
development, and that does not interfere with his
or her attendance at school. This convention has
been ratified by 135 countries.

The United Nations adopted the Convention on

the Rights of the Child in 1990, which was
subsequently ratified by 193 countries.[113] Article
32 of the convention addressed child labour, as
follows:
...Parties recognise the right of the child to be
protected from economic exploitation and from
performing any work that is likely to be hazardous
or to interfere with the child's education, or to be
harmful to the child's health or physical, mental,
spiritual, moral or social development.[4]
Under Article 1 of the 1990 Convention, a child is
defined as "... every human being below the age of
eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to
the child, a majority is attained earlier." Article 28
of this Convention requires States to, "make
primary education compulsory and available free
to all."[4]
195 countries are party to the Convention; only
two nations have not ratified the
treaty, Somalia and the United States.[114][115]
In 1999, ILO helped lead the Worst Forms
Convention 182 (C182),[116]which has so far been
signed upon and domestically ratified by 151
countries including the United States. This
international law prohibits worst forms of child
labour, defined as all forms of slavery and slaverylike practices, such as child trafficking, debt
bondage, and forced labour, including forced
recruitment of children into armed conflict. The
law also prohibits the use of a child for
prostitution or the production of pornography,
child labour in illicit activities such as drug
production and trafficking; and in hazardous
work. Both the Worst Forms Convention (C182)
and the Minimum Age Convention (C138) are
examples ofinternational labour
standards implemented through the ILO that deal
with child labour.
In addition to setting the international law, the
United Nations initiated International Program
on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) in
1992.[117] This initiative aims to progressively
eliminate child labour through strengthening
national capacities to address some of the causes
of child labour. Amongst the key initiative is the
so-called time-bounded programme countries,
where child labour is most prevalent and
schooling opportunities lacking. The initiative
seeks to achieve amongst other things, universal
primary school availability. The IPEC has
expanded to at least the following target
countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt,
India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan,

Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador,

Nepal, Tanzania, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica,
Philippines, Senegal, South Africa and Turkey.
Targeted child labour campaigns were initiated by
the International Programme on the Elimination
of Child Labour (IPEC) in order to advocate for
prevention and elimination of all forms of child
labour. The global Music against Child Labour
Initiative was launched in 2013 in order to involve
socially excluded children in structured musical
activity and education in efforts to help protect
them from child labour.
Exceptions granted
In 2004, the United States passed an amendment
to the Fair Labour Standards Act of 1938. The
amendment allows certain children aged 1418 to
work in or outside a business where machinery is
used to process wood.[119] The law aims to respect
the religious and cultural needs of
the Amish community of the United States. The
Amish believe that one effective way to educate
children is on the job.[6] The new law allows Amish
children the ability to work with their families,
once they are passed eighth grade in school.
Similarly, in 1996, member countries of the
European Union, per Directive 94/33/EC,[8] agreed
to a number of exceptions for young people in its
child labour laws. Under these rules, children of
various ages may work in cultural, artistic,
sporting or advertising activities if authorised by
the competent authority. Children above the age
of 13 may perform light work for a limited number
of hours per week in other economic activities as
defined at the discretion of each country.
Additionally, the European law exception allows
children aged 14 years or over to work as part of a
work/training scheme. The EU Directive clarified
that these exceptions do not allow child labour
where the children may experience harmful
exposure to dangerous
substances.[120] Nonetheless, many children under
the age of 13 do work, even in the most developed
countries of the EU. For instance, a recent study
showed over a third of Dutch twelve-year-old kids
had a job, the most common being babysitting.
More laws vs. more freedom
Scholars disagree on the best legal course forward
to address child labour. Some suggest the need for
laws that place a blanket ban on any work by
children less than 18 years old. Others suggest
the current international laws are enough, and
the need for more engaging approach to achieve
the ultimate goals.

Some scholars suggest any labour by children

aged 18 years or less is wrong since this
encourages illiteracy, inhumane work and lower
investment in human capital. Child labour, claim
these activists, also leads to poor labour standards
for adults, depresses the wages of adults in
developing countries as well as the developed
countries, and dooms the third world economies to
low-skill jobs only capable of producing poor
quality cheap exports. More children that work in
poor countries, the fewer and worse-paid are the
jobs for adults in these countries. In other words,
there are moral and economic reasons that justify
a blanket ban on labour from children aged 18
years or less, everywhere in the world.
Other scholars suggest that these arguments are
flawed, ignores history and more laws will do
more harm than good. According to them, child
labour is merely the symptom of a greater disease
named poverty. If laws ban all lawful work that
enables the poor to survive, informal economy,
illicit operations and underground businesses will
thrive. These will increase abuse of the children.
In poor countries with very high incidence rates of
child labour - such as Ethiopia, Chad, Niger and
Nepal - schools are not available, and the few
schools that exist offer poor quality education or
are unaffordable. The alternatives for children
who currently work, claim these studies, are
worse: grinding subsistence farming, militia or
prostitution. Child labour is not a choice, it is a
necessity, the only option for survival. It is
currently the least undesirable of a set of very bad
choices.
These scholars suggest, from their studies of
economic and social data, that early 20th-century
child labour in Europe and the United States
ended in large part as a result of the economic
development of the formal regulated economy,
technology development and general prosperity.
Child labour laws and ILO conventions came
later. Edmonds suggests, even in contemporary
times, the incidence of child labour in Vietnam
has rapidly reduced following economic reforms
and GDP growth. These scholars suggest
economic engagement, emphasis on opening
quality schools rather than more laws and
expanding economically relevant skill
development opportunities in the third world.
International legal actions, such as trade
sanctions increase child labour
"The Incredible Bread Machine" a book published
by "World Research, Inc." in 1974 stated:

Child labour was a particular target of early

reformers. William Cooke Tatlor wrote at the time
about these reformers who, witnessing children at
work in the factories, thought to themselves: 'How
much more delightful would have been the gambol
of the free limbs on the hillside; the sight of the
green mead with its spangles of buttercups and
daisies; the song of the bird and the humming
bee...'
But for many of these children the factory system
meant quite literally the only chance for survival.
Today we overlook the fact that death from
starvation and exposure was a common fate before
the Industrial Revolution, for the pre-capitalist
economy was barely able to support the
population. Yes, children were working. Formerly
they would have starved. It was only as goods
were produced in greater abundance at a lower
cost that men could support their families without
sending their children to work. It was not the
reformer or the politician that ended the grim
necessity for child labour; it was capitalism.
CHILD LABOR INCIDENTS
Cocoa production
In 1998, UNICEF reported that Ivory
Coast farmers used enslaved children many
from surrounding countries.[131] In late 2000 a
BBC documentary reported the use of enslaved
children in the production ofcocoathe main
ingredient in chocolate[132] in West
Africa.[133][134]Other media followed by reporting
widespread child slavery and child trafficking in
the production of cocoa.[131][135][136] In 2001, the US
State Department estimated there were 15,000
child slaves cocoa, cotton and coffee farms in the
Ivory Coast,[137] and the Chocolate Manufacturers
Association acknowledged that child slavery is
used in the cocoa harvest.
Malian migrants have long worked on cocoa farms
in the Ivory Coast, but in 2000 cocoa prices had
dropped to a 10-year low and some farmers
stopped paying their employees.[138] The Malian
counsel had to rescue some boys who had not been
paid for five years and who were beaten if they
tried to run away.[138] Malian officials believed
that 15,000 children, some as young as 11 years
old, were working in the Ivory Coast in 2001.
These children were often from poor families or
the slums and were sold to work in other
countries.[135] Parents were told the children
would find work and send money home, but once
the children left home, they often worked in

conditions resembling slavery.[133] In other cases,

children begging for food were lured from bus
stations and sold as slaves.[139] In 2002, the Ivory
Coast had 12,000 children with no relatives
nearby, which suggested they were
trafficked,[133] likely from neighboring
Mali, Burkina Faso and Togo.[140]
The cocoa industry was accused of profiting from
child slavery and trafficking.[141] The European
Cocoa Association dismissed these accusations as
"false and excessive"[141] and the industry said the
reports were not representative of all
areas.[142] Later the industry acknowledged the
working conditions for children were
unsatisfactory and children's rights were
sometimes violated[143] and acknowledged the
claims could not be ignored. In a BBC interview,
the ambassador for Ivory Coast to the United
Kingdom called these reports of widespread use of
slave child labour by 700,000 cocoa farmers as
absurd and inaccurate.[142]
In 2001, a voluntary agreement called the HarkinEngel Protocol, was accepted by the international
cocoa and chocolate industry to eliminate the
worst forms of child labour, as defined by ILO's
Convention 182, in West Africa.[144] This
agreement created a foundation named
International Cocoa Initiative in 2002. The
foundation claims it has, as of 2011, active
programs in 290 cocoa growing communities in
Cte d'Ivoire and Ghana, reaching a total
population of 689,000 people to help eliminate the
worst forms of child labour in cocoa industry.
Other organisations claim progress has been
made, but the protocol's 2005 deadlines have not
yet been met.
In 2008, Bloomberg claimed child labour
in copper and cobalt mines that supplied Chinese
companies in Congo. The children are creuseurs,
that is they dig the ore by hand, carry sacks of
ores on their backs, and these are then purchased
by these companies. Over 60 ofKatanga's 75
processing plants are owned by Chinese
companies and 90 percent of the region's minerals
go to China.[149] An African NGO report claimed
80,000 child labourers under the age of 15, or
about 40% of all miners, were supplying ore to
Chinese companies in this African
region.[150] Amnesty International alleged in 2016
that some cobalt sold by Congo Dongfang Mining
was produced by child labour, and that it was
being used in lithium-ion batteries powering
electric cars and mobile devices worldwide.

BBC, in 2012, accused Glencore of using child

labour in its mining and smelting operations of
Africa. Glencore denied it used child labour, and
said it has strict policy of not using child labour.
The company claimed it has a strict policy
whereby all copper was mined correctly, placed in
bags with numbered seals and then sent to the
smelter. Glencore mentioned being aware of child
miners who were part of a group of artisanal
miners who had without authorisation raided the
concession awarded to the company since 2010;
Glencore has been pleading with the government
to remove the artisanal miners from the
concession.[152]
Small-scale artisanal mining of gold is another
source of dangerous child labour in poor rural
areas in certain parts of the world.[153] This form
of mining uses labour-intensive and low-tech
methods. It is informal sector of the economy.
Human Rights Watch group estimates that about
12 percent of global gold production comes from
artisanal mines. In West Africa, in countries such
as Mali - the third largest exporter of gold in
Africa - between 20,000 and 40,000 children work
in artisanal mining. Locally known as orpaillage,
children as young as 6 years old work with their
families. These children and families suffer
chronic exposure to toxic chemicals
including mercury, and do hazardous work such
as digging shafts and working underground,
pulling up, carrying and crushing the ore. The
poor work practices harm the long term health of
children, as well as release hundreds of tons of
mercury every year into local rivers, ground water
and lakes. Gold is important to the economy of
Mali and Ghana. For Mali, it is the second largest
earner of its export revenue. For many poor
families with children, it is the primary and
sometimes the only source of income
Meatpacking
In early August 2008, Iowa Labour Commissioner
David Neil announced that his department had
found that Agriprocessors,
a koshermeatpacking company in Postville which
had recently been raided byImmigration and
Customs Enforcement, had employed 57 minors,
some as young as 14, in violation of state law
prohibiting anyone under 18 from working in a
meatpacking plant. Neil announced that he was
turning the case over to the state Attorney
General for prosecution, claiming that his
department's inquiry had discovered "egregious
violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa's child
labour laws."[156]Agriprocessors claimed that it
was at a loss to understand the allegations.

Agriprocessors' CEO went to trial on these

charges in state court on 4 May 2010. After a fiveweek trial he was found not guilty of all 57
charges of child labour violations by the Black
Hawk County District Court jury in Waterloo,
Iowa, on 7 June 2010.
GAP
A 2007 report claimed some GAP products had
been produced by child labourers. GAP
acknowledged the problem and announced it is
pulling the products from its shelf.[158] The report
found Gap had rigorous social audit systems since
2004 to eliminate child labour in its supply chain.
However, the report concluded that the system
was being abused by unscrupulous
subcontractors.
GAP's policy, the report claimed, is that if it
discovers child labour was used by its supplier in
its branded clothes, the contractor must remove
the child from the workplace, provide it with
access to schooling and a wage, and guarantee the
opportunity of work on reaching a legal working
age.
In 2007, The New York Times reported that GAP,
after the child labour discovery, created a
$200,000 grant to improve working conditions in
the supplier community.
H&M and Zara
In December 2009, campaigners in the UK called
on two leading high street retailers to stop selling
clothes made with cotton which may have been
picked by children. Anti-Slavery
International and theEnvironmental Justice
Foundation (EJF) accused H&M and Zara of using
cotton suppliers in Bangladesh. It is also
suspected that many of their raw materials
originates from Uzbekistan, where children aged
10 are forced to work in the fields. The activists
were calling to ban the use of Uzbek cotton and
implement a "track and trace" systems to
guarantee an ethical responsible source of the
material.
H&M said it "does not accept" child labour and
"seeks to avoid" using Uzbek cotton, but admitted
it did "not have any reliable methods" to ensure
Uzbek cotton did not end up in any of its
products. Inditex, the owner of Zara, said its code
of conduct banned child labour.[160]
Silk weaving
A 2003 Human Rights Watch report claimed
children as young as five years old were employed
and worked for up to 12 hours a day and six to

seven days a week in silk industry.[161] These

children, HRW claimed, were bonded child labour
in India, easy to find in Karnataka, Uttar
Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.[162]
In 2010, a German news investigative report
claimed that in silk weaving industry, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) had found up
to 10,000 children working in the 1,000 silk
factories in 1998. In other places, thousands of
bonded child labour were present in 1994. After
UNICEF and NGOs got involved, after 2005, child
labour figure is drastically lower, with the total
estimated to be fewer than a thousand child
labourers. The released children were back in
school, claims the report.[163]
Primark
In 2008, the BBC reported[164] that the
company Primark was using child labour in the
manufacture of clothing. In particular, a 4 handembroidered shirt was the starting point of a
documentary produced
byBBC's Panorama programme. The programme
asks consumers to ask themselves, "Why am I
only paying 4 for a hand embroidered top? This
item looks handmade. Who made it for such little
cost?", in addition to exposing the violent side of
the child labour industry in countries where child
exploitation is prevalent.
As a result of the BBC report, Royal Television
Society awarded it a prize, and Primark took
immediate action and fired three Indian suppliers
in 2008.[165]
Primark continued to investigate the allegations
for three years,[166]concluding that BBC report
was a fake. In 2011, following an investigation by
the BBC Trusts Editorial Standards Committee,
the BBC announced, "Having carefully scrutinised
all of the relevant evidence, the committee
concluded that, on the balance of probabilities, it
was more likely than not that
the Bangalore footage was not authentic." BBC
subsequently apologised for faking footage, and
returned the television award for investigative
reporting.
ELIMINATING CHILD LABOR
Concerns have often been raised over the buying
public's moral complicity in purchasing products
assembled or otherwise manufactured
in developing countries with child labour.
However, others have raised concerns
that boycottingproducts manufactured through
child labour may force these children to turn to
more dangerous or strenuous professions, such as

prostitution or agriculture. For example,

a UNICEFstudy found that after theChild Labour
Deterrence Actwas introduced in the US, an
estimated 50,000 children were dismissed from
their garment industry jobs in Bangladesh,
leaving many to resort to jobs such as "stonecrushing, street hustling, and prostitution", jobs
that are "more hazardous and exploitative than
garment production". The study suggests that
boycotts are "blunt instruments with long-term
consequences, that can actually harm rather than
help the children involved."[44]
According to Milton Friedman, before the
Industrial Revolution virtually all children
worked in agriculture.[170] During the Industrial
Revolution many of these children moved from
farm work to factory work. Over time, as real
wages rose, parents became able to afford to send
their children to school instead of work and as a
result child labour declined, both before and after
legislation.[171] Austrian School economist Murray
Rothbard said that British and American children
of the pre- and post-Industrial Revolution lived
and suffered in infinitely worse conditions where
jobs were not available for them and went
"voluntarily and gladly" to work in factories.[172]
British historian and socialist E. P.
Thompson in The Making of the English Working
Class draws a qualitative distinction
between child domestic work and participation in
the wider (waged) labour market.[21]Further, the
usefulness of the experience of the industrial
revolution in making predictions about current
trends has been disputed. Social historian Hugh
Cunningham, author of Children and Childhood
in Western Society Since 1500, notes that:
"Fifty years ago it might have been
assumed that, just as child labour had
declined in the developed world in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
so it would also, in a trickle-down fashion,
in the rest of the world. Its failure to do
that, and its re-emergence in the developed
world, raises questions about its role in
any economy, whether national or
global."[171]
According to Thomas DeGregori, an economics
professor at theUniversity of Houston, in an
article published by the Cato Institute,
alibertarian think-tank operating in
Washington D.C., "it is clear that
technological and economic change are vital
ingredients in getting children out of the
workplace and into schools. Then they can

grow to become productive adults and live

longer, healthier lives. However, in poor
countries like Bangladesh, working children
are essential for survival in many families, as
they were in our own heritage until the late
19th century. So, while the struggle to end
child labour is necessary, getting there often
requires taking different routesand, sadly,
there are many political obstacles.[173]

such income is especially important when the

families are poor. Work can provide an escape
from debilitating poverty, sometimes by allowing
a young person to move away from an
impoverished environment.[182]Young people often
enjoy their work, especially paid work, or when
work involves the company of peers. Even when
work is intensive and enforced, children often find
ways to combine their work with play.[183]

The International Programme on the

Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), founded
in 1992, aims to eliminate child labour. It
operates in 88 countries and is the largest
program of its kind in the world.[174] IPEC
works with international and government
agencies, NGOs, the media, and children and
their families to end child labour and provide
children with education and assistance.[174]

While full-time work hinders schooling, empirical

evidence is varied on the relationship between
part-time work and school.[180] Sometimes even
part-time work may hinder school attendance or
performance. On the other hand, many poor
children work for resources to attend school.
Children who are not doing well at school
sometimes seek more satisfactory experience in
work. Good relations with a supervisor at work
can provide relief from tensions that children feel
at school and home. In the modern world, school
education has become so central to society that
schoolwork has become the dominant work for
most children, often replacing participation in
productive work. If school curricula or quality do
not provide children with appropriate skills for
available jobs or if children do nor have the
aptitude for schoolwork, school may impede the
learning of skills, such as agriculture, which will
become necessary for future livelihood.

From 2008 to 2013, the ILO operated a

program through International Programme
on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)
titled " Combating Abusive Child Labour
(CACL-II) ". The project, funded by
the European Union, contributed to
the Government of Pakistan by providing
alternative opportunities for vocational
training and education to children withdrawn
from the worst forms of child labour.
POTENTIAL POSITIVES
OF CHILDREN WORKING
The term child labour can be misleading when it
confuses harmful work with employment that may
be beneficial to children. It can also ignore
harmful work outside employment and any
benefits children normally derive from their
work.[177] Domestic work is an example: all
families but the rich must work at cleaning,
cooking, caring, and more to maintain their
homes. In most families in the world, this process
extends to productive activities, especially herding
and various types of agriculture,[178] and to a
variety of small family businesses. Where trading
is a significant feature of social life, children can
start trading in small items at an early age, often
in the company of family members or of peers.[179]
Work is undertaken from an early age by vast
numbers of children in the world and may have a
natural place in growing up.[180] Work can
contribute to the well-being of children in a
variety of ways;[181] children often choose to work
to improve their lives, both in the short- and longterm. At the material level, childrens work often
contributes to producing food or earning income
that benefits themselves and their families; and