This House Supports Child Labour

8/11/2019 This House Supports Child Labour

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This House supports child labour

Child labour may appear at first to be a pretty straight forward issue

it just seems wrong. Thoughts spring to mind of small children

working night and day for almost no money in horrible conditions.

However, perhaps were being too critical. Britain grew rich fast

during the industrial revolution on the back of cheap child labour.

Furthermore, as horrific as it may be to us, could the alternatives for

these children actually be worseif they didnt work, perhaps then

they wouldnt be able to afford to eat or help their families? On

whose standards should we be judging how good or bad, right orwrong, a situation is? Campaigners say that children should be in

school, but for families who are struggling to put food on the table,

perhaps school is actually a luxury that people just cant afford.

Weve put together a mini case study and factsheet to try and help

you think about the issues which may be important in this debate

Mini case-study:

In 2004 an anti-child labour organisation began working with the

clothes company GAP to try and make sure that GAPs suppliers

(factories in the developing world who sold them clothes) were

helpingnot harmingchildren. They hoped that together they

could create a positive strategy to tackle child labour, working to

make sure that factories provided the children with access to

schooling and job-training, as well as paying them an ongoing wage

and guaranteeing them jobs as soon as they reached the legalworking age. However a report published at the end of 2007 argued


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that the project had failed and children were still working in

conditions close to slavery.

Our case follows Amitosh, a 10 year old working in a GAP sweatshop

for only food and a bed. He was bought from his parents who were

told they wouldnt have to work again. The place where they work is

covered in filth, the corridors are flowing with excrement from a

flooded toilet. Another boy talks about the treatment where they

work, Last week, we spent four days working from dawn until about

one oclock in the morning the following day. I was so tired I felt sick,

he whispers, tears streaming down his face. If any of us cried we

were hit with a rubber pipe. Some of the boys had oily cloths stuffed

in our mouths as punishment.

However, Manik, who also works there, says I want to work here. I

have somewhere to sleep. The boss tells me I am learning. It is my

duty to stay here. Im learning to be a man and work. Eventually, I

will make money and buy a house for my mother.

So what does this story tell us?

That big companies such as GAP hold important contracts that

employ thousands of people in factories across the developing world.

Will losing these contracts make these factories abide by the rules or

will it just mean that worlds poorest people lost their jobs and one

of their only sources of income?


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It shows that it is possible for companies to create and support

systems in which children who need to work can both earn money

and receive an education.

But it also tells us that the conditions that many of these children

work in are unimaginably awful. They often work for long hours, for

little pay and without breaks. But does this mean we should try and

eradicate child labour? Or is this impossible? If it is should we be

working to make sure that conditions improve?

Finally, it reminds us how different it would be to grow up in the

developing world. Children in the developing world work to make

sure that both they and their families can eat.

Other issues:

The United Nations said that Child Labour is exploitative under the

UN Convention of the Rights of the Child which says that children

should be protected from: economic exploitation and from

performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interferewith the childs education, or to be harmful to the childs health or

physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development

- Some youth rights groups say children have a right to work if they

want or need to. By stopping them from working legally, they may


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be forced to work in even more undesirable places, work illegally or

beg.

- Statistics show that children living in the poorest households are

most likely to be engaged in child labour. Millions of girls who work

as domestic servants are especially vulnerable to exploitation and

abuse. However these families often rely on the labours of their

children for survival, and sometimes it is their only source of income

- In a rubber plantation in Liberia workers were told that if they did

not produce more their wages would be halved. So workers began

to bring in their children to help boost their production.

- We could say that child labour is a result of our own desire to buy

cheaper and cheaper clothes which forces factories to reduce their

prices in any way possible. Primark is one of the only industries that

continue to grow in the current financial crisis, their profits from this

last year were reported at 282,000,000they say they are

successful because their prices are incredibly low. On the other side

of things, People Tree is a fair-trade clothes company, meaning they

work directly with the people who make their clothes to make surethey are being treated fairly. They have so far not made any profits,

their products are more expensive than other high-street shops as

they pay higher wages to their workers

- UNICEF, the United National Childrens Fund, worries that if

children are at work then they are not being given a chance to have


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an education and therefore develop not only as individuals but also

for their country.

- During the Industrial Revolution in the UK, children as young as

four were employed in production factories and played a really

important part in building the industry which has allowed for the

development of the country. Child labour ended when wages rose

and parents were paid enough money to send their children to

school

- India has one of the worlds fastest-growing economies but has also

become the world capital for child labour. Child labour contributes

an estimated 20 per cent of Indias national income.

- A UNICEF study found that 5,000 to 7,000 children from Nepal who

previously worked in the carpet industry turned to prostitution after

the US banned imports due to child labour. The report continues

that often children dismissed from the garment industry are forced

to do jobs more hazardous and exploitative than garment

production.

This House Supports Child Labour

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