CHILD LABOUR

INTRODUCTION 

                                           Children are the greatest gift to humanity and Childhood is an important and impressionable stage of human development as it holds the potential to the future development of any society. Children who are brought up in an environment, which is conducive to their intellectual, physical and social health, grow up to be responsible and productive members of society. Every nation links its future with the present status of its children. By performing work when they are too young for the task, children unduly reduce their present welfare or their future income earning capabilities, either by shrinking their future external choice sets or by reducing their own future individual productive capabilities. Under extreme economic distress, children are forced to forego educational opportunities and take up jobs which are mostly exploitative as they are usually underpaid and engaged in hazardous conditions. Parents decide to send their child for engaging in a job as a desperate measure due to poor economic conditions. It is, therefore, no wonder that the poor households predominantly send their children to work in early ages of their life. One of the disconcerting aspects of child labour is that children are sent to work at the expense of education. There is a strong effect of child labour on school attendance rates and the length of a child’s work day is negatively associated with his or her capacity to attend school. Child labour restricts the right of children to access and benefit from education and denies the fundamental opportunity to attend school. Child labour, thus, prejudices children’s education and adversely affects their health and safety. 

 Rural and urban child labour 

                                                 

Child labour has been a complex rural problem, as well with
children helping out in the farm with their families. The vast majority of child labour is involved in agriculture. On the other hand agricultural sector is the mainstay of developing countries economy, particularly in Africa. (Baker,2008).Generally, throughout the world rural children were more likely to be engaged in economic labour activities compared to urban children, because poverty is more prevalent in rural areas especially among those who depend on agriculture(Akarro& Mtweve, 2011). Poor rural families considers making their children work in farms, may increase household’s income (Serwadda-Luwaga,2005). Rickey (2009) points out that many rural areas lack basic services such as electricity and access to drinking water. In such cases their children must fetch water especially girls, who are more involved in housework. Child labour also exists in cities. According to World Bank, child worker is typically a sign of urban poverty in many countries, and special in Sub-Saharan Africa. Urban children usually are involved in domestic work or sales. Their working conditions are very poor, unhealthy and crowded. They work for long hours with very low wage or no wage. Girls are usually the most vulnerable; they are typically trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation in urban centres such as Mumbai, Calcutta and New Delhi (Baker, 2008). They face many problems due to poverty. Poor urban children are at particular risk of many problems such as lack of education, healthcare and social protection (Baker, 2008). Urban children attend more to school than rural children. Urban areas provide better educational access, quality and infrastructure than rural areas. For poor rural children living far off from school, transportation cost often becomes a challenging 

 Types of child labour

                                                   Child labourers are involved in many different forms of works, which include risks and hazards. These children are vulnerable to physical pain and injury particularly being exposed to health hazards (Levison& Murray, 2005). According to ILO (2012) the vast majority of child labour is involved in hazardous occupations such as agriculture, mining, manufacture, construction bonded child labour, domestic work and fishing. Environmental and occupational conditions can impact on the health and development of the children. Children working in different sectors such as agriculture, factories, domestic labour, sex workers and carrying out their illicit activities, migrant labourers, and on the streets as vendors etc. The effect of job and activities can vary from a country to a country. Also working conditions, ages and gender of children involved in the differences too (O. O’Donnell et al., 2002). According to Amon et al., (2012) mainly child labourers in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Southeast Asia are involved in the worst forms of child labour , which persists such as child trafficking, bonded child labour, child domestic work, hazardous child labour, etc. More than 90 percent of working children in hazardous jobs which are exposed to chemicals, and dangerous tools.

CAUSES

1 Poverty as root cause

 There are several circumstances that affect child labour. Studies have demonstrated that the most notable reason being poverty (Bhat& Rather,2009). Decisions about child labour and schooling are generally made by parents. If the family live below the poverty line, parents see children as part of contributor in their family income. Basu (1998) used a theoretical model of child labour, where he showed the only reason parents send children to labour is because of their low income. Consequently poor parents cannot afford schooling for their children. Thus, mainly poor households are to send forced their children to labour instead of sending to school. Rena (2009) shows that that poverty and underdevelopment drives child labour. She found that the high prevalence of poverty amongst countries, including India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi, Sudan, and Chad increases the child labour. Therefore, child labour is widespread throughout Africa, and Asia. According to the studies of Edmonds and Pavcnik (2005); O'Donnell et al. (2005) and Akarro and Mtweve (2011) they assume that tackling poverty can be a perfect solution to reduce child labour. Beside poverty, many factors influence the incidence of child labour which can be listed in the following points.

 2 Family size

 Indeed, large poor households usually have more children involved in child labour than children from smaller households, which demonstrates family size have an effect on child labour. Parents oblige their children to work because they are not able to manage the demands of a large size family. There is also gender differences among household size. Not everyone and of all age in the family are working as child labour, which depends on the child’s age and gender, for example boys are more likely to attended to school than girls. Older siblings often contribute more to the family income (Ahamd, 2012; Boyden J and Myers, 1998). Okpukpara et al., (2006) found that in Nigeria, younger children, where are more likely to go to school than older children, where mostly boys attend schools than girls. 

3 Family condition 

A growing number of children who have either lost one or both the parents and those impacted by HIV/ADIS in the family, are forced to work in order to support themselves and their siblings. The numbers of orphaned children are increasing particularly in sub Saharan Africa, many whom become street children, and live in very different circumstances (Vandenberg,2007).

 4 Traditional or cultural 

factor Culture is another factor which is driving children into labour market. Different cultures of many societies make children start work at very young age which are related to traditions and cultural factors. They assumed that children need to learn skills that can be good for their future. According to Tauson (2009) in rural Guatemala; parents prefer their children to work because 21 they consider it beneficial for them as they learn work skills. Obinna E and Osita-Oleribe (2007) assume that many families in Africa want their children to help in contributing towards family income. 4.5 Corruption Corruption is the one of main reason for abusing resources, wherever there is poverty; there is also corruption(Murphy,2005).According to United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) (2012)“Corruption exacerbates poverty and inequality, undermines human development and stability, encourages and sustains conflict, violates human rights, and erodes the democratic functioning of countries.”

 Conclusion 

                                      The problem of child labour appears in severe form and various factors are involved. The reasons for the incidence of child labour in both countries are complex and deeply rooted into the society. Poverty seems to be the main cause. In general poor children contribute to household income. Child labour can be found in urban and rural areas. However the vast majority of child labour occurs in rural areas since poverty is more rampant. Although, many poor rural families struggle for a better life in urban areas, this pushes families to force their children to work in order to increase the family income and ensure survival. Study found children under the age of fourteen years are still engaged in economic activity in India and Nigeria. These children tend to work more consequently they are not regularly in school. However, besides poverty there are other causes such lack of schools, lack of regulations and enforcement, corruption, lack of awareness and rapid population growth.