child labour

What is Child Labour
Child labour is a type crime in which children are forced to work in their very early age and perform the responsibilities just like adults by taking part in the economic activities. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), there is an age limit applied to the children that children up to age fifteen will not involve in any type of work forcefully. It is an employment of the children in any type of work which makes children deprived of childhood, proper education, physical, mental and social well being. It is completely forbidden in some countries however has been an international concern in most of the countries as it is destroying the future of children to a great extent.

It is a serious matter (a big social problem) in most of the developing countries. Small age group children are being involved in the child labor hugely by the people of high status. They are avoiding the fact that children are the big hope and future of the nation. Millions of children have been deprived of the childhood and proper education in our country which is a dangerous sign. Such children do not get the chance of living a healthy life as they are not satisfied physically, mentally and socially from their childhood.

According to the Indian law, children below the age of 14 years cannot be employed to any type of work forcefully whether by the parents or owner in a factories, offices or restaurants. It is a common practice in India as well as other developing countries in a small scale industry, domestic aid, restaurant service, stone breaking, shopkeeper’s assistant, every house-hold industry, book binding, etc.

What are the Causes of Child Labour
There are various reasons of child labor in our country. Some of the causes of global child labor are similar however differ country to country. Most common reasons are like poverty, repression of child rights, improper education, limited rules and laws on child labor, etc. Following are some important points regarding causes of child labour:

• Poverty and high level of unemployment in the developing countries are the main reason of child labor.
• According to the U.N. statistics of 2005, more than 1/4th of people worldwide are living in extreme poverty.
• Lack of access to the regular education in many countries. It was found in 2006 that around 75 million children were away from the school life.
• Violating laws regarding child labour give the way to increased child labor in any developing country.
• Inadequate social control gives rise to the child labor in the agriculture or domestic work.
• Limited child or workers’ rights which affect labor standards and living standards to a great extent in order to eliminate child labor.
• Small children get involved in the child labor in order to increase income of their family to manage two times food.
• They are hired by the industries to get more work at reduced labor cost.

What are the Solutions to Child Labour
In order to eliminate the social issue of child labor, there is need to follow some effective solutions on urgent basis to save the future of any developing country. Following are some solutions to prevent child labor:

• Creating more unions may help in preventing the child labor as it will encourage more people to help against child labor.
• All the children should be given first priority by their parents to take proper and regular education from their early childhood. This step needs much cooperation by the parents as well as schools to free children for education and take admission of children from all walks of life respectively.
• Child labour needs high level social awareness with the proper statistics of huge loss in the future for any developing country.
• Every family must earn their minimum income in order to survive and prevent child labour. It will reduce the level of poverty and thus child labour.
• Family control will also help in controlling the child labour by reducing the families burden of child care and education.
• There is need of more effective and strict government laws against child labour in order to prevent children from working in their little age.
• Child trafficking should be completely abolished by the governments of all countries.
• Child workers should be replaced by the adult workers as almost 800 million adults are unemployed in this world. In this way adult will get job and children will be free from child labour.
• Employment opportunities should be increased for adults in order to overcome problem of poverty and child labor.
• Business owners of factories, industries, mines, etc should take the pledge of not involving children in any type of labour.

Child Labour as a Crime
Child labour is still practiced in many countries even after being a big crime. Business owners of the industries, mines, factories, etc are using child labour at great level in order to get more work at low labour cost. Poor children are more prone to be involved in the child labour as they are forced by parents to earn some money to give economic help to their family in the very young age (too young to realize their responsibilities towards family) instead of getting proper education and play with friends in childhood.

Conclusion
Child labour is a big social problem which needs to be solved on urgent basis by the support of both, people (especially parents and teachers) and government. Children are very little however they carry a prosperous future of any developing country. So, they are the big responsibility of all the adult citizens and should not be used in negative ways. They should get proper chance to develop and grow within the happy environment of family and school. They should not be limited by the parents only to maintain the economical balance of the family and by the businesses to get labour at low cost.