Child labour

Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful.

[33][34] Letitia Elizabeth Landon castigated child labour in her 1835 poem "The Factory", portions of which she pointedly included in her 18th Birthday Tribute to Princess Victoria in 1837.

Throughout the second half of the 19th century, child labour began to decline in industrialised societies due to regulation and economic factors because of the Growth of trade unions.

Conditions in the workshops were grim, with the familiar tale of long hours to match the relentless pace of the machines, a damp and dusty environment, and a heartless disciplinary regime.

A disparate group of reformers stepped forward at this point, to combat abuses with legislation, including hardheaded businessmen interested in maximizing profits, more philanthropically minded representatives of the landed gentry and professional classes, and, in the American case, leaders of organized labor.

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, Vietnam 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.

Research suggests that child labor generally decreases as household productive wealth (measured by agricultural per capita land holding in rural areas) increases.

[74][75][76] In southeast Asian colonies, such as Hong Kong, child labour such as the Mui tsai (妹仔), was rationalised as a cultural tradition and ignored by British authorities.

[86] 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.

[87] 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.

It was not until recently in the 1980s 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.

[citation needed] Due to the raised age restriction of 14, at least half of the recorded young workers had been employed illegally, which led to many not being protected by important labour laws.

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.

[103] There are also many initiative and policies put in place to decrease the prevalence of child labour such as the United States generalised system of preferences, the U.S.-Cambodia textile agreement, ILO Garment Sector Working Conditions Improvement Project, and ChildWise Tourism.

It reported that over 800,000 children are working in Ecuador, where they are exposed to heavy metals and toxic chemicals and are subject to mental and physical stress and the insecurity caused by being at risk of work-related accidents.

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.

[110][111][112][113][114] Kameel Ahmady, a social researcher and winner of the Literature and Humanities award from the World Peace Foundation, while emphasizing the fact that most of the children labour in Tehran province are Afghan children, along with his colleagues believes that with the continuation of Iran's economic crisis, the lack of proper mechanisms to manage and control the phenomenon and absence of legal working visa scheme for Afghan immigrants have caused this social harm to spread.

[120][121][122] In Isfahan province, the Iranian Department of State Welfare (behzisti) keeps a database of the scanned retina irises of a number of working street kids, and have put "child friendly" measures in place to support them, reduce the social harm from their presence, and improve their quality of life.

[135] 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.

It was not the reformer or the politician that ended the grim necessity for child labour; it was capitalism.In 1998, UNICEF reported that Ivory Coast farmers used enslaved children – many from surrounding countries.

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.

[174] In 2001, a voluntary agreement called the Harkin–Engel 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.

[181] 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.

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.

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.

After a five-week 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.

However, others have raised concerns that boycotting products manufactured through child labour may force these children to turn to more dangerous or strenuous professions, such as prostitution or agriculture.

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.

[208] Periodically, governments, employers' and workers' organisations have met in global conference to assess progress and remaining obstacles and to agree measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour by 2016: first in Oslo (1997), followed by: The Hague (2010); Brasília, 8–10 October 2013;[209] Buenos Aires, 14–16 November 2017;[210] and most recently Durban, South Africa, 15–20 May 2022.