"Massive in scale, corrosive to society, and fatal in its consequences, it is cruel to children and insulting to human dignity"(Awake! 1999).
It is important to remember the costs of losing the present-day economic structure. Those who are exploited around the world are more often than not, children. Speaking of the causes in terms easily understood, the causes of child labor is purely the exploitation of poverty. "For poor families, the small contribution of a child's income or assistance at home that allows the parents to work can make the difference between hunger and a bare sufficiency,"says The State of the World's Children 1997. The parents of child workers are often unemployed or underemployed. They are desperate for a secure income. Why use children? They can be paid less. Because children are more docile and malleable-many will do whatever they are told to do, seldom questioning authority.
Some forms of child labor? Domestic service, forced and bonded laborers, commercial sexual exploitation and industrial and plantation labor. Such children toil in mining operations that would be considered too risky for adults. Many suffer from TB, bronchitis, and asthma.
The effects of child labor on the psychological, emotional, and intellectual growth of the victims are also grave. According to one study, nearly half of the 250 million child laborers have dropped out of school.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) tries to help eliminate the worst forms of child labor, but what can be expected for the workers? Save the Children president says, "The political will and public knowledge aren't there to make it happen."
WHY? "Child labour is often a complex issue. Powerful forces sustain it, including many employers, vested interest groups and economists proposing that the market must be free at all costs, and traditionalists believing the caste or class of certain children denudes them of rights."
America has a history of forgetting it's own struggles. While we sit an feel sorry for ourselves and complain about how bad life is while working at a boring job, think about your childhood and replace the hours you spent watching Scooby-Doo with images of cutting cane with a machete.
Your bodies and minds can handle the abuse of so much more than you know. But children around the world have no choice. Let's be thankful for the blessings we've received and make sure we protect our children's future.