Child labor is a crime in almost all parts of the world regardless of circumstance. Both the person who employs and the ones who give out a child for employment are answered about to in a court of law for their actions. Child labor is a situation where children engage in paid or sometimes unpaid work through force or voluntarily. A child is any person who is below a certain age depending on the country for example 21 and 19 years. The argument on which qualifies child labor as a crime is that when they are working, the employees deprives them of social, physical and mental wellbeing as well as good education. The problem is more in developing countries leading to deprivation of a quality healthy life. This study analyzes the major causes of child labor to offer a solution to the problem.

Causes of Child Labor

Poverty is the primary cause of child labor. Families which are poor tend to force their children to work with them in industries or farms to increase their incomes. Most developing countries pay their worker’s low wages which are not enough to take children to school and feed them at the same time. The parents decide to force them to work so that they can maximize income for food. Also, by the fact that the parents are unable to pay school fees, the children themselves decide to look for work as a way to sustaining themselves and trying to solve the problem of school fees. Family poverty, therefore, becomes one of the factors that lead children to either forced or voluntary labor. Also, most of the industries in developing countries strive to maximize the profits they get. One of the strategies they use is to employ children whom they can either pay little or no wages. They take advantage of the children since they will argue that the work they can do is not similar to the adult’s output and therefore pay them less.

Another cause of child labor is a failure to attend schools. In developing countries, most children do not attend school because of lack of motivation. In such situations, children develop a love for money and therefore looks for work which the employees cannot deny because they are also in need for that cheap labor. Insufficient social control is another factor that leads to child labor. In a country where there is no control of social behaviors, parents tend to engage their children in employment because they know that nobody will question them. The society is not cautious about children life, and therefore, they accept to employ children and also see their employment without taking actions. In communities where there is social control, such events cannot occur since most people are cautious about children’s life with the position that they are innocent and underage to be used as a source of income. Developing countries are not strict with laws. People violate child labor laws creating a situation where it appears to be an acceptable norm. The situation increases child labor where children voluntary accept to work after being encultured that it is good and allowed.

Solutions to Child Labor

The future of any country more so the developing ones lies in the children. It is therefore essential to look for ways of protecting their growth to become resourceful in the future. One such strategy of saving than is through ending child labor. One solution to child labor is tightening the laws. The government should ensure that no employees include children in their workforce or parent allowing their children to engage in commercial work. Another solution is sharing the burden of looking after the children with the parents. In most developing countries, parents cannot top feed their children and pay their school fees. The government needs to subsidize education to ensure that all children are in school throughout. There should also be more unions and organizations fighting against child labor. Such groups will help create awareness and sensitize people about work for children. Increase sensitization will create fear in anybody who may want to practice child labor.

Conclusion

People engage children in labor thinking that they are solving problems of income and labor cost. However, they forget that children education and a good foundation is the only long-lasting solution to poverty. They few like the government which understands the need for proper child growth does not protect them as required even with all the powers and the resources. Poverty makes society lose social control and become insensitive to such inhuman actions on children. However, there are initiatives which people can take to save children from such torture at their young age. One of them is tightening the existing laws on labor and becoming serious in implementing them. The government and society have the potential to end the crime by being alert on such issues. Through combined efforts from all people after understanding the dangers of child labor, the crime can come to an end.

Works Cited

Pearson, Susan J. “‘Age Ought to Be a Fact’: The Campaign against Child Labor and the Rise of the Birth Certificate.” Journal of American History, vol. 101, no. 4, Mar. 2015, pp. 1144–1165.

Putnick, Diane L., and Marc H. Bornstein. “Vi. Girls’ and Boys’ Labor and Household Chores in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.” Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, vol. 81, no. 1, Mar. 2016, pp. 104–122.