Is Child Labour GOOD or BAD?

Let's discuss child labor.

in so many countries in the world, children are used as the prime laborers in factories.

Pros

1) children earn money
2) get food to eat which otherwise is not available
3) help the local economy by providing cheap labor

Cons

1) Children work in harsh conditions
2) can't attend school
3) deprived of basic rights

What are your VIEWS?

Bad.. wat else?

Totally depends on the situation.

A child given the opportunity to work and experience the process of earning their living is a part of growing up. This process ought to be fair and supportive, not oppressive.

In the United States child labor is illegal, you cannot find employment till age 16. Yet during ages 12-16 teenagers will take on odd jobs like pet sitting, baby sitting, dog walking, small household chores that the kid can feasibly do. Yes in this case a child is performing 'labor' but the process is fair.

However, at the same time USA has a lot of illegal immigrants. Certain businesses exploit these immigrants for profits. Not just teenagers but even adults are forced to work long hours with low pay. Locked inside buildings to clean etc.

I think it is not as much of a problem of child labor as it is of basic human fairness.

Now child labor like in sweatshops itself can be a tricky situation. The cons as you listed are true. There is a blatant denial of basic human rights and education. However, we do not look at the whole perspective. I am unable to cite the article, but I will try to find it.

An Asian newspaper had run an article on Nike. Nike faced a lot of social pressure due to its reputation of running sweatshops. It was forced to shut down several sweatshops in southeast Asia that ran on child labor. Many of these children came from families where every income in the household was desperately needed. The result was that many children started being sold into prostitution, or into drug cartels or poaching rings. Infanticide was on the rise and many children were abandoned to starve as families could no longer supported them. Locals interviewed perceived the Nike sweatshop as blessings. Teenage girls saw slaving in a sweatshop an honorable escape from forced prostitution and sex slavery. They called the shutting down of sweatshops a form of 'western moral imperialism'.

The truth is sometimes when we go against child labor, we can end up doing something worse.

Child labor is morally wrong. Treating any human as chattel is wrong. But the next time instead of simply not buying or demanding the end of child labor, we ought to actually invest in sponsoring a child and supporting funds that save children from being sold into other forms of slavery out of economic crisis. If we cannot economically and socially help them, then we have no right of denying them of the lesser evil.

I'm totally against child labour.

But i dont think it can be combated alone, simply by banning child labour. The underlying problem is poverty. It is poverty that drives these children to work to try sustain themselves. It is poverty that forces them out of schools, either due to lack of proper schools or difficulties in going to them. Poverty cycles are difficult to break and by simply banning child labour, we cannot solve the problem.

Moreover, what these children are paid are starvation wages. They are barely enough to support the children through a day by buying them meals. The cycle is never ending. Doing this menial job, they'll have to work long hours. without education, their life does not improve. They are unable to provide for their family, and their kids end up in the same rut. Moreover, the ctry's economy doesnt grow. These are unskilled labour thats pretty unproductive. They'll be better off with education to work in the ctry's developing sectors.

Originally posted by: sneha3105

I'm totally against child labour.

But i dont think it can be combated alone, simply by banning child labour. The underlying problem is poverty. It is poverty that drives these children to work to try sustain themselves. It is poverty that forces them out of schools, either due to lack of proper schools or difficulties in going to them. Poverty cycles are difficult to break and by simply banning child labour, we cannot solve the problem.

Moreover, what these children are paid are starvation wages. They are barely enough to support the children through a day by buying them meals. The cycle is never ending. Doing this menial job, they'll have to work long hours. without education, their life does not improve. They are unable to provide for their family, and their kids end up in the same rut. Moreover, the ctry's economy doesnt grow. These are unskilled labour thats pretty unproductive. They'll be better off with education to work in the ctry's developing sectors.

YES the real problem is with poverty