Childhood is the most innocent
stage in a human life. It is that phase of life where 'CHILD LABOUR'. There are
various causes and effects of child labour. Eliminating child labour is one of
the biggest challenges that the whole world is facing. A child is free from all
the tensions, fun-loving, play and learns new things, and is the sweetheart of
all the family members. But this is only one side of the story. The other side
is full of tensions and burdens. Here, the innocent child is not the sweetheart
of the family members, instead he is an earning machine working the entire day
in order to satisfy the needs and wants of his/her family. This is what is
called Child labour includes working children who are below a certain minimum
age. This practice is going on since long and is one of the worst forms of child
exploitation. Child labour not only causes damage to a child’s physical and
mental health but also keep him deprive of his basic rights to education,
development, and freedom. According to statistics provided by UNICEF, there are
an estimated 250 million children aged 5 to 14 years employed in child labour
worldwide and this figure is continuously increasing .Child labour is not only
affecting under-developed and developing countries, but developed countries are
also facing this though the rate is comparatively very less. Child labor in Asia
accounts for the highest percentage of child labour (61%) followed by Africa
(32%). According to International Labour Organization (ILO), if child labor will
be banned and all children get proper education, world's total income would be
raised by nearly 22% over 20 years, which accounts for more than $4 trillion.
Banning child labor will help in boosting the economy of a country. Causes of
Child Labour: The main causes of child labor include poverty, unemployment, and
excess population. Among these, poverty is the primary cause of child labour.
You must have observed that poor families have more number of children, so it
becomes very difficult for them to survive on the income of only one family
member which is also quite less. So they make their small children their source
of income. They make their children work in factories, shops, even selling items
on streets. Some parents even carry infants on the streets to earn money from
begging. Some percentage of child labour also comes from harassment by parents,
step-parents or relatives. There are many cases of child labor where a child has
to work against the repayment of a loan which was taken by his father who was
unable to pay it off. This is called as 'bonded child labour'. Bonded child
labor normally happens in villages. Such children work like slaves in order to
pay the loan taken. Not only poor families, but some well established business
families also put their children into business at a quite young age instead of
making them complete their education. Effect Of Child Labour: There are very bad
effects of child labor for our society, which forces some children to steal
things from others in order to satisfy their daily living. Many small girls are
even made to indulge in prostitution. A recent case of child labor came into
picture where a 10 year old kid was beaten to death because the innocent kid was
slow at things. The cruel owner went angry and threw the child across the room
resulting in the most extreme punishments. It was not only the cruel owner who
was at the fault, but the parents of the child were also equally involved in
this incident. They took $10 as advance and sent their child to work for the
sake of getting some monthly income. May be even the parents would never have
thought that a little sum of money could lead to such horrible incident. There
are various organizations which are fighting against child labour by helping
children and imparting education among that part of society from where majority
of the child labour comes. Poor families should be given knowledge about family
planning/control so that they are not burdened by children. It would be
advisable not to keep small children at home for taking domestic help in daily
household chores. Let us all take some step in this direction so that we can
bring smiles to many faces and make this world a beautiful place for a child to
live in....AMEEN