Child labour

Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood,
interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally
dangerous and harmful.[3] This practice is considered exploitative by many international organisations.
Legislation across the world prohibit child labour.[4][5] These laws do not consider all work by children as child
labour; exceptions include work by child artists, family duties, supervised training, certain categories of work
such as those by Amish children, some forms of child work common among indigenous American children,
and others.[6][7][8]
Child labour has existed to varying extents, through most of history. During the 19th and early 20th centuries,
many children aged 5–14 from poorer families still worked in Europe, the United States and various colonies
of European powers. These children mainly worked in agriculture, home-based assembly operations, factories,
mining and in services such as news boys. Some worked night shifts lasting 12 hours. With the rise of
household income, availability of schools and passage of child labour laws, the incidence rates of child labour
fell.[9][10][11]
In the world's poorest countries, around 1 in 4 children are engaged in child labour, the highest number of
whom (29 percent) live in sub-saharan Africa.[12]In 2017, four African nations (Mali, Benin, Chad and Guinea-
Bissau) witnessed over 50 percent of children aged 5–14 working.[12] Worldwide agriculture is the largest
employer of child labour.[13] The vast majority of child labour is found in rural settings and informal urban
economy; children are predominantly employed by their parents, rather than factories.[14] Poverty and lack of
schools are considered as the primary cause of child labour.[15]
Globally the incidence of child labour decreased from 25% to 10% between 1960 and 2003, according to
the World Bank.[16] Nevertheless, the total number of child labourers remains high,
with UNICEF and ILO acknowledging an estimated 168 million children aged 5–17 worldwide, were involved
in child labour in 2013.[

Causes of Child Labor

 The major reasons being poverty and overpopulation. These two go hand in hand.
Poor families tend to have more children, and when earnings of a sole person do not
suffice, young children are forced to take up jobs wherever they can. Having too many
members puts a financial burden on poverty-stricken families, and parents are
compelled to send their children to work to get extra income.
 Lack of education among the poorer sections of society is also a leading cause for
children to start working early. Ignorant and illiterate people do not think twice about
engaging their children in manual labor, since they are not aware of the harmful physical
and mental trauma it can inflict on the child. Being poor, they cannot afford a decent
education for the children, nor do they understand the importance of primary education
in children's lives.
 In many developing nations, textile and garment manufacturers use children to make
garments. Factory owners cut back production costs by employing children rather
than adults, who are in turn paid a lot less and forced to work a lot more. Also, there is
no risk of these young laborers coming up against the factory owners by forming unions
because they are unaware of their rights, and hence this practice flourishes on a large-
scale.
 Even though countries have laws in place, these are not being implemented, leading to
further exploitation of innocent children. Apathy by the government and the society
has seen an increase in child workers in developing and under-developed countries.
 In some countries, women are denied formal education and are brought up only to
perform household chores since a very young age. Such a society believes that an
educated woman will not fit into the traditional role of a home maker and bear children.
This notion fuels child labor and young girls thus get pushed into doing manual house
work from an early age.
 Families migrating from rural to urban areas in search of better prospects often end
up pushing their children to take up odd, menial jobs. This happens due to lack of
proper educational resources in the rural areas, as a result of which these people do not
find jobs in cities. So to make ends meet, children bear the brunt while the adults are left
unemployed.
 In villages, people under heavy debt "sell off" their children for a small amount of
money or to repay the outstanding amount. This has given rise to the practice of
bonded child labor. As a result, children are thrust into doing very hard work for long
durations of time, that could well extend into their adulthood, till their family is free from
the debt.

Effects of Child Labor

 Children who work often face serious health problems because of working incessantly in
perilous conditions. Often the employers do not care at all about underage children who
are almost always malnourished, and continue to work for long hours with little or no
respite.
 Their mental health also takes a beating owing to this severe form of exploitation. These
children often face severe mental trauma when they attain adulthood, owing to the
constant threats and ill-treatment they received toiling away as laborers.
 Children who cannot find work to feed large families resort to begging on the streets,
and in many cases, also fall prey to prostitution. At other times, they even turn into
thieves just to make a quick buck on which the family's survival depends.
 It also has a negative impact on the welfare of a nation. Since these children do not
receive any education, it increases illiteracy, hampering the overall economic growth of
the country, reflecting poor human development.
 Lack of education as children also means that when they turn into adults, finding jobs
becomes tough since these children do not possess the necessary skills and training.
This leads to a sharp hike in unemployment.
 Such children are always underpaid, and that lowers the country's per capita income,
putting long-term economic development in peril.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation 1: Each group of children in an early childhood
education and care program should be assigned a teacher who has a
bachelor’s degree with specialized education related to early childhood
(e.g., developmental psychology, early childhood education, early
childhood special education). Achieving this goal will require a significant
public investment in the professional development of current and new
teachers.

Sadly, there is a great disjunction between what is optimal pedagogically for

children’s learning and development and the level of preparation that currently
typifies early childhood educators. Progress toward a high-quality teaching force
will require substantial public and private support and incentive systems,
including innovative educational programs, scholarship and loan programs, and
compensation commensurate with the expectations of college graduates.

Recommendation 2: Education programs for teachers should provide them

with a stronger and more specific foundational knowledge of the
development of children’s social and affective behavior, thinking, and
language.

Few programs currently do. This foundation should be linked to teachers’

knowledge of mathematics, science, linguistics, literature, etc., as well as to
instructional practices for young children.

Recommendation 3: Teacher education programs should require mastery

of information on the pedagogy of teaching preschool-aged children,
including:

 Knowledge of teaching and learning and child development and how to

integrate them into practice.
 Information about how to provide rich conceptual experiences that promote
growth in specific content areas, as well as particular areas of
development, such as language (vocabulary) and cognition (reasoning).
 Knowledge of effective teaching strategies, including organizing the
environment and routines so as to promote activities that build social-
emotional relationships in the classroom.
 Knowledge of subject-matter content appropriate for preschool children
and knowledge of professional standards in specific content areas.
 Knowledge of assessment procedures (observation/performance records,
work sampling, interview methods) that can be used to inform instruction.
  Knowledge of the variability among children, in terms of teaching methods
and strategies that may be required, including teaching children who do
not speak English, children from various economic and regional contexts,
and children with identified disabilities.
 Ability to work with teams of professionals.
 Appreciation of the parents’ role and knowledge of methods of
collaboration with parents and families.
 Appreciation of the need for appropriate strategies for accountability.

Recommendation 4: A critical component of preservice preparation should

be a supervised, relevant student teaching or internship experience in
which new teachers receive ongoing guidance and feedback from a
qualified supervisor.

There are a number of models (e.g., National Council for Accreditation of

Teacher Education) that suggest the value of this sort of supervised student
teaching experience. A principal goal of this experience should be to develop the
student teacher’s ability to integrate and apply the knowledge base in practice.
Collaborative support by the teacher preparation institution and the field
placement is essential. Supervision of this experience should be shared by a
master teacher and a regular or clinical university faculty member.

Recommendation 5: All early childhood education and child care programs

should have access to a qualified supervisor of early childhood education.

Teachers should be provided with opportunities to reflect on practice with

qualified supervisors. This supervisor should be both an expert teacher of young
children and an expert teacher mentor. Such supervisors are needed to provide
in-service collaborative experiences, in-service materials (including interactive
videodisc materials), and professional development opportunities directed toward
improvement of early childhood pedagogy.