Child labour is the practice of employing under aged children to work for minimal or no pay in conditions seen as unsavoury to modern work conditions. It is a terrible thing to think about, as people such as Taima (pictured left) won't live to see their 18th birthday. The practice of child labour is illegal in many countries. However, countries that don't have or have a fledgling government, do not have the resources or the no how to stop such an act from occurring.Child labour can be categorized into a number of different activities. These activities include: factory work, mining, prostitution, quarrying, agriculture, helping in the parents' business, having one's own small business (for example selling food), and other odd jobs. There is an estimated 218 million children between the ages of 5-17 that are involved in these types of activities. Most of these children are from very poor households and rural areas.
Child labour itself has many disadvantages, but also surprisingly has advantages as well. Even though the disadvantages greatly outnumber the advantages, the advantages still exist. Here are a couple of these disadvantages & advantages:
Advantage #1: It's cheap. Very cheap. Big companies (Including Apple Inc. with the manufacturing of the iPhone) can pay incredibly small amounts for the manufacturing of their products.
Advantage #2: It provides a small income for the family that the child belongs to. It may not be much but it will help with the family's general well being.
Disadvantage #1: Whilst there are advantages to a family, there is a major disadvantage to the child as they will not get an education, and once they get older or are looking for a new job, they are only trained in one field.
Disadvantage #2: It's dangerous. Children can be seriously hurt or even killed thanks to the extremely poor work conditions that they have to work in.
One thing that is undeniably, is the fact that child labour is still a large international problem that probably won't be resolved any time soon.
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