This House Supports Child Labour
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Transcript of This House Supports Child Labour
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This House supports child labour
Child labour may appear at first to be a pretty straight forward issue
it just seems wrong. Thoughts spring to mind of small children
working night and day for almost no money in horrible conditions.
However, perhaps were being too critical. Britain grew rich fast
during the industrial revolution on the back of cheap child labour.
Furthermore, as horrific as it may be to us, could the alternatives for
these children actually be worseif they didnt work, perhaps then
they wouldnt be able to afford to eat or help their families? On
whose standards should we be judging how good or bad, right orwrong, a situation is? Campaigners say that children should be in
school, but for families who are struggling to put food on the table,
perhaps school is actually a luxury that people just cant afford.
Weve put together a mini case study and factsheet to try and help
you think about the issues which may be important in this debate
Mini case-study:
In 2004 an anti-child labour organisation began working with the
clothes company GAP to try and make sure that GAPs suppliers
(factories in the developing world who sold them clothes) were
helpingnot harmingchildren. They hoped that together they
could create a positive strategy to tackle child labour, working to
make sure that factories provided the children with access to
schooling and job-training, as well as paying them an ongoing wage
and guaranteeing them jobs as soon as they reached the legalworking age. However a report published at the end of 2007 argued
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that the project had failed and children were still working in
conditions close to slavery.
Our case follows Amitosh, a 10 year old working in a GAP sweatshop
for only food and a bed. He was bought from his parents who were
told they wouldnt have to work again. The place where they work is
covered in filth, the corridors are flowing with excrement from a
flooded toilet. Another boy talks about the treatment where they
work, Last week, we spent four days working from dawn until about
one oclock in the morning the following day. I was so tired I felt sick,
he whispers, tears streaming down his face. If any of us cried we
were hit with a rubber pipe. Some of the boys had oily cloths stuffed
in our mouths as punishment.
However, Manik, who also works there, says I want to work here. I
have somewhere to sleep. The boss tells me I am learning. It is my
duty to stay here. Im learning to be a man and work. Eventually, I
will make money and buy a house for my mother.
So what does this story tell us?
That big companies such as GAP hold important contracts that
employ thousands of people in factories across the developing world.
Will losing these contracts make these factories abide by the rules or
will it just mean that worlds poorest people lost their jobs and one
of their only sources of income?
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It shows that it is possible for companies to create and support
systems in which children who need to work can both earn money
and receive an education.
But it also tells us that the conditions that many of these children
work in are unimaginably awful. They often work for long hours, for
little pay and without breaks. But does this mean we should try and
eradicate child labour? Or is this impossible? If it is should we be
working to make sure that conditions improve?
Finally, it reminds us how different it would be to grow up in the
developing world. Children in the developing world work to make
sure that both they and their families can eat.
Other issues:
The United Nations said that Child Labour is exploitative under the
UN Convention of the Rights of the Child which says that children
should be protected from: economic exploitation and from
performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interferewith the childs education, or to be harmful to the childs health or
physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development
- Some youth rights groups say children have a right to work if they
want or need to. By stopping them from working legally, they may
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be forced to work in even more undesirable places, work illegally or
beg.
- Statistics show that children living in the poorest households are
most likely to be engaged in child labour. Millions of girls who work
as domestic servants are especially vulnerable to exploitation and
abuse. However these families often rely on the labours of their
children for survival, and sometimes it is their only source of income
- In a rubber plantation in Liberia workers were told that if they did
not produce more their wages would be halved. So workers began
to bring in their children to help boost their production.
- We could say that child labour is a result of our own desire to buy
cheaper and cheaper clothes which forces factories to reduce their
prices in any way possible. Primark is one of the only industries that
continue to grow in the current financial crisis, their profits from this
last year were reported at 282,000,000they say they are
successful because their prices are incredibly low. On the other side
of things, People Tree is a fair-trade clothes company, meaning they
work directly with the people who make their clothes to make surethey are being treated fairly. They have so far not made any profits,
their products are more expensive than other high-street shops as
they pay higher wages to their workers
- UNICEF, the United National Childrens Fund, worries that if
children are at work then they are not being given a chance to have
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an education and therefore develop not only as individuals but also
for their country.
- During the Industrial Revolution in the UK, children as young as
four were employed in production factories and played a really
important part in building the industry which has allowed for the
development of the country. Child labour ended when wages rose
and parents were paid enough money to send their children to
school
- India has one of the worlds fastest-growing economies but has also
become the world capital for child labour. Child labour contributes
an estimated 20 per cent of Indias national income.
- A UNICEF study found that 5,000 to 7,000 children from Nepal who
previously worked in the carpet industry turned to prostitution after
the US banned imports due to child labour. The report continues
that often children dismissed from the garment industry are forced
to do jobs more hazardous and exploitative than garment
production.