Child Labour.

Essay by magicalrealmerHigh School, 10th grade November 2003

download word file, 1 pages 4.0

Child Labour

For many people, child labour is something we think of as part of our history rather than our present, but the reality is that child labour continues today. Child labour refers to children who work in exploitative or dangerous conditions. Around the world, there are about 246 million children between the ages of 5 to 17 being employed in some form of economic activity. Among them, 179 million children -one in every eight children in the world - are subjected to the worst forms of child labour, which endanger the children's physical, mental or moral well-being.

The main cause of the child labour is poverty, family on or below the poverty line force their children into work in order to support their household's meagre income. Eradicating poverty, however, is only the first step on the road to eliminate child labour. I am trying to help these children by different ways such as donating, volunteering in the organization, etc.

I want to create awareness in people about child labour and slowly decrease the number of child labourers.

Child labour deprived those children of social and recreation crucial to their personal and social development. Moreover, many of the inexperienced child labourers may be completely unaware of the short and long term risks involved in their work. Many of them have physical injuries and mutilations caused by badly maintained machinery. Also, some of them are subject to poisoning, growth deficiency, and long-term health problem such as respiratory diseases, asbestosis and a variety of cancers.

Child labour is a human right issue that many organizations/groups are currently fighting for. It is very difficult to completely eliminate the number of child labourer, but the organizations are making some process. I feel very miserable just think about these children, I realise how fortunate I...