Definition of Child Labor

Is considered child labor to all that activity carried out by boys or girls to contribute to the economy from his family, or failing it, to procure their own survival.

Activity carried out by a child with which he contributes to the family economy or to his own livelihood

Of course, this circumstance will be considered an irregular situation and absolutely contrary to what the rights of the child propose.
When the child is forced to work, or is forced to do so, the possibility of enjoying his childhood properly is being curtailed, he will suffer a crisis moral and mental that sooner or later will end up affecting you for the rest of your life, the negative consequences that this produces are practically irreversible ...

An act contrary to the law that must be punished and that violates the rights of the child

Children should do childish things, study, attend school, play with friends, among other activities, but never work, this situation totally violates your most basic rights and it is important to make this clear so that everyone know. For a child to work, for whatever circumstance, is unacceptable and should be avoided and those who force him to do so should be punished.

Most of the organizations International organizations that defend and fight for the rights of the people oppose it, fight it and consider the act as an absolute exploitation.

Although child exploitation is punishable by most of the world's laws, this is in no way an impediment for it to occur in many places, unfortunately.

Solve grassroots problems through public policies

We must also say that this state of affairs is not solved only with a conviction or punishment but that it is necessary to modify, through public policies, various factors that predispose it, such as the poor distribution of wealth and social gaps.

Now, we must clarify that not all activities that children develop and that do not involve playing or studying, should be considered as work or exploitation, only those that prevent their normal development, for example, doing artistic or sports activities are absolutely recommended and positive for children, since they help them in their physical, mental and Social.

So a very common situation is that children work when they are not old enough to do so because someone else obligates, the father, the mother, a brother, a friend or any other close relative, with some authority over them, the threat with some question, for example, who will hit them, if not they go out to work.

How the exploitation of the child works

Of course, once the child returns with the income obtained, none of it will remain in their hands, but they will have to hand everything over to the person who forces them to work. Almost never the minor receives any kind of benefit from the money he obtained working, because in reality, the person who submits it is the one who keeps it. to invest it in issues that have little to do with the common welfare of the family, such as: drugs, alcoholic beverages, among others.
Meanwhile, the child takes the greatest damage because at that time he not only loses the possibility of doing children's things, as we said studying or playing, but also approaches a world of adults, generally dangerous and in which he is obviously exposed to various dangers, especially against his integrity physical.

In most cases of child labor, children are forced to carry out life-threatening activities such as armed robbery, drug trafficking, prostitution, among the most recurrent.

Causal

Regarding the causes that trigger child labor there are many, although the most common are: marginalization and extreme poverty of the family to which it belongs, which forces the child to go out and search for economic sustenance by their own means, child exploitation networks that co-opt poor children with needs, armed conflicts, are also a soup from culture so that children are abused in thousands of ways, by peer pressure, that is, some children are forced by friends to work in order to get money that allows them meet their needs, as a consequence of parental negligence and orphanhood, not having older adults to guide and protect them, inevitably leads to a scenario of this kind.

The figures it provides UNICEF about this reality are alarming, approximately 346 million boys and girls They are in this sorry situation.

It should be noted that child labor will prevent a child from behaving as such and from carrying out those activities that are considered typical for her age: studying and playing.

While child labor or child exploitationAs this situation is also called, it especially affects those developing countries, but not for that reason in industrialized countries it ceases to be a reality. Unfortunately, in recent years, child labor is also a reality in countries considered developed.

In order to raise awareness population world about this scourge that grows day by day around the world is that a calendar day has been established, the April 16th, to remember the thousands and thousands of cases that exist around the planet.

Issues in Child Labor