All children deserve a childhood

Introduction

Child Labor refers the work done by under age children in order to live an ordinary life with essential needs. Instead of enjoying their moments of childhood, they are being forced to do work as Child Labor in an unhealthy environment. No parent want that their children work as a labor in their little age instead of playing, enjoying or getting good education for just getting a few amount in rupees; but still they are forced to do it due to the bad circumstances.

Child trafficking has been the main concern for Indian government since 1980s; thus, the percentage of labor child is declining day by day but this major crime is still not stopped completely. There are so many workspaces where this non-acceptable crime occurs like agriculture, house hold activities, restaurants and dhabas, real estate, unsafe manufacturing industries (glass, match box, fireworks or coal mines), etc.

Causes

The main question comes into our mind after hearing about the child labor is that “Who is Responsible”? After deep research, we find that main cause for existences of this major crime is extreme poverty, shortage of good primary education centers, increased population, growth of informal economy, ignorance of rules and laws that has been made to prevent “child labor” and increasing demand of labor at low payment. Generally, this crime is done by those greedy industrialists who want their work to be done with less or without cost. Some of poor parents don’t understand how much their children are affected by this crime regarding their physical, moral and mental development. A child is the future citizen of the country and getting education, playing, enjoying childhood is the birth right of his/her. If a child has secure, healthy and educated future then automatically it will improve our nation’s informal economy.

Consequences

Child labor has several negative impacts. Some of them include:

1-Health issues: Child labor can also lead to health complications due to undernourishment and poor working conditions. It is highly unlikely that people who employ children also have the moral capacity to ensure that they have good working conditions. Working in places such as mines and badly conditioned factories may result in lifetime health issues for children employed to work in these places. A child assigned physically demanding duties may suffer physical trauma that may scare him or her for life.

2- Mental trauma: It is not a pleasant experience to be kept working as a child while your age-mates are out playing and going to school. Children also lack the ability to shield themselves from most of the challenges that occur in the workplace. Issues such as bullying, sexual exploitation, and unfavorable working hours may result in mental trauma in these children. They will find it hard to forget the past and may become societal misfits because of bad childhood experiences. Child labor may also result in the lack of emotional growth and thus insensitivity.

3- Illiteracy: Children that are employed do not have the time to go to school. They spend a lot of time in their workstations as the days and years go by. The lack of education and illiteracy makes them individuals with limited opportunities as far as employment is concerned. 

4- Loss of Quality childhood: It is important for human beings to enjoy every stage of their development. A child should play with friends and make memories for a lifetime. Child labor, therefore, leads to loss of quality childhood as children will be deprived of the opportunity to enjoy the amazing experiences that come with being young. Children are often encouraged to play because it helps in their growth and development. A child forced to work will miss many of the good things associated with childhood.

5- Drug intake: Children like in Pakistan is surrounded by sugar coated evils. In this way they easily get attracted to this in new era the streets of our country is fulfilled with the kids sitting under the night bulb doing drugs.

Solution

How can child labor be reduced or completely eradicated? Every child born has the right to have dreams and pursue those dreams. Even though the realization of some of these aspirations may be limited by several challenges, it is still possible to overcome them and achieve the highest levels of success.

There is need to involve various stakeholders to realize this objective. These are some of the ways in which the problem of child labor can be addressed:

1-     Free education.

2-     Moral polishing.

3-     Create demand for skilled and trained labors.

4-     Awareness.

Penalty

Imprisonment between 6 months to 2 years or fine of rupees 20,000 – 50,000 second offence will attract imprisonment of 1 year to 3 years.

Conclusion:

To end this problem “child labor”, each and every citizen should come forward and take necessary steps. We can do many things to make people aware of this crime by organizing campaigns, road shows, free education for poor people, advertisements, provide employment to their parents and many more. Without having unity we could not be able to give our “future leaders” a successful, happy, bright and secure life.