Child Labour

The lower cost of employing child workers and the irreplaceable skills provided by them are often cited to explain the demand for child labour. Although there is validity in the first argument, the second does not hold water. In all the industries that rely heavily on child labour, most of the tasks performed by children are also performed by adults working side by side with them. Clearly, children do not have irreplaceable skills. The other factors, responsible for the demand for child labour, seem to be non-economic. Employers are tempted to hire child labour because children are much less aware of their rights and most unlikely to get organised in trade unions.

In a survey UNICEF shows that more than half the children in the developing world are severely deprived of one or more of the necessities essential to childhood: 640 million children do not have adequate shelter, 500 million children have no access to sanitation, 400 million children do not have access to safe water, 300 million children lack access to information, 270 million children have no access to health care services, 140 million children have never been to school, 90 million children are severely food-deprived.

Hence, how can we sleep well while the situation is so pathetic? We have to work together for these children all over the world. We have to nurture their dreams. We can't let them wither away with the over burden of labour. It should not be curse for them that they belong to poor families. These children have also rights to live like other children. The word "working" will not be put against them, they will live in this earth as only "children" as long as they are children.