Child Labour

Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states that: 

1. State Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development (CRC). 

What is Child Labour?

Let’s begin by understanding that there is a common misconception that all work children do is child labour. Not all work children do is considered “child labour” (i.e. those chores your parents ask you to do are not child labour). It is work that is likely to be hazardous, that interferes with the child’s education, or that could be harmful to the child’s development that NGO’s and other organizations are targeting. This includes prostitution, trafficking, and participation in crime (which are illegal even for adults), but also hazardous work such as carrying loads that are too heavy, using dangerous machinery and being exposed to chemicals without proper protection (O'Neill 2014). 

This is typically the kind of work people associate with “child labour” and/or “child slavery” and it is what NGO’s and other organizations prompt the general public to “save children” from.

Prevalence and Causes

In today’s world, child labour is a prevalent issue, affecting approximately 218 million children worldwide. While this number is decreasing, the pace at which change has been occurring is slower than many had hoped (Free the Children).

Why is this? Most children work in the Informal Sector, meaning that their work is not documented or tracked, and many of these children need to work to support their families, and as such they are vulnerable to becoming child labourers (O'Neill 2014).

These are the common explanations, but I feel that they only brush the surface of the problem. The truth is, child labour cannot be so easily remedied by “saving children” from their current life situation. No, the problem is a whole lot more complicated than that. While Gary Becker suggests that all individuals in the workforce make rational, informed decisions to maximize their own benefit in his Rational Choice Theory, we know that many children's "choices" are often constrained by socio-economic status, family needs and other outside factors (O'Neill 2014). Many children work to support their families, or to support themselves because their families cannot afford to support them. Often they are forced into terrible working conditions because they are young, desperate and uneducated. Out of the 218 million children worldwide who are conscripted into child labour, 58 million are not in school, and 150 million will have dropped out before completing primary education (Free the Children).This contradicts the Rational Choice Theory, because these children simply do not understand the workforce and cannot make rational decisions regarding work. 

These children basically have no chance of escaping the cycle of poverty because they simply haven’t been educated to know what is right and what is wrong. 

Unsurprisingly, the regions where children are most at risk of being exploited for their labour almost always correlates with the regions in which education and literacy rates are the lowest (there are notable exceptions). For example, Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the highest incidences of child labourers at 59 million (or 21%). This correlates with the lower levels of literacy found across Sub-Saharan Africa.

So instead of simply “saving-children” from a bad situation, NGO’s and everyone else interested in bettering the lives of child-labourers should be looking at the root of the problem, not simply trying to solve the problem without addressing the causes. Educate these children not only in literacy, but also in their rights. 

Free the Children states that "In order to prevent being exploited, and to have the chance at a future that is healthy and productive, children need to understand what's going on around them well enough to choose a safe and prosperous path. Education gives them this opportunity."

Education is the first step to rectifying a problem that has persisted through generations; it is the key to helping children protect themselves from exploitation, and the first step in lifting themselves out of poverty.

Throwing more money at child labourers won't solve the problem; proper education is needed to start the path towards change.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime 
- Maimonides