Child Labour speech

What is Child Labor?

Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there, child labour is when a child under 18 works upwards of 8 hours a day 5 days a week. In around 8 out of 10 cases of child labour, the kid does not choose to work because the parents are forcing them to or they do not have any choice because of a reason like money. The children usually work for a sizeable exploitative company or in an industry considered illegal. I found a song called “Just because you can’t see it” this is a great source of information that says what child labour is like and how bad it is. It says someone works for 14 hours in a place where he can hardly breathe, it also says that that little someone is 8 years old.

What is bad with Child Labor?

Child labour can hurt the children more than you probably realised, while the kids are effectively “slaves” 97% of them are subjected to mental or physical harm and in some cases.. even death, Kamal is 10 years old and works in a brick kiln in Nepal. Every day he gets up in the early hours and toils until late, shaping bricks out of clay, carrying backbreaking loads and breathing dust and smoke deep into his lungs. In almost every case, child labour means that the kid is getting cut off from schooling and health care, restricting their fundamental rights and threatening their futures. It is illegal, inhumane and the only thing stopping it from becoming legal is a single law called the CRC Act. The CRC Act is a human rights treaty made in 1989 and defines international standards for the treatment of children worldwide. The act says that children under the age of 18 working over 8 hours a day are considered child labour, by doing this the act is able to somewhat restrict underage children from working in NZ by sending you to prison for about 5-20 years depending on how bad is was.

How do the Children end up working?

Before we can talk about how we can stop child labour we first need to know how they end up working. Child labour most commonly occurs with poverty, the job loss/death of a primary wage earner, and conflicts like wars or mass migration. Kidnapping and forced labour are also in the picture but it is not often that this happens, and after 2021 this is even less common.

How can I help stop it?

Anyone can help stop child labour by spreading awareness about the situation or donating to an organisation like World Vision and Save The Children, they will then send that money to the families and kids in need so that they are able to leave. Or you can protest, protests are good because they can raise awareness of your problem and if there are enough people you can force change. But it can also be very dangerous if it turns violent. -So I would not recommend protesting because of that reason- A great option is creating an online movement, it spreads online awareness and pressures the companies using child labour to stop using them. It's the option that I would do if I had enough time on my hands.

Conclusion

Child labour is a much larger problem than it has credit for, it is practically enslaving children! and yet not many people know about it:( It's sad, many were taken from their parents, many had their dad lose his job or died so they had to start working for food, and some just fell into scams and can’t escape. We can protest for them and force the government to help, spread awareness and get people to donate to an organization like World Vision or create an online movement and spread awareness there. You don’t have to do any of these options, all I ask is that you respond, help them, help them escape.