Child Labor in Africa Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Child Labor in Africa - Research Paper Example Defining the phenomena To this date millions of children are working forcefully or willingly, under hazardous conditions which are not just harmful to their health and well-being but also to the innocence of their childhood. The innocence unknowingly seeps out of their souls as they choose a life in order to fulfill a role not yet meant for them. In the UNICEF Child Labor protection information sheet, child labor is defined as children that fall in the bracket of under 12 working in any kind of economic activity, children between the age of 12-14 engaged in any form of work that can’t be labeled as light work and all ages involved in the worst form of labor which are enslaved, prostituted, trafficked, forced into illegal activities or exposed to hazardous conditions (1). Further on, it is important to understand what is not taken as child labor; involvement in any sort of work by children which is neither having a negative effect on their health, personal growth not is it crea ting any form of hindrance in their journey for education (ILO & I-P Union, 14). For example a daughter helps her mother in household chores or a son assists his dad every now and then on the family farm. International Labor Organization Under the watchful eye of the United Nations, International Labor Organization initiated a program in the year 1992 known as the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor. The goal of the organization was to eliminate child labor from its roots. Currently, IPEC has operations in 88 countries and with the help of different partners such as NGO’s, private businesses etc., it is making tremendous efforts to infiltrate the child labor swamp and clean it up (Wikipedia). Increasing concern of child labor With the help of different organizations, NGO’s, some powerful governments; Child Labor has turned into a heated debate and is one of the most important issues discussed all around the world due to the growing concept of global ization through which global communication was conceived. Yet, even with all the discussions, debates and awareness rising around the globe the eradication of the malice completely would take quite a long time. As discussed earlier, the new world order brought with it many different perspectives. Globalist would refer to it as a positive step towards solving the problem of collective goods, isolationist policies and others that were present before the cold war. While skeptics would come up with the argument that accuses globalization of being a system that has generated intensive competition between states in which labor and resources are exploited to a dangerous extreme. Nevertheless, globalization, liberalization of trade, transparency of economy and changing thought process of consumers is an extremely important reason as to why child labor has turned into a growing concern (ILO & I-P Union, 18). Africa- leading the world in child labor? In Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa is a region that is accounted to have the highest percentage of child labor. International Labor Organization statistics present to us an astounding figure of 80 million that is a prominent 41% of children who belong to the under 14 age bracket are working (Andvig, Canagarajah &