Child Labour is the engaging of children into any form of labour before they attain the age of majority. It is practiced even in the most developed countries like United States of America, United Kingdom and most of the European countries.
Britain was the first industrialised country to adopt legislation on the safety and health of child workers by designing the First Factory Act 1802 to regulate child labour in the United Kingdom, later all industrial activities were covered under Factory and Workshop Act 1878.
The basic International legislation for the protection of children is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for Elimination of Child Labour and Protection of Children and Young Persons. Legislation adopted in the European Union is the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union 2007.
In a UNICEF study in 2005 it provided employers prefer children above adults for the purpose of laborious work because children cost less and are obedient at work, they have soft hands and are more appropriate for artistic work and it is easier to train them. Most of the member countries do not have a concrete law to combat child labour, their law is either incomplete or ambiguous, and thus the employer take undue advantage of the loop holes in them, moreover, in most of the developing countries actual age of the children are not established due to lack of a proper birth registration infrastructure. Another vital reason is lack of educational facilities; this leaves children with no option but to be a labourer.
The International Labour Organisation has claimed that the rate of decrease in child labour has declined by 3 percent, it also warned for the negative effects of further economic crisis on the moves against child labour.
The ILO has admitted that one out of every five children, aged between 10-17 years, is being exploited as labourer in sub-Saharan Africa. Most experts are of the view that the international regulations on child labour have practically failed to control child labour. They have recommended that the solution for this global problem is providing incentives to children and their families.
Read more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5071172.stm
http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C182
Kis-Katos K and G G Schulze, Regulation of Child Labour, The Economics of Employment Regulation (Institute of Economic Affairs, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford 2005).
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