Alvarez 1

Diana Alvarez
Ms. Burnett/ Mr. Okamoto
English 10/ Economics
24 November 2014
Child Labor and What the US Should Do
Clarisse Kambire is a 13 year old girl who works on a cotton farm that goes into
garments for Victoria Secret. She like many children get beaten on a daily bases and at times
only eats one meal a day. Children like her receive little to no wages and do not attend school.
During the industrial revolution children were mainly used for work due to their physical size
and the power to control them without having them rebel. With the help of reformations child
labor was reduced and hidden away from the public eye. Some companies knowingly or
unknowingly use child labor to produce their products. Organizations have fought to end child
labor and have helped children worldwide. With children being the worlds future the US should
not import goods from countries that use child labor because every child deserves to live an
educational lifestyle and not be placed in harms way.
During the industrial revolution children were mostly used to work in mines and
factories, due to the risk of children hurting themselves people began having reformations and
fought to create laws to help reduce child labor. According to the international organization, the
United Nations, child labor is defined as work that children should not be doing because they
are too young to work, or if they are old enough to work because it is dangerous or otherwise
unsuitable for them. Although the industrial revolution helped Great Britain economically many
children were used during this time as workers. With long hours and no time for studying
children were mainly used because; Their size allowed them to move in small spaces in

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factories and mines. (History.com Staff). Furthermore, as the Child Labor Public Education
Project would point out, children were often preferred, because factory owners viewed them as
more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to strike. (continuetolearn.uiowa.edu). Having
children as workers allowed the employers to take control of the children and abuse them as
much as they would like knowing that if the children fought back they will be fired and wouldnt
be able to provide for their family.
Due to families not being able to afford necessities they send out their sons and daughters
to work in fields, factories and many other locations. Some families are not able to afford much
food or pay for their housing so everyone in the family needed to go out into the work field and
earn money. The Child Labor Public Education Project explains that some causes of children
going into the labor force are due to poverty, free education is limited and existing laws or codes
of conduct are often violated. With all of these factors being part to why they become laborers,
children who work are engaged in harsh environments. According to the UN Children are
engaged in agricultural labour, in mining, in manufacturing, in domestic service, types of
construction, scavenging and begging on the streets.( un.org) These children that work in this
type of labor are at risk of hurting themselves or killing themselves with a machine. In the graph
below, provided by unicef.org, we see the percentage of children from the age of 5-14 in the
working field. One in four children are working in locations which are harmful to their health.
According to history.com Boys customarily began their apprenticeship in a trade between ages
ten and fourteen. Both types of child labor declined in the early nineteenth century, but factory
employment provided a new opportunity for children. Working in factories at a young age
could result in children having difficulty controlling the machines in which will lead them to
hurting themselves or killing themselves.

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As time went by, people would see the harms of child labor and began to fight for child
right laws and as well fight for change in the labor world. As people being to see how many
children were in the work field and realize the countless times theses children may have
accidentlly hurt themselves people began to ask for change. Stop Child Labor is an organization
in which they promote awareness of child labor and also promote health, safety and education to
child workers. In their website they discuss everything from the history of child labor to what is
currently happing. Stop Child Labor states that in the year of 1832 The New England
Association of Farmers, Mechanics and Other Workingmen officially condemns child labor.
(stopchildlabor.org), from then on Many laws restricting child labor were passed as part of the
progressive reform movement of this period. (history.com) as more and more people gathered
to fight for the childrens right, finally in 1989 (treaties.un.org), 194 countries came together to
set the Convention on the Right of the Child which was the first legally binding international
right for children. With 140 signatories the human right treaty set out to protect children.
With all the international help and non-government organizations child labor has
dramatically changed since the industrial revolution. Little by little people, communities and
organizations began seeing the fall of child labor. According to Development Education, the

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number of child labourers fell globally by 11% from 2002 to 2006 and the number of children in
hazardous work decreased by 26%. With this progress we see that children are getting the help
they need and also not as many children as before are being in harms way. What we can also see
is that recently in 2013, the International Labor organization released quadrennial estimates that
reveals a drop of 47 million child laborers over the last four years internationally, leaving 168
million youth still in child labor and 85 million trapped in hazardous work. (stopchildlabor)
Although there are still children in the world of labor, majority of them have not worked and are
receiving the help that they need.
When children are placed in high risk locations many of them can get seriously injured
and even possibly be killed. According to Child Labor Public Education Project, studies show
that in many countries that children who work on agriculture suffer high rates of injury.
(continuetolearn). This being said almost anywhere that children are located in, children run a
risk of getting injured. In the chart below provided by English Online we see that the area in
which children mainly work in is agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing. Children who work
in the tobacco industry face high risk of becoming very sick with the pesticide sprays that they
use. Human Rights Watch discusses these harms and has children stating that the spray drifted
over them, making them vomit, feel dizzy, and have difficulty breathing and a burning sensation
in their eyes. (hrw.org). These children are working hard on these farms and mines with little to
no food and wages in order to get some money to support their family. Some of these children in
the tobacco farms are immigrants at ages 11 to 12 and work during the summer in order to help
their family members. Although some children do this in order to help their families during the
summer, others have no choice but take every opportunity they have in the working filed in order
to support their families.

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In regards to the children working in the tobacco field during the summers there are
children who work day to night in order to make enough to help their families. These children
who work long hours on a regular bases can harm childrens social and education
development.(continuetolearn). The development of a childs education is very important.
These children need the education to succeed in life in order to not be placed in these types of
situations. In the graph below provided by huebler.blogspot.com we see how Bolivias child
labor affects childrens educations. Looking at this graph one may conclude that the bar with the
highest child labor is due to the poorest 20% of families. Children who cannot afford the
education must become part of the labor world in order to help their family. According to the
organization Humanium, child who works will not be able to have a normal education and will
be doomed to become an illiterate adult, having no possibility to grow in his or her professional
and social life. This being said children need the education in order to become someone in life
and figure out who they want to be other than being forced into this way of life.

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There are some companies that knowingly use child labor. Going back to the children in
the tobacco farms, these children worked long hours without overtime pay, often in extreme
heat without shade or sufficient breaks, and wore no, or inadequate, protective gear. (hrw.org).
Some of these children have had hurt themselves with some of the machinery they use to cut the
plants. Just like Victoria Secret, Forever 21 hides that fact that they buy their cotton from
Uzbekistan. According to change.org, The government of Uzbekistan continues to remove
millions of children across the country from school and force them to pick cotton during the
harvest season. While over 70 of the worlds largest apparel brands and retailers have developed
policies related to Uzbek cotton, Forever 21 has remained silent. It is said that the government
of Uzbekistan force these children and people into harvesting the cottons and if they do not do so
they will be prosecuted as if they have committed a crime. As we see child labor as a huge issue
worldwide, some companies will try to hide the fact that they are using them while others have
no idea that their bases are using child laborers. An example of one of these companies that

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unknowing uses child labor is Apple. According to The Guardian Apple discovered the use of
child labor in their supply chain. When Apple found out about this, One Chinese supplier, a
circuit board component maker called Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics, was axed by
Apple after 74 children under the age of 16 were recruited to work on its production lines. (The
Guardian). In reading this controversial story one may amplify that there are companies out there
that are not aware of themselves who is making the production of their products.
What needs to be done to decrease child labor is to have the United States sanction or
close off ports from countries that use child labor. With the US doing this it will create a domino
effect that will lead countries into reducing their child labor and eventually abolish child labor.
With global competition countries are finding ways to make more products with less cost.
International competition sometimes slows child labor reforms by encouraging corporations and
governments to seek low labor costs by resisting enforceable international standards and
repressing trade union activism. (continuetolearn). This being said, in order to create more
reforms around the world the US needs to take a stand and restrict countries from using child
labor. If countries see the US closing off from them, they will be forced into lying off children.
What will be left would be adults working in their production system which will then lead them
back into the trading system with the US.
There are many child labor activists trying their best to expose people the world of child
labor. On the New York Times in their opinion page they had a debate on What Standards of
Child Labor Should Apply Overseas? Mark Weisbrot stated, Regulation and collective
bargaining by independent unions free from political repression are the most important means to
reduce child labor and other abuses in developing countries. This being said rich countries need
to get together to help those countries that need to decline their child labor numbers. Furthermore

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if the US sanctions countries with child labor. Countries will need to construct reforms that ban
child labor. Just like the EL Salvador Time bound Program countries will need to do the
following in order to reduce child labor. 1) adaptation of a country's legal framework to reflect
international child labor standards; 2) formulation of national, sectoral or geographical programs
or policies to combat the worst forms of child labor; 3) mainstreaming child labor concerns into
relevant development, social, and anti-poverty policies and programs; or 4) establishment of a
child labor monitoring mechanism. (dol.gov). the chart below shows how the El Salvador Time
bound Program made an impact on children over the years:

As we see here in this chart we see that the program dramatically made a huge impact on
children by giving helping them with what they need and creating anti-poverty policies that can
help them and their families. Organizations are trying their best to have the public see what is
going on, one must express that they see this by not using child produced products.
In conclusion children are the future in this world, they deserve to live in a world where
they get all the help they need in order to succeed in life. In order for this to happen the US needs
to sanction countries that use child labor to decrease the US of child laborers and increase the
help they need. Although the industrial revolution sparked the beginning of child labor,
reformations and the government are putting their foot down and doing everything they can to

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give children the right they deserve. There may be companies that will use child labor to produce
their products for cheap labor, but luckily there are people that will decline the use of those
products and in time we will end the use of child labor and give every child the opportunity they
deserve.

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Works Cited
"Child Labor." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
"Child Labor in U.S. History." Child Labor Public Education Project.
Continuetolearn.uiowa.edu, July 2011. Web.
"Child Labour." Humanium for Childrens Rights. 23 July 2010. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
"Child Labour." Unicef. Nov. 2014. Web.
"CHILD LABOUR TODAY - SOME FACTS AND FIGURES." Development Education.
Developmenteducation.ie, 2014. Web
"English Online." Child Labour. English-online.at, Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Garside, Juliette. "Child Labour Uncovered in Apple's Supply Chain." The Guardian.
Theguardian.com, 25 Jan. 2013. Web.
Huebler, Friedrich. "International Education Statistics." International Education Statistics. 30
June 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Meyer, Lawrence. "Tell Forever 21 to Stop Forced Child Labor in Cotton!" Change.org.
Change.org, Web.
"Resources for Speakers, Global Issues, Africa, Ageing, Agriculture, Aids, Atomic Energy,
Children, Climate Change, Culture, Decolonization, Demining, Development, Disabilities,
Disarmament, Environment, Food, Governance, Humanitarian, Refugees, Women." UN
News Center. UN, 2008. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
Section, Performance. "Outcome Goal 3.3 Reduce Exploitation of Child Labor, Protect the
Basic Rights of Workers, and Strengthen Labor Markets." Outcome Goal 3.3 Reduce
Exploitation of Child Labor, Protect the Basic Rights of Workers, and Strengthen Labor
Markets. Dol.gov. Dol.gov. Web.
"TIMELINE OF CHILD LABOR DEVELOPMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES."
Stopchildlbaor.org. 20 Oct. 2010. Web.
"UNTC." UNTC. Data.unicef.org, 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
Weisbrot, Mark. "To End Child Labor, Washington Must Press Companies to Act." The New
York Times. Nytimes.com, 17 July 2014. Web.
Wurth, Margaret. "US: Child Workers in Danger on Tobacco Farms | Human Rights Watch."
US: Child Workers in Danger on Tobacco Farms | Human Rights Watch. Hrw.org, 14
May 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.