CHILD LABOUR Senator O’Connor College School Toronto, Canada

What is child labour? Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful It is work that children should not be doing because they are too young to work.

Where do children work? What kind of work do children do? An estimated 60% of child labour occurs in agriculture, fishing, hunting, and forestry. Children have been found harvesting : Bananas in Ecuador, cotton in Egypt, cutting flowers in Colombia, oranges in Brazil, cocoa in the Ivory Coast, tea in Argentina and Bangladesh, fruits and vegetables in the US. About 14 million children are estimated to be directly involved in manufacturing goods, including : Carpets in India, Pakistan and Egypt, clothing sewn in Bangladesh. There are also a lot of children who work in underground mines, open cast mines, and quarries : Gold on Colombia, Charcoal in Brazil, Chrome in Zimbabwe, Diamonds in Cote d’Ivoire. And let’s not forget the children who work in hotels, restaurants etc…

Why do you think our country is opposed to child labour? Child Labor and exploitation, each province of Canada has its own restrictions on child labor. At the present time, the minimum age for employment it is different in most provinces, giving an example in Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec the minimum age its fourteen and in the territories of the Northwest, Nunavut, and The Yukon its seventeen, but Canada has also limitations on the type of labor and the numbers of hours young people can work , providing that any work performed must be unlikely to endanger health and safety. Canada is opposed to Child labor and exploitation because Canada has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

What can we do in our country to stop child labour in different countries? 1. Educate yourself about child labour and exploitation  then share with friends, family and others, and work together to increase your “voting” power. 2. Contact retail stores, importers and manufacturers or read about the origins of their products, Let them know you want to buy products that don’t involve child labor. 3. Grow more of your own food. Buy from farmers markets (verify their labor practices first). 4. Supporting reputable groups that are helping free children from exploitation labor.

What are the advantages of children working? First, children can get some experience of working. They can know more skills about life and they can be independent. Second, they can be grew up and can be safer than other children in the future when they work in society. Third, they can know their parent’s hard and it can be made children to share the housework.

Are you required to work as child when your parents don’t make enough money? Rex: I don’t need to work when my parents don’t make enough money when I was a child, because my parents know that I need to take education in order to be better in the future, and I know this point as well. Philip: I am not required to work as child when my parents don’t make enough money. Children have their own childhood. Their parents have their responsibility to give their family good life.

At a guess, how many children are there in the world who are working? We guess that there are lots of children are working in the world. We think there 35% of children in the world . In fact, 153 million child labors aged 5–14 worldwide in 2008. And the number is increasing by years.

Should a child have to choose between working and going to school? Rex: I think children need to take education before they entering the society. Knowledge is one of the best way to change the destiny. Most of the parents are not easy to decide to make their children go to work. The society is hard, everyone has their own stress and pressure. I think the children go to school is not only good for their knowledge, it is also good for them to confuse the way to get on with other before they entering the society. That’s my opinion. Philip: To children , they shouldn’t have to choose between working and going to school if they know how to do both of them. Many children do both of them. They take care of their time, so going to school and working will not effect too much.

A bonded brick maker in Pakistan. Children labour A bonded brick maker in Pakistan.

A boy working as a porter in Nepal's Solukhumbu. Children labour A boy working as a porter in Nepal's Solukhumbu.

Forced labor, trafficking, and bonded labor. Children labour Forced labor, trafficking, and bonded labor.

Rustam, 10, works in an aluminium factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Children labour Rustam, 10, works in an aluminium factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Child Labor in the Philippines Children labour Child Labor in the Philippines