Sickle Cell

Child labor has not been recognized as an important issue of global concern until recent years. As countries continue to develop as they have for centuries, the accepted practice of using children as young as four and five to labor in conditions of bondage, serfdom, and slavery. International public attention regarding the dilemma of the young workers has grown steadily over the past few years, provoking world wide discussion of the problem and possible ethical solutions. The International Labor Organization estimates that at least 250 million children between the ages of five and fifth teen are working in developing countries. The majority work under harmful and manipulative conditions. These children labor in a wide range of economic activities such as the following: agriculture, animal farming, commercial sex industries, construction, fishing, garbage scavengers, manufacturing, mining, quarrying, and tourism (ILO/UNICEF).

The single most important source of child mistreatment and child abuse in the world today is child labor. Companies utilizing underdeveloped countries, like the United States, must be willing to accept the social responsibility that a further developed society expects. This includes meeting the legal, economic, ethical, and charitable elements of social responsibility (ILO/UNICEF).

The first factor of social responsibility is the legal element. The legality and illegality of child labor varies from country to country. The Department of Labor and Bureau of International Labor Affairs defines child labor as any economic activity performed by a person under the age of 15. (ILO/UNICEF) Not all work performed by children is detrimental or exploitative. Child labor does not usually refer to performing light chores around the house, or youths helping out in the family business. The child labor of concern is generally employment that prevents valuable school attendance or is performed under conditions hazardous to the physical and mental health of the child (Department of Labor). Although this minimum age requirements and guidelines apply to the 34 participating countries of the International Labor Organization, there are several other countries where there is no official age or defining line between when children become adults, and or restrictions as to what type work should or should not be performed by children.

The Department of Labor and Bureau of International Labor Affairs collected data from 16 countries where child labor had been identified as a major problem. It is estimated that just from these 16 participating countries, that a low figure of 250 million children, between the ages of five and fourteen were reported as working. One-half of these children are reported to work full-time. One-third of them working in extremely dangerous conditions and 90 million of them never attend school. The Department of Labor and International Labor Affairs considers this figure to be low.

In developing countries children helping out and child labor are synonymous with family survival and households may be reluctant to report when children are working. Besides, each country chooses its own definition of what constitutes a child and what classifies as labor. Some countries do not count children working in either paid or unpaid work, while other countries count children as laborers only when the child is a full-time paid laborer. In addition, certain countries do not classify students as child laborers no matter how many hours they work outside the home, while others count students working even one hour a week as employed.

The International Labor Organization distinguishes three types of child labor. There are children who work with their families-on the farm, in the home or for a family business. Second, there are those who are paid to work in factories or who have been hired out or even sold by their families. Third, there are the street children (ILO/UNICEF).

Children who work at home or within a family arrangement are regarded as a socially acceptable practice in most countries. This type work generally entails doing backbreaking household work in exchange for little or no pay and or room and board. Children who work as domestic servants often times suffer physical, mental, and sexual abuse, within their own home or for another family. However, this type of child labor is hardest to detect and since it does have a level of socially acceptable status. The same situation also applies to children who work on the family farm or for the family business. The fact that children are not paid makes the labors seems insignificant, yet children working on the farm and family business greatly contribute to a family s survival (ILO).

The second types of classification of child labor that the International Labor Organization identifies are those children who are paid to work in factories or who have been sold by their families. In most developing countries there is no social welfare system set-up and the majority of the social economic statuses of the people are impoverished. You will find in these countries the worst and most manipulative types of child labor. Commonly refereed to as sweatshops, children are paid as little as legally possible. Furthermore, the child may have been sold to the business as an unpaid servant. The child receives no pay, is provided with little or no benefits, and generally works in unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. This type of exploitation is on the rise due to globalization and its effects on the poor. As long as industrialized countries continue to outsource and contract to developing countries, it will be hard to implement, mandate, and enforce strategies to eliminate illegal child labor.

The third type of child labor classification that the International Labor Organization identifies is that of the street children. Because of their family's impoverished condition, many of these children have been cast aside. Others are runaways or have been separated from their families because of war (ILO). No matter what their situation, they fight to over come the odds. They accomplish this by begging, stealing, and even prostitution. Due to this they are regarded as criminals and because of this many people feel that these children deserve whatever happens to them. Most countries have enacted minimum wage age laws. However, as long as inadequate enforcement remains a problem, the exploitation of children will continue. Identifying the extent of child labor within a country is an essential step towards the development of effective strategies for eliminating and preventing the problem.

The second factor of social responsibility is the economic element. In any debate over the ethical considerations of child labor, the economic component usually rises to the top. On one side of the debate is the fact that children should not have to suffer the atrocities that