The parents will force their children to work instead. Children are more easily employed due to the fact that they can be paid less than adults, and because they are more docile and easier to exploit. Also, many families earn just enough money to support themselves and their children. However, if one of the wage-earners in the family falls ill, the family most likely does not have a “safety-net’ or social security benefits that help them pay for the illness and recover from the financial setback. This makes it necessary for the family’s children to work to support the rest of the family.
Greedy employers take advantage of this poverty situation of many Pakistani implies by employing their children because they are easy to exploit, they cost less, and they don’t complain as much. Furthermore the child labor pool is almost inexhaustible, because of a birth rate that is among one of the worlds highest. Many times, local business owners will offer positions as “apprentices” and offer some pay to the child. The parent will most likely be less than thrilled, but their decision is greatly overshadowed by their immense poverty.
The child would then start their work as apprentice weavers. Poverty is ruling the children’s lives. They are thrown into an endless cycle of hard manual labor. Once the child is put into this cycle, the family usually cannot raise enough money to buy the child back, or the child never gets an education or even a payment to go do something else later on in his/ her life. Dysfunctional families Another cause of child labor is that some families are dysfunctional. If a parent spends all the availTABLE money of drinking, gambling, or another harmful addiction, a child may be forced to work.
In other cases with dysfunctional families, children are beaten or otherwise abused by their other family members. When this happens, a child can actually be forced to leave his home entirely. Once he or she is gone from this ‘protection’ they must work to survive. Lack of meaningful alternatives The lack of affordTABLE schools and quality education is another major factor driving children to harmful labor. Children work because they have nothing better to do. Many communities, particularly rural areas where child labor is prevalent, do not possess adequate school facilities.
Even when schools are sometimes availTABLE, they are too far away, difficult to reach, unaffordTABLE or the quality of education is so poor that parents wonder if going to school is really worth it. Cultural / religious causes Pakistanis cultural belief has rationalized child labor and thereby encouraged it. The majority of Pakistanis view that work is good for the character-building and skill development of children. Similarly, in many cultures the education of girls is less valued or girls are simply not expected to need formal schooling and these girls pushed into child labor.
In rural areas children are raised without health care, sanitation or education. As soon as they’re old enough to have an elementary understanding of their circumstances, their parents teach them that they are expected to pay their way, to make sacrifices, and, if accessory, to travel far from home and live with strangers. Parents tell them they must be prepared to work for the good of the family. Basically child labor is a social accepted institution in Pakistan. Some families even believe that child labor is not harmful to a child and encourage them to work.
Macroeconomic causes There are a lot of macroeconomic factors that encourage child labor. The causes for child labor include both the demand and the supply side. While poverty and unavailability of good schools explain the child labor supply side, inflexible labor market, inability of industries to scale up and lack of modern manufacturing technologies are major macroeconomic factors affecting demand and acceptability of child labor. How to eliminate child labor? Possible solutions, incentives and penalties As I described above most reasons of child labor are poverty and education related.
If Pakistan could work to increase the incomes of families below the poverty line, then the amount of child labor would decrease significantly. And education has always been the key to stepping out of poverty and into a better situation. Unfortunately, Pakistan remains a feudal society, committed to maintaining traditions that over the centuries have served its upper castes ell. The lords-?factory owners, exporters, financiers-?reflexively oppose any reforms that might weaken their authority, lower their profit margins, or enfranchise the workers.
With a government that is at best ambivalent about social issues and an industrial sector resistant to workplace reform, the task of abolishing child labor has fallen to the human-rights community. Legislation National The national government of Pakistan can play a key role in eliminating child labor, by passing laws that ban child labor under a certain age, and by ratifying ILL and U. N. Treaties. Also if the government had a “minimum family noncom?’ that would be used to support poor families, there would not be the need to use children as laborers.
After all child labor is merely the symptom of a greater disease, named poverty. The Pakistani government could make the access to the Pakistani school easier and cheaper or they could subsidize companies who don’t employ children. Governments of importing states like the United States should adopt legislation that bans the import of some child- labor-made items. They should introduce criminal laws that provide penalties for companies who import carpets made by children. Thereby we can think bout fines that would make the production of children-made carpets more expensive whereby it will become useless to employ children.
International The international human rights community could ask the government to upgrade their laws to set a legal age limit for employment in Pakistan. Also trade sanctions can definitely decrease child labor. In fear of a commercial boycott, the weaving industry could be forced to shrink their children- employment. Enforcement Another responsibility that the national government has is actually enforcing these laws. Laws do absolutely no good when they are not enforced, and unfortunately, child labor laws are not enforced well in Pakistan. By deciding to enforce these laws, Pakistan can make a positive impact on decreasing child labor.
The problem is that corruption is pervasive in the Pakistani justice system: for a small consideration the police will look the other Way when employers misuse their workers. In several districts the police are notorious for colluding with employers-?supplying factories with children who have been abducted from itinerant poor families, orphanages, schools. Economic engagement There’s little doubt that inexpensive child labor has fueled Pakistanis economic growth. Entire industries have relocated to Pakistan because of the abundance of cheap child labor.
At the same time, child labor has hindered the industrial development, especially in the use of advanced technologies. Why should a manufacturer invest in labor-saving technology when labor- intensive mechanisms are so much cheaper? More and more there are factories that have been redesigned and retooled so that only children can work there. Child labor can be ended in large part as a result of economic and technology development. If we look at neighboring countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, hill labor has rapidly reduced following economic reforms and GAP growth.
Economic engagement and expanding economically relevant skill development opportunities in Pakistan can help to reduce child labor. It is clear that technological and economic change is vital ingredients in getting children out of the workplace and into schools. Special Programs In many cases, special programs can greatly help fight child labor. We could give parents an incentive to invest in their child’s future. Special programs could do this by giving families money if their children attend school regularly instead Of working for money. These programs could be extremely effective as a way to combat child labor.
Another incentive could be that the school provides free lunch for the children who attend school. In that way parents save money and start to see advantages in going to school. The government could also reduce the taxes from parents whose children are in school. Often, special programs and child labor solutions come from “innovative” local officials who can provide insightful solutions to child labor because they know exactly what is going on in the Pakistani society. Western consumers and importers Child laborers do make items that are exported to other countries, and affect the world’s economy currently.
The low cost of child labor gives manufacturers a significant advantage in the Western marketplace where child labor laws are enforced. They greatly undersell their competitors, and, not surprisingly, American and European consumers are attracted to low price, yet high quality goods. An option is to ban the import and sale of all carpets made by children. Western consumers should be aware of the consequences of their purchases. Indirectly they support child labor. We old start a campaign: “No and only no to child-made carpets! “.
