Child labour in the developing countries should be banned

I thank Con for his clarifications and thought-provoking arguments. In this round, I shall make two contentions, that if demonstrated to be correct, I believe makes a strong case for the banning of child labour in developing countries. They are: Child labour has negative impacts upon children’s health. Child labour impedes upon the children’s education, which is vital for the child’s future prospects. My first contention is that child labour has negative impacts upon children’s health. To strengthen this claim, I will provide two studies that demonstrate that this is true. The first study, conducted by François-Charles Wolff, and Maliki, surveys the impact on health that child labour has on Indonesian students, aged between 10-15 simultaneously involved in school and labour. [1] One measure they have used, is to compare the amount of health complaints between non-working and working children. They find a negative correlation, as the working children have more health complaints than the non-working. Wolff and Maliki write: “Working children tend to have more complaints than non-working children and that activities are more likely to have disrupted due to their health problems. [2] In the conclusion, of the report, Wolff and Malaki write: “We have investigated the effects of working activities on health among Indonesian children aged 10–15 years enrolled in school. Results from both descriptive statistics and regressions with the labor participation assumed exogenous leads to a negative correlation between working and health. [5] Another study that demonstrates that child labor is harmful to the worker’s health, was conducted by Roggero et.al, who examined the impacts of health that child labour has had on a wide range of developing countries. [6]The authors demonstrate a relationship between mortality rates, undernourishment and child labor prevalence, for children aged between 10-14, with mortality rates and undernourishment significantly higher in places where child labor is prevalent. [7]The authors also introduced controlled variables in order to distinguish what causes such high mortality rates, confirming that child labour is a significant cause.[8] In some cases, the health of the children working are significantly jeopardized. For instance, in Mali, between 20000 to 40000 children, some as young as six, work in artisanal mining, an enterprise that, according to miningfacts.org, is carried out through ‘low technology or with minimal machinery.’ [9] [10] Human Rights Watch, reports that the children are exposed to mercury, a substance that is devastating to the nervous system. [11] Furthermore, the children are often subjected to searing pain in parts of the body such as necks and backs through carrying heavy weights. [12] Examples as dangerous as the above are not rare. In some cases, children work in the sex industry, which may lead to HIV/AIDS, . [13]Other children work in the drug trade, facing the danger of being a victim of violence, and being caught by police, which may lead to imprisonment. [14] An even more horrendous activity which some children must undertake in order to gain income is armed conflict. The International Labour Organization reports that children are used in fighting in “at least 17 countries in different regions around the world,” and that “they were taken under duress and ignorance of the consequences.” [15] Another reason why child labour should be banned in developing countries is because it impedes on the child's education. In a report written for the International Labour Organization, Federico Blanco Allais and Frank Hagemann support this claim, through analyzing data from the SIMPOC surveys. [16] They write: “There is a strong effect of child labour on school attendance rates. Cross-country data reveal that with increasing levels of economic activity of children, school attendance rates decline. There is often a significant “school attendance gap” between working and non-working children. Many child labourers are constrained in their school attendance by long hours of work or difficult working conditions. Others do not attend at all. “[17] Allais and Hagemann also demonstrate that this leads to a lower quality of performance from the child in school. They show that there is a clear negative correlation between grade repetition and child labour, for children aged from 7-14 years. [18] There are several reasons why this is significant. First, it makes it more likely for the child to dropout. Allais and Hagemann note that it: “results in over-age children relative to their grade. Since school and curricula are structured in terms of age and grade levels, and flexibility is not usually a feature of public mass education systems, over-age children are at a higher risk of becoming dropouts. “[19] The second reason why this is significant is because it wastes money and resources, which, in developing countries, also could be used for purposes such as buying new textbooks. Hence, we have seen a brief summary why the legalization of child labour has negative effects upon education. In their conclusion, the authors write: “Child labour has to be taken seriously as an important obstacle to reaching the Education for All goals.” [20] Investing in education would have a very positive effect. Fran Roesaelaers, the director of the International Labour Organization’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, in an interview with BBC states that investing in education could return $5-7 for every $1 spent. Ensuring that children have good access to education is vital for developing countries. First, it ensures that the workforce in the future is a trained workforce, which is economically beneficial. Second, it ensures that the average worker has a far higher salary, which benefits the worker, as he/she can support his/her family. Thirdly, due to workers having far more money, the government obtains more tax, meaning that it can continue focusing on educational and social programmes. In conclusion, I have established two reasons why child labour in developing countries should be banned. Firstly, child labour has negative impacts on the child’s health, with the child experiencing more illnesses and being more likely to die, and secondly, child labour impacts on the child's educational development. [1] Wolff, F & Maliki. 2008, ‘Evidence on the impact of child labor on child health in Indonesia, 1993-2000,’ Economics and Human Biology, pp.143-169 [2] Wolff, F & Maliki. 2008, ‘Evidence on the impact of child labor on child health in Indonesia, 1993-2000,’ Economics and Human Biology pp. 151 [3], [5] Wolff, F & Maliki. 2008, ‘Evidence on the impact of child labor on child health in Indonesia, 1993-2000,’ Economics and Human Biology pp. 167 [4] http://ec.europa.eu... [6], [7], [8] Roggero et.al. 2007, ‘The Health Impact of Child Labor in Developing Countries: Evidence from Cross-Country Data,’ Am J Public Health, vol 97(2) pp. 271-275 [9], [11], [12] Human Rights Watch. 2011, ‘A Poisonous Mix: Child Labor, Mercury, and Artisanal Mining in Mali’ Human Rights Watch, Dec. 2011[10] http://www.miningfacts.org...[13] http://www.ilo.org... [14] Child Labour: A Textbook For University Students, pp. 16 [15] http://www.ilo.org... [16], [17], [18], [19], [20] Blanco Allias, F & Hagemann F. 2008, ‘Child labour and education: Evidence from SIMPOC surveys,’ International Labour Organization, June. 2008 [21] http://news.bbc.co.uk...