Child labor that has been existed for centuries - especially after Industrial Revolution - is still a major social issue that should be eradicated permanently. Although, there are many reasons such as low income, unemployment or ignorance for occuring this crucial problem, there are numerous ways to eliminate child labor proactively, too. According to the recent research, unfortunately, there are one hundred fifty two millions children work in various work areas all over the world. In that case, what can be done to eradicate this problem?
To begin with, governments should examine which families force their children to work either on purpose or not and companies which allow the children to work. Especially,
extended families that consist of over five family members are devoid of basic needs to survive or sometimes father of the family may be pass away so children have to work in order to get their living. Regretfully, most employers who are likely to pay less money to their employees and are reluctant to take out their employees social security prefer employing children in their companies in particular. To stop this unpleasant approach of employers, for instance, governments may put strict laws and visit all companies periodically. Therefore, parents will have to find more reasonable solutions not to force their children to work and governments will be able to deter owners of companies by this way.
Secondly, the minimum statutory wage should be more than poverty limit so that children do not have to work to support their family income. As everytime, a common reason which lies under the almost all social issue is poverty. There are two billions people live under the poverty limit in the world and poverty triggers child labors in these countries, unfortunately. In many developing or underdevelopment countries, for instance, the minumum wage is under the hunger limit. So, parents who do not earn enough money to look after their family are forced to encourage their children to work. If minimum statutory wage is increased in countries there will be less child labor in comparison to past. As a result, to increase minumum salary can be one of the effective solution to reduce the number of child labor.
Finally, if the number of children who work in the world is considered, it can be seen an ignorance is may be the main reason of this social issue. If the children who are at the age of going to school spend their lives in workplaces instead of studying their lessons, this is an indicator of that the country is underdeveloped. To inform families about this problem, for instance, governments and non- governmental organizations should work together. Besides this, we can do something individually such as calling authorities about which companies have child labor as soon as we see or affording education fee of one child. As a result, the life of a child changes, the world changes.
All in all, there are wide array of solutions can be found to eliminate this heartbreaking social issue in any case. As I mentioned above, either govermentally or indiviually every citizen should take into consideration this issue for the sake of our children’s future. There is no doubt in my mind that children should not work no matter how important the reason is. The only place that they are need to be is either a playpen or a school.
Melike CELIK
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