Rising Prevalence of Child Labor amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: haven’t they suffered enough?
Opinion Analysis by Maria Wehbe, Staff Writer
October 22nd, 2020
Child Labor: two words that should have never even been associated together in the first place. How is it expected of children who are still growing, who are still in the preliminary stages of their lives to work in extreme and critical conditions that go beyond what they can cope with, mentally and physically? Unfortunately, most of these children enter the work force without even having fully developed physically, socially, mentally, nor psychologically. This is worrisome as these children do not realize the gravity of the situation that they were dragged into due to the fact that they simply are not grown-ups and have not yet acknowledged what their basic human rights promised are.
Let’s take the example of the Adidas fiasco that struck the world and left us all in awe. The European Parliament found out that employees of Adidas, specifically those that worked in the Indonesian Sweatshop Factories were children who were faced with “forced overtime and sexual harassment” (1). They had to work 15-hour shifts, as they were “expected to do at least 70 hours a week and punished for refusing to do overtime” (1) among many other factors that led to the exploitation of these children, as well as stripping away their happiness and their innocence. When thinking about wearing your favorite adidas shoes from here on out, think twice before doing so: you’ll never know if it was a child who made them, one who was on the brink of death because we simply wanted to wear the trendiest brand; one that clearly lacks ethical standards that would have rendered it a well-respected enterprise.
COVID-19 was the last thing we needed hindering our efforts to reduce the number of children within the child labor field: the numbers had started to drop in Latin America and in the Caribbean, from 10.8% in 2008 to 7.3% in 2016. Yet, it is well known that the probability of children contracting the virus and exhibiting excruciating conditions is almost nonexistent compared to the other age groups. This is seen as a further excuse to send these children to work; a fundamentally unacceptable excuse that undoubtedly categorizes as a basic violation of children’s rights. What’s even more shocking is that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations relate to “ending child labor in all its forms by 2025” (2), yet this goal is very far from being achieved, and this is partly because of the surfacing of the Corona Virus Pandemic. Because of this disease, “Businesses have lost money and people have lost jobs which sets the stage for situations of abuse, inadequate working conditions, evasion of law and even the offering of jobs to minors” (2). The conditions are so dire that they do not see any other alternative other than sending the children to work. But why? What’s the difference between sending the children versus sending the adults? Let me break it down for you.
When the time comes that parents are dragged into financial instability and are no longer able to pay their living expenses, they think of many ways in which they can save money. The main way might be through taking their children out of school and sending them to work instead, especially in developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Unemployment does not exist in child labor and these children do not get “fired”, yet the adults do, and so they are sadly seen as the main source of income to the family. Children should never be relied on as the source of income of the family. It is just too much pressure and a burden that no child should ever have to carry.
As well, it is important to note that some countries impose forced labor, human trafficking and modern slavery up until this day. We are in the 21st century, who would have thought that after many centuries, we still haven’t evolved?
Children produce goods that are seen as essential by the society, such as cotton, coffee rice, etc. And so, these children’s work is seen as crucial and irreplaceable.
These children are fighting for their lives; they are going to hell and back simply because they were forced into something that they knew nothing about in the first place. And because of their innocence and their undeveloped mental capacities, they do not know that there is a way out of this, that they do NOT have to work for these awful people who treat them like their slaves.
We need to be the voice of these children! We need to raise awareness about what is going on behind the scenes of the crises of the labor and work force - child labor. The Adidas incident was talked about for a while, but have you ever struck up a conversation about it since then? I don’t think so. Many similar child labor and abuse cases also exist that we might or might not have yet heard about.
These children deserve better: WE NEED TO DO BETTER.
References:
1) https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/nov/19/jasonburke.theobserver