168 million is the number of child laborers we currently have in our global economies. It is an atrocity that we had 30% more child workers than this woeful number in 2010. Whether tactics include amendments to the constitution or boycotting of goods produced using child labor, reduction is failing.
In Brazil yesterday, 193 countries were represented at the third annual International Conference on Child Labor. Despite policies to reduce the number of child laborers, they still account for nearly a third of our global work force.
Throughout history children have worked to help support family and industry. In the Untied States the onset of The Industrial Revolution was the double edged sword shoving children into work and simultaneously raising awareness of workers rights and child labor issues.
Child labor has a kinder gentler connotation than child exploitation. Yet semantics can not minimize the violation of children's rights and hindrance to their natural unfolding and development as whole beings. It is deplorable that children must consider better treatment on the job instead of better education. Child workers are mute to their plight. Young size and intellect serve employers of deplorable ilk as they impress upon malleable children in the seedy underworld of trafficking.
Education of our children is the path to future global economic innovation, not filling cheap industrial or agricultural job slots with children. We have propped up the financial stool of world economies to the detriment of our children and ourselves. Every sewn shirt, every basket of pesticide laden fruit picked and every atrocious act of sex trafficking performed by a child keeps nations in the shadows of integrity. We need to be brave enough to enforce policy and punish businesses that use small hands for big financial reward. The future possibility of sustainable child-free economies and the gift of educated innovative ideas from generations of children depend upon us.
Access the article here, speak out after:
http://news.yahoo.com/child-labor-down-not-enough-222555916.html;_ylt=A2KJNF_g_VRSpj0Au2HQtDMD
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