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Kendriya Vidyalaya Paradip Port

Street children in India are often forced into labor at a young age due to poverty. Overpopulation and illiteracy have led to high unemployment rates, keeping many families in poverty. This forces children to work in difficult conditions instead of attending school. Common industries that rely on child labor include coffee, cotton, brick-making, gold mining, and sugarcane harvesting. Around the world there are over 168 million children employed, with 85 million working in hazardous conditions. Combined government and consumer efforts are needed to address this issue and provide support to affected children.

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63 views

Kendriya Vidyalaya Paradip Port

Street children in India are often forced into labor at a young age due to poverty. Overpopulation and illiteracy have led to high unemployment rates, keeping many families in poverty. This forces children to work in difficult conditions instead of attending school. Common industries that rely on child labor include coffee, cotton, brick-making, gold mining, and sugarcane harvesting. Around the world there are over 168 million children employed, with 85 million working in hazardous conditions. Combined government and consumer efforts are needed to address this issue and provide support to affected children.

Uploaded by

Soomin Young
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA PARADIP PORT

Subject:- ENGLISH
Topic :-Plight of street children forced into labour early in life.
Session:- 2021-2022 (TERM 1)

Name:- BINITA BESHRA


Class:- XII th
Section:- A2
Roll no. :- 08
PLIGHT OF STREET CHILDREN FORCED INTO LABOUR EARLY IN LIFE.

What Is Poverty?
Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and
essentials for a minimum standard of living. Poverty means that the income level from
employment is so low that basic human needs can’t be met. Poverty-stricken people and
families might go without proper housing, clean water, healthy food, and medical attention.
Each nation may have its own threshold that determines how many of its people are living in
poverty.

India’s Vicious Poverty Cycle


Poverty in India impacts families, children and individuals in different ways, and manifests itself
in different problems such as malnutrition, high infant mortality rate, child labour, child
marriage and life-threatening diseases like HIV or AIDS. This article attempts to analyse the
causes behind India’s chronic poverty and its simultaneous ripple effect where one thing leads
to another, making it a vicious cycle.
India’s key setback is overpopulation and illiteracy and these two factors act like a catalyst for
the growing problem of unemployment. Overpopulation has occurred due to the fact that India
has a very high level of birth rate, which has been accompanied with a steep fall in death rates.
This increasing population also demands a higher rate of economic growth which would help in
maintaining a decent standard of living of the population. Most of the Indian populace is
employed in the agrarian sector where high levels of unemployment, disguised employment
and underemployment can be recorded. Disguised unemployment can be understood as a
phenomenon where labourers are seemingly employed; however, their marginal productivity is
zero or negative, and hence their input does not really constitute a major contribution to the
production. Underemployment on the other hand occurs when the labour forces are employed
in jobs which do not engage workers full time, those which are irregular or inadequate for their
training and economic needs. We know that India has an abundant labour supply and it is
genuinely difficult to provide employment to its entire working population. Thus, this major
problem of unemployment, underemployment and disguised unemployment exists. Hence, it
can be concluded that a major reason for poverty is the menial quality of jobs with low wage
rates.
How Lost Spring by Anees Jung is related to this
The theme of the chapter is the grinding poverty and the traditions whic7h condemn poor
children to a life of exploitation. The two stories taken together depict the plight of street
children forced into labour early in life and denied the opportunity of schooling. The callousness
of the society and the political class only adds to the sufferings of these poor people.

INDUSTRIES THAT RELY ON CHILD LABOR


Coffee
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), agriculture is where the worst and
most common forms of child labor are found. Coffee plantations employ children to pick beans
in Colombia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mexico, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Honduras,
Panama, El Salvador, Guinea, and Ivory Coast

Cotton
Cotton-picking is done by children all over the world, but particularly in countries whose
economies rely heavily on its harvest – like in Ivory Coast, where it provides a livelihood for 3
million people. According to the NGO Cotton Campaign, it is also a major problem in Uzbekistan
and Turkmenistan, where children are sometimes forced to work in the cotton sector
Bricks
The US Department of Labor lists 15 countries using child labor to produce bricks for
construction projects. These countries include Argentina, Brazil, China, Ecuador, North Korea

and Peru.
Gold
Child labor in mines, particularly gold mines, is common in some parts of Africa, Asia and South
America. Children either risk death from explosions in mine shafts, or must stand for hours in
riverbeds sifting for small nuggets of gold. Because of unclean water, the children working in
the gold industry are at high risk of contracting dysentery, malaria, meninigitis and tuberculosis.

Sugarcane
Sugarcane harvesting is carried out by children in countries such as Guatemale, the Phillipines
and Cambodia, amongst others. ILO found thousands of children working in sugarcane
production in the Phillipines, some as young as seven years old
Child Labor is one of the most prevalent forms of child abuse in the world today. According to a
South Asian report by ILO, there are 30 million children in employment, 17 million engaged in
child labor, and 50 million out of school. Worldwide, there are over 168 million children who
are employed, 85 million of whom are engaged in hazardous work
If everyone researches about companies that use child labor, and try to boycott them as much
as possible, the demand for those products will slowly decrease. Along with this, the child
workers will be out of employment. That is when it is up to the government and other NGOs
like GoodWeave to rescue and rehabilitate these children. The government should also start
encouraging companies to label their products Child Labor Free to inform consumers that no
children were utilized for the making of these product

_______×________

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