The World's Working Children

Catholic News Service ^ | 06.09.05 | Tony Magliano

[Coleus]

As millions of children look forward to a break from school, millions of oth­ers only wish they could begin.

For these children, summer days will not be spent in ballparks and play­grounds, but on battlegrounds or in fields. These children have no time for play. It's all work. And the work is dirty, hard and dangerous.

According to the International Labor Organization's (www.ilo.org) global report, "A Future Without Child Labor," 246 million children worldwide are in­volved in child labor, which should be abolished. The study found that 179 mil­lion children ages 5 to 17 are exposed to forms of child labor that cause "irre­versible physical or psychological dam­age, or that even threaten their lives."

And if that's not bad enough, 8.4 mil­lion children are trapped in the worst forms of child labor, including forced and bonded labor, pornography, prosti­tution, and armed conflict.

Every year, 22,000 children die from work-related accidents. 

According to Free the Children (www.freethechildren.org) — a youth-directed, anti-child-labor organization — education is key to ending the exploitation of children. A tremendous obstacle to achieving universal primary educa­tion is the inability of many governments to provide adequate and quality educational facilities for poor children in rural areas and in city shantytowns.

The U.N. Children's Fund (www.unicef.org) reports: "Basic education can be afforded, if it is made a priority. ... This is a question not of scant resources but of political choice." It would cost an estimated $10 billion a year, on top of what already is spent, to put every child in school. ... "That may seem like an enormous sum, yet it is less than 1 per­cent of what the world spends every year on weapons."

Why not take the $10 billion from our bloated $440 billion military budget? For the cost of one "Virginia" attack sub­marine ($2.5 billion), the development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter ($5 billion) and 25 F/A-22 "Raptor" fighters ($4.3 bil­lion), our nation could provide univer­sal primary education for all children.

Not only would we be giving the world's poorest children the education­al tools to build a decent life, but we also would be planting the seeds for a far more peaceful world. Children who can see a hopeful future have no inter­est in joining terrorist organizations.

Here at home, according to Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org), more than 300,000 U.S. child farm laborers are work­ing in dangerous and grueling conditions. Children as young as 12 often work 12-hour days for as little as $3 an hour.

Consequently, 45 percent of the children never fi­nish high school.

Human Rights Watch says many adult farm labor­ers earn only ab­out $7,500 annu­ally. Because ad­ult workers often are paid unfair wages, children are forced to work to ensure family survival. Guaranteeing a living wage for adults is another key to ending child labor.

Visit the above Web sites to learn how you can help. Also, please contact your two U.S. senators and congressperson, urging them to strongly advocate that additional funding be included in the 2006 budget to provide primary education for all the world's children. And ask them to support legislation that would significant­ly increase the federal minimum wage — currently only $5.15 an hour.

Ask corporations such as Wal-Mart to make public the names and addresses of their contract suppliers. This is neces­sary to ensure independent inspections against child labor.

Let's work together so that one day soon all of God's children will be able to experience the joys of school and sum­mer vacation!

Tony Magliano, c/o Catholic News Service, 3211 Fourth St. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017  tony@strata-g.com (I'm not sure if this e-mail address belongs to the same Tony Magliano)

 

[Coleus]

We gave billions to the UN and oil for food and see what happened. I wonder how much Tony gives to these poor children.

Tony never mentions that many of these countries are run by dictators and socialists where liberty, individual rights and freedom are not guaranteed to all. And once you teach these children what are they going to do when they get out of school when capitalism and free enterprise are not part of their economy?

[mmercier]

I have seen child labor laws violated in Massachusetts.

It goes on, and the more illegals we have in this country the more will be tolerated. An illegal child is not a child or anyone, undocumented and unknown, usually just a slave to his father who brought him here.

Who would landscape the ACLU lawyers and our rat politicians yards otherwise.

Child labor law violations can bee seen every day on Marblehead neck and a hundred other enclaves, look at the kids holding the rakes.

Nothing can be done about this, no one cares, and if you act up on the issue it is likely you who will be arrested.

[Coleus]

Why not take the $10 billion from our bloated $440 billion military budget? >>>

Is that in our constitution?

[Coleus]

According to the International Labor Organization's (www.ilo.org) global report, "A Future Without Child Labor,"

[sassbox]

I would like to see the author of this break down the numbers of laboring children by occupation. While there are children "employed" in prostitution, militias, and pornography in some parts of the world, I would bet that most of the 200 million+ working children in the world live in subsistence farming communities. There is a major difference between a child who is sold into sex-slavery and a child who is herding goats all day. While the latter is certainly not preferable to growing up in a developed country and receiving an education, it is how the vast majority of folks in human history have spent their childhoods. It isn't abusive.

[endthematrix]

Tony Magliano is anti-war...or in other words, anti-defense.