Child labor is a world problem.
The number of child workers was estimated at 218 million
worldwide in 2006, according to a report from the International
Labor Organization.
With the rapid development of China's private economy, child
labor workers under the age of 16 has become an increasingly
serious issue. The number of child laborers was estimated at
between 2 and 3 million at the end of 1999.
Child labor deprives children of childhood and of their rights
to education.
Worst of all, child labor prohibits children from healthy growth
both physically and psychologically.
The Chinese government imposed the most severe ban on the
employment of children in 2002. Any person who introduces a child
to an employer faces a fine of 5,000 yuan (US$640). The fine for
the employer is 5,000 yuan for using a child laborer for a month.
Those found repeatedly hiring children will have their licenses
revoked.
The efforts by the government and the elimination of illegal
small private workshops have considerably reduced the number of
child laborers nationwide.
But there are still children forced to beg, sell flowers on the
streets or pickpocket. Some children of migrant workers quit school
and do odd jobs for their parents and some work as housemaids.
It is difficult for governments or organizations to take action
against such forms of child labor.
But exploiting children in labor such as begging does serious
psychological damage to these children. Those dropping out of
school will probably remain at the edges of society the rest of
their lives. Most will never gain the knowledge and skills for jobs
with decent pay.
Among other things, poverty is at the very root of child labor.
Most children take menial jobs because their families are too poor
to send them to school. Their earnings from simple labor or even
such hazardous work as mining mean a great deal to their
families.
Just as important as the intensive government efforts to make
child labor illegal, the far-reacing policies of scrapping the
agricultural tax, providing free nine-year compulsory education to
all rural children, and preferential policies to increase rural
residents' income will contribute to the eradication of child
labor.
(China Daily February 8, 2007)