Child Labor Child labor refers to the economic active population under the age of 15 years employed in various industries (Grootaert, 2). According to the Microsoft Encarta, child labor is now used to denote the employment of minors in work that may interfere with their education or endanger their health (IPEC, 1). Child labor has grown to be a topic of widespread debate. It has many favorable and unfavorable points of view. In any case, child labor should be eradicated as it is harmful to the health of the children, it is an obstacle to their education, and it denies them a happy childhood. Child labor is common in agriculture, domestic service, the sex industry, the carpet and textile industries, quarrying and brick making in countries in Asia and Africa (IPEC, 1). Employers in these industries buy children from their debtors or through the labor contractors (1). Sometimes children work to help pay off a loan incurred by the family (Grootaert, 2; IPEC, 1). In some cases the parents give their children to outsiders to work without pay in exchange for better living conditions in wealthy houses (IPEC, 1). Child labor also results from the system of apprenticeship, in which a child is sent to work to learn a trade. But actually they work more than they learn (Grootaert, 5). Child labor has hostile consequences on the health of the children (Parker, 1). Children work in conditions that may endanger their health such as in stone quarries, tanning leather, and electroplating metals. They work without any protective clothing or equipment (1). Children in different occupations face different fatal diseases. Children employed in stone cutting, brick factories, granite quarries and slate factories face the risk of silicosis caused from exposure to silica (1). Tuberculosis is another disease faced by children in pottery related industries (1). These children also suffer from malnutrition due to their poor living conditions.
