Child Labor

There is no country in the world (correct me if I'm wrong here) that does not have child laborers, but it is predominant here on the African continent, some parts of Asia and parts of war - torn Middle East, for example Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran,etc.

There are various reasons why there are child laborers, and those reasons range from poverty which is thought to be the main cause, lack of education, insurgency, ignorance of the parent/guardian of such child, broken or toxic homes which could force the child or children involved to run away from such toxicity to the streets.

Even cultures and traditions of some tribes or societies could be a contributing factor to child labor, in the sense that take for example in the Igbo tribe here in Nigeria (which I am proudly a member of) in the olden days, girls were not allowed to go to school because their parents thought that if they educate their female children, all their education would have to end up in their husband's kitchens when they are married off, where they rightly belong. So their female children are forced to do farm labor or become market women together with their mothers.

What a wrong ideology and I'm glad that we're now changing such narrative.

Child laborers engage in various types of jobs which are stressful and could as well pose a risk to their personal safety,when they are supposed to be in a classroom and receiving lectures.

The labors they engage in range from being mechanics, to manual labor of different sorts,to working at construction sites carrying moulded blocks and head pans of sand, housemaids ( though not in all cases), farm labor, work at restaurants as serving boys/girls, and in some cases, some children are trafficked to become child prostitutes or servants for their rich masters.

Every time I walk around my street, I see quite a number of children mechanics, even children who I guess are below the age of 15 , children who are supposed to be getting an education, doing such strenuous labors just to feed or try to make ends meet.

Some of those child laborers we see are the ones carrying the responsibility of providing for their families.

From my own point of view, child labor is synonymous with crime.

Those innocent children could be easy target for kidnappers, they could easily be recruited as thugs, banditry, insurgency and all forms of crime in general.

According to recent research study conducted by Statista, 10.5 million Nigerian children are out of school, and 1 out of 5 out of school children is a Nigerian .

Those figures are huge and I strongly believe that every child deserves an education because it is part of our fundamental rights , but then struggling economy which was worsened by the COVID -19 Global pandemic forced many countries to slip into recession and brought many businesses to its knees, making an already bad situation already worse.

Many countries are just getting back to their feets in terms of economy and other key sectors, after the havoc that the pandemic wrecked on the economies of many nations.

What is the way forward, you may ask?

This is where our national leaders, those in places of power and authority come in.

This is where benevolent and kind hearted members of the society come in; this is where various NGOs and Charity Organizations come in.

We need to start doing more for our children as they are the leaders of tomorrow.We need to give our children a solid base, a hope and a bright future.

Formal education backed up with vocational training or learning a skill not only improves the confidence of such child at the prospect of having a job or being one's own boss at the completion of the formal education, but it also removes inferiority complex, stigma, ignorance, and it improves the mental wellbeing of the child generally.

Education is the tool for change, and a nation without educated children is a nation with no hope for a bright future but a nation with educated and enlightened citizens is a nation that has the prospects or hope of growth.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article.

CIAO ! 😊