Child labour and youth enterprise
Let us now delve a little deeper into child labour in the context of youth enterprise, which will take us into Monday's discussions.
Please share your views on whether you think there is need for child labour considerations in youth enterprise. Please also refer to the picture of the blacksmith in the notes sent to you via e-mail in pdf (by Victor) and give your reactions particularly on:
- The life of this boy when he becomes a youth
- Implications for youth enterprise (the setting in the picture might well be a youth targeted establishment...)
This is one of the refection of real example of child labour issues. we could imagine his health condition and who can pay for that at the end?. This is one of the most hazardous conditions. He has missed his school as well. He is mostly missing his productive child age which he could have invested for his education. It is really a painful picture for me. The ultimate effect of this condition will have greater impact on his youth entrepreneurship life because he is mostly missing most of the basic opportunities/ foundation required to be a capable youth
Dear Mui and all,
In my opinion I think it is necessary for us to discuss the issue of child labour in youth enterprise in the sense that we all undergo different stages of development as human beings and as such our childhood is what determines what sort of youth we will become.
The young blacksmith in the picture has not only been deprived or of a childhood whether intentionally or unintentionally. At that stage that child already feels that he is an adult and will behave as an adult because he has been placed with the burden that was meant to be for the parents.
Hi Mui, I strongly believe that there is need for child labour considerations in youth enterprise.
My position is based on the fact that the children are potential youth who are expexcted to be the adults of tomorrow.With the attendant deprivation,physiological and anatomical deformites occassioned by prematuer exposure to streneous activities,the child labourer is more likely to graduate from childhood to adulthood,by-passing the youth stage of devvelopment .This should not be the case at all!
The child worker in the picture must have lost the joy of childhood already and sees himself as an adult.His perceptions and orientationt about life must have change, having found himself conciously or unconciously in that situation.
His parents may have not engaged him consciously,or might have engaged him in order to sustain the family trade,or as an apprentice in the spirit of "catching them young."
Either way we look at that scenerio, the childsmith stands a greater risk of being infected by the deadly gas from the Blacksmith's shade.It is quite a pity!
The potential young blacksmith may be a victim of the family cycle of child labour. The parents may have enrolled him early enough so that he did not struggle too much in life. But from the picture a person can quickly conclude from the face won by the young guy that he is already frustrated.
There are so many implications for the youth enterprise. This young guy is really exposed to a lot of risk and hazards. He is also a potential school drop out and may not be able to contribute his full potentials to the nation as a youth later in life and as an adult.--Kafuiaheto 18:48, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
Hi to all and thank you for these contributions. Indeed the problem of child labour is a real issue. A child labourer misses a lot from their childhood and youth and may end up dysfunctional in one way or another, experience varying health and emotional problems, suffer injury which may lead to disability or in the most severe of circumstances lose their life. The impact at individual level filters through to the macro level. It poses a challenge in strengthening the skills base particularly targeting the youth, a much needed ingredient to drive national development, if the foundation is shaky.
Hi, The child is already a victim of child labor because of his age. To my understanding, the parents thought is good for the child but little do they know that is harmful to the child because of the danger of gas the child inhaled which has effect on the child's health
Hi all
Child Labour considerations in Youth Enterprise are essential because it will guide youth entrepreneurs from offending the law on child labour where it exists. On the child blacksmith, I have in mind two scenarios, The first is that the child may never be able to break out of the cycle of poverty, with no education and skills, he may continue in that trade throughout his youthful years, raise a family and it could even transcend to generational poverty, because he may end up raising his kids with no education, and the kids are likely to become child blacksmiths as well.
On the other hand the child may abandon the trade as a youth and because he lacks education and a means of livelihood, he may engage in a number of vices in a bid to survive, that may affect the socio-economic development of his country e.g armed group violence, militancy etc…Well I sincerely hope the child gets rescued.
Hi Mui,
When I think of the boy in the picture, I suppose his father went through a similar lifestyle. There is little the boy can do when he becomes a youth other than continue working there. In most cases an external force would be needed to change that life. I heard of a couple that decided to sponsor a child labourer to school by paying the parents the same amount of money that the child brought to help feed the siblings. The education the child received opened new opportunities for him which saw him through to college and later helped his parents in a way never dreamt of. It’s important to consider child labour in youth enterprise in order to draw the line between a child labourer and one being taught survival skills. A child being taught survival skills leads to widened opportunities in youth enterprise rather than threatened health.
Hi all I do agree Mui that what we only give out what we ourselves have received,i believe even the boy thinks that,this all there is for him accepting the situation and there is very little he can do when he grows up into a youth,much is needed to change the mind set of the Child.
