Among the many forms of child abuse, one is surely work
child. Kaushik Basu, professor of economics at Cornell University, has conducted studies on this phenomenon, by which we can better understand the underlying causes of child labor and the means of intervention. It estimates that more than 8 million children are sold into slavery because of household debt or forced to do illegal activities soldati.Altre protagonists are children in prostitution, pornography and drug trafficking. About half a million of them live in developed areas, like the United States and the European Union. According to the International Labour Organisation, shall be deemed employed anyone under 12 years, working for no pay, from 12 to 14 years is not considered a worker who works up to 14 hours per week, aged 15 and over are permitted to play any work that is not dangerous. Given the difficulties in quantifying the child labor, such data may not correspond perfectly to reality: sometimes, a modest provision of sufficient work to classify a child as a worker, resulting in increased numbers, on the other hand, the domestic work of girls, which often comes at the expense of education is underestimated. Today, a large number of researchers dealing with this topic, which has been known and studied in depth. In the past, many politicians have taken against child labor, an attitude of zero tolerance. In the nineties, for example, were called for the immediate ban on imports of products of child labor or imposing trade sanctions on nations with the highest rate of child labor. In some cases, the effects of these campaigns were very negative, as is the case in Nepal, where many carpet manufacturers decided to dismiss the child labor. The result was that 4,000 children were forced into prostitution. A deeper knowledge of the local economy would have avoided this disaster. The main cause of child labor is poverty of families. In 1991 we conducted a study in rural Pakistan showed that such a view. Considering, also, the case of China, it is noted that the percentage of working children increased from 48% in 1950 to 12% in 1995, the most drastic reduction occurred in the 80's, when China went through a period economic growth. In countries with lower economic growth, however, the decline of child labor has been paltry. One might think that the government action against child child are useless and dangerous, but it is not. There are cases where a legal notice can be helpful in eliminating child labor without any adverse impact on children and their families. This emerges from an analysis of the curves of supply and demand, basic tools in economics to show how a market is to reach an equilibrium in which the price of a product is adjusted to ensure that demand equals supply. The families usually send their children to work when they can not reach a living wage. People who have worked in their childhood did not receive a full education and tend to be poor as adults: it is very likely that such persons should send their children to work. This creates a cycle of perpetual labor. The opposite situation is represented by a virtuous circle of increasing welfare. Legislative action is not the best way to control child labor. Politicians should groped to improve the living standards of adults in order to spread this impossible conditions of life that sending children to work. Today, thanks to foreground and can act effectively to put an end to this exploitation using a careful design of policy interventions.
Eliana Paradise
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