Analysis and research on child labour

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visualisation and analysis

Some tricks for the visualization.

data5 = cbind(data4,dum)
head(data5)
##   Countries and areas Total Male Female dum
## 1         Afghanistan    21   23     20 100
## 2             Albania     3    4      3 100
## 3             Algeria     4    5      4 100
## 4              Angola    19   17     20 100
## 5             Armenia     4    5      3 100
## 6            Barbados     1    2      1 100
for(i in 1:35){
  x1 = data3[,2]
normalized1 = (data3[i,2]-min(x1))/(max(x1)-min(x1))
x2= data3[,3]
normalized2= (data3[i,3]-min(x2))/(max(x2)-min(x2))
x3= data3[,4]
normalized3= (data3[i,4]-min(x3))/(max(x3)-min(x3))
x4= data3[,5]
normalized4= (data3[i,5]-min(x4))/(max(x4)-min(x4))
x5 = data3[,6]
normalized5= (data3[i,6]-min(x5))/(max(x5)-min(x5))
w = pie(c(normalized1,normalized2,normalized3,normalized4,normalized5),labels = c("2001","2011","1971","1981","1991"),title(data3[i,1]))
w
}

for(i in 1:81){
w = waffle(parts=c("total children involved"=data5[i,c(2)],"percentage of children not involved"=data5[i,c(5)]-data5[i,c(2)]),title=data5[i,c(1)])  
w1 =  waffle(parts=c("total boy children involved"=data5[i,c(3)],"percentage of boy children not involved"=data5[i,c(5)]-data5[i,c(2)]),title=data5[i,c(1)])  
w2 =  waffle(parts=c("total girl children involved"=data5[i,c(4)],"percentage of girl children not involved"=data5[i,c(5)]-data5[i,c(2)]),title=data5[i,c(1)])  
print(w)
print(w1)
print(w2)
}

Causes and effects of child labour

I would now put forward the causes and effects of child labour of top 6 countries.

They are :-

* Somalia

* Pakistan

* Nigeria

* India

* Myanmar

* Liberia

I will put forward the causes and consequences.

Somalia:-

Half of all children between ages 5 and 14 from central and southern Somalia are employed. Even in the more stable regions of Puntland and Somaliland, a quarter of the child population is employed. Many of these tasks include agricultural and household jobs, such as farming and cleaning. Although many children are employed by choice, the worst cases of child labor include the forced recruitment of child soldiers and other forms of forced labor. Unemployment in Somalia is one of the highest in the world. Nearly 54 percent between the ages of 15 and 64 are unemployed. Many children are sent to work by their families who cannot afford to support themselves after famine, drought, and war have ravished their rural communities. Because children are paid lower wages than adults, they are more likely to find work to help their families survive. In 2017, Somalia approved a National Development plan that would help to eliminate child labor. However, gaps in their legislation and difficulty enforcing laws under an unstable government have prevented these laws from properly addressing the child labor crisis in Somalia. Laws to protect children from exploitation largely focus on the military recruitment of children and ignore other aspects of child labor. Although children under 15 are only allowed to perform light work, the laws do not identify hazardous occupations or activities prohibited for children. Furthermore, they do not detail the amount of time that young people can work. Child trafficking for labor and sexual exploitation is not clearly prohibited or punished by law in Somalia. Procuring children for prostitution is not criminally prohibited. Children are often trafficked, especially the young girls who are very likely to drop out of school at the legal age of 14. Children in refugee camps are often kidnapped and taken to Kenya or Saudi Arabia where they are used for labor, sexual exploitation or to beg on the streets. Because many schools have been destroyed by the war, only a quarter of Somali children attend school. Legally, children are obligated to attend school until age 14. However, the legal working age is 15. This gap year between ending school and beginning work creates a critical situation for many Somali children and puts them in danger of exploitation of various kinds. Data visualization from page 271–273

Pakistan :- Child Labor: In Sindh Province, 21.5 percent of children ages 5 to 14 are working. About 11 million children in Pakistan perform domestic tasks and work in agriculture. Other children work alongside their families as bonded laborers in the brick industry. The use of this type of forced child labor in Pakistan happens in the brick, carpet and coal industries. Child Labor Laws: Regardless of Pakistan’s introduction of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992, bonded labor still exists due to the country not having enough resources to enforce child labor laws. In 2018, labor law agencies have acted against child labor in Pakistan and are still working toward closing gaps that allow child labor to exist. According to the law, employers who use bonded labor risk punishment of imprisonment for a term of at least two years and a maximum of five years, or a fine of at least PKR 50,000 or both. Hazardous Work: Pakistan still has the worst form of child labor which includes hazardous work that can damage children’s health and development, or worse, put their lives at risk. Children working in carpet factories sometimes work up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and often sleep and eat at their place of work. Many children end up with eyesight and lung issues due to the amounts of dust they come in contact with on a daily basis. The Carpet Industry: UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) believes that children aged 4 to 14 make up to 90 percent of the carpet industry’s workforce. Workshop owners manipulate parents into believing that their children will learn new skills that outweigh any knowledge gained at school. Such manufacturers target children because they can pay them significantly less than adult weavers which allows them to compete with other companies by offering a quality product at a lesser price. The Employment of Children Act: To combat the worst form of child labor in Pakistan, more provinces are enforcing laws. The Employment of Children Act states that a child or adolescent cannot work more than seven hours a day which includes one hour of rest during that time. A child also cannot work between the hours of 7 p.m. and 8 a.m. The minimum age for hazardous work is 14 years in Balochistan and ICT, and 18 years in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh. Education: According to UNICEF, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of children who do not attend school. Only 60.6 percent of children in Sindh Province between the ages of 5 to 14 attend school with 11.6 percent combining work and school. However, UNICEF is working on improving the number of children who attend school through studies, supporting provincial sector plan development, development of review of non-formal education policy and direct program implementation. The Sex Trade: Due to the prevalence of poverty, approximately 90 percent of the 170,000 street children in Pakistan work in the sex trade, an extreme form of child labor. The federal government in Pakistan convicted its first child prostitution case after passing the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act in 2018. Pakistan has also approved the Prevention of Smuggling Migrants Act 2018 in order to protect victims who traffickers have smuggled to other countries. Nigeria:- Several different industries employ children. The jobs available to children are limited to unskilled and physical, labor-intensive tasks. The most common industries that employ children in Nigeria are cocoa farming, gold mining, sediment sifting, street peddling and domestic servitude. Conditions are hazardous. Although there are labor laws in place, Nigeria does not actively enforce safety regulations or preventative measures in the workplace. This type of neglect leads to an extremely dangerous environment that often results in bodily harm, severe trauma and even death. Children who work on the streets often make easy targets for violence and kidnapping. If a child suffers harm on the job, help or compensation does not extend to the family, leaving them to face the repercussions alone. Children often support their families. Much of child labor is a direct result of Nigeria’s extreme poverty, which accounts for around 70% of the nation’s population living below the poverty line, according to the CIA World Factbook. Families struggling to make ends meet often enlist the help of their children to bring in additional income. Without an effective welfare system, many families have no other option for survival. In an even more dire situation, some laborers who are orphans shoulder the entire burden of providing for younger siblings. Recent findings by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development found that about 17.5 million children become orphans or enter similarly vulnerable situations throughout the country. Slavery is common. Around 30% of child workers do not receive compensation and must work against their will. Child slavery is very common in cases of trafficking or when there is no one to advocate for the child. In trafficking cases, traffickers tell the child that their salaries are going towards paying off their “debt.” In some live-in situations, their room and board charges absorb their pay. Those who do receive actual payment usually only take home pennies on the dollar. There are unofficial wartime drafts. Regional conflicts and war cause armies to form as a way of resistance and protection against outside threats. Many know Africa for this sort of violence, with brutal wars routinely escalating. People often pull boys as young as 10 years old from their homes, give them a deadly weapon and order them to kill an unknown enemy. UNICEF estimates that around 3,500 Nigerian child soldiers have enlisted between 2013-2017. Many children die in active combat or from a lack of supplies. Girls are at higher risk for sexual exploitation, resulting from trafficking within the sex industry. A former government official, Martin Uhomoibhi, revealed to the U.N. that there were 602,000 known victims who made the dangerous journey across the continent in 2016. However, the total number of victims is widely unknown, since traffickers covertly smuggle many of the girls and women smuggled across Nigeria’s border, but experts believe that these numbers are some of the highest in the world. Traffickers often bring girls to brothels and restrain and force them to service clients in deplorable conditions despite any physical health ailments, according to horrifying testimonies that the Human Rights Watch recorded. The outlook for these girls is grim, as many die in captivity or move back to the streets due to critical conditions that render them unable to work, and therefore no longer profitable to their captors. The chocolate you eat is also the hardwork of children of Nigeria. Remember them before you eat your next bar of chocolate. And a simple donation of yours that starts from less than the money of the bar of chocolate. Your donation can support these children achieve goals. Help them. let 2021 be the year to stop child labour. Data visualization from 190–192

India:- Poverty is the main driving cause of child labor in India. There is often an increased reliance on child labor in India due to the need to provide a necessary income contribution to one’s household or out of an obligation to fund a family debt, especially considering the susceptibility of Indian families to enter poverty. In some cases, a child’s income amounts to 25 to 40 percent of a total household income. A lack of quality education also causes children—particularly girls—to turn to work. Girls are two times more likely to take on domestic jobs like cleaning, cooking and general housekeeping if out of school. Also, even though India’s 2009 Right to Education Act made education for 6 to 14 year-olds compulsory, it did little to improve the educational infrastructure across all of India. A 2006 survey found that 81,617 school buildings lacked blackboards to display class content on and that around 42,000 state-supported schools conducted classes and academic activities without an actual building. Child labor affects 5 to 14 year-olds disproportionately and is present in some of India’s most unsafe industries. Almost 60 percent of all working five to 14-year-olds are located in five of India’s 29 states. The latest available census found that of the 10.1 million children in India between the ages mentioned above, 2.1 million live in Uttar Pradesh, 0.1 million in Bihar, 0.84 million in Rajshahi, 0.7 million in Madhya Perish and 0.72 million in Maharashtra. Around 20.3 percent of Indian children work in hazardous industries such as mining gemstones and construction — even in spite of the existence of laws that are supposed to prohibit this activity in India. Indian legal rulings on child labor have brought about unorganized trade, called the informal sector–an area of trade that has little to no regulation on the production of goods. Though it is not the greatest source of GDP growth in India, the informal sector still constitutes 90 percent of the workforce in the country. Because of the nature of child labor and the need to often choose work over education, the majority of child laborers work in this unskilled sector. Government-mandated inspections are infrequent, and employers rarely uphold legal rights for workers and do not enforce minimum wage standards. Production work in India can range from seemingly harmless to very harmful. Many children at work in India take part in “bangle-making, stainless-steel production, bidi-making, hotels, and small automobile garages and workshops.” However, some of these workers experience serious health issues as a result of their involvement. One such sector is incense production, which causes respiratory tract problems. The ILO finds that girls are more likely to work in this sector, and as such, are often more susceptible to these health issues. A decades-old child labor law in India requires amendments to solve the issue of loopholes. The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 defines a child as a person of 13 years of age or younger. This ruling prohibits children from working or from employers putting them to work. Adolescents are of age 14 or older, and may work in unhazardous occupations. The law, however, does not outline all types of work that can become unsafe after an extended period. The penalties for violating this rule are also not enough to encourage employers to move away from adolescent work.

Myanmar:- Street Kids: The government has realized the need to increase the capacity of the educational system and opportunities for children, but the changes are gradual. Some NGOs have stepped up to provide scholarships and free schooling to help child workers. Scholarships for Street Kids, a local NGO, provides educational opportunities for children and also compensates the family for the lost earnings while their children are in school. The program has helped around 300 children. Child Labor: A 2015 survey estimated that 1.13 million children ages 5 to 17 in Myanmar, or 9.3 percent of the child population, were in child labor. The number in Myanmar is higher than the Asian average, which estimates determine to be 7.4 percent. Among these Myanmar child laborers, over half engaged in hazardous work that may cause harm to their physical, mental or moral development. Minimum Working Ages: Myanmar law defines the minimum age for work as 14 for certain sectors, but there is no minimum age for work for all sectors. The Myanmar Labor Force Survey 2015 estimates that 60.5 percent of child laborers work in the agricultural sector, which does not have a minimum age for work. The other sector that the majority of child labor occurs is in the manufacturing sector. School: Myanmar law made school free and obligatory for children only up to age 10. This leaves the children ages 10 to 13 the most vulnerable to child labor since they have neither legal permission to work nor the requirement to go to school. Army Recruitment: The Myanmar government has made some efforts to eradicate the worst forms of child labor. However, the government officials are complicit in the use of child labor through forced recruitment of children into its national armed force in conflict areas. Despite 18 being the legal minimum age for enrollment in the army, people often coerce children as young as 14 to work in the army as combatants, messengers or domestic workers. The Economy: The transition from a military-ruled nation to a democratic regime in 2011 has helped the economy expand quickly. When people have more disposable income, the demand for services rises and pushes the demand for more labor. On the other hand, this economic boom partly fueled the crisis of child labor as companies and industries increased in the exploitation of cheap child labor to reduce cost. For example, food establishments only have to pay child workers $0.3 an hour compared to $0.43 for an adult.

Liberia:- Only 25 percent of children are registered at childbirth, making their births unknown to the government. The lack of registration and identification documents makes children more susceptible to trafficking. Traffickers are often family members who promise poorer relatives a better life for their children. The children are often forced into street vending, domestic servitude or sex trafficking. In some poorer families, young girls are encouraged to participate in prostitution to supplement the family’s income. Approximately 16.6 percent of children in Liberia are employed. Of this 16.6 percent, 78.4 percent work in the agricultural field. Work in agriculture includes rubber and charcoal production and farming including the cocoa, cassava and coffee production. All of these industries are deemed hazardous by the U.S. Department of Labor. The minimum age for recruitment into the Armed Forces of Liberia is 18 years old. However, during the civil war and up until 2005, children were recruited to be a part of the army. In 2005, the Council on Foreign Relations estimated there were between 5,000 to 15,000 child soldiers in Liberia. During the civil war, former President Charles Taylor used children in his army who participated in rapes, murders, executions and dismemberments. Only 75.6 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 14 attend school. However, only 58.8 percent finish primary schooling. Longstanding consequences of the civil war and school closures during the 2015 Ebola outbreak have taken a toll on the Liberian education system. The cost of textbooks, uniforms and transportation all severely limit a child’s ability to attend school. Instead, children who do not attend school begin working. Children under the age of 15 are not legally allowed to work more than 2 hours of “light work” a day. Children under the age of 18 are not allowed to do hazardous work. However, a 2018 Human Rights Report from the U.S. State Department found that the Child Labor Commission did not enforce child labor laws effectively due to inadequate staffing and underfunding. The 2018 U.S. State Department Human Rights Report detailed the widespread child labor infractions found throughout every socio-economic sector of the country. In urban areas, children work as street vendors or tap rubber on private farms. Other children are involved in hazardous labor such as alluvial diamond and gold mining. Girls are also sent from their homes in rural areas to do domestic housework in the urban sector to raise money to send home to their families instead of receiving an education. Instate, the Liberian government-sponsors and participates in programs to eliminate and prevent child labor. For example, Winrock International donated $6.2 million to reduce child labor in the rubber sector. Through this program, 3,700 households were rewarded livelihood services, and 10,126 children were provided with education services. The problems are mostly common, and heart wrecking too. All the government in my eyes should work toghether to abolish child labour. Let us also help because people make changes.

I know that the data i provided is old and it still breaks our heart that children who need to be put in school. these children are forced to work, they have all right to education, they are our future. let us step forward and make 2021 the official year to stop this cruel act they can also do what other children can. as of now A total of 152 million children – 64 million girls and 88 million boys – are in child labour globally, ac- counting for almost one in ten of all children worldwide. let us defy toghether. they need your help and support, help how you can, not only money but they need your support. the children are crying and calling out your name, so try to help these children for their bright future and varied possibilities. I defy Do you?

How to help?

As the old saying goes:-

Change yourself to change the problem into solution.

Let us unitedly work to abolish child labour. Our children, our brothers and sisters and our grandchildren deserve better future, and education. Every person deserves a bright future and proper job. The children are tommorow and tommorow shall never be dull. Let there be light. Please donate some money to your countrie’s official law site for child labour, to ILO ORGANISATION, and to UNICEF. donate Books, School supplies, clothes, and other utilities. You can also raise your voice and resistance against child labour. You can donate to private and government support NGOs and you can obviously help the children in problem. Report an occurrence of child labour to the child labour hotline. If you know law and are a lawyer, please try and fight a case for a child for free atleast they don’t have enough money to fight for themselves, against the exploitation. If you are a doctor, please don’t ask for hefty sum, try to treat the children free of cost. Please be kind to children who are enslaved, regardless of consequences help them. I am trying to provide the whole truth regardless of consequences, can’t you provide support. Help make 2021 the year to eliminate child labour front he world. Help children, throw away jobs at faces of their cruel employers, and wear uniforms and attend school. I beleive every poor person should be provided with a minimum livelihood price. So they can live, earn and do fulfil the most basic requirements. Lets make the preperation for a better future from today. Thank you.

-Divyosmi Goswami

data_courtesy : UNICEF; Census

Resources: ILO; UNICEF

code and tidy_data : https://gist.github.com/divyosmi

website : https://divyosmi.medium.com

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