Wikipedia describes Child Labour as, employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful.
Poverty, limited access to free & compulsory education, inadequate laws and poor enforcement of the same, are cited as the major causes of child labour. Around the world the growing gap between the rich and the poor have forced children into child labour. Parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America are the worst affected by this phenomenon.
A lot has been discussed, debated and written on the subject. And that's not the discussion now!
Bolivia, a Latin American country has become the first nation globally to legalize child labour. It has reduced the legal age from 14 years to 10 years. The new law violates the ILO protocol on child labour. The Bolivian government says there are lot of safeguards against exploitation. But everyone knows it will be of little impact.
Perhaps Bolivia could not find a way to end child labour. The Bolivian government says it simply acknowledges the reality and has to live with it.
Child right activists disagree. They say child labour is a short term solution. According to them, it is not poverty the cause of child labour but it is the other way around. Child labour leads to poverty in long run.
It is too easy to get angry at Bolivia for taking such a regressive step. But it would be better to accept that we, and our political and development leaders, have collectively failed to address the political and social challenges. The problem of child labour is more a social and political phenomena than an economic one.
Statistics across the globe has shown that the number of working children has fallen directly proportionate to reduction of poverty however the same requires a social and political approach.
