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Employers for child labor
Of almost 250 million children occupied in child labor all over the world, the huge preponderance which is roughly 70 percent or some 170 million is engaged in agricultural activity. Child agricultural workers normally work for extensive hours in sweltering heat, drag heavy loads of produce, are subjected to poisonous pesticides, and experience high rates of injury from sharp blades and other hazardous tools. Their work is taxing and ruthless, breaching their privileges to health, education, and safety from work that is dangerous or abusive.
According to the ILO's recent report on child labor, the number of children toiling in agriculture is almost ten times that of children engaged in factory work for example garment manufacturing, carpet-weaving, or soccer-ball stitching. Yet in spite of their numbers and the hard nature of their work, children laboring in agriculture have attracted not much notice in comparison to child labor in production for export or children drawn in profitable sexual abuse.
Reports suggest that children toiling in agriculture are jeopardized and oppressed on a daily basis. Children engaged in agricultural activities often handle pests which is a highly undesirable activity under any circumstance.
Exploitation
- Employers of children working in the agricultural sector often mistreat and exploit the children.
- Children are forced to work for long periods under trying circumstances and are not adequately compensated for their work.
- They are forced to carry heavy loads and mercilessly beaten if they fail to perform their task properly.
- They are deprived of education and health benefits and live in a state of utter misery and neglect.
Bonded labor occurs when a family obtains an advance payment and gives a child-boy or girl over to an employer. In the majority of instances the child is not unable to pay off the debt by working for the employer, nor can the family make arrangements for sufficient money to acquire the child back. The place of work is frequently controlled in such a way that expenses together with interests are subtracted from a child's pay in such sums that it is nearly impracticable for a child to pay back the debt. In a number of cases, the labor tends to pass on from one generation to another. A child's grandfather or great-grandfather was pledged to an employer several years before, with the agreement that every generation would make available the employer with a fresh worker, frequently with no wages at all.
There are nearly 15 million bonded child laborers in India, the majority of who are Dalits or untouchables or lower caste. More than half and perhaps an anticipated 87 percent of these bonded child laborers work in agriculture. These children cultivate crops, shepherding cattle, and carrying out other works for their masters.