Child labor and association to poverty
What is child labor? By definition is it any type of employment that prevents children from their childhood and dignity, and/or could be harmful to their physical or mental wellbeing.
Using the data collected from around the world and presented in the WDIData.csv I have tried to visualize child labor ratio. As you can see in below figure where child labor is presented on country level and the size of the dot indicates a higher ratio:
Children between 7 to 14 employement rate
Child labor affected both male and female children alike, as you can see in below figure:
Children between 7 to 14 employement rate – Male vs Female
Child labor is usually associated with:
- Wealth of the country (GDP per capita)
- Educational level
- Political conflict
- Government involvement and follow-up
Below figure, for example, shows an association between child labor and GDP per-capita (size of the dot represents the total population):
Percentage of children in employment vs GDP per capita in year 1962
What can we do to help children around the world?
To be able to address child labor we have to address all the points that contributes to it.
In my opinion, a good start will be with governmental support. Governments, for example, need to address this though issuing laws that prevents child labor below certain age.
Enhancing GDP is a long process and should be planned on country level. But a good start could be through controlling government expenditure and directing it to important areas only. Focusing on investing in infrastructure and support local productions vs imports.
Political conflict has to be addressed through serious piece discussions and cooperation with neighboring and world leading countries. And through strengthening the army and local forces and eliminating corruption.
Final thoughts
Child labor is one type of child abuse that should be addressed seriously. And although a lot of factors contributes to it that should be addressed there is one additional point that we might need to start with; which is the collection of data. Going through the WDIData.csv it is was clear to me that there is a lot of gaps over the years and on country level. And it is time to take the initiative and document child labor around the world properly. For children are the future of our race; they are the foundation on which we build our society. And it is very important to nurture them and protect their childhood.
