Child Labor in Supply Chains: Examining Arguments for and Against

This report delves into the contentious issue of child labor within supply chains, exploring the arguments both for and against its prohibition. The introduction sets the stage by defining child labor and highlighting its prevalence, emphasizing the rights of children. The main body presents compelling arguments against banning child labor, such as poverty, denial of education, and the potential for increased criminal behavior. Conversely, it also details the compelling reasons to ban child labor, including the importance of education, lowering adult unemployment rates, and the detrimental effects of harsh working conditions on children's health and development. The conclusion underscores the importance of banning child labor to ensure children's access to education and secure their future. The report also references several books and journals to support the arguments presented.

Child Labor

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Every business involves employment of workers so that it can function efficiently with
the support of all. The businesses which are involved in manufacturing of any goods often
require labor which may include child labor also. Nowadays, workers have been given several
rights in order to protect them from exploitation. The international law has identified the need to
provide several rights to child so that they can lead a healthy lifestyle and their development is
secured. One such right is to lead a healthy life (Tang, Zhao and Zhao, 2020). The children who
are forced to work in the companies or factories just like is adult is called child labor This report
shall deal with banning child labor in supply chain with the arguments for and against it.
MAIN BODY
The children has been forced to work from a young age in the supply chains. The
companies need workers who can carry on their manufacturing activities which often lead to
child being recruited to such supply chains.
The children are often involved in child labor in the supply chains due to many factors.
Nowadays, it is the main concern and a lot of debates are going on as to should the child labor be
banned or not. The main reason that the child labor should not be banned is the poverty. This is
the main intention behind not banning it is that the children are employed in supply chains to
work because they do not have enough money to earn a livelihood. They are in a need of money
to take care of their family members and due to insufficient funds they are forced to work from a
very little age. In an urge to earn money, the children often work in supply chains but the
employer must take care of one thing that they are not engaged in any kind of hazardous activity
which may cause danger or harm to their health and safety. Their safety must be of paramount
interest for the company and all measures must be taken to prevent any danger or harm to them. ,
There must be a distinction being made between exploitation and non-exploitation, if the child is
engaged in any activity which does not exploit it, it must be carried out by them so that they can
earn more money in a quicker way and help their family to survive (Basu, 2017).
Another reason for not banning the child labor is denial of education. It is very common
that the children who are born in a poor family or low income family are unable to get access to

education despite of their right to education because they do not have enough money to pay their
fees and get their books and uniforms. With the pressure of earning a livelihood for the family
they are forced to do work. If they are engaged in taking education they will there will be no
need of working which will eliminate the child labor from supply chains.
Another argument for not banning the child Labor is preventing or eliminating the criminal
behavior. Often children who are denied education or not engaged in any kind of activity leads in
criminal offences. If they're engaged in any labor work they will not get any time to get engaged
in any kind of criminal activity which will help them to lead a healthy and positive life.
Now that the arguments above presented says that the child labor must not be banned but
there are many reasons for which the child labor should be banned from the country so that
children can lead normal life and can nourish their development.
One such argument for banning the child labor is to get them access to education. If a child
is engaged in any kind of work he or she shall not get time to get education which will be hurdle
in their growth and development for the future. Not having adequate education may lead to non-
development of skills and knowledge which will make the future of the child unsecured for the
rest of their lives and they will continue to live a life they were living when they started working
as a child Labor (Puente Aba, 2020).
Another reason for which the child Labor must be banned is to lower the unemployment
rates of adults. If a child is engaged in supply chains, the company has enough workers to make
its operations but if the child labor is banned, they will be in a need to provide employment to the
adult which will lower the unemployment rates and increase the employment in the country
which will ultimately contribute to the upliftment of economy.
Working at a very little age may make it harsh for the child to lead a healthy lifestyle
because harsh working conditions may lead to malnutrition, depression, drug addiction and many
other factors. These become hurdle in the development of child. If a child is working from a very
low age there's more possibility that it will have no development of skills which are required in a
future secured employment and will often result in their own child being sent to work instead of
education and this chain will go on and on so it is very important to ban the child Labor in supply

chains from the current scenario so that the future of upcoming generation is also secured (Pappu
and Vasanta, 2020).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that child labor is something where a child is forced
to work just like an adult in a company. It is very important to ban the child Labor so that the
children can get access to education so that they can lead a healthy lifestyle through growth and
development of their knowledge. Secondly it will help in reducing the unemployment rates for
adult and thirdly it will help the child to develop its own skill so that they can have a secured
employment in the future but there's also argument presented for not banning the child Labor due
to three reasons; the first is poverty which forces them to do work, secondly to eliminate the
criminal behavior and lastly to earn the livelihood for the family

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Basu, K., 2017. Notes on Child Labor and Education: A Personal Statement. In Children and
Sustainable Development (pp. 31-35). Springer, Cham.
Pappu, R. and Vasanta, D., 2020. Child labor and education in South Asia. Handbook of
education systems in South Asia, pp.1-26.
Puente Aba, L.M., 2020. Defining Child Trafficking for Labor Exploitation, Forced Child Labor,
and Child Labor. The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking, pp.339-351.
Tang, C., Zhao, L. and Zhao, Z., 2020. Does free education help combat child labor? The effect
of a free compulsory education reform in rural China. Journal of Population Economics. 33(2).
pp.601-631.