Child Labour Problem

Child labour” is often defined as "work that deprives children of a normal childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. In its most extreme cases, child labour involves children becoming slaves, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses" (ILO) and forced to work tirelessly all day. Côte d’Ivoire is located on the south coast of West Africa and is bordered on the north by Mali and Burkina Faso. "60% of Côte d'Ivoire export revenue comes from its exportation of cocoa". (Marjie, 2008) With the growth of the chocolate industry over the years, the demand for cheap cocoa has also grown with it. On average, cocoa plantations farmers earn less than $2 per day,

This will create a positive impact on the poverty situation which is the main cause of child labour as in the long run, the educated children would be able to improve the economic situation and poverty may not be as serious now that they have education. Research have shown that in addition to the physical scars of their labor, cocoa farming often affects the children’s education. In Cote d’Ivoire the problem is even more severe than other places as up to 41% of the boys do not attend school and up to 49% of young girls do not go to school. The percentage of children who do not attend school due to the child's work in the farms is up to 66% as compared to the percentage of children who do not attend school and are not working as child labourers is 36% to thus proving that once child labour is stopped, the children would have a higher possibility of receiving an education as they have the time to go to school. As the consequences of being not being educated will follow these children throughout their life, causing an endless and vicious cycle of poverty, thus by stopping child labour now will allow the children to break free from this endless

The effects of being a child labourer has the obvious physical scars from the constant abuse the children receive from the plantation owners when they are not doing their job well enough, their inhumane living conditions, and the starvation that the plantations farmers put them through. However, the effects of child labour do not merely affect the physical well-being of the children. They also suffer from physiological effects. Psychologists say that children who are child labourers are unable to be changed. "Being a slave is often a process of systematic destruction of a person's mind, body, and spirit." Families are separated from one another and the child labourer becomes more emotionally isolated. Even after the child labourers are no longer in slavery, the children are still very scared of other people and has become not confident of themselves. It will also be difficult for them to go back to their families and live as if nothing changed. Therefore, stopping child labour will reduce the harm brought to the the child both physically and physiologically so that they child is able to lead a normal and confident life instead of continue to be traumatized by his or her horrible experience working as a child