Child Labor In Cote D Ivoire

Child labor has been prevalent in the production of cocoa in Cote d’Ivoire and the international consumers, governments and many more have criticized it. However, one must be able to differentiate between child labor and children helping their parents as part of their growth. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), children who are able to have a proper education and work part-time to get extra pocket money or gain experience is not defined as child labor and is very much acceptable. Child labor denies children from having a childhood of being carefree and innocent to the conflicts in the world. It deprives them from having a proper education to widen their career prospects. It negatively affects their mental wellness and health.

The First Lady of Cote d’Ivoire, Dominique Ouattara said in an interview with the reporter Brian O’Keefe from Fortune that her husband, president of Cote d’Ivoire, created the Inter-Ministerial Committee (CIM) which is in charge of government action on child labor and the National Oversight Committee (CNS), which is in charge of the monitoring of child labor in the country. The government has also launched the National Action Plan, thus raising the awareness of child labor amongst the people of Cote d’Ivoire and building new educational facilities such as schools to educate children, and signing agreements with neighboring countries to fight child trafficking that is prevalent at the borders. The Harkin-Engel Protocol that was adopted in 2001 helped raised awareness of child labor, also effectively caused chocolate manufacturers to be more involved in the fight against child labor in Cote d’Ivoire. The First Lady also said so herself that she is empowering women by providing micro-financing to them. This gives women the chance to find a way to generate income, increasing the chances of children being able to be sent to

In India, child labor is prevalent. The middle class in India demands cheap and docile labor, and thus children were the best choice. According to a BBC news article, in India, every eight minutes a child goes missing, where the children are often subjected to forced labor. This is not stopping as India’s child labor prohibition and regulation act is very much outdated, where the law states that children below 14 years cannot be employed into hazardous labor, but the loophole is that very young children can still be employed into non-hazardous labor. Kushal Singh said that this issue has already been raised in parliament, but the amendment has been pending for a very long time. This tells us that the government may be unwilling or not willing enough to stop child