There are also many economic issues that affect street children in Brazil. Poverty is a major issue in Brazil where families are not able to feed their children. Life on the streets may be their best lifestyle alternative (Pfister 1). Street children are an urban problem, which has its roots in rural poverty (Brazilian Street Children 1).
Cultural Issues
There are many correlations between cultural issues and child labour. When families don’t have enough money the children are to go to work, which then results in parents without work or adults with work and the wages stay low or go down (Parker 48). Sometimes families migrate from place to place in search of employment and the children do not have time to go to school because they also work with their parents to earn money. Men also migrate alone to look for employment, leaving the wife alone with the children, which leaves the wife going to work and the children at home to fetch water and fuel for the younger siblings, or the child will go to work to provide for the family (Damodaran 3). Religious beliefs and ethnic prejudice are sometimes the cause of child labour. In some nations educated women are not accepted in traditional society. The lack of education causes child labour for girls (Child Labour: Issues, Causes and Interventions 7).
In India, children face discrimination that makes it difficult to get an education or decent jobs (Parker 53). Urbanization is another factor because of so many of the natural resources disappear due to the construction of new urban facilities, which decreases the amount of food for the families and forces the children to work so the family will have money to buy food. Education is a problem in India where there is a low literacy rate that increases child labour. The less education people have the more they rely on their family because men or women have no self-confidence. This problem then results in large families where the parents count on the children to work.
The urban population of Brazil is becoming younger for the street children (Brazilian Street Children 1). In Brazil, street children are killed on a daily basis to “clean up” the streets. Between 1993 and 1996 over three thousand children aged eleven to seventeen were killed in Rio (Brazilian Street Children 4). For their safety many children work in factories. Street children must feel that working in factories is safer than living on the streets.
Political Issues
Political issues are very important to every country. Keeping a positive image of a country is very important, but issues of child labour are known to exist in certain parts of the country such as Asia and South America. In a survey the results showed that majority of people feel that most of child labour is located in Asia. See Figure 1.1
Figure 1.1 Survey data
Brazil has law enforcement stated that no child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or employed in any hazardous employment (Child Labour Inquiry 4). Even though there are laws, companies still employ children in many factories, mines and hazardous places.
Patterns of Physical Geography Affecting the Issues
Location is one of the patterns of physical geography that influence child labour in India and Brazil. The reason location plays a big part in child labour is because of people moving from rural areas to urban areas. Stacey states that in urban area child labour are slowly increasing, but are still a big problem in rural area.
Majority of child labour exists in rural areas of India because families are poor and usually live in rural parts of the country. See figure 1.2. In India, children who live in poor areas still
Figure 1.2 (What is the size of the problem 1)
work on the streets of urban areas and rural areas. Child labour is more a political and economic issue and not socially affected by patterns of physical geography.
Patterns of Human Geography
Brazil is still a developing country that has a large population. The population is steadily increasing every year. Children making a living on the streets are estimated to be eight to ten million (Pfister 1). As more and more children are being born the majority of these children will also become street children. Having more children in a family only adds to children having to work on the streets for a living and not being able to go to school. Transportation is a factor that contributes the number of to street children because of not having enough money for transportation to go home the children have to sleep on the streets until they make enough money to go home (Street Children in Brazil 2). In India, the more women with less education mean girls marrying at a younger age and giving birth to more children. When families rely on children as a source of income more children are put to work.
Analyse Cause-And-Effect Relationships that Affect the People and the Environment Locally
In Brazil, the effect of poverty affects the people locally. Due to poverty Children are exploited to illegal prostitution (Brazilian Street Children 2). There are approximately two million children between the ages of ten and fifteen who are forced into prostitution (Brazilian Street Children 2). Over nineteen million children under fourteen live in families whose monthly income is less than half the Brazilian minimum salary (Brazilian Street Children 2). Locally poverty contributes to children becoming unsuccessful in education because they can’t afford school. In Brazilian Street Children, it states that seventeen percent of people over fifteen cannot read or write in Brazil (3). Stacey Leigh states that children die at an earlier age because of health issues from children working in factories. While in the factory children inhale fumes and other toxic substances into their small body causing problems and sickness to the child.
Analyse Cause-And-Effect Relationships that Affect the People and the Environment Globally
The effect of colonialism affect people globally around the world. Colonialism is when there is a political domination of a nation’s territory by a foreign power; an example is when Great Britain established colonial interest in India because of their agricultural land in India and many other countries around the world. The great agricultural land was used for cash crops, which means export to other countries. As a result of cash crops many countries face decline in food. Farmland owned by people suffers from lost of their own business and cultural rights to grow crops. This caused people to become poorer, which lead countries to poverty in some parts of the world. Colonialism also forced poor countries to be dependent on rich countries. Poor countries such as developing countries borrowed money from developed country causing the developing countries to owe more money, while the country is not able to pay back the debt. Developing countries were forced to lower standard of living because of these factors
Multinational corporations globally effect child labour. The cause of multinational is setting up business and factories in developing countries cause children to work. Multinational companies make people in developed countries look evil because consumers purchase the products produced by children. The reason for this is because companies like Nike, Gap, Reebok produce their products by using cheap labour and that refers to child labour.
Solutions to the Issues
Short term
There are many solutions to be implemented in India and Brazil. One of the solutions would be increasing the opportunity for free public education over a short period of time (Parker 82). The consequences of having free education for children will cause problems such as families not making enough money to survive and pass on a day to day life. Another solution would be for a state to require education for all children, the number of working children decreases (Parker 82). Factories might go out of business due to not having enough production manufactured by the children and paying too much for adults to work. The governments can also make sure that schools provide free uniforms, books, and meals to the students. This might cause the government to take out a lot of money to implement this plan and not be able to fund other plans. Enforcing labour laws in the country, not to tolerate child labour and increase inspectors going work places to fine employers that employ child workers. This would be a long-term solution because it would take a while to inspect all the businesses. The consequence of this solution would be employers disagreeing to the fact that their business will be inspected and protests against this solution.
Long term
Replacing child workers with adults is another solution to child labour. This is a long term solution because the amount of time that is needed to change child workers with adults. Many parents are unemployed and giving the jobs to the parents will let the family earn more money (Free the children 3). The problem of this solution would be employers not happy because they need to pay more for the adults working and the problems they have to deal with. In Child Labour Inquiry, Mitesh stated that a solution will be used is called Elimination of Child Labour Program in India (4). This solution will be implemented by the government over a long period of time:
The government will need eight and a half billion dollars for the
over five years, and yet about four percent of the five-year estimated
cost will be allocated for child labour elimination programs. (“Child
Labour Inquiry 4)
The last, but not least solution would be boycotting by consumers not buying products produced by children in India or anywhere in Asia. This is also a long-term solution because not all consumers will refuse to buy products made by children. The consequence of boycotting is that businesses lose out on profits and nobody buying their products.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
For free public education to be implemented, agencies such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) focuses on the progress of education. The majority of government education funding would go into s building schools (Parker 82). Schools would be built close to towns where they are close enough for the children to walk to. The government would enforce the law that children under a certain age are required to go to school, which wouldn’t cost anything to be implemented. The laws would be implemented slowly throughout the country and enforced in bigger cities more than smaller cities. Governments would supply the children with uniforms, books, and meals out of the government’s funding. First the government would have to order uniforms and books to be sent to the school to be used. Teachers would also have to be hired by someone in charge of the education system. Food would have to be bought or imported for the meals provided for the children. Increasing the number of inspectors to help decrease child labour would be funded by the government. Boycott can be funded by showing commercials on television or advertisements by corporations such as IBM, Bell, etc.
Conclusion
Therefore, child labour in many countries is the same. As this report gives you an overview of what kind of problems are happening and why child labour is happening in the world. Many of the comparisons are similar, but different because of the various child labour in different country. Children should not have to suffer through these kinds of issue. Having fun and going to school is part of a kid’s childhood. The reasons for child labour are not acceptable at all especially because they are put to work for lower labour wages. Companies such as Nike, Gap, and Reebok should not open factories in developing countries. The reason multinational companies open in developing countries because they can make lots of profit. When businesses open up in developing countries the companies don’t help solve the problem, but they increase the problem. There are many solutions to child labour that can just start by picking up the phone. Boycotting and sweatshops are just some of the solutions to stop child labour. Other programs and organizations are funded to help decrease child labour in the world. Organizations such as World Bank and Free The Children are there to help get rid of child labour. Stopping child labour is not an easy task that can be done with in seconds or minutes. From the survey some people answered that more people are becoming aware of child labour in developing countries. Over a long period of time child labour will be decreasing slowly, but it will still exit.
