Child Labor

        Last Wednesday I passed by the Bankerohan Market to canvas, ingredients of Cassava Cake that I plan to bake this week. I observed the environment many people buy their daily needs to avail low price products. My heart was touched when I saw children who work in the market carrying a heavy sack of rice, boxes of fruits and vegetables. I can feel the burden of the children deep inside their hearts, their faces looks tired and their body looks weak but they need to work to earn money. Children who work at their early age need a protection and care to let them realize that they need to be in school to learn instead of working. But we cannot blame them to work because they need to earn money to buy their needs for their family. I can’t understand why their parents let their children work just to get a little money from them. Sad to say in this new world poverty is the main reason why the child labor rate increases every year.

In the Philippines Child Labor is illegal but because of poverty they have to work in order to sustain the needs of their family. Some of these children are forced to work at a very young age by their parents. They try their best to earn money to support their family daily needs. Poverty is the main reason due to which children under the age of 18 years are compelled to work in dangerous and life threatening conditions. The consequences of Child Labor on an underage child can be numerous and crippling on his or her physical, mental and emotional condition. It can seriously hamper the well being of a child who is supposed to get a sound education and nutrition to develop into a healthy adult. Due to Child labor these children end up being malnutrition, weak and can also suffer from a large number of ailments. It is not easy for them to work at their innocence life all people were born with rights. Children are people too; so, children also have rights. These rights are violated through child labor. Children have right for survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. Children need it for their mental, emotional, social development and ethical behavior development it is a guiding principle which will be the source of its work, character, and adaptation to its surrounding.