Child Labour Issue by Drawing Critical Summary of the Issue - Essay Example

Critical Thinking Name Institution Critical Thinking Introduction Of the benefits that economic development has brought, provision of quality education and secure future for children globally is the most important. However, from the beginning of 21st century, millions of children have been exploited across the world and this number is still growing tremendously (Hindman and Hindman, 2014). This paper will define and outline child labour issue by drawing critical summary of the issue in addition to reflecting on the current practices that is implemented in resolving the child labour issue. In addition, the paper will detail out a creative thinking strategy that can be used in solving the issue. It will also highlight the results of the implementation and the future possible effect of implementing the recommended plan. Section 1 Across the world, more than millions of children are exploited and do extremely hazardous work under harmful conditions (Hindman and Hindman, 2014). Doing this prevent them from getting education and is often harmful to them physically and mentally. Typically, approximately 168 million children work as child labourers mostly in fields, battlefields, homes, factories to name a few. They face hunger, tedious work, poverty, ill-health among other conditions. Of the total girls and boys, about 85 million are involved in hazardous work which is often illegal. Child labour can be defined as working under dangerous conditions where children meet exploitative situations and circumstances of work. For instance, hazardous working conditions can be in mines or working situations where they handle chemicals or dangerous pesticides (Hindman and Hindman, 2014). The term ‘child labour’ involves general work that deprives children of their rights to freedom and childhood and work which tend to harm both their physical and mental development. Generally, it is the work that is mentally, physically or socially dangerous to children and deprive them of their schooling. In the extreme form, child labour encompasses children being exposed to serious hazard environment, enslaved or separated from their families. Whether or not various forms of work can be referred to as child labour depends entirely on child’s age, hour of work, the type of work, the condition they are exposed to and the objectives pursued by particular countries (Hindman and Hindman, 2014). Approximately 2 million children are exposed to child labour and are trafficked every year and undergo sexual exploitation (Orazem, Sedlacek and Trannatos, 2009). A good number of child labourers are found in informal economic sector that are rarely protected by laws and regulations. India is considered the country with the largest number of child labourers globally. Statistics have found that the number of child labourers has increased tremendously from 11.28 million in 1991 to about 12.59 million in 2001. Poverty, lack of education and lack of social security are likely to be the major causes of child labour (Herimin, 2008). For instance, the increasing gap between what is considered rich and what is considered poor, neo-liberal economic policies and privatization of services are causes of large section of population lacking employment without the basic needs. Such adversely tend to affect children more that grown-ups (Herumin, 2008). In addition, entry of the major national corporations into industry sector without proper mechanism to regulate them or hold them accountable has resulted to the growing use of child labour (Herumin, 2008). Moreover, lack of quality education is a major contributor to many children dropping out of school and finding their way to the labour force. Nevertheless, the major concern revolves around the fact that a good number of child labourers go undetected. This is because, laws and regulations that are set in place to protect children from hazardous work environment are ineffective and are not instituted correctly (Hindman and Hindman, 2014). A growing concern is that children are used as domestic workers especially in urban area. The conditions and circumstances in which these children work is unregulated and are many times made to work without food and receive low salaries, resembling conditions of slavery (Herumin, 2008). Domestic work involving children often take place as a result of families placing their children in homes for employment. The distinguishing between what is hazardous and what is not hazardous employment is very productive in the elimination of child labour. Section 2 The negative impacts of child labour with regard to physiological level of children include concerns on mental health. Children under child labour have been reported to have conditions such as digestive and skin conditions, respiratory diseases, mental health issues such as migraines, asthenia, insomnia to name a few (Herumin, 2008). These children also are reported to having poor physical health. Some examples of physical conditions include fatigue, light headedness, and depression. While child labour issue continue to be a growing concern, there is current found hope for these children inflicted with child labour conditions. Solutions are being found and most of them are being put into practice with an aim of resolving the issue. One way of solving child labour issue is to promote he access to education. Increasing the access to public education to all children is a primary strategy that can lead to the end of child labour (Hindman and Hindman, 2014). For instance, Bangladesh Metal Workers Union has seek to eliminate child labour by enrolling children in education. Generally, the Global Campaign with regard to education involves the coalition between teachers unions, Action Aid, Global March against Child Labour etc. through the provision of public education, children inflicted with chid labour have better chances of succeeding in life and will have a chance of going back to school and not being forced to work (Herumin, 2008). However, the downfall of this strategy is the fact that it will take time and money in addition to the corporation of the community at large required to build the schools and in the efforts of enrolling these children. Generally, economic reasons pose as the major hurdle of this strategy. Unless economic change is instituted, it will be very difficult for these children to enrol in school. Another strategy that can be used in stopping child labour is the elimination of poverty. Supranational institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and others have largely contributed to the increase in child labour when they encouraged countries indebted on them to reduce public expenditure on issues such as health care and new employments. Such adjustment initiatives have contributed to the increase in poverty and ultimately child labour (Hindman and Hindman, 2014). Therefore, such international bodies should rethink their loan plans in increasing social expenditure rather than reducing it. In addition, another way of reducing poverty is by creating a minimum family income. Many families prefer child labour rather than putting their children on the streets in order to survive. If these families are assisted in coming out of their poverty by getting a steady income, many children will not be working in hazardous work conditions. However, it is essential to consider the fact that the government is the one to carry out and initiates such system and often than not, it may not be as eager and ready to supporting such an idea (Hindman and Hindman, 2014). Moreover, the government may not have the capabilities in terms of resources and time to do so especially in developing countries. Provision of a minimum family income as a strategy to stopping child labour require financial resources that may be unavailable thereby, very difficult to implement. Another solution to child labour is to change the public views on this issue (Orazem, Sedlacek and Trannatos, 2009). If the views of people about child labour are changed in a way that the public will see what child labour inflict on children, more and more people will be enthusiastic about stopping it and wanting to help. However, this exposure of the public to child labour could potentially cause people to demand reforms and changes in the country’s laws and regulations. In a particular country’s government refuses to support the solutions to child labour, revolts and rebellions can possibly occur. Such revolts and rebellions may bring challenges that were not planned for. Another strategy that can be used in resolving child labour is the creation of more unions that can provide protection against child labour (Hindman and Hindman, 2014). Additional unions will encourage more people and create awareness of what is happening in the work force and will assist in the fight against child labour. On the other hand, with an aim of creating such workers unions, revolts, rebellions and strikes may be necessary. This tends to be a brutal and difficult process as some violence may result. In addition, this strategy is very risky and dangerous. And if workers fail to create these unions, their working conditions may worsen with regard to rebellion (Orazen, Sedlacek and Trannatos, 2009). Section 3 The creative strategy that was most appropriate in solving child labor is fishbone strategy (Robson, 2002). This kind of strategy is a simple cause analysis tool which is used for getting ahold of issues and the various sources of the problem and finally finds a way to eliminate the problem. Child labor is considered a ruthless act to the children and it brings about more problems to the children. It is as a result of probably financial problems that occur in families which therefore forces the children to quit their aspirations and goals and hence pressing them to earn a living both for their families and also for themselves (Orazem, Sedlacek and Trannatos, 2009). Researches have been carried out and it has been found that many children play a major role of economically sustaining the well-being of their families without which their families wouldn’t make ends meet. This has deprived the children the pleasure of experiencing childhood as it is. Therefore, child labor is an issue that requires critical thinking and decision making strategy in solving it. The common uses of the fishbone strategy are product design used to identify potential factors that causes an overall effect (Robson, 2002). Every cause for imperfection is a source of variation and are group into categories including people, which entails the individuals involved in the process: methods, which entails how the process is carried out and various requirements including rules, laws, policies and regulations: machines, which represents the equipment such as a computer required to accomplish the job: material which represents the raw materials, pens and paper used to produce the results: the environment which represents the condition like time, temperature, location etc. in which the process takes place and measurements which entails the data generated from the process (Robson, 2002). Causes in the fishbone diagram can be categories in different ways as mentioned above. The fishbone strategy is able to reveal fundamental relationships among variables and the causes offer additional insight in the process behavior (Robson, 2002). The causes of an issue can be retrieved from brainstorming sessions and immediately sort ideas provided into useful categories. The fishbone critical thinking strategy and decision making strategy generally focuses on the root causes rather than the effects and since there are so many causes for a particular issue, the technique assist in identifying the root cause of the issue in a structured manner. In addition, it assists people to work on each cause before finding the solution (Wildman and Nownham, 2003). In our case, fishbone critical thinking technique is very essential in solving for child labor issue. To start with, the technique will assist in analyzing and finding the causes of child labor issue since the issue has many possible causes that can be defined by the technique. In addition, the technique is a traditional method of approaching child labor issue and is very time consuming. Since the child labor issue is complex, it needs a strategy as fishbone diagram. Using the fishbone technique to formulate an action plan is simple. The action plan will contain four sections: Define the problem This is a straight forward step. A problem is defined with its root causes. In our case, the problem is child labor. After the problem is defined, a team leader contracts a fishbone diagram with the problem as the fish backbone. Brainstorm Many people face difficulty in understanding the way to structure thought process (Reilly et al., 2014). In this step, ideas from different people are gathered together and the process is further discussed to find the root causes of the problem. In our case, causes such as lack of education, poverty, unrestricted laws etc., can be some root causes of child labor. The next step involves refining the major causes in attempt to find causes occurring under different categories such as method, men, machine, measurement etc. Identify the root cause While brainstorming, the team strives towards major causes before going to secondary causes in order for major causes to be identified. After the major causes are decided, they are connected as fishbone in the diagram. The diagram eventually looks like a skeleton of a fish. The team will then have enough information to start discussing and evaluating individual causes and analyzing the problem. Decide and take action After evaluation of plan is over, an action has to be taken to rectify the problem permanently. The actions are derived from the root cause. Some actions to solving the child labor issue can involve eradication of poverty and provision of education. Section 4 As stated earlier, fishbone critical thinking strategy is critical in understanding an issue and coming up with possible causes that can be used to implement solutions. Fishbone strategy assists teams to focus more on the content of an issue rather than its history or the interests of the members of a team (Reilly et al., 2014). It provides a general snapshot of collective knowledge around a problem and allows a team focus more on the toots of an issue. The consequence of implementing fishbone strategy is the fact that every individual involved in decision making gin insight of the issue and the possible solutions-in our case child labour issue. The individuals involved end up benefiting from the shared contribution thereby leading to a shared common understanding of the child labour issue (Reilly et al., 2014). In addition, fishbone critical thinking strategy can be used to reveal fundamental relationships among variables and the various causes provide insight into process behaviour. The method also allows people to focus more on diagnosing an issue rather than focussing on the symptoms. The fishbone strategy can be used in situations where quality improvement program is required in solving a particular issue (Reilly et al., 2014). The eradication of child labor also comes with its own costs and benefits (Orazem, Sedlacek and Trannatos, 2009). Quality of educations in the schools deteriorates or there are an increased number of children in the schools. Although any level of education brings in more benefits than children foregoing child labor, the level of education lowers for there are no appropriate tools of education to accommodate the rising number of children enrolling to receive education in the schools (Orazem, Sedlacek and Trannatos, 2009). In addition, there is an opportunity cost of child labor. This means that there should be sufficient education that is readily available for the children. Secondly, economic barrier has to be overcome in order for their children to engage in education which regularly becomes a hurdle leading the same children to the labor camps to earn a little to sustain their education expenses. Conclusion Child labour is increasing globally and is occurring as a result of increasing poverty, lack of education, low income to name a few. Hence, enforcement alone is unable to solve this problem. Examples of solutions that can be used to solve the child labour issue include the creation of more unions, provision of education, changing the public view on the issue among others. The critical thinking strategies that can be implemented in solving child labour issue include fishbone critical thinking strategy. Fishbone strategy is used when identifying the potential causes of an issue. It is used to explore the effects of child labour, assist people organise thoughts in a simple way. Generally, good strategy that will assist in stopping the child labour problem together with an effective creative thinking strategy will effectively and easily assist solve the issue. References Herumin, W. (2008). Child labor today : a human rights issue. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=_FPlTNhButAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Child+labor+today+:+a+human+rights+issue&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Child%20labor%20today%20%3A%20a%20human%20rights%20issue&f=false Hindman, H. & Hindman, H. (2014). The World of Child Labor an Historical and Regional Survey. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=_MrfBQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+World+of+Child+Labor+an+Historical+and+Regional+Survey&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=The%20World%20of%20Child%20Labor%20an%20Historical%20and%20Regional%20Survey&f=false Keagy, B. & Thomas, M. (2012). Essentials of Physician Practice Management. Somerset: Wiley. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=Glb7vV2nvLIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Essentials+of+Physician+Practice+Management&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Essentials%20of%20Physician%20Practice%20Management&f=false Orazem, P., Sedlacek, G. & Tzannatos, Z. (2009). Child labor and education in Latin America an economic perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=qWHIAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Child+labor+and+education+in+Latin+America+an+economic+perspective&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Child%20labor%20and%20education%20in%20Latin%20America%20an%20economic%20perspective&f=false Reilly, J., Myers, J., Salvador, D., & Trowbridge, R. (2014). Use of a novel, modified fishbone diagram to analyze diagnostic errors. Diagnosis, 1(2). 167-171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/dx-2013-0040 Retrieved from http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/dx.2014.1.issue-2/dx-2013-0040/dx-2013-0040.xml Robson, M. (2002). Problem-solving in groups. Aldershot, Hampshire, England Burlington, VT: Gower. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=9OL9fndcVTwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Problem-solving+in+groups&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Problem-solving%20in%20groups&f=false Wildman, P., Warner, J. & Newnham, J. (2003). Problem-solving & decision-making toolbox 32 fully reproducible, ready-to-use tools. Amherst, Mass: HRD Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=LqDL2u3W8LQC&pg=PT2&dq=Problem-solving+%26+decision-making+toolbox+32+fully+reproducible,+ready-to-use+tools&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Problem-solving%20%26%20decision-making%20toolbox%2032%20fully%20reproducible%2C%20ready-to-use%20tools&f=false Read More