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Child Labor Issue in China

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Child Labor Issue in China
The child labor has been a controversial issue in China over the past ten years. According to the World Bank, ten million children below the age of 16 are employed illegally in factories, coalmines, and construction agencies across different provinces in China (2010). Even though there are some regulations enforced by the Chinese government to try decrease the number of children workers in cities, there is still a large number of families taking the risk of losing their children by sending them to work. Most of these children came from poor villages and were forced by their family members to relocate to cities to find jobs. Since low-income families are struggling to feed themselves, they cannot provide basic education for their children. Welfare programs, such as basic job training and free educational programs, should be expanded to these rural villages to prevent child labor in China. The audiences for this essay are families with children workers, social workers, and people who are working for welfare agencies in China. All the families with children workers already understand the danger of sending their children to work, but they may not know how to seek help from government agencies to prevent their children from working. Social workers don’t know how to find a way to connect these poor families with welfare agencies in China. Social workers are involved in the process of promoting these welfare programs to poor families in villages. They can use mass media as a way to protect the rights of these young workers by publishing articles and photos on newspapers and websites to expose child labor issue to public. Since the government agencies do not pay enough attention to address and to solve this problem, more and more young children will fall into the trap of lack of education and poverty. Welfare agencies and social workers can work together to enforce government regulations on industry employers to prevent them from hiring young children workers. The child laborers and their family members will potentially benefit from these welfare programs. Some families have lost their children due to accidents that occurred in the workplace. Other families that send their children to cities are also at the risk of losing their children. Even though some people try to fight for the rights of child laborers, there are still millions of children suffering at their work. The families from poor areas can ask for help and support from social workers to prevent their children from working in dangerous working conditions. The social workers are expected to find a solution and suggest it to government agencies to help solve the issue. This essay will include the causes of child labor issue, the living and working conditions of these young workers, and the effects of their working environment on their health conditions. It also will provide a detailed description of all the welfare programs that are promoted in China. The questions for this paper include: What are the main causes of child labor issue? What are the effects of working conditions on young workers? What should the society and government agencies do to prevent child labor? This paper will give social workers the opportunity to connect with many parents and then they can work together to solve the child labor issue.

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