In most cases, child labor is terrible. Kids have terrible working conditions. They have barely enough money for one meal a day. Children could die working. Here is some more information on why child labor is bad in some cases.

As UNICEF a child labor organization says, “Estimated 158 million kids aged 5-14 are in child labor. 60% of those kids are in South Asia.” Kids work in fields during the harsh hot summer. A long with that the kids normally work for 12-16 hours a day. Even worse kids working in tobacco fields can get poisoning through the tobacco plants. Most of the kids that are in child labor are sick either from tobacco or from working in the sun for too long. An estimated 246 million children in Afghanistan are engaged in child labor. 70% of those are in hazardous work spaces. That 171 million children.

Some might say that the kids need the money for their family, but I argue that the kids shouldn’t need the jobs because they are taking the adults jobs. Kids are easier to pay which is why people like them for employees. As Lars Johansen of the ILO says, “The earlier the children start to work the higher chance they will drop out of education and perpetuate poverty.” If the parents had that job they would be making more than the kids make. Some kids work after school hours getting payed 0.75 cents per day. With that money they would barely have enough money to live and get good food. Imagine a family a family of four with only a kid to feed them. This makes the parents feel insecure that they are being supported by their child and that they can’t. This could make it even worse for the child because then they have to support that too.

There are children who are the only kids working in their family. If they’re working on a machine and that machine accidently turns on and they die how will the family get money then. If kids have long hair and is working by moving parts and their hair gets caught on the moving parts. Either they lose their hair or they die. Kids can also get severe injuries. As Marion Dupont of the wizness website says, kids who have worked in hazardous places and gotten scrapes often suffer from disabilities then and die at a younger age.

These are just some reasons why child labor is bad.  Of the 158 million children 58 million kids are in hazardous work. Picture yourself working in hazardous or bad working conditions. I would just like you to try, see how you like it. Just think about how many can die. Try putting yourself in their position, its hard. Although it is bad still some children need the money to please help them.