Peer-reviewed article
CHILD LABOUR : A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY
Dr. Manoj Kumar ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This is a sociological study examining child labour as a global phenomenon affecting hundreds of millions of children. The document describes how child labour emerged as employers sought to maximize profits through cheap child workers in factories, leading to exploitation, poor working conditions, and limited education. The study argues that child labour is rooted in poverty and cannot be eliminated through legislation alone, but rather requires broader improvements in social and economic conditions. The authors contend that when societies improve living standards and basic human needs are met, children attend school and child labour effectively disappears.
Key points
- Hundreds of millions of children globally work to support their families or themselves
- Industrial systems created demand for child workers due to low costs and high employer profits
- Children experienced excessive working hours, unhealthy conditions, hazards, abuse, and fatal accidents
- Child labour is both an economic and social problem rooted in abject poverty
- Legislative approaches alone cannot eliminate child labour; improvements in social and economic conditions are necessary
Limitations
The document provides no empirical data, regional analysis, or citations to support its claims about the prevalence or conditions of child labour. It lacks specific evidence about which interventions or policy changes have successfully reduced child labour in particular contexts.
Abstract
Child laboir is universal phenomenon. While there is no accurate accounting of how many of the world‟s children contribute to their families or their own economic support, the number of working children is surely in the hundreds of millions globally.With the advent of modern industrial system there came a tendency among the employers to earn easy and quick profits at less expenses. That is why, the employment of children in factories at low rate of remuneration became the frequent practice. They had to work for excessive hours under unhealthy, terrible and hazardous conditions. Child labour is both an economic and social problem. The term child labour brings before the eyes, picture of exploitation of little, weak, tender and underdeveloped bodies, illiteracy, physical abuse in the term of beatings by employers and accident often fatal at work sites. The problem with child labour is that it can hardly be legislated away as its roots lie in abject poverty . Where social and economic condition have improved children go to school and child labour for virtually disappeared. So any society which wants its children to be free to learn and play, first free entire population from fear of wants. This means ensuring basic human needs of all people .