Ibrahim, Abdalla et al. “Child Labor and Health: a Systematic Literature Review of the Impacts of Child Labor on Child’s Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.” Journal of public health (Oxford, England)41.1 (2019): 18–26. Web.

Child labor exists even though we may not see it in our country and laws and standards to eliminate it exist. Child labor are the results of many factors such as poverty, social norms, and migration. Child labor has long term affects on children. It affects children with their development. These children are forced into child labor in countries such as Indian due to the lack of education, and overpopulation. Health effects of child labor come with physical growth, musculoskeletal pain, hiv infection, and other work related illnesses. These children are malnourished. This article focuses on speaking about the studies that are conducted to report the damage and health issues these children are facing. In the article it states “A study conducted in Jordan reported a significant difference in the level of coping efficacy and psychosocial health between working non-schooled children, working school children and non-working school children. Non-working school children had a better performance on the SDQ scale.” The comparisons of non-working children and working children shows how child labour continues to be a major health challenge and negatively affects their development. 

I agree with this article because it focuses on showing the different studies that are conducted in different countries such as IrĂĄn, Indian, and Bangladesh. The studies compared outcomes of the working children and a control group. I was interested in knowing who conducts these studies and do they help working children? This answered my research question which was “In certain countries won’t   children be worse off if they aren’t working? How does being a non-working child affect them?” Some believe if children don’t work to provide for their family at a young age they are left to beg or starve. Working is how they are able to support their family and bring food to the table. I disagree, this article answered my question about how children aren’t better off working. Their parents should be providing for them. These children are developing long-term health complications, physically and mentally. 

The author’s sentence structure allowed the studies to be easily understood. The statistics of the studies compared to the control group showed how the working children are developing differently. Also showed and focused on specific diseases that are more likely to be seen on the working children instead of the non-working children

“Child labor was found to be associated with a number of adverse health outcomes, including but not limited to poor growth, malnutrition, higher incidence of infectious and system-specific diseases, behavioral and emotional disorders, and decreased coping efficacy. Quality of included studies was rated as fair to good. Conclusion and recommendations Child labor remains a major public health concern in LMICs, being associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes.”

Cigno, Alessandro. “How to Deal with Covert Child Labor and Give Children an Effective Education, in a Poor Developing Country.” The World Bank economic review 26.1 (2012): 61–77. Web.

This book speaks on how many children are forced into child labor. It speaks on how the government could be a tremendous help in stopping child labor if they were to finance the education of poor children entirely by borrowing against their future tax payments. It also mentions how in many of these developing countries most children work but the work they do is invisible to the government, they haven’t helped or set laws to stop child labor. It the book it states “but most covert child labor consists of activities conducted for and under the direct supervision of the child’s parents.(such as helping in the home, working on the family farm, and contributing to the family business.)” children doing labor for their family business at such a young age interferes with their education. The government may wanna regulate these laws but can’t because it is private information. If the government doesn’t provide aid to these poor families it leaves them with other choices than to work to support their family and have a running business.

I agree with the book. The book answers my questions on different ways the government can enforce child labor laws and regulations. The book speaks on enforcing and giving children an effective education.

“Because credit and insurance markets are imperfect and intrafamily transfers and how children use their time outside school hours are private information, the second-best policy makes school enrollment compulsory, forces overt child labor below its efficient level (if positive), and uses a combination of need-and merit-based grants, financed by earmarked taxes, to relax credit constraints, redistribute, and insure. Existing conditional cash transfer schemes can be made to approximate the second-best policy by incorporating these principles in some measure. child labor, education, uncertainty, moral hazard, optimal taxation.”

Reed, Lesley. “What You Can Do to Stop Child Labor.” Faces (Peterborough, N.H.) 22.8 (2006): 33–.

This article speaks on ways that us citizens can help in stopping child labor. Theres many ways we can stop child labor such as donating to help a child stay in school. In this article it speaks on how we can educate ourselves on the products we use and buy. We as a action group can make sure to not buy products made with child labor. One thing u liked about this article was that it mentioned how we should be looking for words such as “fair-trade” on clothing which means farmers and manufacturers are given a fair price for their products.

I agree with this article. It taught me how we can help even if it’s something small. This articles answered my question “how us as us citizens can help end child labor?”.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world,” said the anthropologist Margaret Mead. “Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” There are many things you can do to make a difference in the lives of poor children around the world. Even small acts have a big impact when enough people take them.”