Child Labor On Tobacco Farms

Words: 1206
Pages: 5
Open Document
According to UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund), child labor can be defined as, “work that exceeds a minimum number of hours, depending on the age of a child and on the type of work. Such work is considered harmful to the child and should therefore be eliminated.” (1). Children all around the world are trying to fight poverty by becoming child laborers, however, there are definite disadvantages to becoming a child laborer. One of the many places where child labor occurs is on tobacco farms. The use of child laborers on tobacco farms is a terrifying human rights violation. First, child laborers on tobacco farms is a human rights issue because it has dangerous impacts on their health. Another reason that child laborers …show more content…
These children typically work 50-60 hours in a week, and on average they get paid minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Some of them get a few short breaks during the course of the day, however, many don’t get any time to rest. Thankfully, most children attend school full-time and only work in the farms after school, on weekends, and during the summer months. This is not always the situation, having children who don’t enroll in school (or do enroll but miss several months) due to tobacco farming. Even some of the kids who attend school full-time still miss days due to their families financial problems, or other problems (Tobacco’s Hidden Children, 1). Some children migrate from places, such as Mexico, to be able to work in the tobacco fields and make some money. An example of a child leaving school to work on the fields is a child worker named Calvin R. He left his family behind in Mexico, and went to the United States to join a migrating group that works on tobacco fields. According to Calvin R, “We come to Kentucky every year from other states. We work in Washington in the apples, and in Tennessee there’s a packing plant where we work. We came to Kentucky … at the beginning of August. We usually come here around the same time every year to work in tobacco.” (1). Calvin wishes he could continue studying and getting an education, but instead he travels around the U.S working in the agriculture industry. Many of these parents think that education is not needed to survive, but it is critical that children get a good education while they are still young, because having an education helps their physical and mental health in ways that working endless hours would not be beneficial to. It is obvious that working on the farms provides no educational value other than the knowledge of hard
Show More

Related Documents: Child Labor On Tobacco Farms

Hidden Victims of Tobacco Essay example

The Hidden Victims of Tobacco Worldwide, approximately 10 million cigarettes are purchased a minute, 15 billion are sold each day, and upwards of 5 trillion are produced and used on an annual basis (Martin). As the demand for tobacco continuously increases, so does the mass production of this product. Requiring 33 million workers at the early stages of the processing of tobacco and 100 million workers in all stages of the production, the production and labor of tobacco is strenuous (ILRF). Many…

Words 785 - Pages 4

Child Labor CH 1 Essay

Truths and Horrors of Child Labor Chapter One Child Labor is a major problem in Europe, Africa, Asia and many other parts of the world. Child labor is work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. Child labor is a disease of the world and together we can all find a cure. There are many different types of child labor. There is human trafficking, agriculture, soldiering, and migrant child labor. Human Trafficking…

Words 1075 - Pages 5

Compare And Contrast The Chesapeake Colonies

In the colonies the coa was a dyer resource for new england, they coold fish, trade , and travel easily. new en!and also had very little land to farm on, causing them to depend on the coast for not only food, but also a job. They also had more intense winters so they had to build towns closer together, to get the supplies that they needed, easier. They were, for the most part, self sufficient, and didn't need to depend on anyone else. They, however, did set up and use this route, called the triangular…

Words 756 - Pages 4

British American Tobacco Essay

Introduction British American Tobacco (BAT) British American Tobacco is a global tobacco group, with brands sold in more than 200 markets. Dunhill, Kent, Pall Mall and Lucky Strike are its four largest selling brands. Some of their brands are Kool, Benson & Hedges and Rothman. It is one of the leading tobacco group, informally known as BAT. The British American Tobacco is the world’s second largest tobacco company next to Philip Morris International in terms of sales. BAT hold strong market positions…

Words 4316 - Pages 18

Eli Whitney: A Symbol Of Slavery In The US

Eli Whitney was born in December 8, 1765 through January 8, 1825 in Westborough, Massachusetts. Parented by his father, Eli Whitney Sr., a farmer and his mother, Elizabeth Whitney (Fay). In Eli’s childhood, he grew up in a farm, since his father was a farmer, but he started gaining interest for machine work and technology. His mother would later on die in 1777. Further into his youth, Eli had acquired lot of experience making nails from a device of his own invention and operated his father’s profitable…

Words 1816 - Pages 8

Slavery: Slavery and Virginia Company Essay

Without the thousands of enslaved African’s there would be very little profit in the America’s. The English thrived from the labor of the African’s. The idea of becoming very rich helped cement slavery into the English colonies. The English grew up believing that black was the symbol of evil and a sign of danger and repulsion. The development of slavery came at a time when the ideal picture of beauty was a fair mixture of rose and white. The ethnocentric English saw their culture as superior…

Words 1130 - Pages 5

Benjamin Banneker Research Paper

and wherever he could while growing up on his family’s tobacco farm, especially about science and math. With his love for math at the age of 21 he constructed his own striking wall clock without a reference, which gained him considerable attention. He had a passion that most black males didn’t have during his time and had no role models…

Words 611 - Pages 3

1 AFF Lay AC Essay

I affirm the resolution, “Just governments ought to ensure food security for their citizens.” To clarify the debate, I provide the following definitions: Ought implies an http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ought used to express obligation. Jane Straus defines ensure as (Straus, Jane [author of the Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation]. Grammar Book.) Ensure is to do or have what is necessary for success. The United Nations defines food security as (United Nations. 1975. Report of the World…

Words 3955 - Pages 16

APUSH Ch Essay

children to inherit, and parents then had less control over their children’s lives. The citizens still wanted to preserve the freehold idea. They developed a system that a historian called “household mode of production.” This included families swapping labor and goods. Women and children would work in groups to spin yarn, sew quilts, and shuck corn. Men would loan neighbors tools, draft animals, and grazing land. Farmers would plow fields of artisans and shopkeepers in return for shoes, furniture, or store…

Words 1249 - Pages 5

Cotton Gin Research Paper

What made cotton so enticing? Before cotton, tobacco, rice, and indigo were America's oldest cash crops. The textile industry began to increase, and the demand for cotton clothing exploded. Cotton became known as “King Cotton” because it made up half of American exports and the South produced more than half the world’s supply of cotton. Therefore, Eli Whitney invented a process to easily separate cotton fiber from its seeds which impacted the nation economically, politically, and socially. Thus,…

Words 902 - Pages 4