Today, all around the world, millions of children go to work instead of going to school. They are exploited for the cheap labour force they represent. Sometimes they are not even paid because they must pay off their parents’ debts who give their children to pitiless bosses. These children are obliged to toil to earn money which is dedicated to support their large family. Indeed, in poor countries destitute people often have large families because they hope that their children will help them in the future. Yet, it’s a vicious circle since at their turn, they found a large family with the same hopes.

This situation is advantageous for the bosses who make them work harsh. Moreover, child labour is often repetitive, tedious and inhuman. They are forced to work around the clock because children are obedient face to unscrupulous adults. The worst is that they work in hazardous conditions.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, eight hundred children work in the Burashi mines in the area of Katanga. The youngest are five years old and they earn less than a dollar a day. They spend their time looking for copper and cobalt that they extract from the mines. They toil around the clock and in most cases they don’t earn enough to eat. Their working conditions are hazardous because they don’t have any protective equipment, so they work bare hands and bare feet and use the toxic water of the river to clean the copper and cobalt. These products are sent to China and are transformed to be sold on world markets. They are used to make mobile batteries, fridges, TVs and home appliances sold throughout the world and especially in rich countries like European countries or the U.S.A.

Children are recruited in different fields of activity. Indeed, they are employed in production lines, construction sites, sweatshops and factories. They manufacture clothes, sportswear, carpets, bricks or electronic parts. They are also exploited in agriculture where they cultivate fruits and vegetables. Some children are forced to join the army and become soldier children which is the worst exploitation.

These children should be treated as all children in the world and should go to school instead of working.

The students of Terminales CAP MAC, PROE, PAR and IS