Daniel Markus Jueterbock

Exists a Linkage Between the Exploitation of Children, As a Source of Labour, and Globalisation in Both Developing and Industrialised Countries? Daniel Markus Jueterbock

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Economics - Job market economics, grade: 78, Curtin University of Technology (Curtin Business School), course: Industrial Relations (Asia Pacific) 302, language: English, abstract: This report tries to evaluate the question whether there is a linkage between globalisation and child labour in developing and industrialised countries. It takes India and Germany as examples and analyses their situation due to this issue. Globalisation is a process enforced by companies. Therefore, child labour is defined by the ILO as the exploitation by companies. In this context it is not in its worst form of slavery, prostitution or as soldier in an armed conflict. This report shows that society in India accepts child labour, whereas Germans prohibit it. Historically, Germany's laws regarding child labour were initiated in the 19th century, a time of industrialisation. Laws protecting children in India were set in place approx. 100 years later. Economically, both countries differ as well. Germany is a service economy. But India is changing. The majority is occupied in the agricultural sector. But most of the GDP is generated by the service sector. Historically, child labour in Germany took place in the 19th century during the industrialisation. There, we have seen that child labour occurred together with two factors, poverty and productivity. Industrialisation reduces the traditional fields of occupation and results in poverty. People are forced to let their children work. Machines make children as unskilled workers possible. Only if machines become more complex, educated workers are necessary. The more complex they get, the more productive they will be. Only then, children are not productive if not educated. This event can be applied to India's recent situation. It changes from an agricultural to a service economy. It skips industrialisation. Technology shoots India to another level, but leaves the under-educated population in poverty. In glo