CHILD LABOR

Child Labor

[Name of the Institute

]Child Labor and the Challenges Facing Human Resource Managers in a Developing Country Nigeria

Definition of Modernization Theory

According to Bonvillian (2001), Modernization is the term used for the transition from the traditional society as it is found in the west. He further stated that modernization or development theory is an idea of bringing new ways of modern technology into agricultural production for trade and industrialization which fully depends on labor mobility. It is expected by the modernization theory of the western world that the developing countries will have a boost in their economic development. By this modernization is therefore a way of controlling the less developed countries by putting them at the receiving end due lack of technical knowhow and unqualified personnel, which has resulted in brain drain in which the qualified human resources are migrating to the technically developed countries. Issues like child labor are some of the causes of the child labor in most developing countries due to the fact that the qualified and energetic human resources have all move to the in search of greener postures (issm.com).

According to the United Children's Education Fund Information sheet of March, 2005, fifteen million (15m), children's under the age of 14years are being employed in Nigeria, and the majority is subjected to hard labour, longer hours of work and exposed to dangerous and polluted environments.

International labour organization also estimated the number of children's working at 250 million throughout the world, 120 million are full-time workers. According to the report of the ILO 61% are in Asia, 32% in Africa and 7% are in Latin America, but only few number works in developing countries (www.revistadeassitntasocials.ro). The International labour organization at the minimum wage convention of 1973, requested nations to specify the minimum age required to work by the child not the years of completing the basic education and should not be less than 15years, but developed countries can reduce the years from 14 years. The ILO convention of 1999 (NO, 182), classifies some jobs for children's as worst forms and categorized them as follows:

Any form of slavery or practice similar to slavery.

The use of procurement offerings like prostitution.

The use of child for illegal activities like drug trafficking

Any work that can likely harm the child health and safety.

According to Bate et al, (2009), Child labour is defined as any engagement of a person below the age of 15years in economic or remunerated activities. Therefore the use of any child for that has not attained the age of15years is a violation of the child right and is therefore child labour.

Conceptual Framework of Child Labour

The UNICEF statistics of 2006, makes an analysis of the types of works being carried by Nigerian children's as in below table:

Public places, such as streets and markets:

Street Vendors-(64%)

Beggars -(13%)

Shoe shiners-(4%)

Car washers/watchers-6%\)

Scavengers-(5%)

Feet washers-(8%)

Some public settings, such as cottage industries and mechanic

Vulcanizes-(24%)

Iron/Metal workers (6%).

Carpenters-(14%)

Tailors-(14%)

Hairdressers/Barbers-(18%).

Caterers-(18%)

The situation of most African children's remains critical due to the unique factors of the socioeconomic, cultural, traditional and developmental circumstances, natural disasters, ...