child labour is bad and unethical

children should not be allowed to work because for them at this tender age they should be provided with an education system that will make them occupationally flexible

Many thanks to my opponent for starting this debate!

Let's be clear. A child is a person less than 18 years old and, if they work, it may not be full-time and they may also be in receipt of an education. They may, additionally, receive vocational training in the workplace.

I can only speak from personal experience. I was fortunate enough to receive an excellent education, which was provided for me by the state and which was funded by the taxpayer.

However, my parents were as poor as church mice and could barely afford the basic necessities in life (we were so poor the neighbours used to bring us kids empty bags of sugar to sniff as a special treat - we were so poor that the rats in our kitchen had to bring their own lunch – or at least they would have done but we were too poor to have a kitchen - no really!)

Therefore, in order to help support the family, from the age of eight, I was sent out to work in the evenings, at the weekends and during the school holidays, At that age, I earned �20 a week rowing boats for tourists and my wages paid for my school uniform, shoes and books and also contributed towards the household bills.

Since then, I have never been out of work. I recognise that I was fortunate to grow up in Britain where even the poorest pupils are able to attend the best schools (provided they have the academic ability to do so) but I believe my extended work experience, my appreciation of the real value of money and my enhanced work ethic has been of great benefit to me both personally and professionally.

Of course I don't want to see very young children sent down the mines to shovel coal and be completely denied an education, but child labour, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing.

I note with interest that my opponent comes from India, which has the worst child labour record in the world. (1)

However, India is also the world's largest democracy, which means that the Indian electorate has voted into power a government that is either unwilling or unable to tackle the problem of child exploitation in the workplace.

That said, many Indian families would not be able to afford to educate their children unless their offspring went out to work, at least part-time.

Furthermore, it is demand from abroad that fuels child labour in India. I am English myself and am, therefore, rather partial to a nice cup of tea (milk and two sugars please!) Since it is too cold to grow tea in Britain, we have traditionally imported it from India. Now, as a British consumer, I have a choice. I could buy tea from a mainstream tea producer in the hope that they don't exploit children to the extent that they are denied even a basic education and pay �1 a packet or I could pay �1.50 a packet for Fairtrade tea (2) and be absolutely sure that the producers are paid a fair price and definitely do not exploit children. I might choose the latter, but most people don't care that much and would spend the extra 50p on a packet of biscuits to dunk in their cuppas! Therefore, if India did crack down on child labour, the price of tea from India would rise and tea importers would source their tea from less scrupulous countries instead. This would be very damaging for India's economy and mean that the government would have less money to spend on child welfare programmes.

(1)http://www.oxfam.org.uk...
(2)http://www.fairtrade.org.uk...

I suppose it also depends on the type of occupation.

Child stable-hands in a horse sanctuary – good.
Child camel-racing jockeys in Dubai – not so good.

Paperboy – good.
Rentboy – not so good.

Child actors in children's films like Harry Potter – good.
Child actors in adult films like Little Lolita and her Latino Lovers starring Tinkerbelle la Sucez, Paedo Pedro and Dirty Sanchez – not so good.

Well, so much for somesh, eh?

Or by "child labour" does my opponent mean a youngster that is a Labour Party activist? If so, to be interested in politics is a healthy thing and should be encouraged!