“International Labour Organisation estimates that there are 218 million working children aged between five to seventeen years.” They also state that “126 million are estimated to work in the worst forms of child labour” As citizens of New Zealand in which the environment has a minimal percentage of child exploitation we often ask ourselves what are these forms of child exploitation, when did this take place and does exploitation of child labour affect you?
History shows that the very first form of child exploitation began in Ancient Egypt and is recorded in the “Babylonian code of Hammurabi (1750BC), the sandskirt of Manu (800BC) and in the bible.” A reference to the bible to this issue can be found in Exodus 1: 13 -14 “13And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour, 14And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service, where in they made them serve was with rigour”
Child slavery then moved on into Ancient Greece and Rome where servants were used to meet personal demands. The child could have become a slave by being born into a low class status or children became their own family was in need of money and sold one of their children to slavery. Those children who were “healthy, attractive, young, and submissive”, could have been sold for as much as ten minae. This is the equivalent to $180.00.
Moving forward to the sixteenth century with the need of labour force, slaves were taken from their homes in Africa. Men, women and children were taken from their homes. This is known today as the slave trade; a trade of alcohol, guns and other European material departing Europe to arrive in Africa for human cargo. This ship would then journey to South or Central America where the Africans could be traded for ‘staples such as molasses and later on raw cotton’. This ‘lucrative triangular trade’ ended with the remainder of the Africans to work as servants and salves back in Europe. When it was...