Underage Workers

Work, a compulsory activity carried out by the husband in order to meet the needs of the family, work is crucial  which individuals can survive if they get a job that can support their needs. The average person who works is an individual who is mature, physically strong, and has the ability to carry out his job. However, in some cases, there are some minors who do work like what adults usually do. Law Number 23 of 2002 concerning Child Protection, Article 1 paragraph (1) states that "a child is someone who has not reached the age of 18 (eighteen) years, including children who are still in the womb". In the law, it is explained that someone who is not yet 18 years old can still be said to be a child. Of course, a child must get enough needs such as parental love, education, guidance, play groups and others. But what if a child actually helps his parents work?

Indeed, economic pressures still often create several problems in an institution, such as crime, high divorce rates, decreased happiness levels and many more. However, the pressure that should be borne by a household head will decrease and be borne by the child. Some things such as feeling sorry for their parents (with the excuse of wanting to ease the burden on their parents), economic compulsion that obliges them to work are the main reasons some children start work that should be done by the head of the family. We have to tolerate this situation because if we forbid it, we are the same as those who kill the poor for food. There are also a number of things that may no longer be changed apart from economic factors, namely traditional or cultural factors. If it has entered into the realm of culture, it will be very difficult to change it like what the government has regulated. Besides that, children who work under age will also have a sense of satisfaction with the results of working, have their own money, and lighten the burden on their parents.

Apart from some of the problems that I have mentioned in the second paragraph, there are many negative impacts of underage workers, namely disrupted children's physical development, disturbed emotional development of children, disrupted children's social development. These things can very clearly be detrimental to a child who should get his special rights as a child as in accordance with article 6 of the UNICEF children's convention which reads "All children have the right to life. The government needs to ensure that children can survive and grow healthily ". Of course, the things that are caused by children who work under age are against the international child protection agency. And also sometimes parents are not aware of what they have done to their children, trivial things like keeping a shop or stall are included in work and should not be done by children.

The conclusion is that in my opinion, children who work for reasons like reducing the economic burden of their parents and who have become a tradition have nothing wrong to do, because besides being a solid attitude in a family it can also train children's skills in terms of work. However, if the children work because their parents are lazy, if parents give orders to work I strongly reject this because parents don't have any rights to orders their children to work, especially family heads, are already obliged to support or provide for their families in all sectors of life.