Child Slavery in West Africa's Cocoa Plantations Research Paper

Child Slavery in West Africa's Cocoa Plantations - Research Paper Example The paper tells that it is ironical that while children in cocoa growing countries live a miserable life, large manufacturers in Europe and the US reap huge profits selling chocolates made from cocoa. These children work in almost slave-like conditions while millions of consumers derive pleasure by consuming cocoa products. According to UNICEF, nearly 200,000 children are made to work in West and Central Africa through human trafficking. Mostly, these children are exported from Mali, Nigeria, and Cameroon. The cocoa farms in these countries operate in violation of basic human rights. Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana’s economy largely depends on the cocoa exports and the prices farmers fetch from the international market. International prices are not in their control and the value gain depends on the yield they get from their farms. Much of the work, even today, is done manually and farmers have never thought of exploiting technology to replace manual labor over last several decades due to its easy and abundant availability. At times, weather also plays their role in success and failure of cocoa crops. All these factors, and the traditional way of farmers’ thinking in using manual labor for having the lowest possible cost in producing cocoa, they continue to use child labor as they cost them much lower in comparison to adult labor. Cote d'Ivoire also known as Ivory Coast is the largest producer of cocoa beans followed by Ghana. Most of the child laborers in these countries arrive from Mali. Mali is one of the poorest countries not only in the region but in the world with a GDP of less than $1000 per capita as per the CIA Factbook as on 2010 with over 30% of the population below poverty line. The unemployment rate has been estimated huge 30% as per 2004 estimation. Over 80% people in Mali earn their living from agriculture. With hardly any earning opportunities available Malians are forced to move other neighboring countries. That is why poor families in Mal i agree to send their children to Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.