Children are forced to work beyond their level.
In Western Africa people are entrenched in extreme poverty and children there ending up working in cocoa farms instead of studying at school. The farmers in the Ivory Coast, for example, have admitted about child slavery and how children are exploited. According to The Washington Post, one of the farmers said: “I admit that it is a kind of slavery. But they bring them here to work, and it’s the boss who takes the money.” (Nation of Change, The Washington Post, November 19th, 2019).Chocolate industry is built on child slavery!.
You really need to know where your chocolate comes from!
And you will be shocked to learn that top chocolate manufacturing companies do exploit child labour. That is to say children are suffering because of our chocolate craving.
Which means consumers play an important role in this matter.
Child slavery on cocoa farms is a difficult issue to fully address because the most serious abuses take place across the world. Nevertheless, that does not mean as consumers we are absolved of our responsibility, particularly because chocolate is a luxury and not a necessity as any other food. Before consuming chocolate produced by a particular company, we should find out how that company is getting its cocoa and from where.
All children deserve the best possible start in life. It’s so unconscionable to know that certain kids have to go through undue exploitation of their labour while some of us are complaining about the difficulty in finding a job that matched our education level. Those young children need proper education and deserve a better future instead of picking up cocoas and making things (chocolate) that delight our taste bud.
This plain moral injustice is unacceptable.
