Child Labor
While many Earth dwellers viewed Altairus as an ideal land of the gods back in the day, not everything in the world of faeries was roses. One point of contention between the two worlds is how acceptable and universal child labor is throughout Altairus.
Children's Rights
The rights of children in Altairus look very different from the rights of children on Earth. In many nations throughout Altairus, children are not considered "minors" in the same way that many Earth nations consider them. Not only can they work and hold steady jobs, but they can also own and sell property, sign for loans and leases without a cosigner, and in some cases even be tried as adults in legal matters.
These rights vary from nation to nation. While most nations have no laws regarding these activities as done by children, others impose certain regulations on these activities. Only a select handful of territories ban child labor or other activities outright, however.
Reasons
There are many reasons as to why child labor laws in Altairus and views on children in general are so different in Altairus as they are on Earth:
- Institutional schooling is not as ubiquitous in Altairus. While some nations enforce free compulsory schooling, the majority of Altairus utilizes an apprenticeship-based education system. Altairians educate their children by apprenticing them to someone who pays them and teaches them a trade in exchange for help with chores and other menial labor. Because so many economies heavily rely on this, institutional schooling is largely seen as unnecessary.
- When The War of the Wendigoes happened, many children lost their families. Orphanages quickly became overwhelmed with the influx of children coming in, and most were located in large cities where violent protests raged due to severe shortages of necessities. With nowhere else to turn, many of these orphans instead opted to raise each other in their own little communities. These Children's Kingdoms, as they were called, essentially operated as microcosms of adult society in which children were responsible for raising each other. This forced many to grow up very fast and become more competent with adult matters than they would have otherwise.
- In the wake of The War of the Wendigoes, nations all across Altairus found their wealth stores entirely cleared out. Out of desperation to restart their economies, many officials began encouraging young people to take on adult responsibilities and start working. Because so many working adults had died, there were many job openings available in all fields, which these children quickly filled up. Home ownership was the same way; children whose homes were intact but whose guardians had died would inherit the houses they lived in.
Consequences
While allowing children to work and take on adult responsibilities has no doubt bolstered Altairus's economies, it's more of a mixed bag for the youngsters themselves. Some have managed to find kind and decent employers who grant them a good living wage and have ushered them into mastery of their craft. Others ended up imprisoned in dead-end jobs with low pay.
The orphans in the Children's Kingdoms have generally fared better than others. Since these villages are run democratically by kids, they have more of a say in their labor and in what happens in their communities. This is not to say that the work is always easy or appropriate for children; just that children in these communities tend to have more agency as to what happens to them, so they tend to have better labor experiences.
Most nations across Altairus attempt to regulate child labor in one way or another. These laws are put into place with the aim of protecting young workers and their right to unionize and advocate for themselves, but they are not always well-enforced. As a result, a child laborer is just as likely to end up in a dead-end job as they are to end up in a fulfilling apprenticeship. Trafficking is also unfortunately common. The Coalition for Childhood, an organization with members from all over the world, denounces Altairus's lax stance on child labor, believing that children should not be working or taking on adult responsibilities no matter how degraded the economy is. The Coalition is considered an extremist group, however; most of Altairus is too reliant on the apprenticeship economy to even consider such a thing.
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