Adequacy (Poverty Line of Sharia) the Strongest Scale for Eradicating Child Labor

Forced labor for children and their employment in the labor market when they should grow and develop skills for their future life will cause them serious harms which can in turn result in negative consequences for their whole life. One of the major reasons for child labor is the poverty of the family. It is believed that if poverty is removed، child labor will be naturally terminated as a result. Many countries see poverty eradication as part of their responsibilities and in this regard they determine poverty line and try to measure the child and his family life as a basis in their analyses. If the line is taken to be high، based on a cause and effect relationship the number of child labor cases will be low and if poverty line is taken to be low، the number of child labor cases will be high. These countries adopt different approaches to determine poverty line and there is no agreement among scholars on its nature and scope. Therefore، in practice، some set high standards while some others set low standards for determining poverty line and this has a direct effect on how much support governments provide for the low-income families. To alleviate poverty through Zakat، Muslim jurists also set a poverty line. As with others، there is no agreement among Muslim jurists regarding poverty line either. Some take it to be high while others take it to be low and this again will have a direct impact on how child labor issue should be resolved in Muslim countries. This study aims at comparatively investigating the issue of poverty line from different jurisprudential perspectives and how different perspectives can influence the way child labor can be looked at. It is also emphasized that determining poverty line as the sufficiency line by Muslim rulers is a much more effective way in preventing child labor in comparison to other ways، since it considers an important factor which is the status of the people. In this paper، first، some preliminary issues such as vulnerability of children and determining poverty line by rulers will be discussed. Then، the article will elaborate on different poverty lines from Islamic Shariah perspective and their relationship with other conventional poverty lines. Finally، the article will argue that sufficiency basis for determining poverty line from Islamic point of view is the most effective one in preventing child labor.