CHILD LABOR: ISSUES, CAUSES AND INTERVENTIONS

CHILD LABOR: ISSUES, CAUSES AND INTERVENTIONS

Child labor is a pervasive problem throughout the world, especially in developing Countries. Africa and Asia together account for over 90 percent of total child employment. Child labor is especially prevalent in rural areas where the capacity to enforce minimum age requirements for schooling and work is lacking.

Child labour: Child labour is a much narrower concept and refers to children working in contravention of ILO standards contained in Conventions 138 and 182. This means all children below 12 years of age working in any economic activities, those aged between 12 and 14 engaged in more than light work, and all children engaged in the worst forms of child labour.Children work for a variety of reasons, the most important being poverty and the induced pressure upon them to escape from this plight. Though children are not well paid, they still serve as major contributors to family income in developing countries. Schooling problems also contribute to child labor, whether it be the inaccessibility of schools or the lack of quality education which spurs parents to enter their children in more profitable pursuits.

Traditional factors such as rigid cultural and social roles in certain countries further limit educational attainment and increase child labor. Working children are the objects of extreme exploitation in terms of toiling for long hours for minimal pay. Their work conditions are especially severe, often not providing the stimulation for proper physical and mental development. Many of these children endure lives of pure deprivation. However, there are problems with the intuitive solution of immediately abolishing child labor to prevent such abuse. First, there is no international agreement defining child labor, making it hard to isolate cases of abuse, let alone abolish them. Second, many children may have to work in order to attend school so abolishing child labor may only hinder their education. Any plan of abolishment depends on schooling. The state could help by making it worthwhile for a child to attend school, whether it be by providing students with nutritional supplements or increasing the quality and usefulness of obtaining an education. There must be an economic change in the condition of a struggling family to free a child from the responsibility of working. Family subsidies can help provide this support. This analysis leads to certain implications for the international community. Further investigation into this subject is required before calls are made for banning child labor across the board. By establishing partnerships with humanitarian organizations, the international community can focus on immediately solving the remediable problems of working children.

Building a protective environment for children

Education services need to be in place and they must be free, compulsory, relevant and attractive. All children have the right to education. Children and parents need to see school as a better option than work.

Governments need to ensure that all children have access to compulsory education as a front-line response to child labour. They need to commit themselves to international standards such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No.182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, which has been ratified by 132 governments. And they need to make sure that laws are in place to prosecute employers who exploit children. Resources for this struggle are available. Child labour should be at the top of the agenda of finance ministries, as well as those of the traditional social ministries associated with children�s welfare. Developing countries can demonstrate the seriousness of their commitment by allocating more resources to basic social services.

Attitudes and practices need to change. Too often there is little objection by families and communities to children working. Frequently it is felt that work is a better and more appropriate activity for girls than going to school. In the case of forced and bonded labour, there may be a misunderstanding of the nature of the agreement that leads to the child being bound to his or her employer. The willingness of landowners and employers to exploit children in such arrangements, and the lack of social disapproval of employers who operate in this way, also fail to provide protection for children.

Laws that prohibit child labour need to be in place. And even

more importantly, they need to be rigorously enforced.

Governments and others need to know how many children are working in the

Various forms of labour. They also need information on the gender, age and ethnicity of the children to understand what made them vulnerable in the first place and to devise effective responses.

Children need to be removed immediately from the worst forms of child labour and

Provided with care and education.

Children�s views need to be taken into account in programmes aimed at helping child labourers. If children are going to be provided with real alternatives to hazardous labour, it is essential to make them active partners in identifying these alternatives.

Donor nations can show their commitment by increasing the proportion of assistance they allocate to basic social services and by supporting debt forgiveness.

UNICEF�s response

The 246 million children who are engaged in child labour are living proof of the world�s systemic failure to protect them. They are also the reason why UNICEF�s work is focused on building a protective environment for children that safeguards them from exploitation and abuse. UNICEF�s responses to child labour are based on child-centered policies � viewing children as resilient, yet vulnerable, capable yet inexperienced and active rather than passive in their development. This is why a protective environment for children must include strategies aimed at getting and keeping vulnerable children and young people in school. It also aims at:

1. preventing all forms of child labour that are detrimental to children; using the most ratified human rights instrument in history � the Convention on the Rights of the Child � as a guiding force behind its work;

2. Supporting other key areas of the child's development, including health, nutrition and sanitation; building alliances with other partners;

3. Working for the ratification and implementation of ILO Convention No.182 to immediately end the worst forms of child labour.

4. Child labour laws have been strengthened in many countries, and a number of international corporations have adopted codes of conduct concerning child labour.

DEVELOPING A STRATEGY

School represents the most important means of drawing children away from the labor market. Studies have correlated low enrollment with increased rates of child employment (ILO 1992). School provides children with guidance and the opportunity to understand their role in society. Therefore, many insist on immediately abolishing child labor in developing countries and requiring children to go to school. Yet this approach is unfeasible for a number of reasons. First, children will not attend these schools without an economic change in their condition. Schools must make it worthwhile for children to attend in order to make up for lost earnings. One necessary provision is that these schools be free. Another possibility is that these schools serve food supplements. Parents might view this nutrition as valuable and therefore keep their children in school. The quality of education can also be improved so that schooling is considered an important factor in the future success of a child. Only after the introduction of such substitutes will school attendance increase.

Another problem with complete abolition of child labor is that education and employment for children are not mutually exclusive. As mentioned previously, many children work and go to school. In fact, many children have to work to go to school; otherwise, they could not afford the tuition and other fees associated with attendance. This underscores the fact that child labor and education may work together in many cases. As mentioned above, specialization allows some children to acquire an education through support of their working siblings. The result of abolishing child labor would then be a reduction in the educational attainment of a population. A study in Bolivia found that children who were not employed actually had the lowest educational achievement (UNICEF 1992). Another study found that only 20 percent of children who dropped out engaged in paid employment (Seetharamu and Devi 1985). Therefore, immediate abolition is not necessarily the answer. The relationship between labor and education is more complicated than expected.