Child labour is a serious global issue that demands
immediate action. The world currently holds around 215 million children labourers,
more than half of which are involved in work in hazardous environments, illicit
activities like drug trafficking and prostitution and involvement in armed
conflicts. According to the International Labour Organization’s 2010 report, 115
million children under 18 are involved in hazardous work such as handling
chemicals, carrying heavy loads, mining and enduring long hours (International
Labour Organization) . The many severe health and safety
risks are particularly harmful to young labourers who absorb toxic material
into their bloodstream more rapidly and require more sleep than adults. According
to statistics, the child labour market is mainly concentrated in the
Asia/Pacific region, which contains the highest number of children labourers of
over 120 million, and Sub Saharan Africa, which holds the highest proportion of
child labourers of around 25% of all children (International Labor Rights
Forum (ILRF)) .
These research and reports have urged certain governments and groups to
recognize the need to face the issue of child labour. Organizations such as the
International Labour Organization (ILO) have been formed to drive the
formulation and implementation of plans to control, and hopefully eliminate,
this removal of the rights of children. However, do the actions of these
organizations effectively combat these enormous statistics and shocking
reality?
A child carries unbaked bricks to a kiln at a brick factory in Raichak, India (Shaw)
A child carries unbaked bricks to a kiln at a brick factory in Raichak, India (Shaw)
Through my research, I have formulated two general
anti-child labour groups: large, government-driven organizations and
independent, “people-driven” groups. ILO is the most prominent example of the
former. The goal of their International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
created in 1992 is to “strengthen the capacity of countries to deal with the
problem” and “promote a worldwide movement to combat child labour”. It is the
largest programme of its kind globally with operations in 88 countries and an
annual expenditure that exceeds $60 million (International
Labour Organization) . However, its plans of action are very
broad. Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of labour encourages members to
take “immediate and effective measures to secure the…elimination…of child
labour” and to “design and implement programmes of action” without any exact
structure, guidelines or timeframes. It recognizes the need for effective
elimination of child labour through immediate and comprehensive action, to
support free basic education for these children and to provide rehabilitation and
social integration following their disassociation from the labour market. The
convention then goes on to define the term “the worst forms of child labour”, such
as “work which…is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children” and “all
forms of slavery…such as the sale or trafficking of children…and forced or
compulsory labour” (International
Labour Organization) . Although it recognizes the issue, this
convention hardly does anything to deal with control or elimination of the
issue. There lacks a direct effect on child labour and a demanding push for
governments to take stronger and stricter action towards it. In numerous
countries, child labour is still too commonly accepted and not legally
threatened enough to be facing extinction. However, I will give IPEC this: their
programs do raise awareness of the issue and place it in national development
agendas more effectively than any other organization currently.
Ghlam-Mafus, 16, has been working for 8 years as a blacksmith
apprentice in Kabul (Chung)
On the other side of the spectrum, Butterflies, a
smaller, non-government organization in India, takes a “non-institutional
approach” by working directly with street and working children. They hold
monthly meetings where children and organization members discuss issues and
find collective solutions, thus allowing direct communication and promoting
democratic principles in that every person has a right to an opinion and the principle
of freedom of expression. These discuss ion have influenced the forming of
other groups organized by the children themselves, such as the newspaper Child
Worker’s Voice. In response to statistics showing an increase in education and resulting
decrease in child labour, Butterflies formed their Chalta Firta School, a
mobile education programme which moves from community to community to teach
children basic education like mathematics and reading. Their mantra of the
Mobile Education is “If the Children cannot come to the school, let us take
this school to them”. Although this is not the best quality of education, it
would further promote the obtainable reality for the children to seek an
educational path and obtaining a better, healthier life than the one many past
child labourers have led. Butterflies also promotes children to attend a formal
school; however, this proved difficult due to the organization’s limited
influence. Out of the estimated 4,000,000 working children in Delhi (where the
organization is focused in), out of which at least 45,000 children are living on
the street with no adult support and financially self-supporting for food and
other necessities, only 50 children have been admitted to formal schools
through this organization. Another program Butterflies organize is a health care
program consisting of two parts. The first is a project where a mobile health
van visits certain areas on a weekly basis to provide medical treatment. The
second is the health education curriculum, where children learn to better
protect themselves from diseases, maintain a nutritional diet and give
first-aid treatment (Butterflies Child
Rights) .
Given Butterflies’ limited budget and the impossibility of it to always be accessible
for medical treatment, I think their health care program is a very good idea as
it provides easier access to treatment as well as allows the children to be
able to treat themselves/others and avoid sickness. The organization is mainly
focused in Delhi, lacking the resources and government power ILO possesses to
develop and spread further. Thus, unlike ILO, it directly affects child labour
and has immediate results in their fight against cruel treatments and conditions
in child labour. Having said that, the magnitude of their results is limited as
organizations like Butterflies hold only so much power and resources, something
that ILO, through their large international influence, possesses.
Butterflies Mobile Education programme (Butterflies Child Rights)
Butterflies Mobile Education programme (Butterflies Child Rights)
Something I found very amusing was the Butterflies’
Elimination of Child Labour webpage. It spoke of the Government of India
enacting the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act in 1986 against
child labour in hazardous industries and condition regulations and later coming
out with a notification banning a portion of domestic child labour. It then
states, and it is simply too entertaining to reword, “It is easy to pass an
order outlawing child labour; however, formulation of any plan for
rehabilitation as well as guidelines and standards for rescue has been completely
ignored by the government” (Butterflies Child
Rights) .
Put bluntly and pointedly, this is in essence the dilemma in tackling the
issue. Child labour is an issue that is recognized and fairly well-known, and
many organizations have responded to the severity of the issue, however its
statistics still remain bafflingly high. It is because of the approach
organizations take. If larger-scaled, government-influencing groups like ILO
and smaller groups which work directly with child labourer populations for immediate
results like Butterflies combine, the progress towards the elimination of the
worst forms of child labour would move much more quickly and effectively.
Sources:
Butterflies Child Rights. n.d.
Electronic. 3 March 2012. http://www.butterflieschildrights.org/home.php
Chung, Chien-min. Afghan Child Labor. n.d. Electronic.
5 March 2012.
International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF). Dutch fail to get
issue of child labour on G8 agenda. 24 June 2008. Electronic. 3 March 2012.
http://www.laborrights.org/stop-child-labor/news/11615
International Labour Organization. Child Labour. n.d. Electronic.
3 March 2012.
—. "Convention No 182." Convention Concerning
the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of
Child Labour. Geneva, 1999. Electronic. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc87/com-chic.htm
—. International Programme on the Elimination of Child
Labour (IPEC). n.d. electronic. 2 March 2012. http://www.ilo.org/ipec/lang--en/index.htm
Written by: Melissa
Shaw, Jayanta. Child Labor Banned in India. 28 October
2010. Electronic. 5 March 2012.
Written by: Melissa
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