Why is child labour a problem?
How does child labour harm young people?
What is the reason why children drop out of school and go to work?
Why is education important for children?
Isn’t child labour necessary for poor families to survive?
it be an option to combine work and school?
What can be done about child labour?
Why is it so important to eliminate all forms of child labour?
What is the secret of the success of MV Foundation, our campaign partner in India?
Which other Southern Partners use a good method to strive against Chid Labour?
What is “child labour”?
Child labour is commonly defined as work done by children under the age of 18 which is considered to be damaging to their physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual development.
Definition of Child Labour: Child Labour is work performed by a child that is likely to interfere with his or her education, or to be harmful to their health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. (Convention of the Rights of the Child, Article 32.1)
‘Child labour exits because we allow it to exist.’
Ms. Shanta Sinha, Chair of Children’s Rights
Commission, India.
• It exists because people accept it and make excuses for it. There are no excuses for child labour. All forms of child labour are unacceptable.
• It exists because the international community allows it to exist. Child labour could be eliminated with political will and action.
• It exists because the right of children to full-time education is not respected.
• It exists because the formal education systems in some countries are allowed to discriminate against the poor and vulnerable by making schools naccessible and unaffordable.
• It exists because global demand for cheaply produced goods means that suppliers have to find the cheapest labour force possible and often times, this means children are forced to work. Child labour is cheap and in many cases, free.
• It exists because consumers do not care enough about who makes the products they buy as long as they are cheap.
• It exists because often times it is ‘invisible’.
• It exists because farmers are not paid a fair price for their crops (cotton, coffee, cocoa) so they are unable to afford school fees for all of their children.
• It exists because international legislation and conventions seeking to end child labour have not been taken seriously or enforced.
• It exists because we haven’t done enough to end it.
Why is child labour a problem?
• Because it denies children their most basic rights – protection and freedom from exploitation.
• Because it means children are at work instead of going to school. Children are denied their right to full-time quality education which is the key to escaping poverty. By working instead of learning, the cycle of poverty is perpetuated.
• Because young children around the world are involved in dangerous and physically damaging work.
• Because it makes it difficult for adults to find employment when employing children is cheaper. Child labour excludes adults from the work force and this creates poverty.
Throughout the world, legislation exists that makes the exploitation of children illegal. However, all too often, the monitoring component of these legal frameworks is weak or non-existent and the finances and political will to improve them have not materialised. Some governments and businesses see child labour as a way to compete internationally as it keeps their costs, and therefore the price for their goods, low.
No! But, let’s be clear: child labour is any labour that prevents a child from receiving a full time formal education. Helping around the house or farm, or working in a local shop on weekends or for a few hours after school during the week is not child labour. In fact, this kind of work can be good for a young person - it helps them learn valuable life skills. However, if this work prevents a child from receiving a full time formal education and when it contravenes existing laws on the minimum age and conditions for employment, it becomes child labour.
How does child labour harm young people?
• Causes serious damage to children’s health as a result of violence, injury or disease
• Impinges on the social, emotional and moral development of children
• Exploitation of children through force, low wages, poor working conditions and sexual/psychological abuse
• Continuing poverty for individuals, families and whole communities
• Denial of the basic rights of millions of children
• Denial of the rights to education, health, leisure time and human development for many of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable children
What is the reason why children don’t go/drop out of school?
Experience shows that the main reasons for parents not to send their children to school are:
- existing social norms and tradition of the family or community;
- ignorance: parents are often not aware of alternatives;
- government’s indifferences or policy failures;
- discrimination and exclusion of certain groups. In some cases for example the educational system is not willing to educate poor, lower class children;
- a malfunctioning educational system or no educational system at all.
Why is education important for children?
Education enhances the development of self-esteem. Education offers children a possibility to learn to think for themselves, to make choices and to form their own opinion. Educated children learn to defend themselves and to claim their rights. In other words, education is key to a better life.
Furthermore, education is a pre-condition to sustainable development and the building of a democratic society. Good education leads also to the better health conditions. Particularly, the education of girls gives a high return in terms of health improvements, family planning and the well-being of whole families. Besides, educated women make extra efforts to ensure an education for their children.
The international community agrees that education is a basic right for all children. This is also expressed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Child Labour Conventions 138 and 182 of the International Labour Organisations (ILO) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at the realisation of basic education for all children (boys and girls) by the year 2015.
. Isn’t child labour necessary for poor families to survive?
Child labour cannot be tackled as a family issue only; it is a societal issue, a cultural issue, and a human rights issue. Put simply, child labour should not exist and no excuses should be made for it. Child labour in not a ‘necessary evil’. Child labour is not just an issue for poor families; it is something that affects us all. Parents, employers, government officials, teachers, police and other community representatives should all be involved in providing the necessary conditions to ensure that children do not have to work. Families that depend on the income generated by their children should be supported
and provision for the education of these children should be made. There is little point in removing a child from work for them to be replaced by nother child. When children are no longer available for work, employers have no choice but to hire those who are available to them…adults.
The argument that child labour is a ‘necessary evil’ or an ‘unavoidable by-product’ of poverty is unfair and does a great disservice to the 218 million children around the world who are denied their rights. We should not accept the exploitation of children under any circumstances and they should not be
condemned to a life of poverty and lost opportunity. Instead of accepting child labour, governments must redouble their efforts to eliminate it and ensure that all children, in every country attend full-time formal education.
Would it be an option to combine work and school?
No, the right to education is a right to full-time education. This does not allow for a job after school (except a small job earning pocket money). Furthermore, offering a combination of education and work leads to an adverse effect; it gives a message that child labour is indeed acceptable.
What can be done about child labour?
Eliminating child labour is within our reach and it can happen. We all have a role to play – governments, international organisations, businesses, NGOs, community and faith-based organisations, trade unions, employers, teachers, parents, communities and you.
‘What this is all about is political will. If our own country [Canada] and other countries made it clear that child labour is both illegal and unacceptable, then this problem wouldn’t exist.’
Craig Kielburger
Put simply: if children are in full-time education, they are not working. Therefore, the provision of education to all children is the key to eliminating child labour. Governments and Donors (such as the European Union and the Dutch Government) must continue to increase funding for basic education in developing countries and support initiatives that aim to get out-of-school children back to the classroom – and keep them there. They must also develop policies that actively target the elimination of child labour as part of their Official Development Assistance.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has identified 6 areas in which additional work is needed;
• Awareness raising around the issue
• Law enforcement to back up existing
legislation
• Labour inspection to monitor work-places
and whole industries
• Support to education in developing countries
• Direct support to children and their families
• Co-operation with international initiatives
Consumers around the world can also take action. They can learn about the issue of child labour and then make informed decisions about where they shop. They can create demand for child-labour free goods and continue to ask retailers for a guarantee that the products they sell are not made by children. Consumers can demand total transparency in the supply chains of everything they buy and curtail the global supply of cheaply produced products.
In brief:
• All government and international
organisations must ensure that they are not
engaged in or perpetuating child labour.
• All industries, business and multinational
corporations must enforce core labour
standards.
• Consumers everywhere should ‘look behind
the label’ of all the products they buy.
Why is it so important to eliminate all forms of child labour?
An approach that is not aimed at eliminating all forms of child labour (but merely the worst forms) often results in ad hoc solutions, the replacement of one group of children by another and continuance of the problem. Such an approach does not result in the protection of all children from economic exploitation, hazardous work and work that impedes with participation to education.
Because poverty is not the main determinant of child labour, it is through an integrated education and child labour policy in developing countries and in donor countries possible to also offer poor children full-time education and to fight all forms of child labour that are detrimental to a child’s development and/or are an obstacle to a child’s education.
Child labour is a problem that can be solved by concerted action, political will and financial resources. The poverty argument can therefore never be an obstacle to each child’s right to formal, full-time and quality education.
What is the secret of the success of MV Foundation, our campaign partner in India?
The MV Foundation (MVF), an organisation in the South Indian state Andhra Pradesh, utilizes an approach that has proven very successful. The programme is based on the principles: ‘every child out of school is a child labourer’ and ‘all children should attend formal, full-time education’.
The process starts with making the community aware of the fact that child labour is unacceptable and that children should go to regular daytime schools. The risks of child labour and the assets of education are explained. Parents, teachers, employers, community groups and civil servants are all involved in this process.
Parents are shown that there are other, better solutions than child labour for additional family income. MVF supports these families to find alternatives. Children who have never been to school are prepared, in special transition schools, for the regular formal educational system.
Furthermore, MVF has managed to motivate and assist the community to improve the public educational system and to make it accessible for all children.
Which other Southern Partners use a good method to strive against Child Labour?
How can you see if a product is made by a child?
Boycotts are not helpful given that they often hurt the people that they are trying to help. They could even make matters worse. For example, children could be forced from unsafe factories to even more unsafe streets. Furthermore, child labour is so widespread and supply chains are so difficult to follow, it is hard to promote one company’s record over another. Instead of refusing to buy certain products, consumers should use their power to upport those organisations and initiatives that are creating the conditions for a child labour-free world. Brand manufacturers are very sensitive to consumer pressure so we can put pressure on them to guarantee that no child labour was used in the making of their products. Such pressure can range from asking questions, writing letters directly to the company, retailers, business groups, chambers of commerce and politicians. We can also create demand for transparency and accountability in all supply chains. Child labour will only be eliminated when systems are put in place to prevent one group
of child labourers being replaced by another. We believe that child labour is not just an issue for a single industry or company alone, but an issue for all of us. We should all work together towards the elimination of child labour. No one action will eliminate child labour. Instead, political mobilisation and public action is needed and to be successful, all stakeholders must be involved.
‘Boycotts are something that may make the person who’s boycotting feel better, but it doesn’t necessarily make conditions any better for the child.’ Carol Bellamy (Former Executive Director of UNICEF)