Tsunamis give nightmares to child survivors

Agence France-Presse

Penang (Malaysia), December 30

KILLER TSUNAMIS are coming again, over and over, in the night - mares of children who survived the waves, which swept them from their homes or picnics on Malaysia's Penang island.

Rahibah Osman's 11 year old son, Mohamad Fikri Rahim, who was caught by ferocious waves "as high as coconut trees and blackened with mud." has troubled dreams in penang General Hospital. He cries in his sleep and shouts "No,no!", his mother 49, said. "I don't know what he's talking about, but when I ask him, he starts to cry,” she said.

Mohamad Fikri was playing with his 13-year-old sister outside their home about a kilometre away from the beachfront when massive tidal waves struck their village.

"I heard the loud thundering roar of what I thought was the engine of an airplane," Rahibah said.

Within seconds, huge black waves engulfed her house and her two children disappeared. Her daughter had been swept into a neighbouring house and Rahibnah Managed a grab a pole. Boats were hurled into houses. Mohamad Fikri was nowhere to be seen.

"When the waves died down, his cousin went into the water to search for him and managed to find him. He was covered in mud, even his mouth was full of mud,"she said.

Mohamad Fikri was rushed to hospital and revived but the night-marish experience has changed him, she said.

"My son used to be a cheerful boy, but now he is quiet and reserved. He has lost his appetite. I pray he will recover quickly and that he has not lost his memory, because he is taking time to answer questions. I do not know what the future holds for us, whether it is dark or bright, but what is most important is that my kids are alive, unlike other parents who have lost their children in the disaster."

Two year old Mohamad Ashraf also survived the deadly waves which killed more than 1.2 lakh across Asia that Sunday and he is also showing signs of the trauma in penang hospital. His father, Mohamad Rozi, 44, had decided to take his wife and five children to one of penang's popular picnic areas known as "Miami beach".

"The weather was fine and the sun was shining." he said, and they all sat down for a traditional Malay meal of "nasi lemak" or rice cooked in coconut milk.

"All of a sudden I saw a white line on the horizon. We were mesmerised by the white line as we stood and watched it."

Within seconds, enormous waves engulfed him and his family.

"We tried to escape but the high slopes to the road made it difficult. My legs were stuck under the roots of a tree. The water and sand were pounding me fast and hard. I just closed my eyes,” he said.

"My son was lost in the water for a while. When the waves subsided, we found him lying on the beach, face upwards," Mohamad Rozi said.

"Water was coming out from his nose. I pressed his stomach and water came out from his mouth. I managed to resuscitate him and carried him to higher ground."

"I was in the water for five minutes. I thought of God and asked him to give me strength and to save my family. I never learnt how to save a drowning child, but all of it just came to me."

Source: Hindustan Times Next December 31, 2004
Website: www.htnext.com

Parties give written word to ‘Children as peace zone’ drive

Last Updated: 07:00 AM NST Kathmandu - December 31, 2004 - Poush 16, 2061

Nepal Sambat 1125 - Thinlathwo Panchami – Friday

By Our Correspondent

KATHMANDU, Dec. 30: Leaders of different political parties have expressed written commitment to the campaign “Children as Peace Zone”. They have also called on the government and civil society to be serious on the issue.

Representatives of seven political parties and the High-Level Peace Committee signed a document Wednesday prepared by the Child Workers in Nepal Concern Centre (CWIN) at a programme on the ‘Role of Political Parties to Protect the Children in the Period of Conflict’.

The commitments include not carrying out any political activities in schools by respecting the right to education of the children, helping schools to make them a peace zone, and assisting in educational activities.

The parties have also called on both the government and the Maoists to approve and adopt the UN Convention on Child Rights and its optional protocol.

Speaking at the programme organised by CWIN, Subash Nembang, central member of the CPN-UML, said that if the Maoists must carry out their activities, they should do so without affecting women, children and innocent people. The commitments toward children must be put into practice.
He said that killing people would not solve the problem. Saying those who believe in the power of the gun cannot build a nation, Nembang said peace talks was the only solution to the country’s problem.
Narahari Acharya, central member of the Nepali Congress, said that children have to be protected both mentally and physically against violence. He accused both the government and the Maoists of using schools in their armed activities.

He said that we could expect legal and humanitarian principles from the government but not from the Maoists.

Dr. Minendra Rijal, spokesmen of the Nepali Congress (Democratic), said that the political parties may have their own agenda, but the children must not suffer as a result of their activities.

Bhim Rawal, member of the High-Level Peace Committee, said that we could not come out of the conflict without transforming the armed conflict. He said that the government would provide health and education services to those children, who have become victims of the conflict, and rehabilitate them.

President of CWIN Gauri Pradhan said that people who were not related to the conflict have been suffering. He said that political parties should also commit to respect international humanitarian law and human rights. He said that the commitment shown by of the political parties would bring major and positive changes.

Others who also spoke on their party’s views were spokesperson of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party Roshan Karki, general secretary of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party Amrita Agrahari, central member of Janamorcha Nepal Keshav Nepal, general secretary of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandi Devi) and central member of the Nepali Congress Sunil Bhandari.

Source: http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/pageloader.php?file=2004/12/31/topstories/main9

Centres for street children demanded

Friday December 31 2004 07:58:21 AM BDT

The official of INCIDIN, an NGO on child rights, Thursday urged the government, media and civil society to work together to establish centres for the street children exposed to exploitation to ensure their safe night and protect them from sexual abuse, reports BSS.

The centres must have the facilities of psychological counseling, they said. The officials also demanded to broaden the access of the street children to the government and NGO child development programmes.

The officials also urged them to ensure drug-free childhood to the street children. They made the call at a press conference at the Reporters Unity auditorium here.A study of the INCIDIN Bangladesh in 2003 revealed that 55 percent of the street boys and 58 percent of the girls are dragged into drug addiction. And they are engaged in prostitution, the INCIDIN officials said.

The leaders also praised the Government Plan of Action and the anti-trafficking move saying these would go a long way for the wellbeing of the street children.

Source:http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news/view.php?hidDate=2004-12-31&hidType=NAT&hidRecord=0000000000000000031079

5000 children working as unskilled laborers in Region 12

Allen V. Estabillo / Mindanews / 29 December 2004

GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- At least 5,000 children in Region 12 are currently employed as unskilled laborers as poverty continues to keep most of them out of school, the Regional Development Council (RDC) said.

South Cotabato Gov. and RDC chair Daisy Avance-Fuentes cited in the region's 2004 State of Children Report that as of November this year, some 5,436 working children were documented in the region's four provinces and five cities.

She said around 44.4 percent of the working children are concentrated in the cities while the rest are scattered in rural communities. She said 3,188 or 59.6 percent of them are males.

"Majority of the working children are engaged as laborers or unskilled workers, shop or market sales workers, forestry workers, fishermen, jeepney conductors, trisikad drivers and terminal vendors," she said.

The governor said this city registered the highest number of documented working children with 1,854, mostly working in farms or in the fishing industry.

It may be recalled that earlier this year, authorities confirmed that several children aged 10 to 16 from the area were employed by some vessels operating in the high seas.

Fuentes said the high incidence of working children could be attributed to the slight decrease in the percentage of children who are in school.

Citing data provided by the Department of Education in Region 12, the governor said the enrolment rate in the elementary level dropped from 78.56 percent in 2002-2003 to 76.92 percent in 2003-2004.
In the secondary level, the rate increased from 43.39 to 43.62 percent, but she said it was hampered by the number of dropouts.

She said that for the school year 2003-2004 at least eight percent of high school students dropped out before finishing their year levels.

For the elementary level, the dropout rate was 3 percent.

On the survival rate, Fuentes said that for every 10 children in Region 12 who enter Grade 1, only five reached Grade 6. In the secondary level, for every 10 first year enrollees, only five also reach fourth year.

Owing to this situation, Fuentes said the RDC is focusing on addressing the basic needs of children as part of the region's development plans.

Based on the RDC's strategic actions and "agenda for action and future directions," she said they will continue the advocacy and community organizing initiatives focusing on child rights and child-friendly interventions such as on health and nutrition, environmental health, reproductive health, parent effectiveness, child participation and setting up of child-friendly school systems.

She said the RDC will mobilize the support of the community and non-government organizations in the implementation of such programs.

"We will strengthen community organizing and alliance to elicit stronger support for program implementation and to institutionalize community empowerment approaches," she said.

In terms of the delivery of social services, Fuentes said they will focus on the provision of efficient maternal and child health care, nutrition and reproductive health.

She added they will also provide teaching and learning materials and facilities such as instructional classrooms in every school especially in the barangays as well as sufficient teachers.

Source: http://www.mindanews.com/2004/12/29nws-children.html

Looking at child labour through a positive lens

Wednesday, Dec 29, 2004

ABOUT 10 years ago, for young Aatma Ram, childhood meant making carpets for a measly sum of about Rs. 200 a month. But now he has a dream. With an engineering diploma in his hand, he hopes to bring about many changes in his village. Intervention by a non-government organisation has not only changed the life of Aatma Ram but also of other children in his village who have a new role model.

Child labour may be a widespread malaise in our society, but attempting to examine the changing scenario is this 30-minute documentary titled "Rebuilding the Playground" that looks at the role of the government and initiatives of the people to eradicate the social evil. Capturing success stories, government campaigns and struggle at the grassroots levels, the film does not ignore the reality of the evil but looks at the situation through a positive lens. However, with practically no statistics, the film fails to give a holistic picture of the real situation.

"We are not trying to say that child labour does not exist in the county. It is a reality and we are not attempting to brush it under the carpet. But the Government has made a lot of efforts to sensitise society against child labour. There is a lot of initiative in the education sector with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and other programmes. There is a difference on the ground," insists the film-maker, Anu Radha.

Shot over a period of two months, the film examines the situation in several States -- Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. Starting with Kerala, with almost 100 per cent literacy and near eradication of child labour, the film travels through Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh and the gem-cutting industry in Rajasthan, ending with a small village in Himachal Pradesh where community intervention rather than government assistance has kept a check on child labour.

A project of the External Publicity Division of the Ministry of External Affairs, the film will be dubbed in German, French and several other languages to reach out to the international audience, in particular the trading community. There are plans to screen the documentary on various channels as well.

"There is a lot of misconception about the extent of child labour in the country. Especially among the Western countries. But there is a lot of difference on the ground in recent years. And we need to portray that. For example, in the carpet manufacturing units in Uttar Pradesh, there is practically no child labour today," claims Anu Radha.

By Anjali Dhal Samanta

Source: http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/12/29/stories/2004122900710200.htm

Nigerian police nab 2 Benin women for child trafficking

Luanda - Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 7:24:51 AM

Abeokuta, Nigeria (PANA) - Two Benin women suspected of trafficking in humans have been arrested in a Nigerian border town while ferrying 24 children from Nigeria to Benin, according to the police command of the southwest Ogun state.

State police spokesman Felix Ogundeji told journalists in the State capital Abeokuta Monday that a vehicle in which the women and the children aged 5-22 were travelling was intercepted by the police.

Parading the suspects, identified as Kemi Sesi and Bose Boyan, the police spokesman said the children (8 boys and 16 girls) were travelling home for Christmas and New Year holidays after being forced to work as domestic servants in Nigeria for the past year on a monthly stipend of between 2,500 naira (18 dollars) and 7,000 naira (52 dollars) each. Ogundeji said the women confessed to their involvement in human trafficking.

He said the victims and their belongings would be handed over to the Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF), an NGO established by the wife of Nigeria`s Vice President, Titi Abubakar to combat human trafficking. The suspects are expected to be charged to court soon.
Source: http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=307834

Gold tempts children in Nicaragua to risk lives

Hundreds of youngsters toil in dangerous conditions to eke out living

2004-12-27 / Reuters / By Ivan Castro

In a dim and dangerous tunnel lit only by the flicker of candles, Juan Laguna and four other children toil with rusty pick-axes to loosen chunks of rock they hope will yield at least a little bit of gold.

Laguna then undertakes the arduous process of milling and washing the ore. If it is a good day, it will give him enough gold to sell for about US$3. But he is not always lucky.

"Not every day goes well," said Laguna, who is 12 but has the slight build of a child half his age.

Working with hundreds of other youngsters, Laguna has spent five years scratching the walls of tunnels in the La India mining district, more than 160 kilometers west of Nicaragua's capital Managua.

An important gold producer decades ago, La India has for the most part been abandoned because it now yields only low-grade ore, although some foreign and local mining companies continue to explore the area.

Rocks chipped from the walls of old exploration tunnels and from random holes dug by treasure seekers provide the bare hope of a livelihood to local families in this isolated area of Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere.

Hundreds of people from surrounding communities work a portion of the mining district, where the landscape is marked by century-old mine shafts as well as 30-year-old excavations.

Nearly 400 children work down the shafts and potholes, according to the International Labor organization and Nicaragua's National Commission for the Eradication of child labour.

Child miners suffer malnutrition and dehydration, kidney diseases, gashes and serious accidents in the scorching, gas-filled tunnels.

"The work in these primitive mines is incredibly dangerous," said Bertha Guerra, who heads the International Labor organization's program to end child labour.

"In this country, some children go 30 meters below ground to get rocks that may contain gold," she said.

About 140,000 children aged five to 14 have to work for a living in Nicaragua, and more than 27,000 are nine or younger.

Like their counterparts who cut sugar cane in El Salvador, salvage rusty steel bars from the ruins left by Venezuelan landslides, or sell sweets at stoplights in capitals across Latin America, these children often forgo school and risk life and limb to help feed their families.

Poverty

About 44 percent of Latin Americans cannot afford to meet basic food needs, a statistic that has barely changed in 20 years. Experts say child labour breeds poverty, as children fail to get education and other tools needed to break the cycle.

"Families often say they send their children to work because they are poor, but these children will end up even poorer because as child labour has its roots in poverty, it also makes poverty worse," Guerra said.

With a per capita income of just US$700, Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. About 70 percent of its five million people live in poverty.

Enrique Urrutia is only 17 but his thin body and calloused hands bear witness to the 10 years he has spent mining gold "to buy food and clothes and to help in the house."

Urrutia and three friends meet early in the morning in their village and walk two hours to the mines, returning home exhausted as darkness falls with their loads of stone.

"I come every other day," said his friend Junior Calderon, 12, although he added he mines only when he has no classes.

The incentive to find gold is not surprising given that its price on international markets recently hit 16-year highs of nearly US$460 an ounce.

These miners receive only a fraction of that, but they have precious few options.

"For people who only have their physical strength to work with, it is an attractive thing, particularly when the gold price goes up," said one official from a multinational company exploring in the district.

Source: http://www.etaiwannews.com/Perspective/2004/12/27/1104112977.htm

40pc increase in child labour in 2004

Monday, December 27, 2004

ISLAMABAD: The number of child labourers, the cheapest form of work force in Pakistan, has risen to eight million, according to a study by a non-government organisation. The report released on Saturday said that due to the rising inflation and poverty child labour had increased by 40 percent in 2004 only. The report says 68 percent of child labourers are working in workshops and 32 percent at hotels and brick kilns. Poverty is the major reason for child labour and from the age of five years these labourers are available as cheap work force. Around 60 percent of these children are helping their elders in raising a family of five to ten members. Most of these child labourers have to work for 11 to 18 hours a day. The study revealed that 72 percent employers of these children took good care of them, while the attitude of 20 percent employers is harassing. More than eight percent of child labourers fall prey to sexual abuse. When interviewed, 88 percent of children expressed satisfaction with their work whereas 12 percent wanted to shed off the label of child labour and expressed the desire to go to school.

Source:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_26-12-2004_pg7_9

Social activist faces threats from circus owner

Aman Sharma

Lucknow, December 22: THIS June the activists of the Bachhpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), along with mediapersons had risked being shot while rescuing minor nepalese girls from New Roman circus in Gonda. Now, the man who led the operation is under threat, as the main accused and owner of the circus Mohammad Raza Khan is finally out on bail after spending two months behind bars.

The Lucknow police, after much deliberation, have lodged an FIR today on the complaint of the BBA’s district president Ramakant Sahai, on charges of threatening with life and trespassing. The FIR reads that unidentified armed persons forced themselves into the NGOs Indiranagar office on December 20, while he was away on some errand.

Though a complaint regarding the same was submitted by Sahai to the Ghazipur police officials on Tuesday, the FIR was lodged only after IG (Lucknow Zone) Sulkhan Singh gave a strong tongue-lashing to the concerned officials today for delaying action. The IG has also directed Lucknow SSP Navneet Sikera to arrange for proper security to Sahai.

Sahai alleged that it was Mohammad Raza Khan who had masterminded the invasion. Khan happens to be the same person who had pulled out a gun threatening the NGO and media officials in the presence of the Gonda SDM at the time of the raid. Sahai said he had been constantly facing threats from circus owner Raza after the latter was released on bail a month back.

Sahai added that some armed men in two green and black Scorpios had came looking for him two days back and threatened an activist of the NGO to warn Sahai to ‘mend his ways’.

Sahai claimed these were the same vehicles in which the circus officials had escaped with some of the nepalese girls from Gonda, after the NGO along with media-persons conducted a raid at the circus in June.

Five separate cases are pending in the matter under the provisions of bonded and child labour against the circus owners on the NGO’s complaint and initiation.

A 13-year-old nepalese girl had also been produced before the National Human Rights Commission saying she had been raped by the circus owner on which a case of rape was lodged, that is pending at the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gonda.

The NGO had succeeded in securing the release of 29 nepalese minor girls from the circus and sent them back to their homes in Nepal with High Court’s intervention in the matter.

Source: http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=111438

Chad: Children Sold Into Slavery for the Price of a Calf

LUN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
December 21, 2004
Posted to the web December 21, 2004
Sarh

Samson was sold by his black African parents in southern Chad to Arab herdsman for the price of a calf.

The 10-year-old had to take his master's animals out to graze in the evening and watch them throughout the night. He would return to the cattle pen as the sun rose and then collapse, exhausted, on the ground

Away from his parents and his playmates, life was tough for Samson. He was forced to abandon his native Sara language and Christian religion in order to learn Arabic and practice Islam.

By night he ran the risk of being bitten by a snake or attacked by wild animals that roam the savannah woodland of southern Chad and by day his stomach rumbled painfully because he was not being fed properly.

"Sometimes they'd just give us millet and curds to eat with no sauce," he told IRIN.

But Samson was one of the lucky so-called "child cattle herders". He was rescued by a local church and his ordeal as a slave came to an end after just four months.

Aid workers in Chad reckon that as many as 2,000 children, some as young as eight, have been sold into slavery in this way.

But they admit it is hard to know how accurate that figure is, for no-one knows how many children have perished on the job, returned to their families after finishing their period of service, or who have been properly adopted by their new masters.

The Arab herdsmen in Chad have come down from the arid north of the country, where desertification and drought have turned the plains into barren wastes, to seek better pasture for their animals in the greener and more fertile south.

Since the average income for Chad's eight million inhabitants is less than 70 US cents a day, the Arabs have also found a fertile recruiting ground for cheap labour. Impoverished parents are often all too eager to hand over their able-bodied children in order to have one less mouth to feed in the family.
Some parents get an initial lump sum payment of between 10,000 and 15,000 CFA (US$20 and US$31). Others are paid in kind, receiving a calf for every year of labour - the equivalent of about US$8 a month.

"It's poverty that is causing children to work like this," said Raymond Doul, who works for the Non-Partisan Youth Association (AJAC) and took part in an October summit to discuss the herd-children problem.

Slavery hits hard in south

The practice continues despite the fact that Chad has signed numerous international charters such as the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child.

Moyen-Chari, a region that lies around 500 km south-east of the capital N'djamena and not far from the border with the Central African Republic, is one of worst affected areas.

Here, an abundance of pasture is both a blessing and curse. It provides valuable food for both animals and ultimately humans but it also attracts the unsavoury practices of the herdsmen.

"The child cattle herders are something which the region and the country is ashamed about," said Tatola Ngartokete, the governor of Moyen-Chari.

Sahr down in the south has been the focal point for efforts to stop the practice

But he is a relatively new convert to the fight to eradicate the trade in child labour.

He admits that originally he saw nothing wrong with Chadian children earning some much-needed food or money for their parents by helping out the herdsmen -- a practice which dates back to the 1970s. But the governor said he was not aware then of the conditions in which these children were being forced to live.

Children sold to the Arab herdsmen often have a new identity superimposed on their old one. The Arab herdsman change their name, forbid them to speak in their native dialect, ban them from conversing with people from their own ethnic group and make them adopt Islam as their religion.

The children are often handed over for a year's contract but end up tending the herds of their Arab masters for up to three years, working by night so that the animals can graze unnoticed by the Chadians who own the pastureland.

As in many other countries of West Africa, tensions between Christian farmers and Muslim herdsmen in southern Chad periodically flare up into violence. One recent clash in the southern town of Bebedjia at the end of October resulted in the death of 12 people and made headlines in the capital N'djamena.

Shining spotlight on worsening problem

Persistent campaigning by people like Father Nguetigal Bertin, who runs a Roman Catholic church in the regional capital Sarh, has thrown the spotlight on the horrors lived by the herd-children.

"The first herd-child was found in 1996 and went to live with Franciscans friars for two years to recuperate," Bertin told IRIN. "He recounted his life out in the bush and it was at that moment our work began."

Father Bertin says since 2000 in his corner of Chad, he has personally rescued 68 children aged between 10 and 16.

It is a risky business. There have been reports of people trying to rescue the children being shot at with bows and arrows and assault rifles by the Arab masters, many of whom feel they have bought the children and are entitled to do whatever they want with them.

And progress is slow.

"Despite our fight, the phenomenon is becoming more gangrenous across the whole south," Father Bertin lamented.

One big problem is stopping parents from handing over their children in the first place. One father, on condition of anonymity, told IRIN that he had given his son to an Arab herdsman out of necessity a few years ago, but regretted his decision today.

In recognition of the fact that co-ordinated action is needed, the government organised a conference in Sarh at the end of October, inviting Christian priests, Muslim imams, senior government administrators, town mayors and traditional community leaders to discuss the problem and float ideas about how to solve it.

The participants agreed that "all unaccompanied children or children found with adults that were not related to them, should be systematically taken and sent back to their parents."

But putting this principle into practice may prove difficult.

First the children need to be found and they have often strayed far from home.

"The trafficking zone covers a radius of 150 km," explained Paulin Tolmadingar, a development worker who attended the conference.

Once the children have been located, the local police then need money to transport them back to the villages where they were born. Cash is also needed to house and feed the children while they are waiting to be returned home.

And even when the children are taken back, it can be difficult to find their parents, who sometimes flee on seeing policemen because they are frightened of being punished for selling their sons.

The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, has urged the government in N'djamena to take firm action to stamp out this modern version of child slavery.

"They should come up with a national plan to fight this practice of a bygone age," said Motoyam Nanitom, a child protection officer for UNICEF in Chad.

In the meantime, many children who have not been not as lucky as Samson, must tend their cows and wait.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200412210676.html

PAKISTAN: Child sexual assaults unacceptable - NGO

22 Dec 2004 14:26:10 GMT

Source: Integrated Regional Information Networks

LAHORE, 22 December (IRIN) - A child rights' watchdog reports that at least 1,218 children were sexually abused in the first nine months of this year. Having monitored 27 national newspapers to collect data on child sex abuse, the NGO Sahil said 34 girls and 13 boys were murdered after being sexually assaulted.

Sexual abuse of children has been defined as inappropriate sexual contact with a child, where the abused child is used as an object of sexual gratification.

The NGO's report said 197 girls were raped and 105 boys sodomised. "Both boys and girls up to the age of 10 were equally vulnerable to sexual abuse," said the report, which showed that 93 girls and 59 boys up to that age were sexually abused between January and September 2004.

It said that most of the abused children were in the 11-15 age bracket.

Acquaintances are more involved in committing this crime against children, as the report found the involvement of 1,525 acquaintances in child sex cases. It said: "About 458 strangers and 190 female abettors were involved in this crime."

The report finds no place safe for children, as 434 cases of sexual abuse occurred at the acquaintances' homes and 176 at the victim's homes. "Child sexual abuse was done at hotels, mosques, churches, workshops, jungles, streets and fields," it said.

In 2003, some 1,826 cases of sexual abuse against children - 975 boys and 851 girls - were reported to the police, a marked increase from the 679 cases reported in 2002.

However, experts believe that child sex abuse is under-reported because it is seen as an acutely sensitive subject.

Mona Koser, a sociologist, who has done research on child abuse, told IRIN that it was difficult for her to find accurate data because people were reluctant even to respond to introductory questions.

"Child abuse is on the rise because of a lack of parental attention and sex education," she said.

"There is a lot of repression of sexuality so this shows up in unhealthy forms. You rarely find healthy expressions of sexuality in everyday life [in Pakistan] so sexual abuse becomes very common," clinical psychologist Liaqat Tabssum told IRIN.

Zia Awan, president of the NGO, Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid, told IRIN that the government should generate the political will to implement effectively its international commitments subsequent to its 1990 ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The states party to the convention must critically examine existing national legislation to ensure that children are protected against "all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment, exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parents, legal guardians or any other person who has care of the child".

The government is starting to recognise the issue. The chief minister of Punjab province, Pervaiz Elahi, ordered the suspension of four senior policemen over failures in a rape case involving five young girls in the town of Tehsil Gojra, west of Lahore. The girls are aged between five and seven. Elahi said that proceedings should be started to dismiss the officers.

No-one has been charged with the rapes but one suspect is in custody.

Ashfa Riaz, the Punjab minister for Human Rights and Women Development, told IRIN that sexual exploitation of children was a social taboo and that people needed to overcome their hesitation in admitting its existence or talking about it. "It's time society debated the more horrifying aspects."

A Pakistani minister earlier this month cited hundreds of cases of alleged child sex abuse at Islamic schools, or madrasas. There were 500 complaints this year of abuse allegedly committed by clerics, Aamer Liaquat Hussain, a minister in the religious affairs department, said.

The minister's revelations sparked death threats and infuriated some religious leaders. However, he added that the Federation of Madrasas was willing to cooperate with investigations because some clerics were giving Islam a bad name.

Only a handful of organisations are helping children at risk of being exploited and abused.

One of them is the NGO Sahil. It is tapping the media to raise responsiveness on the issue in the prevention, protection and intervention of child sex abuse, which is shrouded in darkness and silence due to society's cultural taboos.

Sahil Executive Director Manizeh Bano said at the launch of the report that child abuse would continue to rise unless citizens were educated about it.

Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/3d57ae61baddd86971959ef3371b65fd.htm

Child labour to be eliminated by 2014

Last Updated: 07:00 AM NST Kathmandu - December 21, 2004 - Poush 6, 2061

Nepal Sambat 1125 - Thinlathwo Dashami – Tuesday

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Dec. 20: The government has to put extra efforts to materalise the plan for eliminating all forms of child labour within the set timeframe of ten years in face of growing insurgency, abduction, displacement and recruitment of children in Maoist militia.

Due to the conflict and growing displacement, involvement of child forces in both the informal and formal sector is growing, said Narayan Prasad Silwal, secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management.

In the context of ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Child and two other protocols and the international pressure building up over the past few years, the government has planned to emancipate 127,000 children involved in the worst form of child labour by 2008. “The government has a 10-year master plan to eliminate all forms of child labour by the year 2014.”

Despite the government claims, child right activists said that the plan would be a distant dream until the Maoists stop forced recruitment and a peaceful solution to the present crisis is found.
In the present context, the tendency of occupying the educational institutions by both the army and the Maoists have forced more children, especially from the rural area, to involve in labour.
According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management, there are 2.6 million child labours in Nepal. The largest number of them, figured 55,600, are engaged as domestics while 4,200 are in carpet industries, 4,000 in the streets, 46,000 are child porters, 115 in mine industries, 12,000 have been trafficked and 17,000 are bonded labours.

The rapid assessment report - 2003 shows that 14,000 children are involved in unpaid jobs and 278,000 get paid less than the work they do. Only about 6.4 per cent of the total child labours have got opportunity for education. About 19.5 per cent of school-age kids do not have access to basic education and the total dropout rate is 45 per cent, the report said.

To fulfil the commitments expressed in the UN Convention on the Rights of Child (CRC), the ten-year master plan has given emphasis on capacity building, awareness raising, vocational training and education, and counseling, said Silwal.

He said that the government effort alone would not be enough to address the problem and cooperation from all sectors was necessary to solve the problem. “With the problem of growing displacement due to the Maoist insurgency, more children have become homeless and are forced into the labour market, which has posed an ever-swelling problem to the government,” he said.
Nepal ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1990 — one year after it was adopted by the UN General Assembly. Nepal has also signed two optional protocols on the involvement of children in armed conflicts and the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which were adopted in 2000 and came into force in 2002.

The CRC has entitled to a range of rights relating to their needs and interests as children, which addresses the civil, political, as well as economic, social, cultural and humanitarian rights of the child.

The CRC includes the right to life and development, right to protection from violence and neglect, right to highest attainable standard of health, right to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development. Moreover, it has a provision of right to education in a manner directed to the development of respect for the child’s cultural identity.

Source: http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/pageloader.php?file=2004/12/21/topstories/main5

Children . . .any Hope for Better Tomorrow?

This Day (Lagos)
ANALYSIS
December 20, 2004
Posted to the web December 20, 2004

By Godwin Haruna
Lagos

The State of the World's Children 2005, launched globally penultimate week, focuses on the triple evils of poverty, conflict and HIV/AIDS. It brings to the fore the dilemma of today's children. Held down by these evils, what is the likelihood of achieving the Millennium Development Goals even as the target date is fast approaching?

In the main auditorium of the Economic community of West African States (ECOWAS), Asokoro, Abuja, children, clad in their school uniforms turned out en masse. It was understandable because the event of the day affects their ilk. From the compere to the ushers, members of the Nigerian Children Parliament took charge of the programme to highlight the threat facing them. They dramatised these threats to the audience, but as events unfolded later that morning, it was obvious that this threat is real.

The State of the World's Children is United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) annual flagship publication. It is the most comprehensive survey of global trends affecting children from region to region. Nigeria's Women Affairs Minister, Obong Rita Akpan as well as big wigs from the UNICEF Country office in Nigeria, were on hand to perform the launch. The report, entitled Childhood Under Threat examines three of the most widespread and devastating factors threatening childhood today: HIV/AIDS, conflict, and poverty. Akpan promised to make the publication an advocacy material to be circulated among all that matter in the realm of things in Nigeria. A country's future, she says, lies with its youth population and promised to advance their interest in Nigeria. A day before the Abuja event, Mrs. Carol Bellamy, UNICEF executive director, accompanied by UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Vanessa Redgrave, Professor Peter Townsend of the London School of Economics, and 18-year-old Nigerian-born Temidayo Israel-Abdullai, a youth activist, launched the report in London to the global community. The 2005 report, declares unequivocally that childhood today is under threat for more than 1 billion children.

Poverty, conflict, and HIV/AIDS are among the most serious threats undercutting childhood across the globe. To that extent, UNICEF's State of the World's Children report for 2005 focuses on how poverty, conflict and HIV/AIDS threaten children around the globe. In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS has dramatically reduced life expectancy. It is killing children and leaving millions of them orphaned. Since the adoption in 1989 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child - a landmark human rights treaty spelling out the basic rights that children everywhere have - there have been significant gains in fulfilling children's rights to survival, health and education. But more than a billion children living in poverty around the world are still at risk. They don't have the basic services they need to survive, grow and develop, and many are exploited.
Every year 1.2 million children are trafficked for sex or for cheap labour. Millions of children are growing up in families and communities torn apart by armed conflict. At the Launch penultimate week, guests were treated to a chilling real life story of one Judith (not her real name) from Edo State, who was trafficked along with several others as sex slaves. With a veil covering her head to shield her identity, Judith stated in an emotion-laden voice that they were tricked to a town in Cameroun for onward movement to Europe.

She said their guardian who had already transported some of the girls to Europe, procured forged Camerounian passports for her own team to join the rest. But as fate would have it, the Camerounian immigration officials foiled their travel plans even when they were already airborne enroute France. With their journey truncated, Judith stated that the officials turned them over to the Nigerian Embassy, which facilitated their home coming. But before then, they were detained for about two weeks. Even before they departed Cameroun, she had already got a message that the girls that left ahead of them to France were being used as sex slaves. This was a far cry from the promises of eldorado promised them before they stepped out of Nigeria. She therefore advised the attentive children never to be fooled by the agents of evil prowling the streets. Judith's sad experience is the tip of the iceberg of the multifarious problems facing children today. It really typified the dilemma of today's child. In Panama's Darien Gap, UNICEF works with children who have fled ongoing violence in neighbouring Colombia, helping them overcome their trauma. Some have witnessed appalling depravity.

"One time in Colombia before I got here I saw a particularly gruesome killing. Many times I've seen murder but this time I saw an ugly killing by the paramilitaries. They out the eyes and the tongue and everything." In his comment at the launch, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Ezio Murzi, stated that it is unfair that children, who are the most vulnerable human beings, suffer from the shortcomings of adults.

"When you see small children forced to work for long hours under difficult conditions to earn their family living, you ask yourself why we spend our money on weapons and not invest in children", Murzi says. He commended Nigeria for passing the Child Rights Act, but noted that there was still a long way to full implementation of the provisions. He quoted a data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which says that 15 million Nigerian children were engaged in exploitative child labour. He added that there are 7.3 million Nigerian children of primary school age who remain outside the school system. He assured that UNICEF would support efforts to alleviate children's suffering and remove the threat that prevent them to live a happy childhood. This year's report focuses on the triple threat to childhood which is posed by poverty, war and HIV/AIDS. Backed by in-depth statistics on children around the globe, the report says that more than 1 billion children are denied the healthy and safe upbringing promised by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989 and ratified by nearly all governments around the world. The report stresses that the failure by governments to live up to the convention's standards causes permanent damage to children and blocks progress toward human rights and economic advancement.

"Too many governments are making informed, deliberate choices that actually hurt childhood," Bellamy said in launching the report at the London School of Economics. "Poverty doesn't come from nowhere; war doesn't emerge from nothing; AIDS doesn't spread by choice of its own. These are our choices. "When half the world's children are growing up hungry and unhealthy, when schools have become targets and whole villages are being emptied by AIDS, we've failed to deliver on the promise of childhood," Bellamy said. The report argues that children experience poverty differently from adults and that traditional income or consumption measurements do not capture how poverty actually impacts on childhood. It instead offers an analysis of the seven basic "deprivations" that children do feel and which powerfully impact on their futures. Working with researchers at the London School of Economics and Bristol University, UNICEF concluded that more than half the children in the developing world are severely deprived of one or more of the goods and services essential to childhood. 640 million children do not have adequate shelter; 500 million children have no access to sanitation; 400 million children do not have access to safe water; 300 million children lack access to information (TV, radio or newspapers); 270 million children have no access to health care services; 140 million children, the majority of them girls, have never been to school and 90 million children are severely food deprived.

Even more disturbing in the report, is the fact that about 700 million children suffer from at least two or more of the deprivations. The report also makes clear that poverty is not exclusive to developing countries. In eleven of 15 industrialised nations for which comparable data are available, the proportion of children living in low-income households during the last decade has risen. Along with poor governance, extreme poverty is also among the central elements in the emergence of conflict, especially within countries, as armed factions vie for ill-managed national resources. The report notes that 55 of 59 armed conflicts that took place between 1990 and 2003 involved war within, rather than between, countries. The impact on children has been high: Nearly half of the 3.6 million people killed in war since 1990 have been children, according to the report.

And children are no longer immune from being singled out as targets, a trend underscored by the September 2004 attack on school children in Beslan, Russian Federation. The report also outlines where the world stands on a ten-point agenda to protect children from conflict, first enunciated by UNICEF in 1995. It examines trends in child soldiers, rape as a weapon of war, war crimes against children, and the damage caused by sanctions, among other issues, and finds that although some progress has been made it has been far from sufficient to ameliorate the impact of war on children's lives. And with conflict aggravating existing poverty, the report emphasizes the need for greater global attention and investment in post-conflict situations, to ensure a steady and stable transition to development.

The impact of HIV/AIDS on children is seen most dramatically in the wave of AIDS orphans that have now grown to 15 million worldwide. The death of a parent pervades every aspect of a child's life, the report finds, from emotional well-being to physical security, mental development and overall health. But children suffer the pernicious effects of HIV/AIDS long before they are orphaned. Because of the financial pressures created by a caregiver's illness, many children whose families are affected by HIV/AIDS, especially girls, are forced to drop out of school in order to work or care for their families. They face an increased risk of engaging in hazardous labour and of being otherwise exploited. HIV/AIDS is not only killing parents but is destroying the protective network of adults in children's lives.

Many of the ailing and dying are teachers, health workers and other adults on whom children rely. And because AIDS prevalence grows in condensed pockets, once adults start dying the overall impact on surviving children in a community is devastating. Because of the time lag between HIV infection and death from AIDS, the crisis will worsen for at least the next decade, even if new infections were to immediately stabilize or begin to fall. The report details the measures that nations must employ to prevent the spread of AIDS, keep adults living with HIV alive, and provide nurturing and care for children already orphaned.

The State of the World's Children argues that bridging the gap between the ideal childhood and the reality experienced by half the world's children is a matter of choice. It requires: adopting a human rights-based approach to social and economic development, with a special emphasis on reaching the most vulnerable children. The adoption of socially responsible policies in all spheres of development that keep children specifically in mind; Increased investment in children by donors and governments, with national budgets monitored and analysed from the perspective of their impact on children and The commitment of individuals, families, businesses and communities to get involved and stay engaged in bettering the lives of children and to use their resources to promote and protect children's rights. Others include ensuring that poverty-reduction strategies prioritize actions to protect childhood. Expand basic social and educational services and ensure universal access and set targets and mobilise stakeholders. All stakeholders must be engaged to meet development targets.

Presently, the report notes, the world is falling behind on reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and in fulfilling the aims of 'A world Fit for Children', which address many of the dimensions of child poverty. The report also counsels promotion of the family. Families form the first line of defence for children: the further away children are from their families, the more vulnerable they are to violence, exploitation, poverty and abuse. Another strategy in reducing poverty is elimination of gender discrimination by pursuing labour market and fiscal policies that address economic insecurity among women. It adds that empowering women is an effective strategy to combat child poverty. The report also states that encouraging local solutions and community participation, can also ameliorate the effects of poverty. Developing countries successful in reducing poverty are increasingly promoting community participation. Children, it notes, should be encouraged to participate in debates that focus on ways of reducing poverty. "The approval of the Convention on the Rights of the Child was our global moment of clarity that human progress can only really happen when every child has a healthy and protected childhood," Bellamy said at the global launch. "But the quality of a child's life depends on decisions made every day in households, communities and in the halls of government. We must make those choices wisely, and with children's best interests in mind. If we fail to secure childhood, we will fail to reach our larger, global goals for human rights and economic development. As children go, so go nations. It's that simple". the executive director noted. The report notes that the intent to fulfill the rights of children, is evidenced by the near-universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the endorsement of other international and national instruments related to children's rights and well-being. It says the resources - knowledge, money, technology, strategies and people - are available in abundance. Therefore, UNICEF believes that the rights of all children everywhere can be fulfilled, if only the world demonstrates the will to enact them by adopting the following measures: Reaffirming and recommitting to their moral and legal responsibilities to children; Applying a human rights-based approach to social and economic development. Placing rights at the heart of human development strategies allows countries to prioritize goods and services essential for children, and to construct a protective environment; Adopting socially responsible policies, keeping children specifically in mind. Pursuing measures with children specifically in mind is the most effective route to reduce poverty and lower HIV prevalence. A key starting point would be to abolish school fees, which will encourage poor families to enroll their children in school; Investing additional funds in children, through both increased official development assistance and improvements in the quality of national public finances. The report notes that childhood is the foundation of the world's future. Many, it says, are already contributing at all levels and in innovative ways, to ensuring that every child enjoys their right to a childhood. It enjoins many to follow their example.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200412201422.html

Ecpat lines up info drive on child prostitution

By Ferliza Contratista

December 20, 2004

The End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Traffiking of Children for Sexual Purposes (Ecpat) has assured it would conduct a massive information dissemination to forewarn municipalities on the problem.

With Cebu as one of the transit points of trafficked children, Gala Enerio, Ecpat’s advocacy officer said it is going to educate all the more the public on the existing problem.

Municipalities, which are sources of trafficked children within Cebu province were mostly from Toledo and Argao and brought to Cebu City.

Enerio said Ecpat will also seek the support of the local government units to strengthen the monitoring in their respective areas as a prevention.

She said her group needs to monitor the entry and exit points of trafficking or else Cebu will become known as a prostitution hub.

Enerio said the scenario would affect tourism.

Ecpat is among the non-government organizations advocating Republic Act 9208, otherwise known as the Anti-trafficking of Persons Act of 2003.

Source: http://www.thefreeman.com/local/index.php?fullstory=
1&issue=articles_20041220&id=26003

'Violence Against Girls Undermine Education'

This Day (Lagos)
NEWS
December 20, 2004
Posted to the web December 20, 2004

By Juliana Taiwo
Abuja

Actionaid Nigeria has said violence or the fear of violence is an important reason for girls not attending school according to a recent study it carried out.

In a statement by the Programme Advisor Gender and Women's Rights ActionAid International Nigeria, Anita Bassey Okedi, the study based on evidence from 12 countries in Africa and Asia, noted that the problem of violence against girls has been devastating. It said while this is a severe violation of the girl child's rights, it constituted a serious obstacle to the attainment of internationally agreed education goals.

The report said girls encounter violence in school, near school and on their journey to and from school. Fellow-students are often responisble, but ActionAid's research revealed cases of teachers subjecting girls to sexual abuse and humiliating punishments.

"The hazards faced by girls on the journey to school range from kidnapping in India to sexual harassment in crowded taxis in Kenya. Girsl often regard violence as inevitable and feel powerless to complain.

"The physical and pyschological assaults take many forms including rape, sexual harassment, intimidation, teasing and threats. All girls are at risk, regardless of age, race, class or location. Poverty, war and long journeys to school put girls at additional risk. Sexual violence is one of factors contributing to the high rates of HIV infection in young women," the report added.
The report said aside infringing on the right of the girls, violence denied the girls their rights to education. "Some girls drop out of school, others are never sent to school because their parents fear for their safty. Even those who persevere at school may suffer damage to their education," it said.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200412201064.html

Children have something to say - Do you want to listen?

[Cinema India, Bollywood]: New Delhi, Dec 18 : A film festival without film stars, but with little stars having big dreams in their eyes; a film festival without celebrities, but with imaginative minds wishing to fly high.

Yes, "Children Have Something To Say" - that's how Plan India, an international humanitarian and child-focused development organization, describes its three-day long Children Film Festival, which kicked off at Siri Fort Auditorium here on December 17.

The festival aimed at providing a platform to young voices to reach out, loud and clear, to the world of adults. And yes, the message does come loud and clear - "We too have a voice that should be heard and respected."

The festival brought together children from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Uttaranchal and Delhi to share their experiences through audio-visual medium.

These budding filmmakers have created some awesome short films and animations on issues that affect everybody's life and the interesting part is that the objective of the films is not only to entertain but also to raise concerns and give rise to discussions. Their themes range from education to early marriage, dowry to trafficking, Aids to domestic violence; and interestingly their works are unbelievably professional.

Social worker and actress, Nandita Das, who was the Guest of Honour for the day, inaugurated the festival and said that after watching those movies nobody could say that kids had made them.

Emphasizing that film is a medium, which requires a lot of patience and most importantly investment, Nandita stressed that the product should a reach a larger number of audience, so that the money and efforts of children don't get waste.

"We should make optimum use of this powerful medium," she remarked. After watching a series of eight short films made by professional filmmakers for the Government of India, renowned photographer Raghu Rai said that films made by children were more expressive and more impressive than those of government.

"It's great to see children speaking and expressing their views. Our everything is very much predictable, but children are spontaneous, they are full of life," Rai said.

"Anybody can handle a camera, but not everybody can capture emotions and expressions in a camera frame. In these movies made by children I can clearly see expressions and emotions," he commented, adding, "Indian film industry is the biggest in the world. We are churning out two films everyday, but 99 per cent of them are rubbish."

In June 2003, the One World Broadcasting Trust for the first time awarded the prestigious Special Achievement Award to ten of these films for excellence in communication. It was for the first time that children, and that too Indian, were recipients of this prestigious award.

"There are some issues which are even ignored by the government. We, the children, made films on these issues. We identified the core problems of Indian society and decided to make film on them. Initially, we witnessed a strong opposition from the society. During outdoor shoot also we faced an array of problems. In some cases people were not supportive. But ultimately it were children who helped us," said Sudhir, one of the recipients of One World Media Award.

"Workshops were organized where young people reflected on and analyzed various situations and circumstances faced by children in their local communities. During the 20-day training session, children researched the stories, learnt how to weave their individual experiences into an interesting storyline and also the technical skills necessary for handling the video cameras and sound recording equipment," said Shonu Chandra, a filmmaker, who had facilitated the production of these films.

Bruno Oudmayer, Country Director of Plan India said, "If children have something to say, then adults have something to listen too. We have to make sure that adults listen to that something. This film festival is an initiative to put forth children's ideas."

Loveleen Kacker, Joint Secretary, Department of Women and Child Welfare, said that if children complain that we don't listen to them or government is not doing anything for them, then they are right.

"I completely agree that we don't properly listen to their voice. One of the reasons for this is a large number of children in the country, which makes it a little difficult for us to cater to the needs of all," she said.

A number of enthusiastic school children from Pakistan had also come to attend the festival. "I am enjoying the movies. I have made many friends here and all of them are very supportive. India is just like Pakistan. There is no difference between two nations," said a Pakistani student Antzar Hussain.

When asked what message he would like to convey to the governments of both the countries, Hussain said, "I would like to suggest the two governments that all kinds of barriers, all boundaries between India and Pakistan should be removed. They should allow us to cross the border without any kind of written permission or passport. I think we don't need such formalities to meet our Indian friends."

Besides films, some presentations were also made by schools like DPS, The Heritage and St. Mary. Where students of The Heritage School presented a Forum Theatre dealing with issues on child labour and trafficking, DPS staged a dance-drama "Akhir Kyon" - based on dreams and aspirations of young children living in slums.

All in all, it was a great learning experience for all participants. The films were by children, for adults, of the highest caliber. (ANI)

Source:http://www.newkerala.com/newsdaily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=48823

Burma army still uses child soldiers

Monday, December 20, 2004

Burma’s military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is still using child soldiers for its army.

On 5 December, SPDC soldiers forcibly took away five under-aged children from Se-Ywa Village, Khayan Township, Rangoon Division to be used as soldiers. According to an eyewitness, the soldiers told the villagers that the people of Burma would be strong only the army is strong and grabbed five children who came along to the meeting.

Moreover, Maung Htay Kyi Aung, a child soldier from Khayan Township who deserted the army was recaptured and taken back to the army base in Karen State by the authorities. Some soldiers are being forced to stay on in the army to do menial jobs such as feeding animals and fetching water without getting proper salary, and even if they the rights to quit.

Source: http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=3723

Syria cooperates with the ILO to end child labour

Syria, Culture, 12/18/2004

Syria's Minister of Labor and Social Affaires Diala Hajj Aref on Thursday in Damascus discussed with the Regional Director of the Arab states at the International Labor Organization ( ILO) Taleb Rifai the protocol of technical cooperation signed between the two sides.

The meeting dealt with international labor criteria, revision of the labor market and programs relevant to create new job opportunities and fight poverty. It also touched upon issues like social protection programs and programs to boost dialogue among the production parties to discuss social and economic policies.

Combating child labour in Syria was one of the main topics raised in the talks between the two officials in which they agreed that the ILO ought to make a comprehensive study that would be adopted by the Ministry of Labor in Syria to draw a strategy that ends child labour.

Source: http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/041218/2004121815.html

Govt Launch Project To Eliminate Child Labour

Updated on 2004-12-18 10:51:27

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan : Dec 18 (SADA) - The Federal government has launched a project in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to eliminate child labour from the carpet industry.

Under the project, non formal education centres have been established in various districts for improving child education to the children working in the industry.These centres have been established in Lahore, Sheikhupura, attock and Karachi.

More than nine thousand children have been enrolled in these centres and are getting free education besides recreational facilities there. Besides this programme the child care foundation has also set up similar centres for imparting non formal education to the children involved in carpet veaving industry in various cities. Over seven thousand working children are receiving free education and vocational training in these centres.

According to survey over three point three million children are involved in child labour in various sectors particularly in agricultural and manufacturing. Out of these about half million children are engaged in bonded child labour in the carpet industry sector.

Source: http://www.paknews.com/flash.php?id=17&date1=2004-12-18

No progress in child labour despite Act

Last Updated: 05:00 AM NST Kathmandu - December 15, 2004 - Mangsir 30, 2061

By our Corespondent,

LALITPUR, Dec.14: Nearly 2.6 million children across the country continue to be the victims of child labour as the successive governments failed to implement the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act 2057 BS, which had received the Royal assent four years back.

"The Act could not be enforced due to various social and economic reasons," Minister for Labour and Transport Management Raghuji Panta told a programme organised by Child Workers in Nepal Concern Center (CWIN).

He said that the enforcement of the Act would help to address the problems related with child labour.
The government recently announced that the Act had been put into effect from November 16, 2004.
Minister Panta said that the government was ready to face any obstacles that might come on its way after the implementation of the Act.

CWIN organised a discussion programme on the possible measure that could be taken to effectively
enforce the "Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act 2057 BS.
Officials from Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and institutions
working for the welfare of children had participated in the programme.

The Act forbids children below the age of 14 from being involved in any type of child labour.

Similarly, it allows children between 14 to 16 to take up light jobs.

Panta said the government would bear the responsibility of ensuring the effective implementation of the Act by seeking the support of the private parties.

The government has also introduced a master plan to ensure the effective implementation of the Act, Panta said.

Pratap Kumar Upadhyay, joint-secretary at the labour ministry said the implementation of the Act was delayed due to various hurdles such as budget crunch and legal difficulties. He said that ability, willingness and a congenial environment were necessary to implement the Act.

A new approach to child labour auditing, records showing the change of jobs related with child labour by children, empowerment of children and labour management are the key aspects needed to ensure the effective implementation of the Act, he said.

He added that strategy, formation of policy; performance and infrastructure are other important areas to focus on for its implementation.

Joint-secretary at the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare Shyam Sundar Sharma said that the problems of unemployment could be solved if steps were initiated to abolish child labour.

He said that it is better to form an enabling environment than to punish the people for exploiting children.

Sharma said that there was a need to have good governance to curb child labour. Child labour could be controlled through preventive, curative and promotional activities, he said.
Sharma disclosed that no improvements in the existing situation of child labour were evident in the

past one month despite the implementation of the Act.

President of CWIN Gauri Pradhan said the abolishment of child labour was only possible if the general people mounted pressure on the concerned authorities to implement the Act more earnestly.
Pradhan said that the confusion that prevailed in the policy-making bodies had been a major stumbling block for controlling child labour.
"We need to develop a transparent mechanism to deal against child labour, people must be informed about where they ought to file their complaints on child labour and should have the awareness that child labour is a crime that could be punished by law.

Source: http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/pageloader.php?file=2004/12/15/topstories/main10

Films made by children to be screened at festival in capital

December 15, 2004

Bollywood India > New Delhi, Dec 14 : Around 15 films made by underprivileged children from various parts of the country on issues affecting their life such as child labour, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS, will be screened as part of a film festival here.

Titled 'Children Have Something To Say', the three-day festival beginning on December 17 will feature films made by children in the age-group of 12-18 years.

The event is part of a project by Plan India, an NGO working with 'children in difficult circumstances'.

"The project aims at providing opportunities to young people to make short films and animations on issues that concern them", Executive Director of Plan India, Bhaghyashri Dengle said at a press conference here today.

"Initiated in 1999, the project, involving over 300 children has gone a long way in developing children's capabilities and creativity", she said adding that "this is an initiative not just to promote film-making in children but to catalyse a larger debate among them and strengthen their participation in the development process".

The children, hailing from states including Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Haryana and Orissa, were trained by Shonu Chandra, who organised 20-day workshops for them.

"It was easy to teach them the technical aspect. The most difficult part was probably helping them articulate their thoughts", Chandra said.

"The children chose the topic, wrote scripts, shot and edited the film, worked on the music, etc. We just helped in the fine-tuning", he said. PTI

Source: http://www.123bharath.com/news/index.php?action=fullnews&id=44126

Davao City: next stop for trafficked children?

Monday, Dec 13, 2004

`Relevant education, especially for the girl child who is the first to drop out of school, has to be provided.'

With the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act 2002, free and compulsory education for all children between the age group of six and 14 has become a Fundamental Right. In a country as diverse as ours, addressing this need for 192 million children could be a daunting task. Especially, when this is a time-bound target to be achieved by 2010 under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA). The SSA is a Government of India project for Universal Elementary Education in partnership with the States under the Tenth Five Year Plan.

K.R.Chandrasekaran, Assistant Educational Advisor, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, Government of India, was in the city recently to participate in a programme to train teachers under the project. He spoke to Puja S Navin about how local resources need to be tapped to implement the goals of SSA.

"TAMIL NADU was one of the first States in the country to take up the programme in 2001-02. Providing quality elementary education with life skills within the total budget of Rs. 1,800 crores is a challenging goal. To achieve this we require innovative models. Cost effective approaches need to be adopted to build capabilities of teachers. Relevant and productive education, especially for the girl child who is the first to drop out of school, has to be provided too," Chandrasekaran says.

Citing the innovative model at work in the city, he says, "The Avinashilingam Jan Shikshan Sansthan is one of the oldest institutions in the country. It provides need-based and skill oriented training to tribals, women, Dalits and neo-literates to make them economically independent. The target audience for this centre are adults and for us the target group is children. However the expertise available here can be used to train teachers under the SSA."

"For instance, 576 teachers have been trained in art education. Skills such as doll making, gift article making, pot painting and glass painting have been imparted. These teachers now become our resource persons to train students in their schools, especially girl children. This type of training is Coimbatore-specific. It is productive and cost effective and helps teachers to create "joyful learning in their classrooms, apart from teaching skills that can be used later."

One of the major goals of SSA is to mainstream school dropouts and Chandrasekaran sees this model as an effective solution. "This model should be replicated in other States too and already Karnataka is showing interest in learning from this experience."

The survey of child labour in Coimbatore District in 2003 has identified 2,573 child labourers. Of these 1,272 are boys and 1,301 are girls. How does the programme bring such children under the SSA purview?

"Under the scheme there are various options for flexible education. One such scheme is the Educational Guarantee Scheme, which provides local teachers for every ten students in areas where child labour is prevalent.

With flexible timings, such schools are operational in Dharamapuri district and Valparai town. Under the Labour Commission of Tamil Nadu, special schools have also been set up in Sivakasi and Pudukottai districts," he adds.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/12/13/stories/2004121302650200.htm

Over 1 Billion Children Affected By Poverty, Aids And Conflict-Unicef

Monday, Dec 13, 2004

`Relevant education, especially for the girl child who is the first to drop out of school, has to be provided.'

With the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act 2002, free and compulsory education for all children between the age group of six and 14 has become a Fundamental Right. In a country as diverse as ours, addressing this need for 192 million children could be a daunting task. Especially, when this is a time-bound target to be achieved by 2010 under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA). The SSA is a Government of India project for Universal Elementary Education in partnership with the States under the Tenth Five Year Plan.

K.R.Chandrasekaran, Assistant Educational Advisor, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, Government of India, was in the city recently to participate in a programme to train teachers under the project. He spoke to Puja S Navin about how local resources need to be tapped to implement the goals of SSA.

"TAMIL NADU was one of the first States in the country to take up the programme in 2001-02. Providing quality elementary education with life skills within the total budget of Rs. 1,800 crores is a challenging goal. To achieve this we require innovative models. Cost effective approaches need to be adopted to build capabilities of teachers. Relevant and productive education, especially for the girl child who is the first to drop out of school, has to be provided too," Chandrasekaran says.

Citing the innovative model at work in the city, he says, "The Avinashilingam Jan Shikshan Sansthan is one of the oldest institutions in the country. It provides need-based and skill oriented training to tribals, women, Dalits and neo-literates to make them economically independent. The target audience for this centre are adults and for us the target group is children. However the expertise available here can be used to train teachers under the SSA."

"For instance, 576 teachers have been trained in art education. Skills such as doll making, gift article making, pot painting and glass painting have been imparted. These teachers now become our resource persons to train students in their schools, especially girl children. This type of training is Coimbatore-specific. It is productive and cost effective and helps teachers to create "joyful learning in their classrooms, apart from teaching skills that can be used later."

One of the major goals of SSA is to mainstream school dropouts and Chandrasekaran sees this model as an effective solution. "This model should be replicated in other States too and already Karnataka is showing interest in learning from this experience."

The survey of child labour in Coimbatore District in 2003 has identified 2,573 child labourers. Of these 1,272 are boys and 1,301 are girls. How does the programme bring such children under the SSA purview?

"Under the scheme there are various options for flexible education. One such scheme is the Educational Guarantee Scheme, which provides local teachers for every ten students in areas where child labour is prevalent.

With flexible timings, such schools are operational in Dharamapuri district and Valparai town. Under the Labour Commission of Tamil Nadu, special schools have also been set up in Sivakasi and Pudukottai districts," he adds.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/12/13/stories/2004121302650200.htm

Lack of legislation fuels child trafficking

Monday, Dec 13, 2004

`Relevant education, especially for the girl child who is the first to drop out of school, has to be provided.'

With the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act 2002, free and compulsory education for all children between the age group of six and 14 has become a Fundamental Right. In a country as diverse as ours, addressing this need for 192 million children could be a daunting task. Especially, when this is a time-bound target to be achieved by 2010 under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA). The SSA is a Government of India project for Universal Elementary Education in partnership with the States under the Tenth Five Year Plan.

K.R.Chandrasekaran, Assistant Educational Advisor, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, Government of India, was in the city recently to participate in a programme to train teachers under the project. He spoke to Puja S Navin about how local resources need to be tapped to implement the goals of SSA.

"TAMIL NADU was one of the first States in the country to take up the programme in 2001-02. Providing quality elementary education with life skills within the total budget of Rs. 1,800 crores is a challenging goal. To achieve this we require innovative models. Cost effective approaches need to be adopted to build capabilities of teachers. Relevant and productive education, especially for the girl child who is the first to drop out of school, has to be provided too," Chandrasekaran says.

Citing the innovative model at work in the city, he says, "The Avinashilingam Jan Shikshan Sansthan is one of the oldest institutions in the country. It provides need-based and skill oriented training to tribals, women, Dalits and neo-literates to make them economically independent. The target audience for this centre are adults and for us the target group is children. However the expertise available here can be used to train teachers under the SSA."

"For instance, 576 teachers have been trained in art education. Skills such as doll making, gift article making, pot painting and glass painting have been imparted. These teachers now become our resource persons to train students in their schools, especially girl children. This type of training is Coimbatore-specific. It is productive and cost effective and helps teachers to create "joyful learning in their classrooms, apart from teaching skills that can be used later."

One of the major goals of SSA is to mainstream school dropouts and Chandrasekaran sees this model as an effective solution. "This model should be replicated in other States too and already Karnataka is showing interest in learning from this experience."

The survey of child labour in Coimbatore District in 2003 has identified 2,573 child labourers. Of these 1,272 are boys and 1,301 are girls. How does the programme bring such children under the SSA purview?

"Under the scheme there are various options for flexible education. One such scheme is the Educational Guarantee Scheme, which provides local teachers for every ten students in areas where child labour is prevalent.

With flexible timings, such schools are operational in Dharamapuri district and Valparai town. Under the Labour Commission of Tamil Nadu, special schools have also been set up in Sivakasi and Pudukottai districts," he adds.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/12/13/stories/2004121302650200.htm

Making learning joyful and productive

Monday, Dec 13, 2004

`Relevant education, especially for the girl child who is the first to drop out of school, has to be provided.'

With the 86th Constitutional Amendment Act 2002, free and compulsory education for all children between the age group of six and 14 has become a Fundamental Right. In a country as diverse as ours, addressing this need for 192 million children could be a daunting task. Especially, when this is a time-bound target to be achieved by 2010 under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA). The SSA is a Government of India project for Universal Elementary Education in partnership with the States under the Tenth Five Year Plan.

K.R.Chandrasekaran, Assistant Educational Advisor, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, Government of India, was in the city recently to participate in a programme to train teachers under the project. He spoke to Puja S Navin about how local resources need to be tapped to implement the goals of SSA.

"TAMIL NADU was one of the first States in the country to take up the programme in 2001-02. Providing quality elementary education with life skills within the total budget of Rs. 1,800 crores is a challenging goal. To achieve this we require innovative models. Cost effective approaches need to be adopted to build capabilities of teachers. Relevant and productive education, especially for the girl child who is the first to drop out of school, has to be provided too," Chandrasekaran says.

Citing the innovative model at work in the city, he says, "The Avinashilingam Jan Shikshan Sansthan is one of the oldest institutions in the country. It provides need-based and skill oriented training to tribals, women, Dalits and neo-literates to make them economically independent. The target audience for this centre are adults and for us the target group is children. However the expertise available here can be used to train teachers under the SSA."

"For instance, 576 teachers have been trained in art education. Skills such as doll making, gift article making, pot painting and glass painting have been imparted. These teachers now become our resource persons to train students in their schools, especially girl children. This type of training is Coimbatore-specific. It is productive and cost effective and helps teachers to create "joyful learning in their classrooms, apart from teaching skills that can be used later."

One of the major goals of SSA is to mainstream school dropouts and Chandrasekaran sees this model as an effective solution. "This model should be replicated in other States too and already Karnataka is showing interest in learning from this experience."

The survey of child labour in Coimbatore District in 2003 has identified 2,573 child labourers. Of these 1,272 are boys and 1,301 are girls. How does the programme bring such children under the SSA purview?

"Under the scheme there are various options for flexible education. One such scheme is the Educational Guarantee Scheme, which provides local teachers for every ten students in areas where child labour is prevalent.

With flexible timings, such schools are operational in Dharamapuri district and Valparai town. Under the Labour Commission of Tamil Nadu, special schools have also been set up in Sivakasi and Pudukottai districts," he adds.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/12/13/stories/2004121302650200.htm

Diamond industry plays down child labour charges

Summit Khanna in Ahmedabad | December 13, 2004 11:42 IST

Though the International Labour Organisation had recently reported the prevalence of child labour in the diamond industry, sector players in Gujarat have condemned the allegations.

The ILO report claims that child labour is highly prevalent in the Indian diamond industry, as child labourers constitute nearly three per cent of the total workforce.

It also states that the percentage of child labourers is as high as 25 per cent in the diamond industry of Surat.

"Child labour has never been prevalent in the diamond industry of Surat. The percentage of child labourers, if any, is negligible. Diamonds are costly and if one employs a child labourer, it would mean risking lakhs of rupees, as they could easily be lost or broken while cutting or polishing," said Pravin Nanavati, a Surat-based diamond businessman.

"Around 8-10 years back, some western countries deliberately created the impression that child labour is prevalent in the Indian diamond industry, and called for it's boycott. The only aim of these nations was to monopolise in the sector," he said.

"Nonetheless, in the wake of these allegations, the Central government and the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council conducted a survey. While western countries claimed that child labourers constitute 40-50 per cent of the total work-force, the survey puts the figure at less than two per cent. This figure has further reduced and is almost zero today due to strict implementation of labour laws," Nanavati said.

He, however, refused to be drawn into a controversy over the ILO report. "I do not want to make any allegations against the ILO, but I would like to say that such reports should be based on actual facts," he said.

The diamond industry also found support from the South Gujarat Diamond Workers Association.

"While child labour is highly prevalent in the construction and hotel industries, there are few child labourers in the diamond industry of Surat. Our surveys have put the figure at less than one per cent. We believe this is mainly because of stern punishments and penalties for violation of child labour laws," the association secretary Mohan Dhabuwala said.

Source: http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2004/dec/13ilo.htm

Children found working in Chinese toy factory

CTV.ca News Staff

Updated: Sun. Dec. 12 2004 8:21 AM ET

Labour activists have long complained about underage workers and poor conditions in Chinese toy factories. Now, there are reports of children as young as 12 working 14 hour days.

A British news crew posing as prospective buyers secretly took video footage of one factory in Dongguang, Southern China.

From the looks of things on the production floor, those making toys for kids looked liked children themselves. When pressed for answers, the factory's manager said all his employees were over the age of 18.

But outside the factory gates, the workers tell a different story. They say children as young as 12 use fake identification to get hired on. Their wages amount to less than two Canadian dollars a day. Their shifts usually last 14 hours.

The factory's website says it makes products for Marks and Spencer and Toys R Us. When contacted, Toys R Us executives launched their own investigation.

In a statement the company said the products are "supplied through an intermediary" and they won't place orders with the company directly "until we are satisfied they conform to our strict code of practice." Marks and Spencer promised to do the same.

Labour activists say thousands of Chinese factories employ children on a regular basis. They not only blame Western companies, but consumers as well.

"Parents should think about the lives of workers behind the toys they buy," labour activist Dr. Liu Kaiming said.

Director of the Shenzhen Contemporary China Research Centre, Kaiming says consumers "should think about whether the factory is responsible and whether the workers are being treated well."

Activists say the underlying issue here is actually poverty. It's only when Chinese families have enough money to survive that the use of child labour will end, they say.

With a report from CTV's Steve Chao in Beijing

Source: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1102783488392_85/?hub=CTVNewsAt11

"Kerala will be the first child labour-free state"

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec11, 2004

Kerala Labour Minister Babu Divakaran said that Kerala will be declared the first child labour-free state in the country.

Talking to newspersons here, he said steps in this regard were being taken and a survey by the Statistics Department had been completed.

Divakaran said a legislation aimed at rehabilitating child labourers had been drafted and it would be presented in the next session of the State Assembly.

He said the government, in association with local bodies, would construct houses for the plantation labourers. The housing complexes would have all facilities like water, electricity, road and other amenities. As a pilot project, two such complexes would be constructed in Idukki district.

Divakaran said five industrial training institutes (ITIs) would be modernised at a cost of Rs ten crore as part of upgrading them to centres of excellence.

The loan limit of Rs 50,000 for the unemployed to start ventures, had been enhanced to Rs one lakh, he added.

[Agency]

Source: http://www.keralaonline.com/keralanews.asp?folder=Keralanews&file=7_4758.xml

Lebanon reveals all for children

Report details hardships of life, education By Leila Hatoum

Friday, December 10, 2004

Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Lebanon is the first Arab country to open up to the international community regarding the hardships of children through a detailed report, according to Social Affairs Minister Ghazi Zeaiter, on Thursday.

While attending the release of the report at the ministry's Development and Services Center in Bourj Hammoud, Zeaiter added that this was the third report released on the status of the country's children.

This latest report was prepared in collaboration between the Social Affairs Ministry and the Higher Council for Children (HCC), and distributed to various ministries, specialized nongovernmental organizations, MPs and universities.

Elie Mikhael, HCC's general secretary, identified "dropping out of school, child labour, a lack of adequate legislation, violence and quality of education" as some of the aspects which were discussed by the report, and which "hinder our children."

He also said that with respect to social services "there is no equality between children in the health sector, as not all of them are covered."

Mikhael provided an example of such disparities as that in Akkar, a northern Lebanese district, where the childbirth mortality rate sits at 50 per 1,000 children, while in Mount Lebanon that number is only 15 per 1,000.

There are many steps to be taken in order to help the children, Mikhael said.

He listed one such step as "collaborative and coordinated work between NGOs and the public sector."

Mikhael added that "we should collaborate because without it we cannot realize the children's rights."

He also stressed the importance of the role of municipalities in creating decentralized units to reach a larger number of children through such collaboration.

"The municipalities of Bourj Hammoud, Sin el-Fil, and Nabaa have used this kind of approach, which I appreciate. They have developed decentralized units and collaborated with the Social Affairs Ministry and other NGOs."

Zeaiter also attended Thursday the opening of a three-day seminar entitled "Education for All," organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Beirut.

The minister considered illiteracy to be "a plague that everyone mush fiercely fight to eradicate."

According to a study prepared by the ministry in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund, Lebanon's illiteracy rate in 1996 was "13.6 percent," for those aged 10 and over."This percentage is still high," said Zeaiter.

"That's why the Social Affairs Ministry has formed the national committee to eradicate illiteracy and educate the elderly."

According to Zeaiter, "Some reports showed that illiteracy rates among adults in the Arab world decreased in 1980, from around 60 percent to around 43 percent by the mid-1990's."

He lamented such facts and figures, saying, "The illiteracy rates in the Arab world are still higher than the average percentage in developed countries."

Thus, "The Arab world has entered the 21st century with over 60 million illiterate persons, most of whom are women," Zeaiter added.

"We should work hard to eliminate illiteracy because it leads to poverty and failure."

Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=10860#

ONE BILLION CHILDREN AT RISK

10.12.2004. 08:16:36

One billion children - half the world's population of children - suffer from poverty, conflict, HIV and AIDS, according to the United Nations child rights organisation.

In its annual report “The State of the World's Children”, UNICEF accused political leaders across the world of failing to protect children, with the richest nations as much to blame for the neglect as the poorest.

UNICEF chief Carol Bellamy said "It is the failure of leadership. It has become clearer year after year that it is the failure not just in the poorest countries but some of the richest countries too.”

“Whether it is development assistance or debt or aid, these are also challenges for the developed world."

It claims a billion youngsters are being denied access to one or more basic services such as adequate sanitation, shelter, education or access to safe water.

The report says that in growing up hungry, unhealthy and unsafe, the world is “denying a childhood” to more than half of its under-18s.

An estimated 29,000 children under five die every day, largely from preventable diseases, and sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet republics will probably not reach the millennium goals, the UN body warns.

UNICEF also highlights Africa as a continent in crisis.

In sub-Saharan Africa, mortality rates for under-fives are 175 per 1000 compared with a world average of 80.

The region is also home to 12.3 million of the world's 15 million AIDS orphans. The report adds that despite some progress in fighting violence against children, hundreds of thousands of minors are still recruited as child soldiers.

The document also expresses concern about war crimes against children, including rape. In a separate report, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned hunger and malnutrition were killing more than five million children a year, mostly in Africa. The FAO said it was regrettable so little was being done to fight hunger even though the resources needed to tackle the social disaster were "minuscule" compared with the potential benefits.

"Every dollar invested in reducing hunger according to our estimates yields a return of 5 to 20 times in terms of benefits," said FAO assistant director Hartwig de Haen.

Across the globe, around 852 million people suffer from malnutrition. 815 million live in developing countries, 28 million in transition countries and nine million even in so-called first world countries.

The report listed hunger hotspots around the globe, where 35 countries faced food emergencies in 2004.

The worst hit were Eritrea, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Zambia, Haiti and North Korea.

Source: http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=100761&region=5

Generating awareness of child rights

Children Drama Festival

Cultural Correspondent

Fri. December 10, 2004

A children's drama festival was held recently at the Rabindra Sharabor stage, beside Dhanmondi lake. The festival was organised by Ichchey Children's Media Centre and sponsored by Save the Children Sweden-Denmark. With the slogan 'No more discrimination, all children are equal', the event was the first of its kind in the country. About 17 children's group from Dhaka and other parts of the country, including a children's group from Nepal and Butterflies from India. performed popular music and dance at the festival.

The festival was aimed at depicting the discrimination between children from all walks of life. Besides this, the function aimed to generate awareness on how children are using cultural events to achieve their rights.

The festival was organised with children from all spheres of our society. The organisations that participated in the festival were Bangladesh National Women Law Association (BNWLA), Underprivileged Children Education Programme (UCEP), Centre for Services and Information on Disability (CSID), Association for Community Development) (ACD), Community Participation and Development Jhinukmala (CPD), Incidin Bangladesh, Nari Mayitri, Child Brigade, Society for Underprivileged Families (Suf), Socio-Economic Enhancement Programme (Sip), Development Initiative for Social Advancement (Disa) and Paribartan Theatre.

The subsequent two days of the festival featured plays, dances, songs, recitation, comic-skits and many more items by the children. Most of the performers, who also come from the underprivileged and marginalised sections of the society, developed the productions themselves based on the experiences from their own lives. Asif Munir, the Programme Manager Advocacy and Communication of Save the Children, believes that the function revealed the immense potential of the children.

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/12/10/d41210140396.htm

Five district assemblies get WACAP support

Regional News of Wednesday, 8 December 2004

Srebuoso (Ash), Dec. 8, GNA - The West Africa Cocoa and Commercial Agriculture Programme (WACAP) has provided about 50,000 dollars to five district assemblies and some organizations to withdraw children engaged in child labour and provide them with alternatives like attending school and learning a trade.

Mrs Rita Owusu-Amankwaah, Country Programme Co-ordinator of WACAP, who announced this, named the district assemblies as Atwima-Mponua, Amansie West, Sefwi-Wiawso, Suhum-Kraboa-Coaltar and Kassena-Nankana. She also named the General Agriculture Workers Union (GAWU), Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP) and the Environmental Protection Agency of Ghana (EPAG) as the other beneficiaries.

Speaking at the celebration of the International Day for the Reduction of Child Labour at Srebuoso in the Atwima-Mponua District, Mrs Owusu-Amankwaah said the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) with funding from the United States Department of Labour and the Cocoa Global Issues Group had so far withdrawn 656 children out of the targeted figure in the cocoa and commercial agriculture sectors.

She said the project would also assist parents of the children to acquire skills in alternative income generation to be able to support the children when the project ends.

Mrs Owusu-Amankwaah said the five district assemblies had been given money to establish a monitoring system dubbed "Child Labour Monitoring System" to monitor the activities of children workers to help them initiate actions to combat the menace.

Awareness, she said, was also being created in all these districts and communities to highlight the effects of hazardous child labour on children, parents and the nation as a whole.

Mr Charles Yeboah, Atwima District Chief Executive, advised parents to invest in their children's education and said the assembly would build school in the area to eliminate child labour.

Mr John Long, Vice-President of Hershey Foods and Chairman of World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) in the United States of America, cautioned cocoa farmers against engaging children on their farms.

He said the WCF encouraged education rather than the purchasing of cocoa for beverages.

Source: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=71356

Court frames charges against UK national in child abuse case

December 09, 2004

Maharashtra, India > Mumbai, Dec 8 : A local court today framed charges against UK national Allan John Water and city resident William D'Souza for abusing children of orphanage here during October 2000 to October 2001.

Allan John was extradited from the United States in September and is lodged in a jail here while William was released on bail after his arrest in this case early this year.

Another accused Duncan Grant is absconding and does Indian government in Tanzania initiate facing extradition proceedings against him.

Four children of Anchorage Centre, an orphanage here, had complained that the trio abused them and on the basis of their statements police registered an FIR.

Duncan Grant was running the orphange while William was the manager. Allan John Water was Duncan's friend and used to visit him in Mumbai occasionally.

Magistrate R S Bhargude who kept the matter for trial on December 15 framed the charges. The accused are being defended by defence lawyers Majeed Memon and Parvez Menon.

They were charged with various offences under IPC such as sections 373 (buying minor for the purpose of prostitution), 377 (unnatural offences), 324 (voluntary causing hurt by dangerous means).

They were also charged with Section 23 of Juvenile Justice Act which deals with causing mental and physical torture to children.

Both the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges. PTI

Source:http://www.123bharath.com/maharashtra-india-news/index.php?action=fullnews&id=42357

ELIMINATION OF CHILD LABOUR – BACKGROUNDER

Wednesday, December 08, 2004
12:2 IST

The concern for children and the elimination of child labour in India continues to be an area of great concern and article of faith and commitment for successive governments. The Common Minimum Programme of the present government also speaks about the concern of the Government towards the problem of child labour. It states that the Government will strive for the elimination of child labour.
Child labour is a complex socio-economic problem to be dealt through sustained efforts over a period of time. While there could be many reasons for children not being able to complete even their primary education or the vocational training programmes, studies have revealed that it is poverty of the families, extent of social backwardness and an unsuitable curriculum which have contributed to the children either not going to school or dropping out of school even before they complete their compulsory education.

As per the provisional figures of Census 2001, there are 12.5 million working children in age group of 5-14 years as compared to the child population of 252 million.

Concerted attempts have been made to follow a pro-active policy in the matter of tackling the problem through constitutional, statutory and developmental measures. Article 24, 39 and 45 of the Constitution consciously incorporate provisions to secure labour protection and free and compulsory education for children up to the age of 14 years.

The policy of the Government is to ban employment of children below the age of 14 years in factories, mines and hazardous employment and to regulate the working conditions of children in other employments. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation )Act, 1986 seeks to achieve this basic objective. It prohibits employment of children in 13 occupations and 57 processes.

The Act also regulates the working conditions of children in all other employment, which are not prohibited under the child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. Section 14 of the Act provides for penalties for contravention of the various provisions under the Act.

Any person who employs any child in contravention of the provisions of section 3 of the Act shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three months but which may extend to Rs. 20,000 or both. After having been convicted, any one committing a like offence shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to two years.

The State Governments and Union Territory Administrations furnish information to the Central Government on implementation of the provisions of the Act in the form of periodical reports. During the last five year, 13,32,607 inspections were conducted and 21, 246 violations were identified Prosecutions were launched in 12,348 cases resulting in 6,305 convictions.

Government is committed to the goal of eradication of child labour in all its forms. Considering the nature and magnitude of the problem a gradual and sequential approach has been adopted to withdraw and rehabilitate child labour beginning with the children working in hazardous occupations and processes.

Under the action plan of the policy, National Child Labour Projects (NCLPs) have been set up in child labour endemic areas to rehabilitate children released from work. Under the scheme, Project societies are set up at the district level under the Chairmanship of the Collector/District Magistrate for overseeing implementation of the project.

The major activity under the NCLP is the establishment of special schools to provide non-formal/formal education, vocational training, stipend, health check up, supplementary nutrition etc to children withdrawn from employment.

The number of National Child Labour Projects has been increased from existing 100 to 250 in as many districts in child labour endemic states for mainstreaming of children into formal schooling system during the current Plan. Fifty districts have already been identified and project launched on January 14, 2004 during the visit of Director General, International labour Organisation in India. The process for the identification of rest of 100 districts on the basis of 2001 census data on child labour has also been completed and NCLPs in these districts are likely to be launched very soon.

The children who have been identified as child labourers and who are between the ages of 5-8 would be put directly into the formal schooling system. The child labourers in 9-14 age group would be put through a special schooling mechanism before mainstreaming them into the formal schooling system. It is expected that these steps will lead to mainstreaming into formal schooling system of all children in 5-14 age groups who are found working in hazardous occupations and processes by the end of the 10th Plan. The Budgetary allocation for the Ninth Five-Year Plan was Rs.2496 million. It has been substantially stepped up during the Tenth Plan to Rs.6675 million.

Government has also launched the INDO-US Child Labour Project on February 16, 2004. The INDUS Project would be supportive of Government initiative towards complete elimination of child labour and help to achieve the targets set for the Tenth Plan period. It aims at providing support for elimination of child labour from identified 10 hazardous occupations in 5 states namely Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and National Capital Territory of Delhi. The basic objective of this project is withdrawing, rehabilitating, preventing and progressively eliminating child labour in the 10 hazardous occupations in 21 identified district in 5 states. This project has been developed based on the model of the NCLP scheme already being implemented by the Ministry of Labour since 1988.

Source: http://pib.nic.in/release/rel_print_page1.asp?relid=5448

GOVERNMENT PLANS TO SET UP A NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR CHILDREN

Wednesday, December 08, 2004
13:29 IST

The Government is planning to set up a National Commission for Children to safeguard and protect rights of children. To give effect to this proposal the Government will introduce the National Commission for Children Bill in the next Budget Session of Parliament. This was disclosed by the Human Resource Development Minister Shri Arjun Singh to the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry here last night.

The functions of the Commission will include among other things examining and reviewing the safeguard provided by the Constitution for the protection of child rights and recommend measures for their effective implementation. It will examine all factors that inhibit the enjoyment of rights of most vulnerable children affected by terrorism, communal violence, riots, natural disaster, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, trafficking, mal-treatment, torture and exploitation, pornography and prostitution and recommend appropriate remedial measures.

The proposed commission will have a chairperson and six members, a member secretary and other supporting staff.

Addressing the members, Shri Arjun Singh said that while legal provisions can act as a deterrent to child abuse, the healthy growth of a child mostly depends on the family and societal environment. He also suggested that the committee members should also visit vulnerable areas in the country where child abuse and trafficking is prominent so that they have a feel of the ground realities.

Two other topics namely trafficking of women and children child abuse were discussed at length at the meeting. The Minister of State for Human Resource Development Smt. Kanti Singh outlined the measures taken by the Government to tackle the problems in this regard. She suggested that the State Governments should also constitute Commissions for Children in line with the National Commission for Children to make it more effective.

Taking part in the deliberations some members suggested that there should be structural changes in the education system so that learning becomes enjoyable and the number of children dropping out from schools is brought down.

The Members of Parliament who attended the Consultative Committee Meeting were Shri Shriniwas D. Patil, Shri Bharatsingh M. Solanki, Shri Harisingh Chavda, Dr. Chinta Mohan, Ms. P. Satheedevi, Shri Balasaheb Vikhe Patil, Shri G.M Siddheswara, Shri Kishanbhai V. Patel, Shri C.K Chandrappan and Shri Laxminarayan Sharma.

Source: http://pib.nic.in/release/rel_print_page1.asp?relid=5453

More Child Soldiers to Be Demobilized

The East African Standard (Nairobi)
NEWS
December 7, 2004
Posted to the web December 7, 2004

By Ken Ramani
Nairobi

A second intensive phase of demobilisation of child soldiers was launched yesterday in Burundi.

A press dispatch from Unicef said over 650 children will be demobilised by December 14.

These are children in the ranks of the six armed movements/political parties that have signed cease-fire agreements with the Government of Burundi.

Since the launch of the demobilisation of child soldiers on January 23 this year, 2,261 children have been demobilised and reintegrated with their families and communities by the National Structure for the Demobilisation and Reintegration of Child Soldiers.

Most of these children were in the ranks of the army and the civil defense force.

The leaders of six armed movements/political parties submitted official engagement letters in which they recognise the guiding principles for the child soldier demobilisation process. They engaged to cease recruitment of children under 18 and to demobilise children in their ranks. Since then, each group is represented in the national structure by a co-ordinator to supervise and plan the demobilisation.

Focal points from the six groups have received appropriate training in order to implement the demobilisation of children in their ranks and to prepare the children for their departure.

The official launch of the Disarmament, Demobilisation, Reintegration and Reinsertion (DDRR) process on December 2nd and the opening of the demobilisation centre in Gitega province, where all the children will be gathered for a short transition phase, boosted the demobilisation of children in the six groups.

It is in this new framework of DDRR that the SNES, in close co-operation with the Executive Secretariat, will continue its activities aiming at the demobilisation and re-integration of all children in Burundi.
The recruitment of children is one of many violations of children's rights committed in armed conflicts.

These children lost an important part of their childhood and need to be successfully re-integrated in the community again.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200412071324.html

Five Nigerians nabbed for child prostitution, drugs

December 07, 2004, 15:45

Five Nigerian men suspected of prostituting children and drug peddling were arrested in a raid at a block of flats in Germiston today, Ekurhuleni metro police said. Wilfred Kgasago, a Metro police spokesperson, said five girls, aged between 14 and 16, were rescued and handed over to the SA Police Service's child protection unit.

He said "an assortment of drugs (including cocaine with an estimated street value of R10 000) and more than a dozen suspected stolen cell phones were confiscated". "The minors are suspected to be operating as prostitutes and drug runners for the five Nigerians apprehended," Kgasago said.

The building, at Knox Street in central Germiston, was raided at 3am. All information obtained by the metro police would be "utilised to the full in tracking down perpetrators of child abuse", said Kgasago also adding the practice was unacceptable. He also said the acts went against the period of "16 Days of Activism" against abuse of women and children. – Sapa

Source: http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/crime1justice/0,2172,93619,00.html

Child labour on rise in Jamalpur, Dinajpur

Tuesday December 07 2004 10:25:48 AM BDT

The number of child labour has increased in Jamalpur and Dinajpur over the years indicating deterioration of the overall economic condition of the people.

An estimated 20,000 child workers under 12 years of age are engaged in various odd jobs in Jamalpur to supplement the income of their poor parents.

These child labourers are working in hotels, brick fields, workshops, motor garages and at construction sites.

Besides, many of them serve as domestic aid in the houses of well-to-do people. Destruction of houses and damage of crops by natural calamities like flood and drought compelled many parents to send their minor sons and daughters to work as day labour.

Old age of the parents is another factor for the increase in the number of child labour.

Many of the child workers suffer from malnutrition and various diseases as they are unable to manage nutritious food with their meagre income.

Overwork is also eating into the vitals of the child labour. Many have to put in physical labour for 12 hours a day at different work places. But their earnings are too little compared to their hard work.

Another report from Dinajpur adds: Mired in poverty, many poor parents of Dinajpur have been sending their minor sons to different work places to supplement their income for survival.

More than 30,000 children between 7 and 15 age group are engaged in many risky jobs in different upazilas of the district. They work in crop fields, hotels, brick fields, bidi factories, private houses and at construction sites.

Many child workers pull rickshaws and push carts from morning to night to support themselves and their poverty stricken families.

The owners of establishments prefer child labour to adults because the services of the former can be utilised for more hours with little wages.

A large number of young boys and girls are engaged in bidi and welding factories and workshops in Dinajpur town and other areas in the district. They have to work at these organisations with great risk to their health.

Most of the children working in bidi factories always suffer from cough and lung diseases. Some are even afflicted with tuberculosis. The owners of bidi factories often express their reluctance to bear the medical expenses of their workers.

In many houses, young boys and girls work as domestic help only in exchange for meals and clothes and no wages.

Child workers are also hired by the land owners to tend cattle, till lands, harvest paddy, sow seed and to do many other hard work.

But the wages paid to them after day long hard work are not compatible with the labour they put in from sun rise to dusk.

Source:http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news/view.php?hidDate=2004-12-07&hidType=LOC&hidRecord=0000000000000000028614

Govt Urged To Stop Juvenile Rights Violation

Updated on 2004-12-06 07:53:24

BAHAWALPUR, Pakistan : Dec 06 (SADA) - Office bearers of the children rights committee have demanded of the government to strictly enforce the child labour laws.

The demand was made here by committee coordinator Sheikh Khursheed Ahmed and society for the protection of rights of children (SPARC) incharge Ms Nadia Gul while talking to newsmen in connection with the anti-labour children week being observed here.

They lamented that the children's anti-labour laws were being violated by a number of institutions, including industrial concerns. According to the ILO's report 1990-98, they said around 15 million children were engaged in forced labour in Pakistan. Out of this, they added, some 6.3 million children were doing labour in the Punjab.

They said the situation was unsatisfactory due to the non-implementation of laws. They said under the anti-labour (children) law, the vigilance committees should be constituted in all the districts but no such committee existed in the Bahawalpur district. Presently, they said about 23 million children were engaged in the forced labour out of whom 8.6 per cent were between the age of five and 14 years.

They said around 80 per cent brick kilns were without registration and there was an urgent need that these kilns should also be brought under this law.

Source: http://www.paknews.com/flash.php?id=13&date1=2004-12-06

Child Sexual Exploitation Unabated, Joint Gov't-UNICEF Study Reveals

The Independent (Banjul)
ANALYSIS
December 6, 2004
Posted to the web December 6, 2004

By Ahmed Carayol
Banjul

A joint study by The Gambia Government and UNICEF released last week catalogues the sexual exploitation and abuse of children in the country as a growing phenomenon being blamed on a combination of local and external factors that encourage child prostitution.

The three-chaptered report graphically recounts incidents, which expose the vulnerability of Gambian children to the repercussions of being impressionable and poor. It starts with a general overview of child abuse of children by local Gambians (sugar daddies) and strangers (toubabs) and outlines the government and Unicef's findings and current interventions by them to stem the tide of sexual abuse.

"The smiling Coast" syndrome, main concerns - sexual abuse, prostitution and unreported crimes, pornography and trafficking are themes featuring saliently in the report, which was compiled last year.

The report says although comprehensive research evidence is scanty, anecdotal evidence indicates that sexual abuse and exploitation of children is an observable fact in The Gambia.

The local-based Child Protection Alliance, and the Netherlands organisation, Terre des Hommes are quoted in the study as indicating that the phenomenon of sexual exploitation of children is particularly pronounced in the tourism industry where local bumsters lure teenage girls into sexual liaison with tourists for monetary reward. A girl called Fatou gives a graphic account of how she met a tourist with the help of her school friends. "One of them encouraged me to go out with her and her toubab boyfriend. I went with her to meet him at his hotel and he was there with another white man - that was for me. It was my first time to even talk to a white man. They took us to a Chinese restaurant and I was given 50 pounds when Mike my boyfriend left sometime afterwards he sent me over 300 pounds since that time we have been coming here (the hotel) every weekend" she says.

The study also observes that sexual harassment by teachers and other male students are taking place in schools more frequently that are ever reported. Over the years, there have been occasional reports in the local media of cases of sexual exploitation of children by tourists or adults in positions of trust and authority. A handful of such cases are heard in the courts but fewer still end up in successful prosecution.

The influx of refugees to The Gambia due to political instability in neighbouring countries, the rising levels of poverty, unchecked rural-urban drift, growing tourism and increasing consumerism, all combined to create a conducive atmosphere for the culture of sexual abuse and exploitation to thrive, according to the report, which also gives some indication of the nature and scope of the situation it says.

It outlines the so-called push and pull factors, the perceptions of the stakeholders on issues related to sexual abuse and exploitation of children and the state of laws, policies and programmes. It also offers recommendations for action by the different stakeholders.

"Another factors is the changing face of youth culture with a powerful influence of Western life on young people. In The Gambia, as in many African countries, the individual is conceived of as an integral part of the entire community; identity depends on his or her role, status and relations within society. People live in large households as part of an extended family. The major result of sexual abuse exploitation is dropping out of school, low-level of participation and vulnerability to the lure of money for sex," it explains.
The study also focuses copiously on what it calls "cross-generational sex" perpetrated by "sugar-daddies", with special reference to how it is evolving in the emergence of child pornography and child trafficking.

The findings indicate that for the most part, children engaged in prostitution do not consider themselves "children" and do not understand that they require special protection because of their age.

"As a poor country that is also a tourist attraction, The Gambia is a vulnerable target for not a few unscrupulous visitors such as suspected or convicted pedophiles who enter the country in search of a low profile location to commit their crimes against children silently and with impunity" it says.

It says police and intelligence officials interviewed were uncertain about the role of the police in responding to child abuse and exploitation cases. "Most adult male and female community leaders were wary about sex education in schools and children's rights to know about and to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive health.

Many believed that this was a Western notion that simply encouraged children to engage in immoral behaviour," it outlines.

It concludes that society's perceptions of issues and activities that constitute sexual harassment remain controversial, pointing out the difficulty in arriving at definitive interpretations of sexual harassment in The Gambia.

The study also makes a list of recommendations for action in The Gambia, one of several African countries where the campaign against sexual exploitation and the abuse of children constitutes a paramount policy priority.

In line with this campaign a new Children Bill was drafted in 2003 and harmonised with the Convention of the Right of the Child. The next step for the government will be to implement these new laws.

However, a stubborn problem to deal with the issue stems from the absence of agreed definition of abuser, what constitutes sexual exploitation and child trafficking, which could mean different things to different people.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200412061208.html

Child Trafficking: 1.2m Kids AffectedYearly - Report

From Amby Uneze in Calabar, 12.05.2004

Apart from concerted efforts by different Non-governmental Organisations (NGO) in Nigeria and in the world to eradicate child abuse, child labour, child trafficking and other infringements on the right of the child, an approximated 1.2 million children are being trafficked every year, the United Nations (UN) has revealed. According to the UN report, between $7 to $10 billion are made from trafficking children worldwide, adding that the pattern of trafficking varies from region to region.

Quoting the UN report the Executive Director Light Bearers organisation (LBO), a non-governmental organisation, Mrs Gbubemi Bridget Idiodi, observe that in West Africa, where there is long history of trafficking, children from Benin, Togo and Nigeria are sent by ships to Gbaon as domestic servants, while children from Mali and Burkina Faso are trafficked to Cote d'lvoire mainly as domestic servants and to work in plantations.

In an address at the year 2004, World Day for the prevention of child abuse in collaboration with the Women's World Summit Foundation of Switzerland, Mrs Idiodi pointed out that about 3,000 children are also trafficked yearly to Greece and Italy to beg on the streets and prostitution. Again, she said that in Nigeria, especially Cross River, children are loaded in lorries from some parts of the Northern parts of the state to other parts of Nigeria at househelps adding that funding from recent survey conducted in some cities in Nigeria, reveals that, out of 19 per cent of children trafficked, 98 per cent were Nigerians, 92 per cent were between the ages of 10 and 16 years of 2:3 boys to girls ratio.

Source: http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=3746

SPARC launches Child Labour Free Week campaign

Thursday, December 02, 2004

Staff Report

LAHORE: A weeklong campaign titled Child Labour Free Week was launched by the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) in collaboration with the Coalition Against Child Labour (CACL) in 14 districts of Punjab on Wednesday.

Most working children are young girls who work as domestic help, unpaid in their own homes and paid a pittance in others, as prostitutes and as cheap labour for cottage industry, said a SPARC statement. It was a tradition in this region for well-off families to take in poor children from the vicinity and ensure their education, it said. “However, this practice has lost its welfare motivation and children are now employed as cheap, easily manipulated household labour without being provided education, better nutrition, medical attention, time for recreation or any other benefits. Some are not even paid,” the statement said.

Child servants are routinely assaulted, tortured and brutalised, some even to death, the statement said and added that many were cut off from their families. Children, both girls and boys, are vulnerable to sexual exploitation while employed as domestic servants, it said. Children working in other sectors are not better off; they face the same vulnerability, exploitation and abuse, the statement said.

Pakistan ratified International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention-82 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in August 2001. The Employment of Children Act (ECA) was enacted in 1991 and the Bonded Labour Act in 1992. “However, bonded labour and the employment of children continue even in hazardous occupations in the formal sector, which is visible to everyone, and we cannot say much about the informal sector, which is not visible and out of the reach of enforcement mechanisms,” the statement added.

Under the ECA, the maximum fine for employing children was a paltry Rs 20,000, but the fine was often reduced to as low as Rs 50, as no minimum fine had been set, it said. In the 12 years since the endorsement of the law, not a single person has ever been imprisoned for employing children, it added.

SPARC said that the Pakistani government’s commitment to eliminate child labour could be best demonstrated by the effective enforcement of existing legislation to free children from any form of labour and to provide both facilities and resources for free quality education to all children.

It said that the exact number of child labourers in Pakistan was impossible to ascertain because a majority were employed in the informal sector. The government places the official figure at 3.3 million on the basis of a survey conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Labour and the ILO. However, more than 23 million children were not attending schools and were therefore potentially child labourers.

SPARC also launched ‘Lesson for Life: a lesson on HIV/AIDS’ in 12 districts of Punjab today for World Aids Day. The lesson for life was organised to stress the rapid and mounting crisis of HIV/AIDS amongst children. The lesson aims to mobilise 10,000 children and adults.

Source:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_2-12-2004_pg7_19

Send your children to school...Don’t encourage child labour - parents advised

GNA | Posted: Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Nii Quarshie Nettey, acting chief of Papaase in the Ga district has urged parents and guardians in the area to enrol their children in school instead of allowing them to make money from stone-cracking and sand-winning.

He said if the situation continues, the children's future would be jeopardised, while the development of the area would also be affected.

Nii Nettey gave the advice during the annual Kotobiri Ahobaah festival of the chiefs and people of Papaase.

He said education is the key to success and growth of the nation therefore it is imperative that parents educate their children.

Nii Nettey appealed to the people in the area not to cause any confusion during the upcoming elections but vote in their numbers for their choices.

Source: http://www.accra-mail.com/story.asp?id=11752

Action plan for children launched

Wednesday, 1 Dec 2004

Bangalore, Dec 01 - Being aware that the sex ratio among infants and children is not up to the mark and with a goal to balance the equation in favour of the girl child, particularly in the rural areas, the Government has come out with the Karnataka State Plan of Action for Children 2003-2010.

The action plan, described as a commitment to the children of the State, aims at several definitive goals it intends to achieve by 2007. The Chief Minister, N Dharam Singh, released it here on Tuesday.

In the State, which is placed ninth among the 16 major thickly populated States, 12.94 per cent of the population are children in the age group of 0-6. The gender ratio for total, rural and urban population is 949, 954 and 939, respectively, which has been a cause for concern, though the State was one of the first to come up with its own Plan of Action for Children in 1994, after the Union Government brought out a national action plan, having ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Children. The present Action Plan is an update of the 1994 plan and has been developed by collecting primary data from various government departments, reviewing the available secondary data form the Census Operations, periodic surveys, and UNICEF's inputs.

It aims at reducing the infant mortality rate to zero per 1,000 births, the infant mortality rate in 1-4 year-old children to less than 13 per 1,000. The maternal mortality rate will be brought down to 140 per one lakh live births. One of the goals is to raise the sex ratio to 970 per 1,000.

Universal access to safe drinking water, to cover 75 per cent children under early childhood care programmes, achieving universal retention of children in primary education are the other goals.

The Action Plan also speaks of 100 per cent protection to all children by integrating programmes and policies of different departments, elimination of child labour in any form, and zero growth of HIV-AIDS.

Monitoring, review, and evaluation of the Action Plan is another commitment along with corrective measures to reach the goals. The exercise is to be gone through during 2005-2007.

Broadly, the policy addresses issues of promoting healthy lives, quality education, protection of children against neglect, abuse, exploitation and violence, and emphasis on the themes focussing on girl children, women, and children with disability.

Speaking after releasing the action plan, Mr. Dharam Singh said it would be a useful tool in effectively implementing schemes and policies for children. Though there were many laws and policies that focussed on children, there was always room for improvement, he said.

The State Representative, UNICEF (Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh), Michel Saint Lot, said the new action plan should guide future policy and legislation in the State. He congratulated the Department of Women and Child Welfare on a sensitively drafted Action Plan that made a commitment to put children first.

Source: http://www.sunnetwork.org/news/regional/karnataka/karnataka.asp?id=10450