| No
trace of woman cop after girl files torture
case |
Express
News Service
New Delhi, February 24: A case of alleged
assault and torture by a Delhi Police woman
head constable has come to light in the
New Delhi area. While the victim, a 12-year-old
girl, has been rescued, the head constable
is absconding.
According to the police, accused Rekha Kaul,
39, who stays in the Tilak Nagar police
colony, is posted with the communication
department at the police headquarters. ‘‘Rekha
had brought the victim from Gwalior seven
years ago and since then she was working
at her place as a domestic help,’’
said Manoj Lall, DCP, New Delhi district.
Rekha, police said, was forcing the girl
into prostitution. She was allegedly assaulted
with hot iron rods and chilly powder thrown
into her eyes. A child helpline and Salaam
Balak Trust got a case registered.
‘‘We registered the case on
February 20 under the Juvenile Justice Act,’’
Lall said. He added that medical examination
had not revealed any sexual abuse. However,
the police confirmed a case of child labour.
Rekha, who is divorced and has an eight-year-old
daughter, has been absconding. No action
has been taken by the police headquarters
against her. The victim has been handed
over to an NGO for counselling. There are
over 20 injury marks on her body.
The accused, sources said, had been allotted
a house at the Tilak Marg police colony
out of turn and that she was well-connected
in the force.
Source:
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=76998
| |
|
| 16
Million Children Trafficked Abroad - Mrs.
Atiku |
Daily
Trust (Abuja)
February 24, 2004
Posted to the web February 24, 2004
Kemi Ogedengbe
The Wife of the Vice President, Chief Amina
Titi Atiku Abubakar, has said that there
are about 16 million working children lured
into labour through trafficking.
Speaking at a five day workshop on "Measures
to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings in
Benin, Nigeria and Togo," Mrs. Abubakar
said that these three countries remain as
major links in the operational activities
of human traffickers.
She said that because of the enormous impact
of trafficking in persons on the health,
social, legal, political and economic life
of a nation, concerted efforts should be
made to stem the ugly tide before it goes
out of control.
Besides, she said that one major casuality
of human trafficking is our external image
as a nation as the phenomenon tends to scare
potential foreign investors and subject
Nigerian travellers to embarrassment.
Mrs.. Abubakar noted that the heaviest cost
of the result of the scourge of human trafficking
and child labour is under development. "It
is clear therefore that the trade is on
ill-wind that does not blow anyone any good."
She commended the United Nations Office
on drugs and crime for initiating the project
aimed at improving the collection and analysis
of data and imformation on trafficking in
persons.
Mrs. Abubakar called on the participants
to avail themselves the opportunity to seek
further knowledge through training, saying
that the outcome of the training workshop
would serve as a data bank to tackle cases
of illicit trafficking in persons.
Also, the Attorney-General of the Federation
and Justice Minister, Chief Akin Olujimi
(SAN) said that the present administration
is fully committed to the fight against
human trafficking, saying that no efforts
would be spared to ensure that the culprits
are brought to book.
He said that the workshop would provide
participants the opportunity to share their
experience with colleagues from other places
and to acquire greater skills in dealing
with the problem of trafficking in human
beings.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200402240421.html
| |
|
| Baseline
survey of child labour |
By
Divya Ramamurthi
Tuesday, Feb 24, 2004
CHENNAI, FEB. 23. A baseline survey of child
labour in a few endemic blocks of all districts
will soon be carried out as part of the
INDUS project. This will be in addition
to the child labour study carried out under
the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) last year.
The survey will probably supplement the
SSA study findings. According to the SSA
survey, there are more than 70,000 child
labourers in the State. Boys account for
52 per cent of this workforce.
The Labour department recently issued a
tender inviting organisations interested
in carrying out the survey, says an official.
But as the tender amounts quoted were very
high, the department is now looking to governmental
agencies.
The INDUS project will be functional in
Tiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai, Namakkal, Virudhunagar
and Kancheepuram districts by the beginning
of April.
Transit schools
The districts are preparing to set up transit
schools for rehabilitation of the child
labourers. More than 80,000 of them will
come under this project, jointly funded
by the Governments of India and the United
States with the International Labour Organisation
as the executing agency. About 2,000 children,
between 9 and 13 years, will be sent to
the transit schools. Another 1,000 adolescent
labourers will be given vocational training.
Voluntary organisations hope that the baseline
study will help to identify child labourers
missed out by the SSA survey. In Cuddalore
and the Nilgiris, the statistics are `unbelievably
low,' they said. Only 95 child labourers
were reported in Cuddalore district and
164 in the Nilgiris.
Source: http://www.hindu.com/2004/02/24/stories/2004022410520400.htm
| |
|
| Cops
turn blind eye to child labour |
SHARMILA
MAITI
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20,
2004 02:59:28 AM ]
Next
time you visit the Park Circus area, after
adjusting your olfactory organ to the stench
tanneries are associated with, if you take
a peek behind the high brick walls of a
tannery, chances are that you might catch
a glimpse of a group of children. Ranging
from six to 16, they are working hard from
dawn to dusk making shoes. Take, for example,
Mintu Mondal (12), Sonu Khan (8) and Salim
Akhtar (9). They work daily in one such
tanneries for nine hours a day for a meagre
Rs 10 daily wage. Sonu, the youngest, has
developed white patches all over his hands.
“It itches, but what to do? I’ll
have to earn money,” he said.
The
children who are engaged in these tanneries
rinse, sink, conserve and dye hides with
chemicals, apart from drying, pigmenting
and measuring finished hides. Dr Jayanta
Das, a city dermatologist, said, “These
children are most susceptible to skin diseases
like dermatitis, eczema, fungal infection
etc because of over-exposure to corrosive
chemicals. Bacterial contamination from
the raw skin may lead to deadly diseases
like anthracosis and tuberculosis. Even
research reveal, these children develop
a serious psychic problem.”
The
irony is that the administration and civic
authorities are aware of this. Javed Ahmed
Khan, Trinamool councillor of Ward 66, said,
“We’re aware of these illegal
tanneries and child labourers. The labour
unions, like INTUC and CITU are supporting
these activities. So, it’s not easy
to stop these. Also, it’s economic
compulsion for these children. We can’t
provide them with any alternative.”
Said M.Rahman, a sub-inspector with Karaya
thana , “These tanneries will be shifted
to Bantala within a couple of months. But
we haven’t received any written complaint
regarding child labour employed here.”
Md.
Amin, the state’s minister of labour
said, “So far there has been no such
report of child labour in the state. All
workers in approved tanneries are above
14 years, not child labourers.” However,
the inside story is something different.
Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow/507526.cms
| |
|
| Universal
Education Can Eliminate Child Labour --ILO |
Vanguard
(Lagos)
February 19, 2004
Posted to the web February 19, 2004
Funmi Komolafe
The International Labour Organization (ILO),
during its annual conference in 2002 declared
June 12, Child Labour Day though its war
against child labour began years before
then with the creation of the a special
unit; the International Programme on the
Elimination of Child Labour ( IPEC).
The slogan " Indifference has a price.
My future" developed by IPEC was designed
to appeal to the conscience of all and sundry.
In Nigeria, the ILO and its partners have
embarked on series of programmes aimed at
eliminating child labour. Non- governmental
organizations have also organized series
of programmes yet the menace of child labour
remains with us.
In this edition, we give you an update on
the ILO's unrelenting efforts to eliminate
child labour.
Early last week, the International Programme
on the Elimination of Child Labour released
a new report on child labour . The report
stated that "child labour involves
one in every six children in the world".
The situation is not however hopeless as
IPEC indicates that child labour "
can be eliminated and replaced by universal
education by the year 2020 at an estimated
cost of US $760billion.
The director-general of the ILO, Mr. Juan
Somavia, who was present at the launch of
the new report advised nations to adopt
a good social policy. He said, " What's
good social policy is also good economic
policy".
Mr. Somavia empha sized: "Eliminating
child labour will yield an enormous return
on investment and a priceless impact on
the lives of children and families".
The IPEC report also indicates that "
some 246 million children are currently
involved in child labour worldwide. Of these,
179 million -or one in every eight children
worldwide ---- are exposed to the worst
forms of child labour, which endanger their
physical, mental or moral well-being".
Eliminating child labour is not just of
social benefit but also of economic benefit
says IPEC.
" Reaping the economic value of expanded
education depends on countries ability to
create new jobs, take advantage of higher
levels of human capital and develop economic
policies to stimulate growth".
In Nigeria, last year alone, there were
reported cases of child trafficking involving
more than 500 children. Several cases involving
thousands of children are not known to the
authorities. Child labour has been on the
increase despite the Obasanjo government's
universal basic education programme. The
UBE itself cannot be said to be successful
as majority of the people in the rural areas
lack access to basic social facilities and
therefore use children to augment their
family income.
However, the efforts of the Non-governmental
organizations paid off last year. The wife
of the vice-president and founder of the
Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication
Foundation (WOTCLEF), Mrs. Titi Atiku Abubakar,
sponsored a private bill on the elimination
of child labour and got it passed into law.
As a result, the government established
the National Agency for the Prohibition
of Trafficking on Persons to create awareness
on the implications of trafficking persons.
Perhaps the efforts would have paid off,
if the Child Rights Bill had been passed
into law.
Part 111 section 26 of the yet to be passed
into law child rights bill states, "Prohibition
of exploitative child labour- Forced, exploitative
labour, lifting or moving heavy objects,
work in industrial undertakings prohibited.
Penalty on conviction is N50,000 fine or
five years imprisonment or both. Where offender
is a body corporate, penalty is N250,000
fine".
Section 28 also states, " Buying, selling,
hiring or otherwise dealing in children
for the purpose of hawking or begging for
alms or prostitution, domestic or sexual
labour etc. are prohibited. Penalty is 10
years imprisonment".
Despite the clear evidence of child labour
on our roads, the federal legislature has
not deemed it fit to pass the Child Rights
bill into law.
Thousands of children are engaged in the
informal sector in our country. Children
are engaged as farm helps in the rural areas
where they are paid a pittance for jobs
done. In the cities, the middle class engages
children as house-helps who are paid to
do domestic chores and in most cases, they
are denied formal education.
A report of the IPEC/ ILO on Child trafficking
in West Africa revealed that " Calabar
is a transit port for children to be sent
to Gabon or Cameroon and also for children
trafficked from Cameroon entering Nigeria".
Four states: "Akwa- Ibom, Abia, Rivers
and Cross River have become the targets
of modern child trafficking syndicates".
It noted that " Lagos, being the largest
city in Nigeria is noted for children coming
in from and going out to neighbouring countries
like Benin, Togo, Ghana".
Since the release of this IPEC/ ILO report,
over 500 children trafficked to Nigeria
have been found by the police and returned
to the Republic of Benin.
The IPEC/ ILO may have implemented several
programmes aimed at eliminating child labour,
more is expected from the federal and state
governments which from all indications have
not considered child labour a threat to
the socio-economic development of Nigeria.
It is not uncommon for government officials
to argue that there are no cases of child
labour in Nigeria. So, there are no efforts
being made to eliminate child labour in
our society.
The issue is how prepared are the governments
in Nigeria to expand education, create new
jobs and take advantage of higher levels
of human capital as suggested by Mr. Juan
Somavia.
Our economic reform package is about higher
cost of education, job losses etc. such
that many Nigerian children are beginning
to consider education a waste of time. They
would rather trade than spend so many years
in school and end up without jobs.
As a result, rather than eliminate child
labour our policies are promoting child
labour.
The new IPEC/ ILO report also places emphasis
on children's health. The study states that
"improvements in children's health,
through the elimination of child labour,
will bring tangible economic benefits".
The IPEC/ ILO study noted "eliminating
child labour would be a generational investment
and a sustained commitment to children,
both today and tomorrow".
Let's hope our leaders are listening to
the voices of children in labour "
Indifference has a price: My future."
Source:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200402190832.html
| |
|
| The
lost childhood |
By
Anita Pandey
Feb
18, 2004, 11:55
An
11-year-old girl is repeatedly raped in
a Children's Home - a place that is supposed
to provide her with security in the absence
of parents and loved ones. (From The Kathmandu
Post, 29 July 2003)
As a result of armed conflict, in the last
six months of ceasefire, at least 11 children
have been killed, two have been taken into
custody and five have been injured. (The
State of the Rights of the Child in Nepal,
bi-annual National Report, Jan-June 2003,
by Child Workers in Nepal)
In Nepal, over the past few years, children
are paying a huge price for armed insurgency
and social unrest. The childcare programmes
in most of the 75 districts of Nepal are
in disarray. Many schools in the interiors,
where insurgents are active, have closed
down; students have migrated to towns in
search of education. Many have been forced
to reconcile to a childhood without education.
In areas like Khalanga and Salyan, students
go to school under heavy army protection.
The playground is surrounded with gun-toting
men. And this, despite the call for making
"schools a zone of peace". A recent
report by Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN),
an organisation that works with children,
says: "The maximum impact of the violence
that stems from the Maoist insurgency has
been borne by children who are struggling
to survive in difficult circumstances, be
it in the form of direct attack on life
and limb in crossfiring, or being orphaned,
or loss of siblings and friends, or break
in education, or mental disturbance. Children
have been the hardest hit".
In the past six months, CWIN recorded 2,866
cases of child labour exploitation, child
deaths and murder, missing children, violence,
sexual abuse, trafficking, forced prostitution,
children affected by armed conflict and
children in conflict with the law.
Political unrest and the seven-year long
insurgency have forced several children
into hazardous work in Nepal. Many have
also been pushed to work as labour in Indian
homes and factories. According to CWIN,
today in Nepal there are 127,000 children
working in exploitative, abusive and hazardous
conditions.
Several children, working in homes and eateries,
get Rs 300 (lUS$=Rs75) a month and only
two meals a day though they do the work
of two adults. In 2003, CWIN rescued a 12-year-old
boy who had steaming lentils poured over
him by his angry woman employer. "Since
90 per cent of child labour is in the domestic
sector, it remains invisible and doesn't
show up in statistics," says Gauri
Pradhan of CWIN. This group is considered
the most vulnerable, even by the International
Labour Organisation (ILO).
Children will continue to hanker for an
enriching haven for years to come as the
child rights issue is not on the agenda
of policy makers. For two years now, the
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regularisation)
Act 2000 has not been enforced. It needs
to be published in the government gazette,
Nepal Rajya Patra, before it can be enforced.
But the Labour Ministry appears disinterested,
with the minister having been changed thrice
in the intervening period. The Women, Child
and Social Welfare Ministry too finds its
hands tied. While the new Act cannot be
enforced, the Children Act of 1992 is redundant
because the new one has superseded it! Recently,
CWIN along with Centre to Assist and Protect
Child
Rights of Nepal (CAPCRON), an alliance of
child rights groups, filed a case with the
Supreme Court challenging the dormancy of
the promulgated Act and urging for a solution.
"The new Act is far more stringent
and in tune with the times; it has increased
coverage of children from 14 years to 16
years. It has broadened its reach and included
many more industries and areas under the
'worst forms of child labour', including
domestic work and children in the travel
and tourism industry. Unfortunately, it
is held up either for some amendrnents (which
can be done only if the parliament is convened)
or because the government is apprehensive
of a backlash," says Ajay Singh Karki
of Nepal RUGMARK Foundation. "The apathy
of the powers that be has reduced years
of work - for improvement in the conditions
of deprived children - to a mere drop in
the ocean," says Pradhan. Organisations
that rescue children from exploiting employers
are at a loss as there is no apparent course
of legal action to be followed in the absence
of the Act. "It is the onus of the
establishment to carry out legal action
for the protection of children, yet it is
representatives of civil society who take
the initiative," says Pradhan.
"The new Act should be brought on soon
also because it relates to the ILO Convention
182, that has identified Nepal as one of
the trial territories (the other two being
El Salvador and Tanzania) for the time-bound
programme," urges Karki. The target
is to eliminate the worst forms of child
labour by 2007 and children working in other
areas by 2010 with education as the entrypoint.
Street children, child labour and children
in conflict with law (those that are in
prison and detention homes) imply issues
that are interlinked with and extend from
strife.
Despite having ratified the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child (CRC 1989) in
1990, the Nepalese government has failed
to implement programmes that can pull children
out of child labour. Children continue to
be exploited economically, socially, physically,
emotionally and sexually.
CWIN and other organisations have recently
set up the South Asian regional secretariat
for the Global March Against Child Labour.
Part of the action will be to prepare for
the working children's parliament to be
held in 2004. This will be a unique opportunity
to ensure that interventions designed to
eliminate exploitative and hazardous child
labour consider the child's perspective,
and are sustainable and child centred.
Source: http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_7429.shtml
| |
|
| India,
US launch $40-million drive against child
labour |
TIMES
NEWS NETWORK [ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2004
01:07:09 AM ]
NEW
DELHI: A $40-million Indo-US venture involving
the labour ministries of the two countries
and the International Labour Organisation
(ILO), aimed at eliminating child labour,
was launched here on Monday.
The
venture, called the "Indus Project",
will target 80,000 children in 10 hazardous
industries — cigarette-making, brassware,
bricks, fireworks, footwear, bangles, locks,
matches, stone quarries and silk.
The
project will be implemented in 20 districts
in four states — Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
This
is the largest ever child labour programme
being executed by the ILO at the country
level, ILO executive director Kari Tapiola
said. In addition, India has agreed to conduct
a review of the existing child-labour elimination
efforts in the carpet-making industry, US
official sources said.
Union
labour minister Sahib Singh, who inaugurated
the programme, said, "The problem of
child labour continues to be a challenge.
We are committed to eradicating child labour
in hazardous industries by the end of 2004
in Delhi and the rest of the country by
2007."
Asked
what was the extent of child labour all
over the country, he said there were around
10 million children aged below 14 involved
in such activities. "It is a complex
socio-economic problem, primarily arising
out of the poverty of the families concerned
and depended on the extent of their social
backwardness and illiteracy. Therefore,
the government's policy is to adopt a gradual
and sequential approach to eliminate child
labour," he said.
Labour
secretary P D Shenoy said the right place
for every child is the playground and schools
and not work places. US deputy under secretary
of labour Arnold Levine said the project
called for coordinated effort at several
levels.
The
programme will be jointly funded by the
US Department of Labour (USDOL) and India's
labour ministry which will provide equal
amounts of the total cost of the plan. ILO's
International Programme on the Elimination
of Child Labour (IPEC) will be the executing
agency.
Source:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/500459.cms
| |
|
| COMMENT:
Exploitation kills spirit of Africa's children |
February
16, 2004
BY ELAINE L. CHAO
The
tall, shy young boy came up to me and asked
simply to shake my hand. He had been beaten
so badly by employers that he had lost part
of his hearing. Today he bravely endures
the embarrassment of attending classes with
children much younger and smaller than himself
-- to get an education at the U.S. funded
school for trafficked children in Kokrobite,
a small village in Ghana.
I heard many stories like this one during
my recent trip to Africa, where I launched
U.S. backed projects to combat the worst
forms of child labour. While there are many
cultural and economic obstacles to eliminating
the worst forms of child labour, there are
also many Africans who recognize the time
has come to put an end to these exploitive
practices.
In West and Central Africa, trafficking
in children is a perversion of the ancient
custom of sending children away to live
with better-off relatives in order to go
to school or learn a trade. Today organized
opportunists looking for a cheap, compliant
labor force for domestic service, agriculture,
mining and other industries convince parents
to entrust children as young as 6 to them.
The children work long hours for little
or no pay and are provided with only the
barest necessities of life.
As a result, many trafficked children have
"lost their child's soul," as
one psychologist told me at a school that
rescues street children in Cotonou, Benin.
Another social worker said trafficked children
had to be taught how to play by the street
children, who were actually healthier psychologically
because they had taken the initiative and
run away from abusive situations. Seeing
the beautiful, smiling faces of these rescued
children, it was difficult to believe that
anyone would want to harm them.
Perhaps the most poignant experience of
all, however, was in the Congo, where I
met young men and women who had been forcibly
recruited into militias as child soldiers.
Nonprofit organizations working to eliminate
child soldiers estimate that as many as
20,000 to 30,000 troops -- or 12percent
-- of the armed militias in the Congo were
composed of children, sometimes as young
as 6 and 8.
I met two such boys -- now teenagers --
at a center in Kinshasa, where they had
drawn huge posters on the wall of their
experiences as child soldiers. They showed
off their drawings of tanks, machine guns,
bombs, grenades, explosions and dead bodies
that took on a heartbreaking reality because
they were actual depictions of how they
had lived and what they had seen.
One picture caught my attention in particular:
a drawing of two African lions sitting contentedly
by a stream, while a decapitated human body
floated past them in the water.
The human tragedy of child soldiers was
even more apparent in the shattered lives
of two young women I met who had been forcibly
conscripted into Congo militias. They had
been abducted from a Catholic boarding school
when they were in the sixth grade. They
described how they had been put on airplanes
and taken to army camps to work as domestics
and passed around as concubines for the
soldiers. When their "units" were
"decommissioned," they had been
turned out on the streets -- along with
their babies -- with no food, medicine or
means of support.
They had come to the Red Cross, seeking
medicine and help in learning a trade, so
they could support themselves. Their plight
is one of the reasons why this administration
is demanding that the needs of young women
pressed into service as child soldiers must
be a priority of the militia demobilization
program in the Congo.
What can we do to help these children, who
have been forced into combat or trafficked?
Here are some of the key steps this administration
is taking, under the president's comprehensive
strategy to eliminate trafficking in children
and the worst forms of child labour:
• The U.S. Department of Labor works
with international organizations to raise
awareness about the exploitation of trafficked
children among Africans themselves, and
supports these organizations in their efforts
to provide services to children removed
from exploitive labor.
• This administration and its partners
are strengthening local African school systems,
so parents know there is another way for
their children to advance within society.
In many African countries, parents must
pay for tuition, books, uniforms and school
supplies even at "public" schools,
which puts education out of reach for families.
• The Labor Department supports a
massive international effort to decommission
child soldiers and educate, rehabilitate
and reintegrate these young men and women
back into their communities.
But there is one more thing that must be
done to eliminate -- in the words of President
George W. Bush -- the special evil of child
trafficking: Create effective legal deterrents
against the exploitation of children.
Many of these children have seen the worst
life has to offer at a very young age. Yet
everywhere I went I was impressed by their
courage and the dedication of the professionals
who were trying to help them. We cannot
give these children back their childhood,
but we can help them have a future -- one
step at a time.
Source: http://www.freep.com/voices/columnists/echao16_20040216.htm
| |
|
| 'Plan
to eliminate child labour under implementation' |
By
Our Staff Reporter
Friday, Feb 13, 2004
ELURU, FEB. 12. The district Collector,
Sanjay Jaju, on Friday said an action plan
for elimination of child labour in the district
headquarters town was under implementation.
He was speaking at a function after flagging
off a rally organised by Sarva Siksha Abhiyan
as part of building public awareness on
the problem.
Four committees, comprising officials and
non-officials, were constituted to oversee
the implementation of the Child Labour (Prevention)
Act in the town. The committees would periodically
meet and review the situation, the Collector
explained. He said the committee members
would identify the child workers engaged
in shops and establishments and take steps
for their admission in school.
The Project Director, National Child Labour
Project (NCLP), K.V. Ramana, said the incidence
of child labour was relatively more in upland
parts of the district. He said three special
schools were functioning for child workers
in the agency parts of the district. The
Eluru Municipal Chairperson, M. Eswari,
and the District Education Officer, P. Parvati,
spoke.
Source: http://www.hindu.com/2004/02/13/stories/2004021306020300.htm
| |
|
| Sh1.2b
to Fight Child Labour |
New
Vision (Kampala)
February 10, 2004
Posted to the web February 10, 2004
Emmy Olaki
Kampala
Masindi district has secured a grant of
$516,000 (about sh1.2b) for a pilot project
to eliminate child labour in tobacco growing.
The grant which was secured from an organisation
Elimination of Child Labour in Tobacco (ECLT)
was received through British American Tobacco
Uganda (BATU) for Masindi as a pilot district.
BATU is the largest processor and exporter
of tobacco in Uganda, and a member of ECLT.
The project to be administered by ECLTU
will see a fully furnished technical institute
built in the district.
The Omukama of Bunyoro, Iguru Gafabusa laid
the foundation stone for the school in Kyema.
"The components of this operation include
identifying and withdrawing these children
from tobacco gardens and providing them
with alternatives to enable them lead successful
lives through education and development
of vocational skills," John Majara,
the district chairman said.
Martin Gwoki, the head of the project's
steering committee said the move is a response
to concerns by stakeholders.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200402100407.html
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2,000 Lira Children Exploited - NGO |
New
Vision (Kampala)
February 10, 2004
Posted to the web February 10, 2004
James Oloch
Kampala
The Government has been called upon to enforce
anti-child labour legislation to stop exploitation
of children.
The call was made by Judith Lamunu of Platform
for Labour for Action (PLA) during a recent
seminar in Lira.
Lamunu said an estimated 2,000 children
in Lira worked for food.
She said the NGO had rescued 350 children
and prevented the recruitment of 200 others
into domestic labour in the district.
"Children are more engaged in domestic
work compared to people between 20 and 22
years," said Francis Ojok, another
PLA official.
He said this was due to poverty, insecurity
and HIV/AIDS in their homes.
Ojok said child workers risked sexual harassment
and being infected with HIV/AIDS.
He said the Government should support the
NGO's programmes.
The NGO aims at influencing children's rights
and favourable labour legislation.
Source:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200402100354.html
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UZBEKISTAN: Focus on child labour in the cotton
industry |
[
This report does not necessarily reflect
the views of the United Nations]
SYRDARYA,
9 Feb 2004 (IRIN) - With Uzbekistan's new
cotton season approaching, there have been
new calls for regulation of the widespread
use of child labour in this key export sector.
Despite some economic growth since independence
in 1991, Uzbekistan remains agrarian, with
cotton, as it was in Soviet days, by far
the most important crop.
Demand for juvenile labour remains strong
during harvesting campaigns. Whole villages
and families are forced to work the land,
as the output of the kolkhoz - the old Soviet
word for collective farm - is tightly regulated.
Families rely on the labour of their children,
from five years old, to help out in hard
times.
Officially, Uzbek law discourages child
labour. But the requirements of the national
economy, continue to outweigh its obligations
to international standards. Uzbekistan,
despite its membership of the International
Labour Organization (ILO), has ratified
only one of twelve of its conventions banning
child labour. In theory, Tashkent subscribes
to norms and laws that are harsher than
international standards but also are more
general. But these laws are laxly enforced,
and tend to run counter to strong traditions
that have condoned the use of children in
working life for generations.
An Uzbek interior ministry official who
didn't want to be identified, told IRIN
that the government was aware of international
condemnation of its policy of utilising
vast numbers of children to gather cotton,
but said, right now, there was no viable
alternative. "We are stuck with our
history. Moscow made us the top cotton producer
in the old USSR and until we can diversify
our economic base we must produce and sell
cotton like crazy. The harvest is hugely
labour intensive, so we are forced to use
kids."
The official added that the way forward,
given the realities, was to ensure children
were not exploited, worked under favourable
conditions in cotton farms and that their
education was not compromised by the long
months of agricultural labour each year.
"This is what the government is trying
to achieve."
But such reforms appear along way off. When
IRIN visited cotton fields last November
in Syrdarya province, 100 km from the capital
Tashkent, groups of children, working alongside
adults, could be seen labouring in the freezing
rain to bring in the remains of the harvest.
One girl, cold and weather-beaten, looked
up from shuffling in the mud picking the
very last of the season's crop. "We
are taken to the fields every year,"
Jamilia, a school student from Tashkent,
said. "In summer we get going at first
light, we have to study after classes to
catch up. We have to pick at least seven
kg of cotton a day. We do not receive any
money for the 'white gold' we pick. They
say the money is all spent on food and supplies."
IRIN also met a second year student from
Namangan teachers training college who had
been assigned to a cotton farm 220 km from
the eastern city where she lives. She complained
her left foot was injured, but that the
supervisor on the cotton fields refused
to allow her to see a doctor because she
had picked so little cotton that day. The
student said many of her friends suffered
from influenza and other respiratory diseases
as well as malnutrition, due to the poor
diet on the cotton fields.
The UN children's agency UNICEF acknowledges
the extent of the child labour problem in
Uzbekistan's cotton industry. "UNICEF
is working with the government on this issue
and we hope to launch a campaign to coincide
with the next cotton picking season to educate
families and community leaders on the impact
of cotton picking on the health and education
of the children." Brenda Vigo, head
of UNICEF in Uzbekistan, told IRIN.
A human rights groups in Samarkand, Uzbekistan's
second city, said the most common violations
of labour law included employing young people
without contracts, taking on children without
parental consent, having them work long,
unregulated hours in dangerous circumstances
and allowing no time off for education.
"We are working with local governments,
mahallahs [community councils] and schools
to lobby for the phasing out of child labour
in cotton. Progress has been made. In Tashkent
Oblast [province], for example, the government
has effectively outlawed child labour,"
said Inkilob Yusupova, head of the Children's
Fund of Uzbekistan, a local NGO.
But observers are sceptical that such initiatives
will have much impact on humanising the
industry. "We know the risks [associated
with juvenile cotton picking]," a father
of four told IRIN at a village near Syrdarya,
capital of the province of the same name."
But we are forced to give up our children
for cotton each season, we have no choice,
if we don't we starve," he added starkly.
Source:http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39385&
SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
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Dumping the dump |
Monday
February 9, 2004
A French group is helping to rescue Cambodian
child scavengers from a garbage dump and
provide them with education and vocational
training, VIJAY JOSHI reports.
DRESSED in a starched white smock, Hen Horn
flicked a saucepan of frying vegetables
and breathed in the smoky aroma in the spotless
kitchen of the Lotus Blanc restaurant.
Two years ago, Hen Horn was wading in garbage.
Caked in grime from head to foot, inhaling
the rancid stench of filth, he earned a
living by scavenging in Cambodia’s
biggest garbage dump for 12 to 15 hours
a day, seven days a week.
“It would be unbearably hot in the
summer. But it was worse when it rained
because there would be worms everywhere,”
says Hen Horn, 18.
His life took a U-turn when he was rescued
by a French volunteer group in 2001 from
his foul existence at the Stung Mean Chey
rubbish dump on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Like Hen Horn, about 3,600 scavenger children
have been saved from the dump since 1996
by the group For the Smile of a Child and
provided with schooling, vocational training,
health care and, most importantly, a future.
“In my own small world, I am the happiest
man now,” says Hen Horn, who is learning
to be a chef at the Lotus Blanc, run by
For the Smile of a Child. The haute cuisine
restaurant, favoured by Western expatriates
in Phnom Penh, also serves as a vocational
training school for the group’s wards.
But for every lucky one like Hen Horn, hundreds
more are still trapped in the dump. Most
earn about 11,000 riel (RM11) a day, often
to help their parents pay off loans taken
to feed the family in times of drought or
floods.
The site presents the raw face of poverty
in Cambodia, one-third of whose 12 million
people do not earn enough to eat two meals
a day. The dump extends across an area of
about 10 soccer fields, skylined by 6m-high
hills of refuse that thicken the air with
a nauseating stink of decay. The slippery
ground is covered with a carpet of flies
that rise up in black, buzzing clouds on
being disturbed.
Hundreds of adults and children traverse
the rotting waste, wearing torn galoshes,
uncovering rubbish with steel hooks. Anything
that can be recycled is picked up with bare
hands and tossed into sacks for sale to
middlemen – plastic shopping bags,
drink cans, food tins, hypodermic syringes
and even food leftovers sold as pig feed.
Every time a dump truck unloads its unsavoury
cargo – 400 tons in all every day
– children and adults rush to pick
through before it is pushed by bulldozers
into a pit where it is burned. Scrambling
for scrap can be dangerous with trucks backing
up and bulldozers moving in. At least four
people have been crushed to death this year.
Hen Horn, the trainee chef, says his most
vivid memory of the dump is “the pushing
and shoving and everybody rushing to get
whatever we could lay our hands on.”
“I promised myself I would never go
back to the dump. I would tell my mother
‘don’t give up hope. I will
find a way out’,” says Hen Horn.
Founded by a French couple in 1993, For
the Smile of a Child – “Pour
un Sourire d’Enfant” in French
– employs 120 Cambodians, half of
them teachers. The group’s work is
only a small contribution in the fight on
Cambodia’s pervasive poverty, which
has led to one of the world’s highest
rates of child labour.
About half the country’s four million
children aged five to 17 are employed, mostly
in farms and fields, according to government
statistics. Others work in shops and factories,
according to the government’s Cambodia
Child Labour Survey in 2001. No figures
are available on how many children work
in hazardous places such as chemical factories
or garbage dumps like Stung Mean Chey.
Chheoun Simorn, an undernourished 16-year-old
girl who looks 12, has been scavenging there
with her younger brother for the last year,
starting at 6am and finishing with fading
light at 6pm, earning about 15,000 riel
(RM15) a day.
They are helping their father, a cycle rickshaw
driver, pay off his debts. It is unlikely
he will ever do so. Chheoun Simorn says
he must pay 13,000 riel (RM11) every day,
just in interest.
She breaks into sobs when asked why she
works at the dump. “This is not a
job I can talk about. I dare not tell my
mother I don’t want to work here,”
she says as she wipes away the tears, leaving
a streak of black from her grimy hand on
her cheek.
About 2km from the dump is the headquarters
of For the Smile of a Child – a stark
contrast of well manicured lawns, neat classrooms,
white-tiled bathrooms and dining halls.
Children who have worked at the dump at
least one year are chosen for the programme,
says Pin Sarapich, director of vocational
training centre for the group.
Parents have to be persuaded to let their
children go to school and, in return, they
are given 17kg of rice per week, a donation
from the United Nations’ World Food
Programme, to compensate for the loss of
the children’s income.
At school, the children eat two meals and
two snacks a day. They get free education
up to 12th grade and vocational training
in the hotel business, beauty care, handicrafts
or secretarial work.
But with a budget of US$1.07mil (RM3.9mil)
last year – mostly from private French
donations – the group cannot take
any more children than the 300 to 400 it
helps per year.
Pin Sarapich hopes that the former scavengers
will inspire others to try to escape from
the garbage dump. “The kids we help
here will go on to help others by passing
on their optimism, and the message that
one should never give up,” says Pin.
– AP
Source:http://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2004/2/9/features/7017595&sec=features
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Benefits Of Eliminating Child Labour Far Outweigh
Costs, UN Agency Reports |
The
benefits of eliminating child labour would
be seven times greater than the costs, according
to a new United Nations International Labour
Organization (ILO) report. Forcing children
to continue working - a practice that affects
one out of every six youngsters, or 246
million children - will cost $5.1 trillion
from now until 2020. But if they receive
an education instead, that figure drops
to just $760 million - an amount that is
more than offset by other social gains,
the ILO's International Programme on the
Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) says
in the study.
" What's good social policy is also
good economic policy," said ILO Director-General
Juan Somavia. "Eliminating child labour
will yield an enormous return on investment
- and a priceless impact on the lives of
children and families."
The study, entitled Investing in Every Child:
An Economic Study of the Costs and Benefits
of Eliminating Child Labour, is the first
integrated analysis of the worldwide economic
costs and benefits of eliminating child
labour.
All regions of the world would experience
large net gains from stopping child labour,
the study says, "although the costs
would almost certainly exceed returns in
the early years." Net economic flows
would turn dramatically positive, however,
as the effects of improved education and
health take hold. By 2020, costs would be
far outweighed by the returns, leaving total
annual benefits of around $60 billion.
In North Africa and the Middle East, the
benefits would be the highest relative to
the costs - 8.4 to 1. In Asia, the ratio
would be 7.2 to 1 and in the countries with
economies in transition, 5.9 to 1. In sub-Saharan
Africa and Latin America the ratio would
be 5.2 to 1 and 5.3 to 1, respectively.
The worldwide net economic benefits of the
hypothetical programme would amount to 22.2
per cent of annual gross national income,
the report says.
" Reaping the economic value of expanded
education depends on countries' ability
to create new jobs, take advantage of higher
levels of human capital and develop economic
policies to stimulate growth," the
report says. "Yet even if the effect
of education on future earnings was halved
to 5 per cent, the study estimates that
global benefits would still exceed $2 trillion."
Source: http://www.europaworld.org/week163/benefitsof7204.htm
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Chiefs call for laws on elopement and child
labour |
Wa,
Feb. 7, GNA- Chiefs and elders in the Upper
West Region have appealed to the government
to empower chiefs in the region to enforce
laws against elopement, betrothal and child
labour. They have pledged to embark on vigorous
enrolment drive to get all children of school
going age into school and take measures
to retain them in school.
These were contained in a resolution signed
by Ana Banawini Sando II, Paramount chief
of Kaleo Traditional Area, Kuoro Kini-Buktie
Liman IV, Paramount chief of Gwollu Traditional
Area and Ana S.D. Gore II, Paramount chief
of Dorimon Traditional Area.
The resolution was signed after a two-day
workshop on-factors militating against education
in the region.
The chiefs said they would identify and
support poor and needy children to pursue
their education.
The participants called on all stakeholders
to institute annual best school, best teachers
and best pupil awards at all levels to encourage
them.
They appealed to the government to construct
more feeder roads to open up communities
to facilitate access to education. They
also appealed to the government to make
paramount chiefs members of District Education
Oversight Committees to enable them to play
their complementary and supervisory roles
at the traditional levels.
The workshop was organised by Upper West
Region House of Chiefs in collaboration
with Northern Network for Education Development
and sponsored by Commonwealth Education
Fund. 7 Feb 04
Source:http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=51375
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| Op-ed:
Childhood lost |
Friday
6 February 2004
Parents often appear to be the harshest
taskmasters. Indian fathers still sometimes
repay debts by committing their children
to bonded labour. Pakistani parents occasionally
maim their children
The cries of working children can be heard
the world over. The International Labour
Organisation (ILO) estimates that 90 million
children between eight and fifteen years
old work in the labour forces of developing
countries; worldwide the figure is higher.
They often labour under hazardous conditions,
handling poisonous chemicals, inhaling noxious
fumes, and hauling excessive weights. They
are usually overworked, underfed, and underpaid
— if they are paid at all.
Though many countries have enacted laws
forbidding the use — and abuse —
of children in the work force, optimism
about the conditions faced by working children
is unwarranted. That conclusion stems from
an inescapable fact: the families of most
working children depend on their labours
to survive.
Because child labour means cheap labour,
the young are often the most employable
in developing and recession-plagued economies.
The director of a medium-size textile enterprise
in Bangladesh admits without hesitation
that 70 per cent of his employees are between
the ages of 13 and 17. “They provide
the same productivity as adults,”
he says, “but for a fraction of the
cost.”
Children, of course, are unlikely to organise
or complain to authorities when they are
overworked and underpaid. They are not aware
of their legal rights. It verges on slavery
when children are locked up without proper
lighting, food, and healthcare. But they
don’t question long hours and dire
working conditions. Instead, most are grateful
to be working at all.
In Asia and the Pacific, children routinely
work endless hours, sleep on factory floors
and subsist on scanty rations. Young Indian
factory workers who fail to follow instructions
are sometimes branded with red-hot iron
rods, and some teenage Thai prostitutes
are disciplined by having acid thrown in
their faces.
For thousands of South American, Caribbean,
and African children rented out as maids
and houseboys, there is no recourse when
they are overworked, beaten, and raped.
As an official of Kenya’s Child Welfare
Society concedes, “There is little
we can do to help when a child is ill-treated
unless the case becomes known to us or to
the police.”
Even when an employer is reasonable, working
conditions may still prove dangerous. Children
in Central America harvest crops sprayed
with pesticides. Colombian children squeeze
through the narrowest shafts of coalmines.
Thai children toil in unventilated factories,
working with glass heated to 1,500 degrees
Celsius. Indian children inhale large doses
of sulphur and potassium chlorate to fashion
flammable powder into matches. Youthful
glassmakers in Brazil breathe toxic silicone
and arsenic fumes.
Sometimes the physical damage from such
labours is permanent. Brazilian, Colombian,
and Egyptian youngsters who work in brickyards
often suffer irreparable spinal damage from
carrying heavy loads. More generally, children
who spend long hours in factories all over
the world often enter their teens with permanently
deformed limbs.
If they live that long. Thousands of children
don’t. In India safety conditions
are so neglected in many factories that
numerous children have died in electrical
fires and chemical explosions.
Laws exist to protect children from hazardous
conditions in many occupations, but they
are seldom enforced. The agricultural sector
— the largest employer of children
in both developing and industrialised countries
— is particularly difficult to oversee.
There is little that officials can do to
monitor or modify the children’s workloads
on large farms or small family enterprises.
In fact, parents often appear to be the
harshest taskmasters. Indian fathers still
sometimes repay debts by committing their
children to bonded labour. Pakistani parents
occasionally maim their children to make
them beguiling beggars. Sadly, families
are often the last to protest exploitation
of their children.
The ILO contends that children suffer greatly
when they are forced to perform as ‘small
adults’. “The child’s
creativeness and ability to transcend reality
are blunted,” states one ILO report,
“and his whole mental world is impoverished.”
The young worker does not learn how to play,
or how to read and write; worse, he smokes
and, in the Caribbean, he drinks cane rum
to keep going, as he doesn’t have
enough to eat.
In 1973, an ILO convention called for a
worldwide minimum working age of 15. In
ten years, only 27 of the ILO’s 150
member nations ratified that convention.
Several more countries have laws that set
the minimum work age between 12 and 16,
but the ILO cautions that few countries
“have what could be considered a comprehensive
prohibition of dangerous work for young
children,” and that even fewer have
“measures to protect young persons
from moral degradation.”
Since laws are not the answer to child labour,
many experts propose compulsory education
as a means to curb it. But education laws
have proved elusive too. In practically
all impoverished societies, parents place
wages above education. As a result, the
percentage of dropouts is rising at an alarming
rate. A recent study by UNESCO shows that
in developing countries up to 60 per cent
of children do not complete primary school.
Relief agencies agree that the total abolition
of child labour is an unrealistic goal.
So, for millions of such children, the future
holds little promise or hope. Working children
are entitled to something better, regardless
of whether they know it. —DT-PS
Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri, Emeritus Professor
at India’s University Grants Commission,
is a former Professor of international relations
at Oxford University and Research Coordinator
at the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute
Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_6-2-2004_pg3_4
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|
| Sickness
or symptom? |
Feb
5th 2004
From The Economist print edition
Child labour is reviled. There is much debate
as to how it can be reduced
OF
ALL the alleged sins of globalisation, child
labour has been among the most scorned.
Few people in rich countries (though not
all, see article) like to think that their
cheap clothes, toys and handbags have been
made by workers who ought to be in schools
or playgrounds. This dismay is usually genuine,
but it has also been exploited by anti-globalisation
activists to popularise their cause. Anti-globalisers
have been joined recently by some of America's
Democratic presidential candidates, who
have cited child labour as a reason why
America should reconsider its free-trade
agreements with poor countries. The idea
that these countries might be exploiting
children is more disturbing than the highly
debatable claim that poor labour standards
for adults in the third world are unfair.
Moral indignation has been used to advocate
wrong-headed economic policies.
One of the more credible critics of child
labour, and the leader in the fight to enforce
bans on the practice, has been the International
Labour Organisation (ILO), a United Nations
agency. Until recently, its argument has
also rested mostly on moral grounds. Although
it seems wrong for children to toil for
others' economic gain, one in six of the
world's children between the ages of 5 and
17 work—and the proportion is higher
in the poorer parts of Asia and Africa.
In a new report*, the ILO has bolstered
its moral case with an economic one, arguing
that child labour is economically unjustified
as well.
On the ILO's analysis, the cost of ending
child labour, by creating enough school
places and replacing the lost income that
children provide to their families, would
be around $760 billion over the next 20
years, only about 7% of America's annual
GDP. But the benefits, says the ILO, might
be as much as seven times as large, when
the gains of increased human capital, better
health and fewer lives lost due to work
accidents are considered. The agency seems
to have felt the need to buttress its moral
case with this economic analysis because
most mainstream economists have long argued
(as does this newspaper) that using child
labour is the best of a set of very bad
choices.
Child labour, of course, is as old as human
history. Until relatively recently, parents
viewed children as economically useful and,
especially in farm-based economies, had
them milking cows or sowing seeds as soon
as they were old enough to do so. Most people
in rich countries, probably feel less troubled
about children working on farms than in
factories. Child labour was mostly outlawed
in now-rich countries more than a century
ago.
Should rich countries attempt to enforce
a ban in poorer countries as well? On the
face of it, no. The fact that parents choose
to send their children to work suggests,
at the very least, that the alternatives
are even less attractive—not a pleasant
suburban school, but the grinding toil of
subsistence farming, joining a militia or
prostitution. In economic terms, child labour
is merely the symptom of that greater disease
called poverty.
Experience in rich countries seems to back
that up. Child labour was more common everywhere
in the 19th century when today's rich countries
were poorer. Political pressures to end
it only became reality, economists argue,
when families could afford to forgo the
income provided by their working children.
Cause
or effect?
In recent years, a few economists, like
the ILO, have questioned this argument.
Perhaps, they suggest, some countries keep
themselves poor by allowing child labour.
On this view, poverty is not the cause but
the result of child labour. There are two
ways in which it might be. First, starting
work at the age of 12 means that children
miss out on education and the skills that
might have landed them better jobs in the
future. Thus, allowing child labour prevents
countries from investing in what economists
call human capital, keeping their workers
mired in low-skilled jobs. Second, employing
children can depress wages for adults. On
this view (which was also once used to keep
women out of the workforce), the more children
that work, the fewer and worse-paid are
the jobs for adults.
Until recently, much of this debate was
theoretical. But a new paper** from Eric
Edmonds, a professor at Dartmouth College
in America, seems to rebut these claims—and
to support the conventional wisdom that
poverty, not child labour, is the real problem.
Mr Edmonds scrutinises data between 1993
and 1997 for over 3,000 families in Vietnam,
a country that has traditionally put more
children to work than most. Over this period,
Vietnam's GDP per head grew at an average
rate of 6.5% a year, thanks to a series
of reforms introduced after the end of the
cold war. Strikingly, the number of children
in the workforce fell by 28%. By looking
at the behaviour of individual households,
Mr Edmonds estimates that families' rising
wealth was responsible for four-fifths of
this fall.
Perhaps the ILO is right that ending child
labour would cost $760 billion, but that
as children are better educated they would
eventually improve the lot of everyone in
the economy—though where the money
would come from, and how to ensure that
it would be well spent, is unclear. Arguably,
however, the ILO and others rightly concerned
about child labour are looking at the wrong
target. It will start to disappear, and
faster, if poor countries pursue general
policies that help them to grow more quickly,
such as cutting tariffs and opening up more
to foreign investment. Rather than forever
sermonising, rich countries could do more
to help eradicate child labour by themselves
dropping trade barriers to imports from
poor countries.
Source:
http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2405051
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|
| 'Ending
child labour will bring long term gain' |
AFP
[ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2004 07:01:37
AM ]
GENEVA : Ending child labour and sending
all children to school by 2020 would generate
$5.11 trillion for poor countries - some
seven times the cost of such a scheme, a
study by the International Labour Organisation
(ILO) said.
Initially, governments and families would
pay a price for ending the practice, which
involves one in every six children or 246
million of the world's minors, according
to the study released late on Tuesday.
After 16 years, however, they would reap
annual benefits of $60 billion, it argued.
"What's good social policy is also
good economic policy," the ILO's director
general, Juan Somavia, said in a statement.
"Eliminating child labour will yield
an enormous return on investment - and a
priceless impact on the lives of children
and families," he said.
The study - the first of its kind - found
that globally the economic benefits of ending
child labour in developing and transitional
economies compared with the cost came to
a ratio of 6.7-to-one.
"The cost up front is considerable
but not insurmountable," said Frans
Roeselaers, director of the ILO's international
programme on the elimination of child labour,
which conducted the three-year study.
"The benefits are astronomical,"
he told a news conference in Geneva held
to launch the report, "Investing in
every child, an economic study of the costs
and benefits of eliminating child labour".
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/473479.cms
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|
| U.N.
makes economic case for ending child labour |
GENEVA,
Feb 4 (Reuters) - Ending child labour around
the world is not just a moral imperative,
it makes sense economically, the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) said on Wednesday.
In a new study, the United Nations agency
estimated that ensuring all children under
the age 14 stayed in school rather than
went out to work would bring accumulated
economic benefits worth $5,000 billion by
2020.
This was almost seven times the some $760
billion cost of implementing the policy,
although at the outset costs would outweigh
benefits, it added.
"What is good social policy is also
good economic policy. Eliminating child
labour will yield an enormous return on
investment," said ILO Director-General
Juan Somavia.
According to the ILO, some 246 million children
between the ages of five and 17, or one
in six in the world, work and about 75 percent
of them have hazardous jobs.
The costs of ending child labour in developing
countries and the transitional economies
of the former Soviet Union included the
building of more schools, the training of
teachers and income lost by households.
The benefits came largely from the forecast
higher earning power of children who had
completed their education as well as some
savings in health spending.
Universal education until 14 would boost
future earnings by 11 percent, assuming
the countries were able to generate jobs
for a more highly qualified future labour
force, the ILO said.
But even if the forecast gains were cut
by half to five percent, the economic benefit
would still be around $2,000 billion, it
added.
Source:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L03420237.htm
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| Child
labour in carpet industry on decline: study |
Tuesday,
February 3, 2004
UNI New Delhi Feb 2: The Indian carpet industry,
with a large and lucrative overseas market,
is witnessing a decline in the use of child
labour, primarily because of “social
labelling” and non-tariff barriers
imposed on them, says a recent study commissioned
by the International Labour Organisation
(ILO).The study has found, at least in the
case of India the social labelling has worked
by forcing the manufactures to cut down
the use of child labour to avoid their produce
being rejected or labelled adversely.
The total value of carpet exports for 2002-03
is provisionally placed at $ 532.96 million
as per carpet export promotion council.
Apart from this the industry employed about
1,30,000 children in 2003 according to the
ILO figure and not to mention a very large
section of population of artisans, weavers,
manufactures and traders.
Social labelling was introduced in the 1990s
for eliminating the use of exploitative
child labour and improving the working condition
for the weaving community by exerting pressure
on the exporters/ suppliers to enforce fair
conditions in the industry.
A significant conclusion that can be drawn
from the findings of the study is that an
intervention at the economic level, linking
trade with prohibition of child labour has
yielded results, which simple legal safeguards
like the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulations)
Act, 1986 had failed to achieve.
The industrial units, particularly those
relying heavily on exports to American and
European markets, will definitely welcome
the study as in the recent years the exports
had slumped following legislative measures
as well as severe international and domestic
criticism of the use of child labour.
The study, released recently as a book Child
Labour in Carpet Industry: Impact of Social
Labelling in India by the Delhi based Institute
for Human Development, was commissioned
by ILO as part of a global study on impact
of social labelling on child labour.
When the issue of restrictions and labelling
of carpets first surfaced in a big way in
early 1990s it sparked off a high pitched
debate. The arguments ranged from nationalistic
overtures against the “imperial trade
laws of the West” to calls for weighing
options between sustenance and “blindly
pursuing the demand by civil right groups.”
But the success, as it appears in the decline
in numbers in the study, cannot be taken
at the face value and any sweeping judgment
would be premature.
The study for instance, points out “though
there appears to be a decline in the incidence
of child labour, the divergent techniques
adopted for the estimation of child labour
renders it difficult to come to a definite
conclusion on this decline.”
It adds, “there is thus a controversy
surrounding the reliability of statistics
and the divergent estimates on child labour
in carpet industry.” There has also
been a decline in the Indian carpet exports
as it has been replaced by Iran and Pakistan
as the major exporters of carpets.
Source: http://www.navhindtimes.com/stories.php?part=news&Story_ID=020320
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