[TamilNet, July 17, 2004 14:46 GMT]

The administration of ''Anpu Illam,'' a leading institution providing shelter for children, majority of them victims of war in the Trincomalee district, has been handed over to the North East Provincial Department of Probation and Child Care on the orders of Trincomalee Magistrate and Additional Judge Mr.S.Thiagendran following complaints of child abuse and other irregularities, legal sources said. The Director and one of his aides have been arrested on charges of child abuse, according to the same legal sources.

Mr.Sangarapillai Suntharalingam who has been running the home for about two decades surrendered to the Trincomalee Police Friday night following the arrest order issued by the Trincomalee Judge.

The Trincomalee Police had earlier arrested Ms Komaladevi , a woman aide of Mr.Suntheralingam, on the court order. The Judge ordered her fourteen days' remand, legal sources said.

Mr.Daya Samaraweera, Superintendent of Police, Trincomalee Saturday visited ''Anpu Illam'' accompanied by Mr.P.Ravichandran, Headquarters Probation Officer of North East Department of Probation and Childcare, Mr.V.Kandasamy, Trincomalee District Probation and Childcare Officer, Mr.S.Sakthinayagam, Child Rights Promotion Officer and the Grama Sevaka Officer (Village level officer) of the area Ms L.H.Nandipala and conducted inquiries into the administration of the home, sources said.

Mr.Daya Samaraweera told press persons later that the Trincomalee Judge ordered the Police to conduct an investigation into the matter following an article appeared in a Tamil daily ''Virakesari'' recently alleging irregularities and child abuse in children's homes in the district. ''Thereafter with the assistance of the Department of Probation andChildcare the Women and Child Bureau of the Trincomalee Police under his direction launched an investigation into the alleged mismanagement of the Home and other allegations such as child abuse,'' said Mr.Daya Perera.

Later on a report filed by the Trincomalee Police, the Judge made the order for the arrest of Mr. Suntharalingam and Ms Komalathevi.

In addition, the Judge made another order that inmates of the home should be looked after by the Department of Probation and Childcare, Police said. Mr. Suntharalingam would be produced before the Trincomalee Judge later Saturday after recording his statement, Police said.

Source: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=12462

This Day (Lagos)

OPINION
July 16, 2004
Posted to the web July 16, 2004

Sam Amadi
Lagos

As Nigeria joins the rest of African countries to celebrate the year of the African Child for 2004, it is time to pause from bureaucratic feverishness and consider the depth of poverty among Nigerian children, and how the poverty of social policy aggravates and deepens poor outcomes for the children whose troubled tomorrow we celebrate. In spite of enormous natural wealth and a congenial geography, Nigerian maintains a place of dishonour among the poorest of nations. More tragically, Nigeria occupies the lowest rung in human capital amongst African poor nations. Poverty, especially amongst children, in Nigeria is a human tragedy. More so, in the context of oil and non- oil wealth generated from the Nigerian soil.

The proportion of children who live persistently in extremely poverty in Nigeria is very substantial. According to the estimate in the "Poverty Profile for Nigeria: 1985-1996", 64.7million people out of a national population estimate of 116million (as at 1996) were poor. The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) document puts the current estimate of poverty in Nigeria as 70%.

This is a drastic increase from 38.5million in 1985. The number of people in extreme poverty has also increased from 13million in 1985 to 26million in 1996. The pattern here is that of exponential growth and shows clearly the spectre of continuing poverty. There are no exact statistics on the percentage of children who live in extreme and relative poverty. But if we look at the household indices of poverty we will have an estimate of how many children live in poverty. About 55.7 % of Nigerian households live in poverty, while 31% live in extreme poverty. Bearing in mind that there are more children than adults in a family and that poor households are likely to have more children it becomes clear that more than 80% of Nigerian children live in poverty, and about 60% in extreme poverty (that is, defined as those who live on less than a dollar a day).

Poverty eradication is politicised in Nigeria. The government, in order to qualify for loan forgiven has hurriedly constructed a Poverty Reduction Strategy Process, and instituted an Economic Policy Coordinating Committee (EPCC). Various poverty measures have been announced, including small grants to small to medium businesses. But the main pitfall of these policies, in spite of the well-known Nigerian corruption, is tokenism. The government is addressing chronic poverty with mere tokens, rhetoric and political cronyism.

The lack of focus and commitment in poverty alleviation is made clear by the resorting to paying legislators constituency allowances as part of the poverty alleviation grants. This is political patronage by other means. These legislators distribute such largesse to political clients who tickle down to captive voters. At the end, the slightly well-off gets better at the expense of the worse off. Of course, the net losers are children of poor parents who endure traumatised conditions and whose future is blighted by poor outcomes.

If we intend to attain economic and political development in Nigeria we must attend with seriousness to the task of reducing household poverty in Nigeria. The Nigerian political, social, and economic future is as bright as its human capital stock. And the average human capital stock depends on the quality of life of the many children from poor households. It's therefore necessary that government's economic and social policies should attack the structural bases of household poverty. Poverty alleviation should no longer be seen as an add-on to growth-based economic planning. A new paradigm shift is required: development as increasing the capabilities of the poor. Increasing the capabilities of the poor requires clear understanding of the causes and pathways of poverty among children.

Poverty among children is inherited not acquired. For a policy intervention to be effective it must proceed from an understanding of the interactive dynamic of how poverty passes from parents to children, and also the degree of impact on health, educational and social outcomes. Although in Nigeria, there are little longitudinal surveys. But we can use the data in the NEEDS document. In the year 2000, infant mortality stood at 77 per 100; close to 30 per cent of Nigerian children less than five years are underweight. Over 60 percent of Nigerian children are not immunised. Drop-off rate among Nigerian school age children is very high.

Children of poor parents are more likely to have poor outcomes, and are also more likely to remain poor for a long time. Some of these poor outcomes include physical health (poor or fair health, low birth weight, chronic asthma, diarrhoea etc); cognitive outcome (delays in development and learning disability); emotional and behavioural outcomes (aggression, depression, anxiety and social withdrawal).

Poverty in parent results in poor outcomes for children. But poverty may also be a proxy for some other factors like poor neighbourhood, lack of education, emotional stress and lack of social support. There are different models for looking at parent poverty and children outcomes. The main effects model looks at the relationship between a single risk, say low income, and outcomes. This is a simplistic model because it overlooks other mediating factors. The transactional model looks at how income poverty interacts with other variables like the state of neighbourhood, emotional states, social support and quality of schooling and genetics. Some of these variables are bundled together as socio-economic status (SES).

The importance of the transaction model to reducing children poverty in Nigeria is that it guides us on the most appropriate levels of policy intervention. Surveys in the US have established strong correlation between parental poverty and low cognitive ability and IQ score. Lack of access to quality education, resulting from parental poverty, leads to poverty traps for children, ten pregnancies, low employment and low wage, and perpetuation of poverty. This is more so in Nigeria where most of the poor households are in the rural areas with only 40 percent having access to safe water. In Nigeria, the pathways by which poverty travels to children are mutually reinforcing and affect children in rural households more than in urban areas.

What we know about the impact of poverty on the well being of children is that improving the socio-economic status of their parent improves their capacity to escape poverty. Since income poverty of parent results in poor outcomes for children it makes sense to focus on increasing the income of parents as a way of improving outcomes for children. In addition to increasing the cash income of poor parents, policy intervention should also be framed to target children directly. In Nigeria this is very important because of low resources for social spending.

Even among employable youths there is high unemployment. But education for poor children will be a good intervention in that it will increase the capacity of the children to exit poverty, especially if it is targeted at early childhood when relation between poverty and cognition is highest. This sort of measure should be coupled with cash transfers that enable parents live less with less stress, and provide adequate emotional and psychological support for children. My group, the Centre for Public Policy and Research, has partnered with Boston University on a research to show how a different types of legislative intervention premised on improving SES of parents can induce more school enrolment and limit child hawking. Both reports and a bill that grows from it are available for policy implementation.

Policy experts are considering two strategies to deal with children poverty. Some recommend cash payments to mother tied to school enrolment of children, and others recommend reduction in social spending in order to finance growth which will reduce poverty universally. The problem with growth strategy is that it sees poverty from a production rather than a distribution point of view. But economic growth will not necessarily address poverty in households since some of these poor parent lack skills and are far removed from the reach of meaningful economic activities. Reducing social spending while waiting for growth will further complicate poor outcomes for children in poor households.

The positive side of such policy is that it involves no additional cost in the short run and is likely to be gain political support. But in the long run it will prove expensive in terms of loss of human capital and cost of remedial measures to deal with aggravated poor outcomes for children.

The cash payment tied to school enrollment option is well targeted and deals with adverse incentives. It is a preventive measure that increases the resources of parents to provide good nurturance that can engender resilience against poverty. More income will enhance the health outcomes for children, although whether it interacts with other risks will be unclear. The policy will not create perverse incentive for welfare dependency because there are absolutely no welfare rolls in Nigeria, unlike in the US.

Most important feature of this policy is that it deals with the fact able to overcome path-dependency of children poverty: education. Tying cash payment to school enrollment overcomes another social vector of entrenched poverty among children: child labour. Most poor parents as a means of getting-by put their children into informal labour market and so doing foreclose their chance of breaking out of poverty. One downside of this policy is affordability.

There is also the problem of fiscal federalism. States would be reluctant to bear the administrative costs of establishing eligibility and administration of the payments except federal government funds them adequately. The federal- state partnership in this wise may raise additional political problems about how much state discretion is allowed on the scope and entitlement for support.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200407160229.html

18.19 IST   16th July 2004

By IndiaExpress Bureau

At least 75 students of primary classes and some teachers were charred to death and over 30 received grievous burns when a fire tore through their school in Kumbakonam town of Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district today.

While most of the children died on-the-spot and were charred beyond recognition, some others succumbed to injuries in the hospital.

The fire, which is believed to have started from the kitchen when the noon meal for nursery children was being prepared, soon spread to a row of thatched roof classrooms where students from class one to class five were present, police and eyewitnesses said.

Five class rooms on the third floor of the Krishna Middle school were gutted in the fire that broke out at 11 AM.

Around 900 students were present in the complex housing primary, middle and high schools.

While the high school and primary school students escaped on noticing the fire, the primary school children got trapped as the thatched roof collapsed on them making their movement difficult. Some teachers who tried to rescue the children also died. The injured were admitted to government and some private hospitals where their condition was stated to be serious.

District Magistrate J Radhakrishnan, who was on the spot supervising the rescue and relief operations, told PTI that the fire completely destroyed five classrooms. Some of the victims also died of suffocation as the exit passage was narrow, he said.

Source: http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/regional/tamil_nadu/20040716-0.html

Chennai, July 18 (NNN):

In the wake of Friday's devastating fire tragedy that claimed 92 lives at a private school in Kumbakonam town of Tamilnadu, over more than 200 schools have been ordered shut in the the state for safety reasons.

State Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram has ordered schools with thatched roofs in both government and private schools shut.

These schools have been ordered to close until alternate arrangements are made.

After the tragedy, the authorities have woken up and decided to crackdown on makeshift schools and those functioning under thatched roofs across the state.

A state-wide assessment by district authorities about the condition of the private and aided schools is also being done.

In most places, the thatched roofs were pulled down, some on their own and some by local pressure.

A major initiative to review the structural safety of schools functioning in thatched rooms is expected to be announced in a couple of days.

Earlier on Saturday, the Salem district administration swung into action and ordered the closure of 86 private unrecognised schools.

The students of these schools would be admitted to various recognised schools, A Sukumaran, district collector told reporters in Salem, in Tamilnadu.

All schools with thatched roof in the district have been asked to close down immediately. The tahsildars have been directed to ensure that the schools complied with the order, he said.

A complaint cell has also been opened in the collectorate for the people to register their complaints against errant schools.

SONIA VISITS VICTIMS: Meanwhile, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday visited the surviving victims of Friday's school fire tragedy and announced a compensation package of Rs one crore .

Arriving by a helicopter from Tiruchirapalli, she drove down to the government hospital, where the injured students are being treated and inquired about their health.

Sonia also met the parents of the victims, who perished in the fire. From there, she went to the tragedy spot.

The Congress chief has announced a compensation package of Rs one crore for the victims of the Kumbakonam fire.

She was accompanied by Union Ministers Mani Shankar Aiyer and Dayanidhi Maran.

A stream of politicians has also visited Kumbakonam since the fire. Apart from Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran have also met the survivors and families of victims of the tragedy.

Union Information Technology and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran, who visited the town Friday night, said he hoped the officials would take necessary steps to prevent such mishaps.

TEACHERS ABSCOND: Meanwhile, all the 24 teachers of the school are still absconding. All these teachers reportedly ran out on the students as soon as the fire started and so far, all attempts by the authorities to trace them have been unsuccessful.

The toll in Friday's devastating fire in a private school in Kumbakonam in Tamilnadu's Thanjavur district has risen to 92.

Two more children succumbed to their injuries at the Government General Hospital early Saturday morning, Thanjavur Disrtict Collector Dr J Radhakrishnan said.

Doctors said out of the 17 critically injured children, 13 are out of danger now.

Arrangements are being made to move two children to a Chennai hospital in an air-conditioned ambulance.

Burns specialists from Chennai have been called in to help local doctors.

Radhakrishnan said the dead include 43 girl students. He said more than 60 bodies were cremated late Friday night.

The unidentified bodies have been kept in cold storage. Four persons -- the school's correspondent, two cooks and the noon meal supervisor -- have been arrested so far.

Source: http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=071804024349

By Mythily Sivaraman

Corporal punishment as an acceptable part of schooling is deeply entrenched in the Indian social psyche.

THE CHILDREN's Code Bill 2000, prepared by a committee chaired by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, suggested that whoever batters a child at school shall be fined and whoever, having actual control over a child, assaults or causes unnecessary mental or physical suffering shall be imprisoned. After participating in a recent public enquiry on Corporal Punishment and Sexual Abuse at Schools in Chennai, organised by the T.N. Child Rights Protection Network, one could understand the imperative need to make this Bill an Act soonest.

It came through that today's education — a highly competitive and lucrative business where schools compete to produce impressive results by creating an atmosphere of exam frenzy through the year and resorting to corporal punishment of sinister dimensions — is driving students even to suicide. Narrations in the Enquiry by children and parents of inhuman incidents of violence and humiliation were heart-rending.

In one highly popular school, children who score low marks get caned on the palm in full public view in the morning assembly. A 11-year-old in another school, terrified at such caning, pulled in his hand instinctively, thrice; the infuriated teacher hit him on the face, leading to loss of an eye.

At another school, the punishment was for children to walk on their bare knees in scorching sun, some of them getting boils with infection.

Reminiscent of the Iraq prison tortures, children of class six in a school were admonished that those who could not recite an English poem the next day would be paraded naked in the assembly. A student who was unsure of his performance set himself on fire that very night.

Out of 12 deaths of students reported in the Enquiry, eight were suicides. A 10th standard student in Chennai who missed a special coaching class on his birthday was threatened that he would be locked up in a pitch dark cell in the school basement the next day. He committed suicide leaving a note: "I don't like this school, so I don't like this life." A 12th standard girl killed herself because she said she was falsely accused of copying and could not face her peer group. Teachers often fail to understand the mental trauma children undergo at the prospect of public humiliation.

A six-year-old was locked up in a one-foot shelf in a wooden cupboard for stealing a pen. When it was opened, he was unconscious. To cap this all was the case of a four-year-old girl in L.K.G. who was beaten black and blue because she had mis-spelt a word. The child is now mentally disturbed and terrified of going to any school.

What seems to embolden the school authorities to convert schools into prisons seems to be the fact that many parents are in tune with such punishment regimen; they are not against physical violence as a tool for disciplining, but only against excesses. And teachers fear that their job security depends on the performance of students.

Corporal punishment as an acceptable part of schooling is deeply entrenched in the Indian social psyche. In a globalising market, education has become a mere skill and even a pretension of perceiving it as value-based knowledge does not seem to exist. It is obvious that the education department, the school managements and the police are notably failing in their duty to the children.

At the end of the Public Enquiry, the jury rejected the suggestion of the T.N. State Human Rights Commission to retain corporal punishment in schools. It condemned the practice of using the transfer certificate of a student as tool to stop him or her going public on school violence. It also commended the forming of statutory committees in every district, with representatives of the State & NGOs, to look into such violence and would have the powers to decide interim relief and ensure justice within six months.

A human rights perspective is to be introduced in teacher training; there was the case of a school principal `inviting' the local police officer to counsel the students that ended up in a horrendous bashing up of many students. As sexual exploitation of girls by teachers was also considered in the Enquiry, one of the proposals was that the current stringent requirements to prove rape should be relaxed in cases involving minors.

The grim and tear-stained faces of parents and children at the Enquiry reminded one of the words of Nobel Peace Winner Gabriella Mistral of Chile, (cited in Krishna Iyer's preface to the Children's Bill) "... our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life... Many of the things we need can wait, the child cannot. To him we cannot answer, tomorrow. His name is today." The travesty of schooling by terror should end.

(The writer is national vice-president, All-India Democratic Women's Association.)

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2004/07/16/stories/2004071601851000.htm

MOBILISATION OF RESOURCES through the levy of a cess is only one, although important, step towards universalisation of elementary education. Much work remains to be done in designing the right curriculum, creating and maintaining the necessary infrastructure, and empowering local communities to oversee the functioning of schools. There is at present a lack of clarity about the form and quality of elementary education that is to be given in public schools. For instance, the Central Government-sponsored Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which is the main vehicle for universalisation, promotes both formal and informal (`alternative') schooling. The latter is justly criticised for putting children from under-privileged backgrounds through a second-class and low-quality education. The task therefore is for the Centre and the States jointly to benchmark the schooling system in the areas of physical infrastructure, teacher selection, the teacher-pupil ratio and, most important, the curriculum. Inadequate infrastructure, a lack of trained teachers, and teacher absenteeism are three major problems that plague the government elementary education system. The additional funding that will now be available can mitigate these problems, if the States show a commitment to free education. However, there is still the challenge of running a vastly expanded school programme under the SSA. State Governments will need to collaborate with local bodies in developing institutional arrangements that can manage the schooling system effectively and ensure the efficient use of Education Cess proceeds.

The reconstitution of the Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE) with many eminent persons as its members will aid the goal of expansion of elementary education. The United Progressive Alliance Government has revived the key advisory body that became defunct ten years ago; it has selected as its members prominent personalities from industry, science, the fine arts, literature, and the non-governmental sector. To re-set the objectives of the SSA, the Board can draw on the expertise of some of its members who have undertaken baseline studies in parts of Karnataka on the scheme's quality and development outcomes. The mid-day meal scheme is to be funded by the Education Cess and will be an integral part of the drive to put and retain every child of school-going age in the classroom. The cooked meal scheme makes a significant contribution to raising enrolment levels and improving the nutritional status of children. The breakthrough made on the ground by Tamil Nadu, which had the good sense not to heed expert World Bank advice against introducing a universal `free lunch,' is inspiring proof of what a bold social scheme for children can achieve. After goading by the Supreme Court the school-meal programme has been introduced in a number of other States. Yet implementation has been uneven, with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh yet to begin providing cooked meals to students. This is also an area where State Governments need to work closely with local bodies.

Unfortunately, the Central Government does not appear even to have begun to think about how to use the Education Cess funds. The Central budget for 2004-05 expects to raise Rs. 4,910 crores but the SSA and the mid-day meal scheme have, between themselves, been provided only an additional Rs. 625 crores this year. The Planning Commission may suggest a substantial increase in funding for education and mid-day meals after it carries out its review of government programmes. Meanwhile, it is vital to ensure that the resources raised from the new cess are sequestered in a separate account and do not disappear into the Centre's common pool of funds. The cess must be used solely for elementary education and the mid-day meal scheme — and for no other purpose.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2004/07/16/stories/2004071601871000.htm

The Nation (Nairobi)

July 16, 2004
Posted to the web July 15, 2004

Nation Correspondent
Nairobi

Media women have launched a campaign against commercial sex work among children which they term as one of the worst forms of child labour.

To start off the drive, the Association of Media Women in Kenya has organised a journalists' workshop at Plaza Beach Hotel, North Coast, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The workshop is meant to strengthen the capacity of the media to highlight the worst forms of child labour and lobby for its elimination.

The association's programme coordinator, Ms Pamela Mburia, said the group was concerned by commercial sexual exploitation of children at the Coast as it violated their rights.

The vice-chairperson of the Child Welfare Society of Kenya, Mrs Haida Bruno, said the province was under threat of sex tourism as authorities kept quiet due to the sensitivity of the tourism industry.

She said a recent survey showed that young girls were lured into hotels and private villas where they were sexually exploited on the promise of riches and trips abroad.

A Tanzanian journalist on an exchange programme with the association, Ms Matilda Kasanga, said news in Kenya was pre-determined and neglected social issues.

There was special appearance by musician Eric Wainaina who is composing a theme song on commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200407150903.html

July 15, 2004 09:38:00 AM

NEWDEL MAG2

Soni Mishra

New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) Two girls are exploited by their employer in the national capital, who even tries to push them from the terrace.

A 14-year-old girl is raped by the brother of her employer in Mumbai. Nine months later, the girl delivers a baby boy. Her family of 16 is going through a financial crisis and she is under pressure to marry the offender.

A 10-year-old girl, domestic worker in a middle class home in Patna, is reported missing by her mother in Ranchi district. There has been no news ever since of the girl and the case is going on.

These are only a few cases of exploitation of children as domestic workers in our country, which is a widespread but sadly hidden menace.

While there are an estimated 70-80 million child labourers in the country, according to ILO estimates, 20 per cent of all children working are employed as domestic workers.

And despite the grim statistics, there are no laws relating to Child Domestic Work (CDW). The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1996 has no mention of CDW, with all the 11 occupations and 51 processes mentioned in the Act not touching upon the issue. PTI

Source: http://www.ptinews.com/pti/ptisite.nsf/$all/F194AE63412367BB65256ED200185A43

BuaNews (Pretoria)

July 15, 2004
Posted to the web July 15, 2004

Zibonele Ntuli
Pretoria

The Labour Department is investigating a case of child labour against a Ventersdorp farmer in the North West, after a 13 year-old minor was allegedly injured while working on his farm.

According to the department's preliminary investigations, the minor sustained injuries to his leg after falling under a moving tractor yesterday afternoon. The child is recovering in hospital.

The investigation by the department follows the Basic Conditions of Employment Act of 1997, which prohibits child labour and makes it a criminal offence to use children under the age of 15 as labourers.

The department said it was also investigating the possibility that the Bruidegomskraal farm owner was illegally employing minors from neighbouring villages as labourers during the current harvest season.

It added that it would be meeting with social workers and the Police's Child Protection Unit with the view to open a criminal case against the farmer.

Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana has strongly condemned the incident saying there was nothing to justify child labour.

"Child labour is unacceptable, it destroys childhood, while taking employment opportunities away from adults. The only people who benefit are the least scrupulous and most unsavoury employers", Mr Mdladlana said.

He said there were enough adults who could be employed. He said work could be detrimental to children by either hampering their social development or their education.

"The department's enforcement on child labour issues is ongoing, incorporating advocacy campaigns at farms and other focal sectors commonly associated with child labour such as the retail and domestic sectors," he said.

The minister also appealed to the farmers to make a positive contribution to underprivileged children instead of hampering their development.

"There are many things that employers can do to help such children, such as employing their parents, ensuring that children receive education or are skilled," he said.

According to the department, the farmer could face up to two years in jail or a fine of up to R15 000 should he be found guilty.

Last week another North West farmer Mr Johannnes Oosthuizen of Vryburg was found guilty of 24 charges of child labour and sentenced to 2 years in jail or a fine of R15 000 for employing minors as labourers.

Oosthuizen was arrested after inspectors recommended prosecution following complaints from the public after the youngest child he employed was only eight years old and expected to harvest groundnuts.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200407150461.html

Thursday 15th July, 2004

Big News Network.com

Over 8,000 destitute children are roaming the streets of New Delhi, 60 percent in the hands of evil elements, recent studies show.

More than 100 such children, between the ages of eight and sixteen years, end up in the railway stations everyday, the Asian Age reported, citing figures from studies by non-governmental organizations.

According to Father Jose of the Don Bosco Ashalayam organization, these children may be divided into three categories -- on the street children, who are generally runaways; of the street children, who are from slum areas or have parents who may also be on the street; and abandoned children. A majority of these children hail from the poorer states of Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

The biggest concern is that many of the children, despite the help of local non-governmental organizations, come under the influence of various criminal elements and get involved in pick pocketing, drug trafficking and auto robbery, the report said.

They are also prime targets as child labour for motor garages, factories and homes.

Source: http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=b6c79cc4288da404

Brazil is celebrating the 14 th anniversary of its Child and Adolescent Statute. Before this statute, 30 percent of Brazilian school age children were not in the classroom. Today that number has dropped to 3 percent. For the law to be really effective, however, it's believed that there should be room for NGOs to help authorities.

Luciana Vasconcelos

Minister Nilmário Miranda, who heads Brazil's Special Secretariat for Human Rights, says that much progress has been made in the 14 years that the Brazilian ECA (Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente—Child and Adolescent Statute) has been in existence, but problems remain in dealing with youths involved in criminal activities.

"We belong to a tradition of repression. People think that tossing bad kids into jail resolves the problem," declared the Minister, speaking at the opening of the First National Youth Conference in Brasilia, July 13.

The ECA prescribes the following measures in cases of youth crime: a warning, mandatory reparation of damages, community service, assisted liberty (parole), semiliberty or incarceration in an educational institution.

Nilson Alves, director of citizenship and youth projects at Unicef, says that discussions on lowering the age of criminal responsibility or harsher sentencing miss the point.

He says it is important to apply the socio-educational measures in the ECA. "That is the only way a youth can be reintegrated into society," he declares.

Edson Seda, one of the authors of the ECA, says all that has to be done is put the document into practice. "During the XXI century, Brazilians will become aware of the fact that children should not be beaten, parents are supposed to protect their children, local authorities should assist parents and, finally, the right place for a child is in school," he says.

Seda says the ECA has made some progress. Before the ECA, 30 percent of Brazilian school age children were not in the classroom. Today that number is 3 percent. But, he says, for the ECA to be really effective, there has to be room for NGOs to function along with federal, state and municipal authorities.

Unicef says that the Brazilian ECA is one of the most advanced in the world. But it will become reality only when remaining disparities are overcome and each and every one of the 61 million boys and girls in the country have equal opportunities.

ECA's role

At a meeting organized by the NGO Visão Mundial (World Vision), a number of youths were invited to comment on their lives and the role of the Brazilian Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA). Known as the First Youth Conference, it was part of celebrations of the 14th anniversary of the ECA.

Lourisvanda Alves de Souza, 18, from Bodocó, Pernambuco, told the meeting that she heard of the ECA only last year at another youth conference. She declared that what she has observed is that many laws just exist on paper. "The laws are not part of our lives, although they deal with our rights and obligations," she said.

Dayana da Silva, 15, from Rio de Janeiro, reported that the ECA actually changed her family's life. When her older brothers got involved with drugs, her mother went to a youth tutelage board (Conselho Tutelar), which was set up by the ECA, and got assistance. Today, Dayana and her younger sister study, while her brothers abandoned drugs, got married and have jobs.

At the conference, it was announced that one million copies of the ECA will be distributed in schools and other civil organizations. Meanwhile, the secretariat has set up a partnership effort with the Federal Police to disarm youths, making it possible for them to grow up in an environment where there is less violence and more peace.

Brazil Example

The director of the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Brazil, Armand Pereira, thought it would be ideal if Brazil could assign priority to reducing child labour in the 5-13 age bracket. He spoke recently at the opening of the seminar "child labour at the Start of the 21st Century: Analysis of Data and Prospects."

A study by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) on child labour in Brazil found that there are 1.5 million working children and adolescents in the 5-13 age bracket, another 1.5 million in the 14-15 group, and 2.4 million adolescents between 16 and 17 irregularly inserted in the labor market.

In Pereira's view, this study, which covered the period 1992-2002, and the media played a fundamental role in advancing the process of eradicating child labour in the country.

According to Pereira, "there are programs to delay the entry of young people in these age groups into the workplace, through the distribution of grants for them to stay in school and not go to work."

The Ministry of Social Development's Program for the Eradication of child labour (Peti) currently benefits 810 thousand children in 2,606 Brazilian municipalities. The Peti is meant to eliminate what are considered the worst forms of child labour, those regarded as dangerous, burdensome, unhealthful, or degrading, such as in charcoal kilns, brickyards, sugarcane fields, and tobacco plantations.

The program pays a grant to families with children between 7 and 15 who are involved in these types of work. In return, the family must pledge to remove the children from work and enroll them in school.

The National Coordinator of the ILO's International Program for the Elimination of child labour, Pedro Américo Furtado de Oliveira, told the seminar that Brazil was one of the first countries to establish a program to combat child labour and is recognized as a model for Latin America and the world, because of the policies that were developed.

Oliveira recalled that "Brazil developed the Program for the Eradication of child labour (Peti), created by the Ministry of Social Development in 1996, even before it ratified the two ILO conventions that deal with child labour, in 2000 and 2001."

Source: http://www.brazzil.com/2004/html/articles/jul04/p129jul04.htm

14/07/2004 21:21 (SA)

Johannesburg - Inspectors are probing a North West farmer on child labour allegations after a 13-year-old boy was injured while allegedly working on his farm, the labour department said on Wednesday.

Spokesperson Monwabisi Maclean said the inspectors were investigating the possibility that owner of the Bruidegomskraal Farm, in Ventersdorp, was employing children from nearby villages during the harvest season.

Maclean said the child was admitted to hospital after he had injured his legs when he fell from a moving tractor on Wednesday afternoon.

"The investigating team will be meeting with local social workers and the police's child protection unit with the view to opening a criminal case against the farmer," said Maclean.

According to Maclean, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana has appealed to commercial farmers to contribute positively to help underprivileged children, not give them jobs that would hamper their development.

Taking jobs from adults

"There are enough adults who can be employed to do this work, especially work that could be detrimental to children either hampering their social development or their education," said Mdladlana.

He added: "Child labour is unacceptable - it destroys childhood, while taking employment opportunities away from adults. The only people who benefit are the least scrupulous and most unsavoury employers."

It is by law an offence to employ children under the age of 15 as labourers and an employer could face a jail sentence of up to two years or a R15 000 fine if found guilty.

Last week, Johannes Oosthuizen of the Hartebeeslaagte Farm in the Tosca area, also in North West, was found guilty and fined R15 000 in the Vryburg magistrate's court for using children as labourers.

Maclean said the children, the youngest of them only eight years old, were employed from neighbouring villages and given work to harvest ground nuts.

Edited by Elmarie Jack

Source: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1557739,00.html

Express News Service

New Delhi, July 14: Shivani, a student of class II at the Institute of Juvenile Justice, was a tad disappointed after the ‘big man from America' visiting her school, left in a hurry. ‘‘I thought he might watch the puppet show with us,'' she said.

But US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had to rush off to meet PM Manmohan Singh after his brief sojourn at the child-shelter run by the NGO Prayas at the Tughlaqabad institutional area. The Bush administration official had just about managed to squeeze the visit into his busy two-day itinerary for India.

‘‘It's been an uplifting and energising experience for me,'' he said, after being shown around the training and educational facility by members of the NGO. He visited the institute's educational and vocational training facility as well as the home for children rescued from human-traffickers.

‘‘The most impressive thing about today's visit has been the level of self confidence among these children. In fact, it is the self-confidence that is usually the first casualty of the events that many of these children have gone through,'' Armitage said.

He also expressed his concern over human trafficking. An official at the organisation said that the institute had submitted a proposal on a programme to combat child trafficking for the consideration of the US government .

During his visit, some of the children narrated their stories to them and he in turn, promised to return to the centre the next time he comes to India. ‘‘And I will try to learn Hindi before the next visit,'' he said, when one of the children expressed her frustration at having to go through interpreters to get the story of her life across to him.

The Juvenile Justice Centre, established five years ago, works in the area of child-rights, education and eradication of child labour. It provides both formal education and vocational training to underprivileged children. It houses nearly 50 children who have been rescued from human trafficking and other trauma.

Source: http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=91457

published: Wednesday | July 14, 2004

- Reuters

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan (left) and his wife Nane talk to HIV-infected children at a hospital in Bangkok on Monday. Annan led a U.N. delegation to visit the Bamradnaradoon hospital, hailed by the organization's AIDS agency as a model for the treatment of AIDS patients in southeast Asia.

Patricia Watson, Features Co-ordinator

BANGKOK, Thailand:

ONLY 700,000 AIDS orphans across the globe are receiving any type of support from their governments or non-government organisations, head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Dr. Peter Piot revealed yesterday.

Speaking at the XV International AIDS Conference at a press conference to release the UNICEF publication, Children On the Brink 2004, Dr. Piot noted that this figure is less than five per cent of the 15 million children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic.

Dr. Piot called the situation an 'injustice'.

"These children are the forgotten elements in this crisis. It is time for the care of orphans to become an integral part of AIDS prevention. Some countries do not have even a policy of support for children," he said.

Calling the orphan crisis the "cruellest legacy of the AIDS epidemic", executive director of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy echoed the view put forward by Dr. Piot.

SILENCE IS A KILLER

"The silence that surrounds children affected by HIV/AIDS and the inaction that results is morally reprehensible and unacceptable. If this situation is not addressed, and not addressed now with increased urgency, millions of children will continue to die, and tens of millions more will be further marginalised, stigmatised, malnourished, uneducated, and psychologically damaged," she stated.

In fact, Dr. Piot explained that more than a half of the children now orphaned by AIDS are adolescents, many already sexually active and extremely vulnerable.

At the end of 2003, statistics showed that 55 per cent of orphans were in the age group 12 - 17 years old. Thirty three per cent were six to 11 years old and 12 per cent 0 - five years. In Jamaica, there is an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.

"Parts of Sub-Saharan Africa are undergoing a tidal wave of orphaning in varying degrees due to AIDS," Ms. Bellamy said. The report, Children on the Brink 2004, revealed that 3.8 million children in the region have lost one or both parents to AIDS and this is expected to move to 18.4 million by 2010.

Ms. Bellamy said the reason so many children across the globe have been allowed to fall through the cracks should be placed squarely on governments of each country.

"Governments made a commitment to do something about orphans, but to date only 17 have put together a plan of action for orphans," Ms. Bellamy said.

She noted that "children orphaned by AIDS bear an especially onerous burden, for they must not only endure the emotionally shattering loss of parents or caregivers, but the contempt and often outright stigmatisation of their communities. These children's status as outcasts makes them easy targets for violence, exploitative forms of child labour, exclusion from school, and gender-based discrimination that exposes orphaned girls to sexual abuse."

United States Agency for International Development, Dr. Anne Peterson, noted that the estimated 15 million AIDS orphans do not include children affected and therefore the situation of children could be far worse than is actually being reported.

Source: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040714/health/health1.html

Coimbatore, Jul 13 - As many as 53 child labourers, including a few girls, being engaged in textile mills and factories, have been rescued during raids conducted in and around the city.

The raids, as part of the intensive drive to put an end to child labour menace, were carried out by the officials from labour and revenue department and Kovai Class, a NGO, today, official sources said.

The officials, in two batches, carried out raids in engineering units and mills situated in Sidco industrial area, Sundarapuram, Podanur, Peelamedu and Singanallur, they said.

The children, hailing from the districts of Madurai, Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, would either be rehabilitated or sent to school, the sources said.

Source: http://www.sunnetwork.org/news/regional/tamilnadu/tamilnadu.asp?id=11992

Baku Today 13/07/2004 15:51

Azerbaijan's law enforcement bodies suspect that some employees of foreign embassies in Baku along with police officers working for airports and railway department are involved in trafficking of Azeri children to foreign countries, Baku's Russian-language daily newspaper Echo reported Tuesday, citing “an informed source in the law enforcement organs.”

The report said the country's General Prosecutor's Office have finished an investigation into five facts of child sales to foreigners. The investigation materials would be submitted to the court soon, the Echo report said.

Furthermore, according to the source, a group suspected of trading with minors has been detected recently.

The same unnamed source told Echo that Baku's pediatric hospital named after A. Qarayeva has sold five children to foreigners.

Investigators suspect three employees of the pediatric hospital. According to the source, the investigative group is also looking into the activities of the orphanage N1.

“Investigators think that employees of the orphanage have sold two minors to foreigners through a third person,” the Echo report said. “Two persons are suspected. One is the person who had adopted the sold children and the other is an employee of the orphanage.”

The mentioned orphanage and hospital dismissed the reports.

Source: http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=9720

By Indo-Asian News Service

Dhaka, July 12 (IANS) Attempts to curb child labour in Bangladesh are failing miserably as poverty and social ignorance continue to drive a staggering seven to eight million children to work, reports OneWorld.

Child rights activists are clamouring for a change in strategy geared to the country's socio-economic realities. They stress it will never be possible to curb child labour unless adults voluntarily resist this.

A significant number of children are working as prostitutes, helpers in auto, painting or engineering workshops, blacksmiths, brick or stones crushers, construction workers, saw mill workers, tannery factory workers, public transport workers, as well as in hazardous professions like welding.

Their sub-human lifestyle deprives them of education, according to a survey by the ministry of labour and manpower in collaboration with Unicef.

The study names 27 economic activities considered hazardous for children, saying poverty is the most important factor responsible for child labour in Bangladesh, where 55 million people live below the poverty line.

Children comprise one-fifth of Bangladesh's labour force.

"Child labour in Bangladesh has increased alarmingly in recent years," remarks Fakrul Islam, a teacher in the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in the capital Dhaka.

He says traditionally, children have always worked in agriculture. But the numbers employed in the urban, industrial and commercial sectors has risen sharply.

Since most children are forced to work because of poverty, the prospects of eradicating child labour are dim, Islam explains.

For instance, 13-year-old electrical assistant Jainal takes care of half the expenses of his family of six, with his daily earnings of $1.5.

"My father is ill and can't work. My mother works as a domestic help and now my younger brother has joined me," he says.

Child labour in Bangladesh came into the limelight in the mid-1990s when a US senator lobbied for a bill to restrict the import of Bangladeshi garments that used child labour.

At that time, the $1.3-million, export-oriented garments industries, which employed around 300,000 children, decided to stop employing them and offer an education programme for some of the working children.

But there was very little follow up on this.

The government, and groups like the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Unicef, have also made some attempts to stop child labour in hazardous professions.

For instance, there will be no child labour in the country's tannery sector from August thanks to the ILO.

Around 500 children working in 140 tanneries in Dhaka and Chittagong have been provided alternative jobs like tailoring, shop keeping, bookbinding and TV/refrigerator repairing.

These children came into close contact with chemicals like sulphuric acid, sodium sulphide and chromium in tanneries.

The ILO, with the help of NGOs, also concluded a two-year pilot project last month to educate 5,000 children who work as domestic helpers in Dhaka.

But these initiatives are just specks in the sand.

According to Unicef, about 300,000 children, mostly girls, work as domestic helpers in Dhaka alone, exposing them to the risks of sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking.

"Millions of girls are trapped in poorly paid jobs as domestic servants," says Unicef executive director Carol Bellamy.

"Not only are these children forced to work long, hard hours but they are at increased risk of sexual abuse and of being trafficked within and across borders."

Activists say the situation calls for realistic measures like letting children work in less taxing, non-hazardous jobs so they can continue earning.

Leading child rights activist advocate Salma Ali suggests limiting the sectors where children may work.

"Bangladesh is an agricultural country, with most families dependent on farming. Children can do light work such as weeding, watering in the field, and carrying crops home," she notes.

Source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/040712/43/2ewbs.html

Monday 12th July

By Cyrille Cartier

Washington - Child workers were still being exploited in west African cocoa fields and the chocolate industry's efforts to stop the abuse were not sufficient to meet a July 2005 deadline labour activists said.

Images of child abuse in west African cocoa plantations triggered an international outcry in 2000 and resulted in a US congressional protocol - which has no basis in law - giving US chocolate companies four years to make significant progress to solving the problem.

Politicians promised that if this objective was not achieved they would draft laws requiring US chocolate makers to put a "no child slavery" label on their goods after guaranteeing no forced child labour was used.

According to a 2003 US state department report there were about 109 000 children working in dangerous conditions in Ivory Coast, the source of 4 percent of the world's cocoa.

So far the industry has met most of the requirements of the protocol, including the creation of a foundation, the International Cocoa Initiative, to make sure that cocoa production is environmentally friendly and safe for children.

A major requirement, to set up a certification system to monitor child labour, has yet to be fulfilled.

Several critics say there are too many gaps left.

Frans Roselaers of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), who has been working with the chocolate industry, said: "It's a very long shot" to implement a certification programme by next July. "It hasn't been done anywhere on that scale with success before."

Roselaers, who directs an ILO programme to end the abuse of child workers, said Africans often viewed child labour as normal.

"It would not be realistic or responsible on our part to think that you can change attitudes in the way that you can build a plant and start production," he said.

Anita Sheth, a senior researcher at Save the Children Canada, said too many unanswered questions remained.

"How does monitoring happen on roughly 1 million cocoa farms? How do farmers get increased prices, or fair prices, for their cocoa beans and how does this contribute to changing child labour practices on the ground?" Sheth asked.

Peter McAllister of the International Cocoa Initiative said there was no definitive figure on how many children were forced labourers in west Africa. Initially, governments and industry denied the problem, he said. But Ivory Coast's recent pledge to eradicate child labour on its cocoa plantations showed attitudes were changing.

Ivorian officials have said, however, they doubt that the 2005 deadline could be met.

Cocoa is a temperamental plant that grows only within 20 degrees of the equator and is susceptible to many diseases. Ivory Coast leads the list of major producers, followed by Ghana, Indonesia and Nigeria. West Africa provides 70 percent of the world's cocoa, grown on family farms of less than 5ha.

Representatives of the Washington-based World Cocoa Foundation and Chocolate Manufacturers Association, who signed the protocol, said they were confident they would be able to ward off labelling. Bill Guyton, the president of the World Cocoa Foundation, said a certification system would be tested in Ghana and Ivory Coast later this year. It would assess how each country was doing as a whole, rather than certifying individual farmers.

At the core of the system were programmes ranging from sustainable environmental projects to farmer training involving an array of humanitarian and development agencies.

Source: http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=565&fArticleId=2146068

2004-07-11 08:30:23

By Wilson Kaigarula

Tanzania‘s founding President, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, once remarked that human flesh is infectious; that once someone tastes it, he will desire more, endlessly.

Eating human flesh denotes cannibalism a practice that is most revolting and the perpetrators are most despised, hated and feared.

Love for money may, if carried to extremes, approximate cannibalism in proportions. And here, a distinction should be drawn between young children and adults.

While an adult‘s love for money may make him or her lose some social values such as flat refusal to repay someone‘s loan a child who gets hooked to money stands to be destroyed completely and to fall prey to the negative machinations of inconsiderate adults.

Take the case of a fictional 11-year-old boy called Juhudi, but whose replicas are plenty in real life. Juhudi‘s parents are poor.

His father is an unskilled carpenter who gets seasonal employment in furniture marts. His income is thus irregular.

The mother hawks vegetables; buying it relatively cheaply in a big market and selling it at slightly higher price to households to which she pays regular visits. The little money she earns, is, like her husband‘s, little and irregular. But somehow, the family is surviving and the couple manages to send Juhudi to school.

One day, a Saturday and thus free day school-wise, the refusal by mama to give the boy 1,000/= to buy a second-hand t-shirt from a vendor who was doing the rounds in their residential locality, ignited an idea in Juhudi‘s mind.

He borrowed one of the family‘s buckets. He drew water from a communal well and took it to a construction site where he sold it to the foreman.

He had done so experimentally, unsure whether the foreman would accept the “liquid commodity” from a boy. To his amazement, the foreman said what mattered to him was water as a vital input into the construction process, and not the age of the supplier.

The foreman‘s response was a virtual passport to Juhudi, to enter the world of labour. or, specifically, child labour.

The water-selling business, which stretched from mid-day to late evening (with a brief break for a poor lunch in-between) earned Juhudi 2,500/=. This was enough to enable him get his much-fancied, long-missed t-shirt, and he had a handsome 1,500/= to spare.

As a loving son, he decided to share it equally with his parents, each of whom he gave 500/=. The mother spent the money on fish and treated the three-some to a very nice dinner. The father, who had been stone broke, used part of the money to cool his nerves with alcohol at a nearby pombe shop.

Juhudi‘s parents were happy with their son and the boy was happy with himself. But the happiness was not a blessing one would have expected it to be.

It marked the beginning of a long curse from which there has not been and possibly can never be a reversal.

For the money Juhudi had earned was the equivalent of human flesh, which the boy had tasted and whose delicacy was too irresistible to surrender.

The boy started skipping school, to sell water. It was a physically stressful job, but so long as money flowed into his pockets, he underplayed the stress.

The parents were initially unhappy about the trend, and more-so the mother, who sympathized with her son, over carrying several heavy buckets of water on his weak head, for which he ended up dog tired at the end of the day.

But then, after presumed soul-searching, the parents gave the greenlight to Juhudi, not only to divide his loyalty between school and the water project, but to quit school altogether and become a full-time water vendor.

The reasoning (warped, of course), was that school would help neither their son nor the parents that Juhudi was unlikely to pass and proceed with secondary schooling, and thus end up as a jobless lad.

The real reason for this negative viewpoint, was, obviously, the benefits the parents stood to reap from their son. And indeed he was helpful, through regular contributions he made to the family budget.

The family‘s lifestyle changed considerably and became the envy of others in the neighbourhood, some of which started toying with the idea of withdrawing their sons from school and launching them into the “lucrative water industry”.

The glaring fact is that Juhudi is being both exploited and subjected to undue physical hardship. What‘s more, the avenue to a relatively decent livelihood that schooling would have opened up (the family‘s poverty notwithstanding) has been closed.

It was pointless for the parents to assume that Juhudi would not go beyond primary schooling; for many children from similar backgrounds have made it to institutions of higher learning and have become highly resourceful, respected professionals.

Irresponsible parents have destroyed their young daughters in similar manner, by either turning a blind eye on the children‘s conversion to prostitution or, in horrible, extreme cases, encouraging them into the vice, which bears the religiously uncharitable name of original sin.

Some parents don‘t, or do very little, to discourage young girls who manifest immoral tendencies; the result of which is that they become socially spoiled and become prostitutes.

When the girls earn a bit of money (and much, as they mature into experienced professionals over time) that species of parents count this as a blessing, because it facilitates generation of income of which they are partial beneficiaries.

This is a crude form of child labour that is multi-faceted in its repercussions. The bodies of the girls are harmed and even destroyed at an age that is biologically inappropriate; their dignity is assailed; their prospects for childbearing are narrowed and the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV/AIDS) is heightened.

The broader consequence is that the reputation of the immediate and extended families of the girls in question is destroyed, even though only one or two adults may have been the culprits.

The bottomline is that abuse and manipulation of young boys and girls is grossly wrong; casts a dark shadow on humanity and must be eradicated, through a combination of education, persuasion, counselling, and where defiance is persistent, legal enforcement.

Source: http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/observer/2004/07/11/15553.html

Rahul Verma

OneWorld South Asia

08 July 2004

NEW DELHI, July 7 (OneWorld) - Child rights activists awaiting the release Thursday of eight minor Nepalese girls working in an Indian circus are launching a countrywide campaign to free others like them, who face rampant sexual abuse.

Activists say the eight girls, aged below 14, are expected to be released by the High Court in the northern Indian city of Lucknow. They were reportedly sexually exploited by the owners of the Great Roman Circus in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The campaign to free the children was spearheaded by the New Delhi-based Global March Against child labour, along with a partner nongovernmental organization (NGO) in Nepal. The campaign followed a complaint lodged by the parents of 11 minor girls working as trapeze artistes and assistants in Indian circuses.

Three girls were released last week. Members of the coalition are already out campaigning in areas where other circuses are currently holding shows.

"They are campaigning in front of circuses and educating the people about forced child labour," discloses Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), an Indian unit of Global March Against child labour.

Satyarthi, who was attacked along with other activists by members of the Great Roman Circus in Uttar Pradesh last month, stresses that children in the industry are forcibly pushed into the sex trade. A child testified in court that she was paid as less as US $6 a month for her work as an assistant in the circus.

Most of the girls in Indian circuses are from Nepal and are brought into India by brokers who promise their parents money and schooling and income for the children.

"Some parents got in touch with organizations in Nepal when they did not hear from their children," according to a BBA activist.

The group estimates there are some 500 girls still being illegally employed in around 50 circuses across India. "Our campaign to get them freed continues," assures Satyarthi.

The BBA has been in touch with the Circus Federation of India, which has promised to release minors in phases. "But there are several circuses that are either not registered under the federation or work under different names in different places," says the activist. "So it is not easy getting information about the children who are being forced to work there."

In April this year, the Great Indian Circus in Palakkad in the southern state of Kerala was raided by the BBA and minor girls were freed.

But when the NGO tried to get the minors released from the Great Roman circus last month, they were surrounded and physically attacked by circus henchmen who, the activists say, were supported by state administration authorities.

"Satyarthi was leading a group of activists and parents to rescue some children who are enslaved as circus performers at the Great Roman Circus and are treated abominably and even sexually abused," says the Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission in a statement Monday.

The activists, AHRC accuses, were attacked with knives, iron rods and guns, and Satyarthi suffered a head injury.

"AHRC is concerned by the lack of action taken by the state government with regard to child abuse and the unlawful action of the state officers in attacking Satyarthi and other activists," it says.

The circus owners were arrested when the government-instituted National Human Rights Commission intervened. "We now want the NHRC to probe child labour in other circuses as well," says Satyarthi.

The NGO is also urging the federal government to launch an investigation into the use of child labour in circuses. Satyarthi discloses that his group also plans to move court, asking for an independent commission to look into the matter.

Though most of the minor girls working in circuses are from Nepal, some of them are brought in from Darjeeling and Assam in eastern India.

"Unfortunately, we have very little information about the children who come from these parts of India and are being exploited by the circus owners," rues Satyarthi. The group is now going to set up camps in these Indian areas to gather information about children who are employed by circuses. "Often, the parents have no idea what kind of exploitation their children face," says the activist.

Source: http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/89575/1/

BuaNews (Pretoria)

July 8, 2004

Posted to the web July 8, 2004

Matome Sebelebele

Addis Abba

Millions of children in Africa are still poor and vulnerable to various abuses, posing security and social challenges to the African Union (AU), its international partners and child activists.

Apart from being continuously denied access to education, affected by HIV and AIDS, forced into prostitution, child labour and trafficking, African children are also "armed and dangerous" posing a security threat not only to communities but to the AU's strategic goals.

This is according to a preliminary report entitled The State of African Children compiled by United Nations Children's Education Fund (Unicef).

The 32-page report was handed earlier this week to the African Heads of State for discussion here and they are expected to adopt a resolution today, aimed at confronting what activists say was punitive life for the young and innocent, some of whom have turned into cold-blooded murderers.

For many years, for youth militias operating in African conflict zones - mostly boys, young men and recently girls and women - "a gun has meant a licence to looting homes, extorting money, raping, killing and sowing havoc," said the AU sanctioned report released last night.

This is the second time child activists have attempted to draw the AU's attention to the growing problem, after photojournalists Omar Badsha and Guy Tillim handed their hard-hitting photo-essay to AU officials in Durban three years ago.

That essay depicts, among others, shocking pictures of children as young as ten, trampling through forests in Sierra Leone, Angola, Mozambique, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Burundi, armed with heavily loaded weapons, ready for their next attack.

So scary are the children that they instil incredible fear in the elders. A 48-year-old Sierra Leone woman once described them as "cruel and hardhearted, worse than adults."

"We fear them. They don't know what is good and bad. If you beg an older one, you may convince him to spare you, but the young ones don't know what is sympathy, what is mercy."

Child lobby groups here concede that the situation is worse in these countries.

Speaking to BuaNews, AU Commissioner for social development Advocate Bience Gawans, said the AU was mindful of the problem and that authorities together with Unicef planned to come up with strategies to encourage youth rehabilitation and integration into society.

But Unicef regional director for West and Central Africa Rima Salah argued that authorities ought to ensure that African families were strong as it was the "first line of defence".

"Action is needed to prevent children from losing parental care, to unite those who have been separated from their families and to ensure the availability of alternative loving family environment for those who cannot return to parents and relates," he explained.

However it has been reported that the UN was offering an alternative in the form of education and job training to the militias, but desired results here are yet to be realised.

Though the AU has established legislation on child rights, activists argue it is the implementation that is problematic.

This is as true for the governments of Africa as for donor governments and organisations.

Those who pay the severe penalty are the children "on whose behalf the commitments were made."

"Unless the fulfilment of commitments is drastically accelerated, the lives of countless millions of African children will remain nasty, brutish and short," the activists affirm.

Child activists here also contend that more problematic was the future of these kids once conflicts end.

Earlier this week, African women pleaded to be given a chance to help in rehabilitating the African society that has scarred by conflicts and displacement.

It is believed that arms worth of millions of Dollars, money that could have been used for social and infrastructre development - with the youth either at school or workplaces - litter African bushes.

The report calls also on the private sector to help, saying they too "must play a role in generating economic opportunities, jobs and taxable surplus for investment in basic services".

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200407080060.html

Stanley Karombo

HARARE, Jul 7 (IPS) - Children who "live rough" on the streets of Zimbabwe's capital and other cities, face a multitude of problems – including AIDS.

Ten-year-old Molin considers the streets of Zimbabwe's capital her home. She's not alone.

Research by a Harare-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) – Futures International – in May 2004, indicated that at least 12,000 children eke out a living on the country's highways and byways.

Molin says she prefers her current existence to living with her stepmother, who she describes as abusive. "I lost my mother when I was five," she told IPS, "and now I cannot stay with my step-mom."

Ignored, pitied and feared in equal measure, Molin and her urban brothers and sisters have become part of the decaying infrastructure of Zimbabwe's towns, bribing policemen and sleeping in sewers.

A frail band of beggars, thieves and tricksters, these street children can appear terribly vulnerable – although they are able to claw their way to survival if need be, a struggle that has made some violent, and insolent. They're also at risk of getting AIDS.

Although no official statistics on HIV prevalence amongst street children exist, an NGO in Harare – Streets Ahead – says it helps treat as many as 150 of the children every month for sexually-transmitted diseases.

"We have more than 150 street children coming in on a monthly basis to get letters for them to receive free treatment for sexually-transmitted diseases with a doctor we have identified in Harare," the group's Outreach Programme Officer, Jack Maravanyika, told IPS.

"The age group of the children is worrying, as most are below the age of 16. These children are continuously being exposed to the HI-virus."

A young orphan, who said he did not know how old he was, admitted to being aware of the dangers posed by AIDS. But, he added, "I would rather die of AIDS than hunger."

Janah Ncube, head of the Woman's Coalition of Zimbabwe, says research has shown that 18 percent of Zimbabwean women, including street girls, are raped in their lifetime. The vast majority of rape victims are also infected with HIV, according to the coalition.

Addressing the plight of street children will require serious commitment from government and society at large, say rights campaigners.

According to Doreen Mukwena, Director of the Child Protection Society, "The harsh environment of the street life often exposes these children to the possibility of physical injuries or death from violence."

However, authorities have yet to rise to the challenge of helping the children.

The Harare City Council has embarked on a "clean up campaign" that aims to rid the capital of street children, often perceived as a social menace.

In May, the country was shocked by reports of an accountant who had allegedly managed to get two street children to help him steal money from his employer, (the youths were also accused of stealing 12 mobile phones).

The council's campaign involves taking the children to farms where they are supposed to find work. However, some of the affected children say they were dumped in the middle of nowhere after being removed from Harare. Needless to say, no sooner had council officials disappeared, than the children were back on the streets.

Others are placed in children's homes. But, almost all of the five homes in Harare now have far too many residents to deal with. Children are only supposed to remain there for a fortnight while the state locates their families or finds permanent homes for them; however, this seldom happens in practice.

"In most cases, the home is itself stuck with children who are supposed to be in transit, because the Department of Social Welfare has no manpower to do probation work," said a matron at Chinyaradzo Children's Home in Highfield.

To make matters worse, these institutions are grappling to make ends meet. Government provides them with less than one U.S. dollar a month for every child, barely enough for a meal. Many children end up by leaving these homes, in much the same way that they did their families.

While authorities have put in place policies that encourage communities to take care of children in need, little funding has been provided in this regard.

In addition, the traditional African notion that a child belongs to everyone on the community seems to have vanished into thin air – sometimes to be replaced with mocking indifference. Members of the public who attended the trial of the children accused of stealing money and mobile phones simply laughed when the detainees gave a street in the city as their home address.

Why would anyone choose such a life? The children's reasons are as varied as their personal histories and names.

Molin fled abuse. Others are abandoned, or orphaned – often by AIDS. According to the United Nations Children's Fund, about 34 percent of Zimbabwean adults are estimated to be HIV-positive, while more than 600,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS in the country.

The pandemic, combined with the rapid decline of Zimbabwe's economy in recent years, has put many families in a position where they are simply unable to care for their children.

Since the beginning of 2000, a campaign of state-sponsored farm invasions has had a profound impact on agriculture – a key part of Zimbabwe's economy. Officials maintain that the campaign is aimed at correcting imbalances in land ownership which date back to the colonial era, and which resulted in minority whites owning most of the country's prime farmland.

Political violence and human rights abuses, mostly on the part of government supporters, have also played a part in undermining investor confidence. Zimbabwe not only has a moral obligation to its children, but a legal one as well. By signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, government committed itself to ensuring that its citizens uphold child rights.

The convention states that a child has a right to be cared for by its family, and that if the family is unable or unwilling to do so, the state should take on this obligation. (END/2004) Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=24522

Wed 7 July, 2004 09:37

By Cyrille Cartier

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Child workers are still being exploited in West African cocoa fields and the chocolate industry's efforts to stop the abuse are not sufficient to meet a July 2005 deadline, humanitarian and labor activists say.

Images of child abuse in West African cocoa plantations triggered an international outcry in 2000 and resulted in a U.S. congressional protocol, which has no basis in law, giving American chocolate companies four years to make significant progress toward solving the problem.

If not, lawmakers promise to draft laws requiring U.S. chocolate makers to put a "no child slavery" label on their goods after guaranteeing no forced child labour was used.

There were about 109,000 children laboring in hazardous conditions in Ivory Coast, the source of 40 percent of the world's cocoa, according to a 2003 U.S. State Department report. Hazards include harmful pesticides and risk of injury from machetes.

So far, the industry has met most of the requirements of the protocol, including creating a foundation, the International Cocoa Initiative, to make sure cocoa production is environmentally friendly and safe for children. A major requirement, to set up a certification system to monitor child labour, has yet to be fulfilled.

Several critics say there are too many gaps left.

"It's a very long shot," to implement a certification program by next July, said Frans Roselaers of the International Labor Organization, who has been working with the chocolate industry. "It hasn't been done anywhere on that scale with success before."

Africans often view child labour as normal, said Roselaers, who directs an ILO program to end the abuse of child workers.

"It would not be realistic or responsible on our part to think that you can change attitudes in the way that you can build a plant and start production," Roselaers said.

Anita Sheth, a senior researcher at Save the Children Canada, said too many unanswered questions remain.

"How does monitoring happen on roughly 1 million cocoa farms? ... How do farmers get increased prices, or fair prices, for their cocoa beans and how does this contribute to changing child labour practices on the ground?" Sheth said.

Peter McAllister of the International Cocoa Initiative said there was no definitive figure on how many children are forced laborers in West Africa. Initially, governments and industry denied the problem, he said. But Ivory Coast's recent pledge to eradicate child labour on its cocoa plantations shows attitudes are changing.

Ivorian officials have said, however, they doubt the 2005 deadline could be met.

Cocoa is a temperamental plant that grows only within 20 degrees of the equator and is susceptible to many diseases. Ivory Coast leads the list of major producers, followed by Ghana, Indonesia and Nigeria. West Africa provides 70 percent of the world's cocoa grown on small family farms under 12 acres, or 5 hectares.

Representatives of the Washington-based World Cocoa Foundation and Chocolate Manufacturers Association, who signed the protocol, said they were confident they would be able to ward off labeling.

A certification system will be tested in Ghana and Ivory Coast this fall, said Bill Guyton, president of World Cocoa Foundation. It will assess how each country is doing as a whole, rather than certifying individual farmers.

At the core of the system are programs ranging from sustainable environmental projects to farmer training courses involving an array of humanitarian and development agencies. There also will be a monitoring and enforcement system, Guyton said.

The details of who will collect data, enforce laws and pay the bill, have yet to be ironed out, he added.

Enforcement could include arrests, prosecutions and fines for farmers who violate the law.

LABELING COCOA

The word 'slavery' on a label would taint the appeal of luxury chocolate goods and possibly hurt sales, said Susan Smith of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association.

The cocoa beans used in making a chocolate bar could come from anywhere in the world, so it would be almost impossible to ensure no abusive child labour was used, she said.

"You couldn't honestly put that label on. You'd end up discriminating against countries that have huge volumes of cocoa," Smith said. U.S. chocolate makers get up to two-thirds of their cocoa from Ivory Coast.

If labels were required and enforcement complete, "it would just destroy the country (Ivory Coast)," Smith said.

The threat of legislation still stands. Rep. Eliot Engel of New York and Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, both Democrats, said they were committed to introducing legislation next July, if they are not satisfied with the progress being made.

Civil war in Ivory Coast has caused some delays but the deadline remains, an Engel spokesman said.

Kevin Bales of Free The Slaves, who wrote a book that helped spark media attention to the problem, said, "We've been hoping for this sort of reaction from industry as a whole for more than a hundred years. The fact that they're making progress, we're very supportive of that."

Source: http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=reuters
EdgeNews&storyID=542882&section=finance

Wed Jul 7, 2004 12:19 PM ET

By Alberto Barrera

CASERIO LA ASUNCION, El Salvador (Reuters) - Twelve-year-old Joel Rivera missed school all last year after he slashed his leg to the bone with a machete working in El Salvador's sugar fields to help his mother and three siblings survive.

"I've been working since I was 9," Joel said proudly.

He is among an estimated 5,000 to 30,000 children -- some as young as 8 -- trading school for dangerous work on the nation's sugar plantations. According to human rights activists, their exploitation benefits big international companies like Coca-Cola Co., and the activists want the companies to stop the practice.

Last month, advocacy group Human Rights Watch called on Coca-Cola specifically to take measures to halt the abuse.

"child labour is rampant on El Salvador's sugar cane plantations," Michael Bochenek of the organization's children's rights division said. "Companies that buy or use Salvadoran sugar should realize that fact and take responsibility for doing something about it," he said.

Coca-Cola said it does not buy directly from any farm employing children illegally and promotes industry efforts to combat child labour.

CIRCUMVENTING THE LAW

Many days Joel works five hours helping his mother weed around sugar cane and corn stalks before going to his fifth-grade class. He said he likes school, especially math and language.

At this time of year his mother, Yanira Rivera, 26, gets occasional work on farms around her home on the slopes of Guazapa mountain north of the capital, earning about $3 a day.

But at sugar harvest time from November to March she earns $70 a month on the plantations. She can use Joel's help.

"Here in the country no one has consideration for women, they only give us work and you must do it to eat," she said, cradling Joel's 4-year-old brother Leni. "That's how we live."

Salvadoran law prohibits children under 18 from doing dangerous work and those under 14 from doing most other jobs.

But children often are hired as "helpers" rather than employees with rights, Human Rights Watch said after visiting the Central American nation last year.

Coca-Cola owns none of the country's sugar plantations and does not buy directly from them. Rather it purchases from a Salvadoran sugar refinery that is supplied by a mill, neither of which use child labour, the company said.

Its own rules prohibit Coca-Cola from purchasing directly from suppliers who use child labour. But Human Rights Watch said that provision should include indirect suppliers such as sugar farms that supply the mills.

"If Coca-Cola is serious about avoiding complicity in the use of hazardous child labour, the company should recognize its responsibility to ensure that respect for human rights extends beyond its direct suppliers," Bochenek said.

Coca-Cola spokeswoman Lori George Billingsley said the company is working with the Salvadoran sugar industry to enforce child labour laws on farms, with stricter monitoring in place for the next harvest and other measures.

In a letter to Human Rights Watch the company said, "We reiterate that The Coca-Cola Company does not condone child labour in El Salvador or anywhere else."

DANGEROUS WORK

Sugar is the No. 2 export crop after coffee in this nation of 6.5 million people, half of them living in poverty.

Some 222,000 Salvadoran children work, at least 30,000 of them in dangerous jobs like sugar harvesting, according to the International Program on the Elimination of child labour, or IPEC, part of the International Labor Organization.

Work on sugar plantations involves cutting and burning cane under hot sun. Accidents are frequent. International labor organizations and Salvadoran officials recognize the work as dangerous, even for adults with experience.

"We are developing a strategy for the next sugar harvest to verify that no children are doing dangerous work in the fields," Agriculture Minister Mario Salaverria said.

But he added, "It's an economic and cultural problem. The children are on vacation (at harvest time) and they go with their parents to work."

The government is implementing programs to promote safe, productive activities for children on plantations, such as making pinatas and paper from sugar cane remnants for sale.

Children miss school to work at harvest time, and often older children drop out completely, Human Rights Watch found.

"child labour does not only affect the health of children, it mortgages and even embargoes their futures," IPEC's Jorge Castrillo said at a recent forum in El Salvador.

Still, Joel Rivera guards his dreams. He hopes to continue studying, as long as his mother can afford the school costs. If not, when he turns 15 he'll go to the United States.

"You earn good cash there," he said.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=our
WorldNews&storyID=5610261

OUR POLICY BUREAU

Posted online: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 at 0122 hours IST

HYDERABAD, JULY 5:   In a bid to eliminate child labour, especially in the cotton fields, the Association of Seed Industry (ASI) is forming mandal-level teams consisting of production executives from its member companies in Kurnool and Mehboobnagar districts from this month. The teams will conduct surprise checks in the fields to identify farmers who use small children as labourers in the cotton fields.

ASI is also working on a incentive scheme at the village level rewarding those villages which eliminate child labour in the cotton production fields. To this end, village elders will be involved in implementing the scheme so that adequate local supervision is possible to check child labour, said a release from ASI.

Following recent reports that seed companies are using girl children aged between seven and 15 for cross-pollination activities, ASI has developed a code of conduct for its members not to encourage child labour in the seed production fields.

Meanwhile, ASI said that its members have announced that they have included an anti-child labour clause in the agreements signed by the companies with different farmers and organisers. This year, members have decided to give production contracts only to those farmers who show commitment to adhere to the clause, the release added.

ASI is a national association of the planting seed industry in India. Members include leading research-based seed companies such as Mahyco, Syngenta, Pro Agro, Ankur, Emergent Genetics, Advanta, Nath Seeds, Pioneer Seeds, JK Seeds, Raasi Seeds and Monsanto.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=62945