A senior official of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), has praised Vietnam for its initial achievements in child labour control, highlighting the country's national programme on preventing and eliminating all forms of the worst child labour.

At a press conference in Hanoi on June 20, Rose Marrier Gerve, ILO Country Director emphasised on the fact that Vietnam has ratified a convention regarding children and issued necessary policies on child protection. The country has also launched information campaigns to raise public awareness on relevant legal documents and spread examples of child protection and child labour control.

Surveys on local living conditions, conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO) showed that the number of children involved in economic operations were sharply reduced from 41 percent in 1993 to 18 percent in 2003, reported the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA).

Research conducted in 2005 by MOLISA also revealed that child labour was mostly seen in the household economy. Children were found to be forced to work to support their families when their parents earned too little to be able to afford basic living conditions.

Parents and responsible agencies were also held responsible for the problem, whereas children themselves lack the knowledge of their rights.

MOLISA has proposed some major solutions such as measures to boost household economy and poverty reduction and to complete a legal system and oversee the execution of the laws related to child labour. They also called for increasing public awareness on the necessity to control child labour and to extend overall support for disadvantaged children in general education and vocational training.

Stronger coordination of action among responsible agencies in overseeing and preventing child labour as well as stricter surveillance and inspection are seen as an effective tool to curb the situation.

MOLISA and the ILO representatives shared the view that by doing these steps violations of the rights of the child can be detected earlier and due punishments can be handed down timely.

Since 2000, the ILO has funded and participated in a number of projects in preventing and eliminating child labour abuses in Vietnam. Many of the projects have secured the prospect of expansion after successes gained in the initial stage, such as the project to increase public awareness on the worst child labour forms and provide education opportunities for children at work. The ILO was also committed to support Vietnam in evaluating the situation of child labour and taking solutions.

THE Employers' Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) is in the process of establishing income-generating projects to fight child labour.

Emcoz child labour project officer Mr Farai Masunda said it had been established that 90 percent of child labour cases were caused by poverty.

"In all the surveys carried out, it has been indicated that 90 percent of all child labour is caused by poverty. We are addressing the symptoms rather than the root cause of the problem," he said.

As a result, Mr Masunda said, they were plans to establish a phone shops for children in the Honde Valley area in Chipinge, Manicaland, by the end of August this year to enable them to generate their own income. He said they were also looking to encourage children to start other income-generating programmes such as soap and peanut butter making. He, however, said Emcoz was faced with financial constraints, as it did not have the financial capacity to conduct a national child labour project.

Mr Masunda said that if the country was to completely stamp out child labour, there was a need to address the current economic challenges.

He said mitigatory measures to eradicate child labour had fallen short as most of them failed to address the broader macroeconomic issues like employment creation and poverty alleviation.

Mr Masunda said the closing down of industries had shrunk the employment base, thereby increasing the cases of child labour. The last nationwide survey carried out by the Central Statistical Office on child labour in 2004 revealed that child labour in Zimbabwe had increased from 11 to 37 percent.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), child labour has fallen globally by 11 percent over the past four years.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200606210475.htm

NAIROBI, The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed the demobilization of 181 children -- 174 boys and seven girls -- from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the ex-southern Sudan rebels who are now part of the Sudanese Government of National Unity.

UNICEF said in a statement received here Tuesday the former child soldiers, whose release took place in Julud in the Nuba Mountains area of Sudan (Southern Kordofan), have been reunited with their families over the past two weeks.

According to the UN agency, in addition to these 181 children formally released through the Southern Sudan Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Commission (SSDDRC), another 30 children went home earlier by themselves prior to the demobilization as they came from nearby locations.

"The process of advocating for the release and registering these 211 boys and girls started back in February," explained Ted Chaiban, UNICEF representative in Sudan.
 "The children range from 10 to 18 years; they all lived and attended school in the military barracks of the SPLA for the past three to five years," Chaiban added.

UNICEF has supported the demobilization of child soldiers throughout southern Sudan since 2000.  The UN children's agency has also supported the establishment by the rebel SPLM/SPLA movements of a special task force to demobilize children in rebel ranks.

 "UNICEF is extremely pleased about this demobilization and thanks the SSDDRC for its collaboration," said Chaiban.
"There are still more boys and girls who are associated with armed groups in Southern Kordofan and other areas of Sudan and we hope they too will return home soon," said UNICEF.
 "UNICEF has already registered another 80 in the Kauda area, and these children are ready to be released. We have also been informed of other children in Blue Nile State that will also be reunited with their families," the statement added.

Since 2001, an estimated 20,000 children from the former southern rebel forces, the SPLA, have been disarmed and demobilized and returned to their families and communities with UNICEF support.

 However, the UN agency said there are an estimated 2,000 children still associated with the SPLA, mainly in non-combat roles and in hard-to-reach areas.

The National Child Protection Authority revealed shocking statistics, quoting the UNICEF and ILO, that Sri Lanka has nearly 40,000 child prostitutes in the country while 5,000 to 30,000 Sri Lankan boys are used by Western paedophile sex tourists, as the world celebrates day against child labour today.

Nearly 10,000 to 12,000 children from rural areas are trafficked and prostituted to paedophiles by organised crime groups, according to the statistics of UNICEF and the ILO.

Though exact numbers are not available with any of the local organisations which function for the protection of child rights, ILO indicates that Sri Lanka has more than 100,000 children working as domestic aids.

The government celebrating the Day on June 7, five days in advance, admitted that no nationwide surveys on child labour had been done in Sri Lanka since 1999 and said some qualitative research points to the fact that there are children trapped in hazardous forms of child labour such as child domestic labour, the fireworks industry, in the informal sector construction industry, motor garages, small business establishments, shops, etc.

“Parliament has passed legislation to give effect to immediately eliminate the worst forms of child labour in keeping with commitments made to implement ILO Convention 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour,” it said in the message issued on June 7 marking the World Day Against Child Labour.

Chairperson of the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA), Padmini Wetthawa, said the plight of Sri Lankan children was in a dire situation as the number of children being trafficked and being forcibly recruited as child soldiers to the LTTE was rising rapidly despite having various awareness programmes.

“This year which was marked as the Children’s Year by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, both Governmental and Non Governmental Organisations should genuinely pay their attention to address the child soldiers’ issue when the whole world is concentrating on combating child labour,” she noted.

“Children are often employed and exploited because, compared to adults, they are more vulnerable, cheaper to hire and are less likely to demand higher wages or better working conditions. Some employers falsely argue that children are particularly suited to certain types of work because of their small size and “nimble fingers”,” said Ms. Wetthawa.

The use of children for alcohol and drug trafficking is a serious problem while the authorities are yet to crack the countrywide network, which deals with child trafficking and prostitution.

“No one actually knows the correct number of child prostitutes and children involved in trafficking,” said NCPA official adding that ground research was yet to be done on these subjects.

The NCPA records a reduction in child labour of 10 to 15 fold following the intensified action by authorities and a wide media campaign against domestic child labour.

“Using children as domestic servants has become a taboo today following the media awareness campaign,” he added.

Accordingly, an unofficial survey conducted by the ILO, showed that nearly 35,000 children were now employed mainly at shops and small factories.

The situation has reached a climax today where the world identifies Sri Lanka as a paedophiles’ paradise. Although the government estimates that there are 2,000 active child prostitutes in the country, private groups claim the number is as high as 40,000.

Most of these children, 80% of whom are boys, are sexually exploited in tourist centres and are trafficked around the country to serve the tourists.

According to the NCPA, many steps such as improvement of public awareness, poverty elimination among sensitive social groups, strict implementation of legal regulations and training of officials and police officers are essential to eliminate sexual exploitation of children.

‘The End of Child Labour: Together We Can Make It’, the International Labour Organisation made it the theme of this year as the World Day Against Child Labour, 2006 falls today, as a part of the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) despite having more than 200 million child labourers all over the world.

The World Day against Child Labour was established by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2002 to pay more attention to global and local efforts against child labour and highlight the global movement to eliminate the practice, particularly its worst forms. According to the latest report the actual number of child labourers worldwide fell by 11 per cent between 2000 and 2004, from 246 million to 218 million. The report attributed the reduction in child labour to increased political will and awareness and concrete action, particularly in the field of poverty reduction and mass education that has led to a “worldwide movement against child labour”.

Sri Lanka has ratified all eight human rights conventions of the ILO, including the two-core conventions on Child Labour.

The main aim of Convention 182 is to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. It stresses that immediate action is needed to tackle the worst exploitation of children, and that measures taken by the authorities should start as soon as the government is able to follow the ratification.

some of the circumstances faced by child labourers are full time work at a very early age, dangerous workplaces, excessive working hours, subjection to psychological, verbal, physical and sexual abuse, obliged to work by circumstances or individuals, limited or no pay, work and life on the streets in bad conditions and inability to escape from the poverty cycle with no access to education.

The ILO says that most children work because their families are poor and their labour is necessary for their survival. Discrimination on grounds including gender, race or religion also plays its part in why some children work.

Ethnic conflicts too have left many children displaced and abandoned. They are easy prey for ‘job placement agents’ who pick them up on the streets in villages or even from within the refugee camps, and then sell them for employment, most commonly for domestic work.

As well as being a result of poverty, child labour also perpetuates poverty. Many working children do not have the opportunity to go to school and often grow up to be unskilled adults trapped in poorly paid jobs, and in turn will look to their own children to supplement the family’s income, the ILO says.

According to the ILO, a UN body, the number of child labourers is falling for the first time -- witness, the organization says, to an increased political commitment even among the poorest countries to eliminating the problem.

"An end to child labour is in sight," said Frank Hagemann from the ILO in Geneva. "For a long time this target has been seen as a very distant goal closely linked to tackling poverty. The theory was that the only way to eliminate child labour was by establishing global prosperity."

But Hagemann and his team were surprised to discover that between 200 and 2004, child labour fell by 11 percent without any corresponding drop in world poverty.

"Even so, the figures are still shocking," he said. Some 218 million children worldwide are forced to work, 126 million of whom do so in dangerous and difficult conditions such as prostitutes or in mines and quarries.

Making trade fair

The situation in the textiles industry is particularly acute. But even here, there is reason for optimism.

"The situation has improved since the 1990s," said Barbara Küppers from Terre des Hommes. "A number of suppliers to the major companies no longer employ children." Partially in response to growing pressure from organizations like the Clean Clothes Campaign, many companies now adhere to codes of conduct to ensure that their garments are produced in decent working conditions. But there is still no shortage of firms making profits a first priority -- including German discount supermarkets Lidl and Aldi.

The Rugmark stamp of approval ensures no illegal child labour was used in the manufacture of a carpet or rug. Even though the rugs now make up 15 percent of  India's carpet exports and over 50 percent of Nepal's, the initiative is still only restricted to these countries, as well as Pakistan.

Moreover, Claudia Brück from TransFair, which issues the stamp, stresses that only 5 percent of child labourers work in sectors in which export plays a significant role. That's not the only snag.

"The problem is that it is only possible to introduce this kind of system with the help of a local NGO," she said, pointing out that local children need to be offered alternative work and ongoing support.

Barbara Küppers from Terre des Hommes agreed. "Any campaign which tries to prevent child labour without making sure that children get places in decent schools is not helping the children but harming them," she said.

Some 100 million children across the globe fail to go to school and, as the ILO report concluded, improving school attendance would be a major step towards ending child labour. 

"An increasing number of countries contributed to tackling child labour by introducing compulsory schooling up until the age of 14," it reported.

Government responsibility

In South Africa, many of the country's child labourers are AIDS orphans, while in Vietnam they tend to be refugees from Burma. In the US, they more often than not come from immigrant Hispanic families.

In India, they tend to be children from the lower castes, explained Alok Vajpeyi from the Indian NGO Global march Against child labour.

Vajpeyi conceded that awareness of the problem has grown considerably in India in recent years, but said the government had done little to help and too many children still fail to attend school.

Moreover, companies realize they can get away with it.

"There have been raids," he said. "But the employers who employ the children never receive punishment."

A number of African governments have been better about clamping down. In Uganda, the government has introduced a special body to tackle child labour which works closely with international organizations.

Andrew Mawson, head of child protection for the UNICEF office in Uganda, where 1.8 million of the country's 2.7 million child labourers work in unacceptable conditions, said that improvements have taken place in the commercial farming sector, but marked just the beginning of what need to be wider reforms.

"In certain areas the government has not yet found a way," he said. "Domestic labor for example is potentially abusive but it is very widespread."

Another ILO study suggested that such reforms would pay off. Even though the cost of replacing child labour with education would amount to some $760 billion (600 billion euros), it estimated that the economic benefits of the investment would be almost seven times greater.

NINE-YEAR-OLD Christian used to spend 15 hours a week gluing together and packing slippers to help his impoverished family in Caloocan City.

Now he can use the time to do his homework or play with his friends.

Two hundred children like Christian will be able to stop working this year, following the launch yesterday of a livelihood and education program for the families of working minors.

On June 12, the country celebrated Independence Day as well as World Day Against child labour.

“At no time in their young lives should children have to work. A child’s place is in school, not in a factory,” said Neil Kearney, general secretary of the International Textile, Garments and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF).

The ITGLWF, an organization of trade unions, recently kicked off the third phase of a three-year program seeking the elimination of child labour in the Philippines, particularly in the garment, textile and leather industries.

The first and second phases
involved generating awareness among members of the community about the problem of child labour, building alliances with other organizations, and strengthening advocacy for a national government policy on the issue.

The project covers 200 families from Metro Manila and neighboring provinces, like Rizal and Bulacan. They will be given a livelihood package on the condition that they stop employing their children.

“We have signed a memorandum of agreement with the families, schools and barangay. The families will be monitored to ensure that they are no longer using child workers,” said Angelita Adviento, ITGLWF Philippines coordinator.

“In exchange, the parents will receive livelihood services, like training seminars, as well as capital to start a small business,” she added.

The children would also get an educational fund, or allowances for their uniforms, textbooks, pencils, notebooks and other school materials, Adviento said.

Special day
Parents who violate the terms of the MOA would no longer be eligible for future programs. However, Adviento expressed confidence that many of the parents would strictly abide by the provisions.

Yesterday, the 200 beneficiaries of the program, accompanied by family and friends, gathered at the ballroom of the Quezon Memorial Circle for a “Time to Play” activity in celebration of World Day Against child labour.

The children played parlor games and tug-of-war, joined a sack race and participated in a face-painting contest.

Christian, an incoming Grade 4 pupil at the Morning Breeze Elementary School in Caloocan City, said child labourers like him didn’t usually play or had fun with other kids.

Every day after school, Christian and his 6-year-old sister would help out in the family’s small business. From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., he would glue together slipper parts while his sister would stick the size numbers onto the footwear.

Gains
Christian said working for his family was not too much trouble. However, he was thankful for the chance to continue his studies without having to work.

Michihiro Ishibashi, a senior specialist on workers at the International Labor Organization (ILO), said there had been many gains in the campaign against child labour throughout the world.

A recent ILO study found that child labour, particularly in the worst zones, had declined.

“This is a good development but we’re not satisfied. Our target is to completely eradicate child labour in the world,” Ishibashi said. “The best way to achieve a child-labor-free society is to guarantee decent work and decent wages for all parents.”

Kearney agreed that much was needed to be done in the campaign against child labour.

Global march
Addressing the children and their parents, he said: “Right now, there are 200 of you. The 200 need to become 2,000.”

The first global march against child labour was held at the same place where it started eight years ago -- the Quezon Memorial Circle.

With some 200 children from various shelters and organizations, 37 government institutions and nongovernment organizations yesterday launched the national coalition against child labour in commercial agriculture (NCACLCA) at the park’s peace bell area.

Coordinator Alex Apit claimed this was the first national coalition in the world to specifically address child labour in commercial agriculture.

There are 246 million children workers in the world, 171 million of whom work under hazardous conditions, according to the ILO.

“This is where the global march started in 1998, the march that resulted in the passage of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of child labour,” Apit recalled in a speech before coalition members.

Convention 182
The Philippines hosted the first global march against child labour on Jan. 17, 1998, gathering NGOs, human rights groups and government representatives at the Quezon Memorial Circle.

The march snaked through other Asian countries, like Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, India and Pakistan, before it met the delegations from Africa and Europe in Geneva, Switzerland, in June 1998.

The ILO subsequently passed Convention 182 which mandates member states to implement “immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency.”

The Philippines ratified Convention No. 182 in 2001 and passed Republic Act No. 9131 identifying the worst forms of child labour soon after.

“History teaches us that this day is important to end child labour … We can eliminate it,” said Apit, who is also director of the Kamalayan Development Foundation involved in anti-child labour advocacy.

Hot spots
All actions by a child that produce services or products are considered child labour. There are, however, favorable, unfavorable and worst forms of child labour, according to Apit. The worst forms are what the NCACLCA seeks to eliminate with their renewed campaign for social awareness.

There are around four million child workers in the Philippines, of which 2.8 million are working under the “worst forms of child labour,” Apit said, citing data from the National Statistics Office.

Young workers in the commercial agriculture sector make up 2.1 million of the 2.8 million children in the worst forms of child labour. The other sectors are mining and quarrying, deep sea fishing, prostitution and domestic service.

The Department of Labor and Employment has identified commercial plantations in agriculture, particularly sugarcane plantations, as “hot spots” for children workers, that expose them to hazardous pesticides and very difficult working conditions.

Dialogue with parents
Apit, however, said work in the fruit and rubber plantations in Mindanao were the most hazardous for children, followed by the work in sugarcane plantations, where children often get cuts from the sharp leaves of the sugarcane.

Children in commercial agriculture are paid from P30 to P100 per day, depending on their age. The younger children get lower wages, according to Apit.

“They are also exposed to harmful pesticides which cause health problems. The effects are not immediately felt, but they can lead to cancer,” he said.

Apit said studies by the University of the Philippines Manila’s Department of Pharmacology had shown a link between exposure to pesticides and respiratory ailments among workers.

The NCACLCA just concluded a dialogue with parents of children working in sugarcane plantations last month. The coalition would also set a dialogue with hacienda owners in Eastern Visayas.

“All institutions blame child labour on the parents, so we wanted to validate. And we learned from the parents that their children volunteer to help them earn a living, seeing the measly income they get from a day’s work,” Apit said.

ISLAMABAD: The International Day Against Child Labour will be observed across the world, including Pakistan today, June -12 , Monday.

In this regard, International Labour Organization (ILO) in collaboration with Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education and Ministry of Labour would organize a seminar on “World Day Against Child Labour 2006” here at ILO Auditorium on Monday to mark the day.

Minister for Social Welfare and Special Education Ms Zobaida Jalal, as a chief guest, would highlight the achievements and steps taken by the government for the welfare of children.

It was learnt that each year the World Day Against Child Labour had focused on one of the “Worst Forms of Child labour” starting with the Unconditional Worst Forms such as child trafficking.

This was then followed by child domestic work and then child labour in mining last year.

The day is marked aimed at mobilizing people around the world against child labour and its worst forms, reflecting local cultures and customs, while encouraging the participation of governemnt officials, media persons, civil society and the public at large, officials said.

http://www.pakistantimes.net/2006/06/12/top8.htm

A senior official of the International Labour Organization (ILO) has said that child labour remains a serious challenge in Nepal.

In his message on the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour, Pracha Vasuprasat, officer in Charge of ILO office in Nepal said, “Close to a million children 5-14 years of age can be categoriosed as child labourers. Children from disadvantaged groups, like girls, dalits and those of indigenous origin are even more vulnerable to become involved in hazardous sectors than others.”

According to a study carried out by ILO, there are 55,000 domestic child labourers working in Nepal, among them, 21,000 are in Kathmandu alone.

He also called upon all members of society to join in the effort to eliminate child labour.

A global report entitled 'The end of child labour: Within reach', released to mark the fifth World Day Against Child Labour shows that child labour, especially in its worst forms, declined for the first time across the world by 11 per cent between 2000 and 2004, from 246 million to 218 million.

The report showed that efforts against child labour in Nepal over the past decade have achieved much but political instability has resulted in displacement of children and forced them to join labour.

The Time-Bound Programme (TBP) of the International Labour Organsation's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO/IPEC), which aims at withdrawing 15,300 children from the worst forms of child labour, has reportedly met 95 percent of its target.

In his message Minister of State for Labour and Transport Management, Ramesh Lekhak has expressed the government’s commitment to provide necessary assistance in the work of eradicating child labour.

He further said that assistance from all sectors is essential to meet the target tof eradicating all kinds of child labour by 2014.

http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2006/jun/jun12/news02.php

A HUMAN RIGHTS advocate and lawyer, Nana Oye Lithur, has indicated that Ghana's child labour situation has improved in line with a recent International Labour Organization (ILO) report that also indicated a decrease by 11% in child labour worldwide over the last four years.

She attributed this improvement to interventions by government and civil society as well as non-governmental organizations, saying, "There have been some progressive positive gains because government and NGOs have adopted polices and programmes, especially in the fishing communities, to rescue children engaged in child labour."

Nana added that presently, there was empirical data available for addressing child labour and its related issues through comprehensive research, which contributed greatly to the situation in addition to other interventions such as the support of the ILO to Ghana's efforts at eliminating child labour.

The human rights advocate was commenting to The Chronicle in Accra on the ILO's report that also highlighted the fact that in spite of the decrease in child labour, families still depended on children for survival, which was worsened by widespread devastation caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, recurrent food crisis, conflict and political unrests in various countries.

She observed that it was not in a child's interest to work to the detriment of his/her education, social life and health but the situation stemmed from the cultural argument espoused in Africa, and Ghana for that matter, as part of the culture to teach a child farming or other vocations while they are young to supplement any other knowledge they would obtain in future to enrich their career.

She said added to this was the fact that children have no alternative, especially in Africa, but to assist their parents through child labour to ensure their education, feeding and clothing as well as for the support of the entire family "These positions have been adequately balanced in the African Charter on human and people's rights and the Children's Act of 1998, where specific provisions are outlined in the law to address child labour," she disclosed.

She pointed out that the issue of child labour was a multi-faceted problem with social, economic and cultural dimensions and its existence in the country in areas such as mining, child trafficking and work at the stone quarries, among others, could not totally be blamed on government, although government contributed to the situation to the extent that government officials deny the existence of the problem.

Nana Oye Lithur, who is also the Regional Coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), stated that there were far reaching effects of the existence of child labour such that "child labour on Ghana's cocoa farms may adversely affect international marketing of cocoa in Ghana."

According to her, this makes it incumbent on government to provide a policy and supportive framework in identifying the factors that facilitate the practice and appropriately address them.

She also suggested "the creation of employment and education in the rural areas, especially in the cocoa farming and fishing communities so that parents do not need to sell or bond over their children."

This corroborates part of the ILO's measure for Africa to focus on much-needed capacity-building, strengthening of the Africa-wide movement against child labour and the provision of alternatives for children and their families.

Further, Nana advocated the need for child labour to be made a crime and punitive measures put in place to serve as deterrent to others who engage children in various forms of labour.

She also appealed to the media to help educate the general public on the need to fight against child labour and its related problems.

This, she reiterated, would help curb the menace and help in achieving other national priorities to an extent that it would improve the protection of children's rights in the country, fulfilling the ILO theme; "The End of Child Labour: Within Reach."

To commemorate International Children's Day, labour movement Cosatu has launched a mission to investigate child labour practices in Stellenbosch's Jonkershoek Valley.

Union shop stewards have visited five farms to establish from workers and their families the number of children working on farms, their ages, hours of work and rates of pay.

Cosatu said its probe was part of Child Protection Month and that it wanted to draw the authorities' attention to all forms of child labour, especially in the farming sector.

"The objective is to find out where exactly child labour is being (used)," Cosatu organiser Elma Geswindt said.

"Jonkershoek has been chosen because it is the target of a campaign we and Women on Farms began to fight farm evictions and raise awareness about Youth Day on June 16.

"The outcome of this mission will give us guidelines for a programme of action in tackling the problem of child labour."

Geswindt said Cosatu would use the information to lobby the departments of labour and social services and trade unions in the farming sector.

"We don't have any figures yet for how many children are employed on farms, but will come up with an assessment of the extent of the problem.

"We will compile a report that will include recommendations on what should be done. Child labour is a serious problem because the law states clearly that no children under the age of 15 are allowed to work."

Sharon Bailey, of Sikhula Sonke, an organisation representing farm workers, said the investigation would be extended to Franschhoek and Ceres where child labour on farms was more common.

"Many times struggling families send their children to work to help make ends meet," Bailey said.

"To help solve this problem, we encourage poor families to apply for a social grant and enrol the children at schools. Schools in turn are asked to check when a child is absent from class."

Lukholo Ngamlana, assistant project co-ordinator at the Children's Resource Centre, said most children and their parents did not know their rights.

THOUGH we observe International Day Against Child Labour with a variety of programmes every year, and there exist a large number of organisations both in the government and non-government sectors, many children are compelled to face several problems. The condition of the children in the rural areas is more pathetic as they are the major victims of poverty and other social evils, including the sex trade. The pro-children activities carried out by the different organisations are yet to reach the rural masses. And if they have reached, there is no coordination between the organisations working for children in the same areas. Against this backdrop, Minister of State for Labour and Transport Management Ramesh Lekhak has rightly pointed out this weakness of these organizations, saying that the donor agencies were found competing with each other on the same front rather than complementing each other. The State Minister made this remark at a consultative meeting on implementing the Master Plan, an attempt to ensure coherence and complement efforts for the effective and progressive elimination of child labour. On the occasion, State Minister Lekhak also asked the donor agencies to work coherently as per the National Plan.

Because of poverty, many children of school-going age are either compelled to work as unpaid labourers or as porters to help manage their family expenses. Even in the urban areas like in the capital city, many children are found working in the homes as domestics and in the hotels as dishwashers. It is not only Nepal that faces the serious problem of child labour. Majority of the developing countries do so. A case that needs consideration is that poverty is at the root of the cause of this problem. Exploitation of children for various reasons has been highlighted in different countries at global forums. Since Nepal is committed to respecting the human rights of its citizens, the children, too, come under the purview. Being a signatory to a number of protocols and conventions regarding the exploitation of children, Nepal has all along been effortful in checking any moves to deprive the children of their inherent rights. However, the task is not easy. Nepal has tens of thousands of child labourers who are engaged in various sectors, including ones which are hazardous like the carpet and garment factories. Moreover, such child workers are subjected to ill treatment, low or no wages, malnutrition and such conditions which make them victims of various diseases, which lead to their untimely death. Many of them are also trafficked to other countries. Hence, the government, civil society, social workers and everyone must see that the country is freed from child labour and guarantee the rights of children to lead a life of dignity.