Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government is determined to totally wipe out first category of child labour menace from the State by end of 2006-07, according to state’s labour minister G Vinod.

According to a proposed plan, the first category child labour, consisting of children working in legally prohibited areas, will be eliminated by the end of 2006.

While the second and third categories consisting of children working in agriculture and allied industries and children working in unorganized sectors including domestic help, the government is stretching up to 2010. "The menace of child labour in the state will be totally eliminated by the year 2010," Mr Vinod assured.

As per the 2001 census, there are about 13.6 lakh children working in Andhra Pradesh. However, government records suggest a figure of just five lakh, the minister pointed out. He also said that the incidence of child labour working in seed production centres has been controlled largely.

"To discourage seed farmers employing children, we are asking the seed companies to give incentives to farmers," the minister said.

As part of the integrated plan, the government proposed to conduct special drive and enforcement by constituting special squads at state and district levels. It plans to bring the activities of all the line departments under a single umbrella to address the issue concerning to child labour, Mr Vinod said.

More than 12,000 people from 58 countries packed into the City Sports Stadium on March 24 to launch the First World Social Forum held in Pakistan.

Among the many participants were peasants from Baluchistan struggling against the army’s land grab, campaigners calling for an end to child and bonded labour, anti-dam activists, Kashmiri independence activists, Palestinians, anti-war activists, unions and many women’s groups. The Labour Party Pakistan and the Pakistan People’s Party were among the parties represented and there were big delegations of worker activists from India and Sri Lanka.

In a fiery speech, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Asma Jahangir hit out at capitalism, which she described as a “free market for the mafia”, and told the crowd that it was fitting to have the WSF in Pakistan as its people were used to struggling for their rights. Palestinian activist Jamal Juma received rousing applause for saying that Palestine was “not for sale” and that the US could “go to hell” with its threat to withdraw aid. He said the rise of progressive forces and governments across Latin America also showed that the US’s colonial project is failing.

“Those who predicted that the Iraq war would not go well have been vindicated”, said Pakistani-born author and activist Tariq Ali, speaking Urdu. Ali pointed to the 1200 Cuban doctors who assisted earthquake-ridden Pakistan and Kashmir as an example of international solidarity that Pakistanis will never forget.

WOMEN and children are being trafficked into and through Bahrain by organised crime networks, according to an international report.

There are also more than 50,000 domestic workers employed in Bahrain who are virtually unprotected by the government from potential abuse and exploitation, it says.

Bahrain is a destination and transit route for traffickers, says the Washington-based John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies ( SAIS).

Victims are largely from Ethiopia, the Philippines and Thailand as well as Eastern European countries such as Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine, says the SAIS report on Bahrain.

Organised crime networks contribute to the problem, recruiting young victims and collaborating with criminal agents in Bahrain to facilitate the trafficking, it states.

At least 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders worldwide each year, said SAIS Protection project executive director Dr Mohammed Mattar.

This is in addition to the millions who are trafficked within their own countries, he said.

There are no figures on record specifically for Bahrain, but experts say the country's dependence on migrant labour led to trafficking and widespread abuse.

Women from Thailand are being brought to Bahrain as tourists and forced to work in prostitution, aided by a system that allows them to stay in the country for up to 15 days without visas, says the SAIS report.

The operation will utilize the help of trishaw taxi drivers to gather information on child labourers.

On Mar 23, Colombo, a nationwide operation had been launched against domestic child labour in Sri Lanka. The programme was launched at the Colombo Mini Theatre as a joint effort of the Probationary and Child Protection Authority and The Business Club.

The operation intends to obtain the support of trishaw taxi drivers as they are the most able people to collect information about the use of child labourers.

A million signatures will be collected for a petition against child labour. Another children's petition with 100,000 signatures will be declared public on October 1st, the World Children's Day. One hundred seminars will be held countrywide.

The child population of Sri Lanka is 5 million and the International Labour Organization has warned the country about trafficking. Domestic child labour is a significant part of trafficking. There was a long practice of employing rural children in urban houses as domestic aides. But this has made a downturn now as children’s rights are being promoted in the country. But still 3% of the school age population does not attend school and they are the most vulnerable to trafficking.

Sri Lanka has declared 2006 as the national year of children.

CHILD labour can never be eliminated as long as the root causes are not tackled, child labour ambassador Maiko Zulu has observed. Addressing trainee journalists at The Post Newspapers on Tuesday, Zulu said there were a lot of issues such as HIV/AIDS and corruption in government that led to high rates of child labour in Zambia.

"I have always had a problem, I have been asked in so many fora to speak on child labour and I have put it clearly to say as long as there is corruption in government, economic mismanagement of public funds and also the health situation where HIV/AIDS is escalating, child labour will be there. These issues are what cause child labour," Zulu said.

He said he did not see any reason why children should work when there were enough community schools in the country. Zulu said some organisations claim to withdraw children from labour but end up exposing these children to mistreatment. "They are put in another form of abuse because in certain homes where they put these kids, you know it's unbearable and some of these kids they go back to the streets, so what are we fighting?" he asked.

Zulu said the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) could help in eliminating child labour in Zambia. "Child labour is a very small component on the issues that matter, issues like the MDGs. Those are the issues that will eliminate child labour without a fight," he said.

The report says between May 2004 and December last year, more than 4650 children have been withdrawn from paid employment in the tea growing district of Thyolo alone, about 80 kilometers from Malawi’s commercial city of Blantyre.

It says 2675 of them were sent back to school.

Another 4000 were rescued from tobacco estates and in homes of rich people in several other districts and have since been sent to school.

“Children are the most important human resource for the country since their quality of life at their tender age determines the quality of human resource for the country in future,” Minister of Labor Ken Lipenga told the local press recently.

During the period, the ministry has also carried out 138 inspections in various factories and companies across the country to check working conditions.

And according to the Minister, most factories were observing set standards on general health and provision of adequate space to avoid overcrowding.

The report also indicates that Labor Ministry has paid K8. 63 million in compensation to 93 injured workers within the period.

IRAQ ’S child ren have suffered more than just successive wars and economic sanctions. The loss of parents and family resources has boosted child labour , homelessness and inclinations towards violence and rebellion.

They live in homes where 25 people live in a space of 40 square metres. Even intact families may comprise parents and five children in a single room.

The increase in child labour reflects families’ dire economic situation: Children are frequently a family’s only breadwinners, and they work cheap. Contractors in municipal services, for example, prefer to use children in order to cut costs. Here, a child may be used for agricultural labour or for janitorial work.

Many work in piles of garbage, either removing them to another place or collecting empty bottles and cans to sell. Others load and transport items in the markets, where they must pull carts weighing 60-70kg and carry boxes weighing 15kg in temperatures of 50°C. Two children may unload a lorry carrying one tonne of food items.

Not surprisingly, Iraq’s child workers suffer from a wide array of serious health problems. Children who work in the garbage dumps are prone to skin and respiratory problems, while those who work with paints eventually become addicted to the intoxicants that they inhale.

And all working children are vulnerable to malnutrition, as their diet typically lacks the items necessary to build body tissues.

Nor is there any official authority to protect children and defend their rights in case of incapacitation or sickness.

On the contrary, children are often beaten by family members if they do not provide the daily wage expected of them, or by their bosses when they are inattentive or make a mistake.

Indeed, Iraqi children are exposed to beating without regard for their age and for myriad reasons, thus growing up insecure, hostile and violent. Moreover, they are prone to being kidnapped by criminal gangs, trained to steal or pickpocket, or, worse, placed at the mercy of terrorists for use in attacks.

As standards of living in Zimbabwe continue to deteriorate, the use of child labour on farms has risen sharply, with more than 10 000 children estimated to be working in the agricultural sector.

Irin recently reported that new commercial farmers, the beneficiaries of the government’s controversial land redistribution programme, were struggling to pay labourers.

“According to statistics, an average family needs Z$28-million [about R1 700] a month to meet its basic requirements. However, our members are being paid Z$600 000 [about R36] a month, which is only enough to buy a bar of soap and cooking oil. This has exposed children to abuse by commercial farmers, who are making them work on their farms in exchange for a free education in farm schools,” Gertrude Hambira, secretary general of the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe, alleged.

New farmers using child labourers in exchange for an education have dubbed the system “learn as you earn”.

In 2001, the Commission issued a green paper on CSR, which was followed by a Communication on 2 July 2002. As a follow-up to this first CSR Communication, stakeholders met in a series of round tables to discuss the appropriateness of establishing common guiding principles for CSR practices and communication. On 22 March 2006, the Commission will publish its communication on CSR, initially foreseen for the end of 2005. 

The European Council in Lisbon in 2000 marked an important step when it appealed to companies' sense of social responsibility in trying to achieve "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world". The European Summit in Stockholm in 2001 also emphasised the role of the private sector in achieving long-term economic growth in combination with social cohesion. 

BGMEA and BKMEA with the support of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and South Asian Enterprise Development Fund (SEDF) would implement a five-year programme to address the child labour, mid-management development and productivity improvement issues in the garments and knitwear sectors, industry source said.

Sources said a memorandum of understanding (MOU) would be signed next month among the four stakeholders in this connection, reports BDNEWS.

The Bangladesh Garments Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA), ILO and the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) already implemented a three-year project from 1996 to phase out child labour progressively in the more than 2,500 factories.

Bangladesh Knitwear Manufactures and Exporters Association (BKMEA) president Fazlul Hoq said, "We received the BGMEA's final proposal Thursday. The social compliance committee of BKMEA would critically review the project."

Sources at BKMEA said the five-year project will be implemented in two phases during 2006-2011. Elimination of child labour, fire security and mid-management development issues would be addressed in the first phase in the three years. Workers' education and training, productivity improvement, and workers' and employees' responsibility would be addressed during the last two years in the second phase.

Failure to register the birth of a child has serious and far-reaching consequences and, unfortunately, is a particularly common occurrence in the Asia and Pacific regions. Government and non-governmental representatives from the world over met in Thailand recently to discuss the issues involved.

Suborna was only seven when traffickers snatched her from her home in Bangladesh. When her father eventually found her, local officials refused to let him bring the little girl home. In another Bangladeshi village, Saheb Ali was turned away from his local primary school, even though he was old enough to attend. In India, a young girl called Dharma was forced by her father to sell homemade liquor on the streets, her wish for an education cast aside.

These children had one thing in common: none of them was registered at birth and therefore, none of them had a birth certificate showing their name, nationality, age and parentage. Without this crucial piece of paper, their well-being, security and development was thrown into doubt.

Unfortunately, they are far from alone. Asia and the Pacific is home to staggering numbers of unregistered children. More than 29 million children in the region are not registered by their fifth birthday. South Asia accounts for the majority of these cases, with 70 per cent of all children there not registered. Even in countries that boast high birth registration rates, the children of minorities and other marginalised groups — such as the hilltribes in Thailand and indigenous populations in the Philippines — are still slipping through the system. In East Asia and the Pacific, 19 per cent of children are not being registered.

These numbers must be reversed. The right to birth registration — along with the right to an identity and a nationality — are guaranteed under the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. Governments, therefore, have a duty to fulfil these rights for all children. And the consequences of non-registration are just too immense to ignore.

IT IS difficult to read their faces, for they show little signs of their feelings yet. The smiles that you see are in all probability forced and the sorrows you know have always been there.

That is what one felt watching these 10 destiny’s children, who landed at the Charbagh Railway Station on Sunday. Originally belonging to UP, they are the child labourers the Juvenile Aid Police Unit (JAPU) of Maharashtra rescued from various parts of Mumbai in the last three months. Out of the ten children, six belong to Mau, two to Gorakhpur and one each to Bhadohi and Jaunpur.

The children, nine boys and a girl, are aged between 10-14. “These children were mostly engaged in the ‘zari’ industry or worked as helpers at various places. The places that they stayed in were unhealthy too. A few of them were street beggars as well,” says one of the JAPU officials accompanying the kids.
A ten-member team of JAPU and Pratham, a Mumbai-based NGO which actively involved with this project, has bought these children to Lucknow.       

Police official RV Sarvodaya, who is heading the JAPU team, says, “ Maharashtra government has decided to make Mumbai child labour free. Under this project JAPU is rescuing child labourers and sending them to their respective states. We have bought 10 children to Lucknow to start with.” 

In the past three months around 17,000 child labourers belonging to Bihar have been sent back to their homes.

A Europe-wide crackdown was urged today on gangs planning to smuggle thousands of women into Germany to work as prostitutes during this summer’s World Cup.

The call came on International Women’s Day as Euro MPs from all parties launched a “Red card to forced prostitution” campaign.

A petition calls on European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to put pressure on governments to tighten up border controls and step up efforts to identify women and children being moved illegally through EU countries to Germany.

British Labour MEP Mary Honeyball said: “Human trafficking and forced prostitution are modern day forms of slavery. We have a duty to shout loud, expose the disgrace of trafficking and put the authorities under such pressure that they cannot turn a blind eye to it.

“Between 600,000 and 800,000 women and children are trafficked through international borders each year.

“We have a pressing moral duty, as the eyes of the world focus on the football in Germany to make sure that we are protecting the women and children who are being exploited away from the eyes of the cameras.”

Lissy Groener, women’s rights spokeswoman of the European Parliament’s 200-strong Socialist Group, called on football fans to join the campaign by reporting evidence of trafficking.

She urged the German authorities to set up refuges in match centres to take care of women rescued from the gangs.

She added: “Organised criminals are now preparing to exploit the World Cup. Thousands of poor women will be lured to Germany by false promises of work, only to be forced into prostitution and a life of misery.

“We need Europe-wide action and the involvement, not just of the police and politicians, but also of the fans themselves.

“I urge fans attending the World Cup to be alert to this scandal and to report any suspicions of trafficking that they might have.”

THE UNITED Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) remains concerned that a significant number of Jamaican children are involved in child labour and living in poverty.

The 2006 'Situation Analysis on Excluded Children In Jamaica', released yesterday, has indicated that 16,240 children aged five to 17 were involved in "economic activities" in 2004.

The report, launched at the St. Andrew Settlement Community Centre, Majesty Gardens, St. Andrew noted that the working child is most likely to be a male teenager, between ages 15 and 17, working an average 22 hours each week.

In addition, the report estimated that approximately 2,000 children live or work on the street.

The UNICEF report also noted that, of the 977,000 children under the age of 18, one in every two lives in poverty. Children in rural areas are reportedly most affected.

Non-governmental organisations are worried that more children will be employed in mines this summer.

"Every year, when school closes, the number of children working in mines goes up by at least 10 per cent. Five per cent of families, including children, remain to work in mines instead of going back to their villages," Vijayalakshmi, a social worker, said.

A survey conducted by Campaign against Child Labour, Karnataka, and Mines, Minerals and People, last April, showed that over two lakh children are employed in iron ores and granite mines in the Hospet-Bellary region. "Although the local authorities were informed and the matter was taken to the National Human Rights Commission, the numbers have not gone down," Ms. Vijayalakshmi said.

However, labour officials in the region disagree on the number of children working in mines. An official said that according to a survey done by the department last March, the number of children working in the area is only about 500.

Jose Pazheparambil, Executive Director of Don Bosco, an organisation that runs schools for child labourers, said a survey conducted by the organisation last December showed that 1,445 families, including 2,555 children, were living in an area of six sq.km in the region. "Only the needs of 500 of these children, in terms of schooling and proper nutrition, were being taken care of," he said.

To tackle the issue of child labour, the Labour Department set up seven schools last October. Over 1,000 out-of-school children were identified. However, the project was not successful. "Parents are scared to let their children out of their sight. They feel threatened when they have to send them away to study," says Ms. Vijayalakshmi.

Brazilian children as young as five are working in unregulated mines, helping to produce talcum used by international companies including the British-based ICI paints, according to a report by a Sao Paulo group.

The non-governmental Social Observatory, which specialises in labour issues, carried out an undercover investigation in the state of Minas Gerais (General Mines) focusing on the deprived community of Mata dos Palmitos near the tourist town of Ouro Preto.

About 300 people live in the cluster of slum housing around Minas Talco (Talc Mine) where soapstone - a mixture of talc and other minerals - is extracted in rock form. Despite categorical denials from directors of Minas Talco that child labour is used, the team estimate about 20 children from five to 17 years old work informally to assist in the haulage of unprocessed talc ore rocks, each weighing roughly 18kg.

Working for an average of 25 hours a week, the children in the impoverished community help their families, who survive on an average of less than £2 a day, by gathering talc rocks spread around the mine areas. When they have collected enough, locals claim they call Minas Talco which sends a truck to pick them up, paying R$250 (£70) for 12 tons.

In the tiny community where child labour has been an accepted fact of life for many generations, the lead researcher, Marques Casara, and his team witnessed children loading the large talc deposits from the mine into wheelbarrows.

After collection the talc is processed and sold to multi-nationals for use in the production of paints, ceramics, coloured pencils, medicine, soaps and cosmetics.

The report - called The Age of Stone - claims that ICI paints, the German chemical company Basf and the German crayon manufacturer Faber-Castell have purchased processed talc from the mine. The 1990 conservation of the world-famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro was also completed with soapstone extracted from the same mine, researchers discovered.

The Bihar government today said that it was committed to abolish child labour and it had taken a number of measures to check the practice.

Replying to a calling attention motion by Raghubansh Prasad Yadav (Independent), Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said in the Legislative Council that the employment of child labourers in hazardous units had been prohibited in the state under the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986, but their employment in "non-hazardous" units was yet to be banned.

He said that altogether 398, 385 and 259 cases were lodged in 2002-2003, 2003-04 and 2004-05 respectively against employers for violating the act and efforts were on to rehabilitate the child labourers under the National Child Labour Programme.

He said that 105 schools had been opened exclusively for child labourers in Saharsa, Jamui and Nalanda districts where 6,500 children were being imparted formal education and vocational training. They were also being provided mid-day meal and a monthly stipend of Rs 100.

The Centrally-sponsored child labour programme would be extended to 21 other districts where schools for them would be opened, he said.

He said that the Bihar government Servant Service Rules, 1976 had been amended to ensure that no government servant employed a child below 14 years of age as domestic help.

A State Child Labour Commission had also been constituted to suggest ways to eradicate child labour, Modi said.

A survey conducted by Save the Children, UK, Right Track and Loreto Day School, Sealdah, has revealed that 46 per cent of child domestic workers (CDW) in Calcutta are primary school dropouts. “Since most of these CDWs are girls, their parents either thought education is unnecessary for them or they couldn’t afford it. We are trying to urge employers to resume these children’s education. They can be sent to government and municipal schools, if not to the same schools that their wards are in,” said Manabendra Ray of Save the Children.

Through a Powerpoint presentation on the survey at the city-level Consultation on Child Domestic Work held at Rotary Sadan on Friday, Paramita Chakraborty and Madhusree Ghosh, students of Loreto Sealdah, pointed out that 84 per cent of CDWs work more than eight hours a day. Besides being denied proper food and rest, these children also fall prey to mental and physical abuse.

Kunal Dey, a member of Juvenile Justice Board, rued that in not one case the employer been penalised for causing physical and/or mental trauma to the child domestic worker. This despite the law recognising it as a cognisable offence, calling for a jail term of three to six months and a fine.

The existing central law on child labour needs to be amended and should also include the farm sector, experts said at a workshop here.

"The existing Child Labour (prohibition and regulations) Act, 1986 does not cover the farm sector in which 85 per cent of the child labour are engaged" which is unfortunate, a document circulated at the consultation on child labour, said.

Pointing out that children were denied opportunity to attend school to help their parents in farming, the document said if the male child was to work on the farm, the girl child was expected to look after children or tend cattle at home.

Even a random study of the dropouts in the rural areas revealed that most of the school going girls did not complete their education upto Class V, it said.

The Central government had acceded to the UN Conventions of the rights of the child but nearly 100 million child labour, including a large number of girls, were engaged in various activities such as in the domestic sector, cottage industry and also in farming, the document said.

This was continuing despite constitutional safeguards under Articles 24 and 39 and legal safeguard like the Act, it pointed out. The workshop - organised by the Campaign against Child Labour (CACL), an umbrella organisation of over 6000 anti-child labour groups - was inaugurated by veteran journalist and former high commissioner to UK, Kuldip Nayar and UNICEF's Orissa representative Tom Olsen.

Olsen said if India aimed to become a developed nation by 2020, it must ensure that the over 100 million children, working as child labourers, developed to their full potential.

Amid much enthusiasm and spontaneity among children, 'Bangladesh Children Festival 2006' began yesterday at Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre (BCFCC) in the city.

The entire area of BCFCC and its premises were bustling with thousands of children from over 40 schools across the country at the inaugural day of the festival.

Under the theme 'We will build Bangladesh as dreamt of', the festival will present before the children the nation building materials of the country that will help them dream of a prosperous country and inspire them to embody those dreams.

The festival authorities arranged science exhibition, space theatre, book exhibition, clothing exhibition, bird fair, theme park, puppet and muppet (giant replica of animals) show, magic show, public speaking, debate, painting competition and cultural programme.

With a view to fostering the latent talent and freethinking ability of children, the festival is aimed at creating a sense of patriotism among the children, said the organisers.

Addhayan Shishu Foundation in association with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and Bangladesh Shishu Academy organised the festival that will remain open for all from 10:00am to 9:00pm till March 1.

President Iajuddin Ahmed inaugurated the festival in the morning and it was opened for all including the underprivileged children at 3:00pm.

"We arranged transport for the street children so that they can visit the festival, enjoy and take part in different activities," said event manager Kawser Mahmud.

School going children were seen entering different pavilions in queue with curiosity to know about the country, its liberation war, tradition and historical places while the science exhibition was crammed with different projects of young scientists from different schools. Bangladesh Astronomical Association, Parjatan Corporation and Jubok Tourism arranged all these events.

Muna, a student of Mirpur Bangla High School, while taking part in the space ship making game, told this correspondent that the school authorities brought them to the festival.

"I am very happy for being here because I have learnt many things from the exhibitions of the festival. It would be great if it is held every year," she added.

Adults can also enter the festival with a charge of Tk 5 as entry fee. All the proceeds from the entry fees will be donated to Ahsania Mission Cancer Hospital.

UNB adds: President Iajuddin Ahmed yesterday called for properly grooming children through developing their latent talents for the welfare of the country and nation.

He was inaugurating Bangladesh Children Festival 2006 at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.

The President also called for building up a social movement against child labour.

"It is our moral obligation to ensure children's rights and their security in society," he told the function.

Minister for Women and Children Affairs Begum Khurshid Zahan Haque attended the programme as special guest.

At the outset, the President thanked the organisers for contributing to children's welfare, including protecting their rights and creating congenial environment for bringing them up as ideal citizens.

He said prosperity lies in children, which could be tapped through ensuring proper care and environment for them.

He termed family as the 'secured shelter' for children and 'first school of development' and said, "That's why families have to give importance on their physical and mental development."

Iajuddin said the whole world is very much aware of proper development of the children at present and Bangladesh is no exception.

He said Bangladesh is one of the 22 countries to have signed the Children Rights Convention in 1990. It also supports UN Children Rights Convention, National Children Convention and all related national and international laws, policies and conventions for the welfare of the children, he added.

The President appreciated the role of Bangladesh Shishu Academy, established in 1976 aiming to explore children's latent talent.

He stressed the family awareness for expediting implementation of the children's rights.

He appreciated different government programmes, including supplying primary textbooks to the students for free and stipend for girls that play vital role in their development.

"The children can be turned into human resources if positive results is achieved from these programmes," he said.

He said all have to be careful in giving preference to children's health, education, nutrition and manners.

Media representatives from across the country have stressed that the government should give top priority to the issue of child labour and come out with a concrete time bound action plan for total elimination of child labour.

The recommendations were made at a two-day national media consultation on Freeing the Girl Child from Labour, here yesterday.

The participants decided to form an E-group to share ideas to fight against child labour and voiced the need for a stringent law and mass awareness on the issue that more than 110 million children are exploited in the country.

About 140 journalists working for both English and vernacular media unanimously agreed on setting up an idea bank and an E-group to fight the problem better. “Many a time we are in complete darkness about the happenings even in our neighbouring states. An E-group and idea bank would be a revolutionary move for the improvement of society,” the media representatives observed.

Participating in the brainstorming session, veteran journalist Gopal Mishra said: “We will form a core group comprising veteran media persons and NGOs to persuade political masters to come up with a law that makes employment of girl child a punishable offence”.

On the concluding day of the two-day programme organised by the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL), seven girl children from Orissa, Karnataka, Bihar and West Bengal narrated their experiences and pleaded to media persons to rescue those who are toiling hard to survive. The young group included one boy from Bihar, and two each from Orissa, Karnataka and West Bengal.

Kali Samal, a girl who had been rescued from a brick factory in Cuttack, has also recently participated in the World Social Forum held in Brazil.

The President’s declaration of 2006 as the year devoted to the Child makes us often wonder, how close we are in realizing the rights of the child as stated in the Convention proclaimed by the UN General Assembly resolution of 20th November 1959. Sri Lanka was one of the signatories.

The Convention spells out the basic human rights that children every where should enjoy; the right to survival to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. Children in Sri Lanka, specially those in the rural and under developed areas of the country are the most vulnerable and few enjoy any of the rights set out.

Article 9 of the Convention is specific on child labour and states that ‘the child shall not be admitted to employment before an appropriate minimum age; he shall in no case be caused or permitted to engage in any occupation or employment which would prejudice his health or education, or interfere with his physical, mental or moral development’ This condition is most violated in countries where poverty exists.

Trócaire Director Justin Kilcullen has called for a renewed commitment to protect the rights of children, particularly the 250 million caught up in forced labour worldwide. Speaking as the organisation launched its annual Lenten campaign in Dublin today, February 28, Mr Kilcullen said the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which outlaws child labour, had been a landmark document in 1989
but it was time to revisit it because of the growing number of children in work.

TV3 presenter and TV Personality of the Year Mark Cagney joined Mr Kilcullen, two former child workers from Nicaragua and the senior infants at Scoil Chaitríona's, National School on Baggot Street, Dublin to mark the start of Trócaire’s annual event. This year’s campaign deals with children’s rights and child labourers, including those trapped in exploitative and dangerous situations on the coffee plantations of Nicaragua.

“IT’S so painful to explain and I don’t want to recall the situation that I was in those years.”
This is how Miiro Alpha describes the traumatic experiences she encountered as a child prostitute in the streets of Uganda’s capital, Kampala.

She has just turned 20 and still recalls the hardships she went three years ago in search of what she calls “means for survival”

She was forced to quit schooling at St. Denis Kijagolo Secondary School, as she had no one to pay for her school fees.

Her father died when she was just three years old. She came to know his face through some photos her kept at their Kawempe residential home.

Her mother, a tailor, could not pay for her education and at the same time take care of the other three children. Two of her sisters are now married while her brother is in secondary school. “Life was miserable and sometimes we slept without eating anything,” she recalls. “I thought through selling my body I could earn enough money to be able to look after myself,” says Miiro.