The International Labour Organization (ILO) International Programme to Eliminate Child Labour TACKLE Project in Sierra Leone has trained Stakeholders at the Hill Valley Hotel in Freetown to tackle child Labour in communities, and industries. 

According to the ILO IPEC Tackle Project Coordinator Sia Lajaku –Williams the objective of the training is to create greater awareness of the nature, extent and consequences of early child work to meet international adherence to the cause of human rights, including child rights.

She said Stakeholders have mapped out strategies to tackle child Labour in the country by formulating and executing laws and punishments for defaulters by ensuring the immediate ratification of the ILO Convention on Child Labour. 

Government officials also vowed to facilitate the speedy ratification and domestication of the convention to make them part of Sierra Leone and to also monitor children by establishing child labour department and agency to capacitate them.

The Sierra Leone Labour Congress has also agreed to organize workers to advocate for children’s rights and also affiliate trade unions that seek the welfare of workers who are parents of children by ensuring that employers do not employ children below 15years.

The Labour Congress will also assist in lobbying government to ratify and domesticate the convention relating to child labour and also help to implement policies and sensitize workers and the general public to prevent child labour.

Parents and guardians having the morale obligation of taking care of their children are often perpetrators of child abuse, some of the parents promised to ensure that children are protected and that they should not be a source of income through early marriage, begging or engaging in work such as farming, mining and other hazardous work. 

The family support unit of the Sierra Leone Police also promised to include child rights laws in police training manuals to be strategic in handling child rights cases and where there is need to ensure that the matter is amicably settled impartially and to strictly ensure enforce and prosecute violators of children’s rights.

International donors and partners to also support government and child protection agencies with finance and technical support to enable them implement programmes relating to child rights.

The media and the children’s forum network also promised to carry out massive awareness campaign against child labour.   

ALL ACTIVITIES to prevent child labourare fair, but actually it is not working due to insufficient knowledge among citizens. We all know that a number of committees are appointed, number of government employees are meant to follow up, and a number of organizations are formed but still child labour continues. The biggest reason is lack of awareness of the citizens. And to curb it only citizens can start a movement.

The main reason for child labour is poverty. Wordsworth said that “Child is the father of the Man” so it is the moral duty of a citizen to help children have a bright, healthy and prosperous future. Due to unemployment poverty increases but it is not the only reason. There are several other reasons for poverty such as a large number of members in a family, lack of awareness and the percentage of uneducated.

Another reason for child labour is lack of education. If a parent is not educated how can he make his child understand the importance and value of education? We have many schemes and programmes of the state and central government regarding education but it will actually be of help when citizens of the nation come forward and help.

Exploitation of cheap labour generates more and more child labour as it is very easy to exploit a child compared to an adult and most employers take advantage and exploit children at cheap wages.

The main motive of this article is not just to draw the attention of the government or the organizations working for the cause but to motivate and to encourage the young generation and citizens of this nation so that we can and we will change the view of society and help stop child labour
 
Let’s come together and make the difference.

New Delhi, Nov 20 (PTI) To spread awareness about child exploitation, a campaign was kicked-off here by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by releasing a 'no child labour' logo.

"This logo symbolizes the commitment towards removing the menace of child labour. People are requested to look out for this logo when they buy any product and make sure that their purchases are not tainted by the labour of children," she said.

Dikshit also appealed to manufacturers and employers to desist from hiring children and appealed them to put this logo in their workplace and on their products.

She also launched a website called "Found children website" to disseminate information about all lost children residing in various children's homes in Delhi.

The Chief Minister urged police and NGOs to take proactive action and stressed on imparting useful education including skill development of children who have been taken out of the ambit of child labour.

BEIRUT: Palestinian children in the camps of Lebanon are losing faith in the value of an education, with record numbers leaving school to work. “We are facing a big problem here,” said Ray Virgilio Torres, the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Lebanon. “There seems to be a growing number of children in the camps that do not think that a school education will profit them … education holds no promise.

“A Palestinian refugee can hold a master’s degree in medicine, and he still would not find a job.” 
Addressing the problems of Palestinian children has always been a key issue for the organization; UNICEF’s very first field office was established in 1948, in Palestine.

Twenty years ago this Friday, the UN adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. To mark the occasion, UNICEF presented the findings of a survey on child labor in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.  

The results of this most recent survey made it clear that the organization’s work was far from done. 
The data, collected in 10 of the 12 officially recognized Palestinian refugee camps, indicates that 6.4 percent of the children from the ages of 7 to 17 engaged in employment. 

This figure does not include girls that have to stay at home and work, without being paid. 

“If we were to add them, the number would see a drastic increase,” said Torres. 

Most of the male children work in factories and industrial sites, in construction and in car repair shops; the majority of the girls work in the service sector. 

In 82 percent of the cases, the work involves lifting heavy weights, and 72 percent are exposed to fumes and dust.  Almost none are covered by social or health security. 

More than two-thirds of the children work six or seven days a week, the average work day lasting 8.5 hours. However, the average monthly income for a child laborer does not exceed LL164,000 ($109), with girls receiving a lot less. 

“These numbers are worrying,” Torres told The Daily Star. “However, what really shocked me were the rates of school dropouts.” 

Some 15 percent of the children had left school. The older the children were, the less likely they were to stay. 

Of the 17-year olds, only half still attend classes. Half of the male dropouts leave school to start working, whereas only 7 percent of the girls go to work, which again points to a high number of girls working inside their families’ homes. 

By publishing this survey, Torres hopes to raise awareness for this issue. The next step, according to him, is to approach the people in the camps and work out solutions with them. 

“But first, we have to admit that this issue has not been sufficiently dealt with, not by us, not by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency, not by anyone. And now we are facing the fact that for many people in the camps, there is simply no point in getting an education.” 
Palestinian children learn about rights

SIDON: More than 100 children from the coastal city of Sidon and nearby Palestinian refugee camp Ain al-Hilweh met with children’s rights activists to mark 20 years since the signing of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

The talk, which was held at the conference hall of the Sidon Municipality, was organized by the Nabaa Association and the Gathering of Civil Society Organizations in Sidon. The children discussed with the organizers the content of the convention and compared it to the real life situation. A number recounted their experiences of how their rights were being breached. Nabaa project manager Imad Abdel-Razzak explained that the talk was an opportunity for the children to express their fears and learn about their rights. 

“This is also an opportunity to spread the children’s rights culture,” he added. 

Seven-year-old Walaa Abu Jamous called on teachers not to physically punish students, while 11-year-old Abdel-Rahman Abu Naaj complained that all Palestinian refugees were not treated “as proper human beings who have rights.” – Mohammed Zaatari

Universal Child Day is being celebrated by the international community, including Pakistan, on 20th November. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was signed on 20th November 1989, and so far the Convention has been ratified by 191 nation states. This day is a reminder for us to review our commitments and action for the protection and promotion of child rights.

Despite the ratification of UN CRC, successive Pakistani governments have failed to protect the future generation of the country. Therefore, abuse, neglect, and discrimination against children are widespread in the country.

Child labor is quite common and recognized as a serious problem in Pakistan. It is entirely difficult to present accurate figures of the child workforce; there is little doubt that child labor has assumed massive proportions in Pakistan. The actual total number of working children in Pakistan is probably somewhere between 2 and 19 million.

Child labor has been legislated against in several international conventions, most notably the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, which the Pakistani government ratified in 1990. There have also been several relevant pieces of national legislation enacted to protect the children.

The International Labour Organisation defines child labour as “work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children” (Article 3(d) Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (Number 182) 1999).

The exploitative practice of child labor has been recognized as one of the major socio-economic problems in Pakistan. Certainly, Child labor seriously jeopardizes children's prospects for a better future. No doubt children’s are involved in all forms of labor however in Karachi, the largest commercial city of the Pakistan, children’s engagement in rag picking is a common phenomenon.

Rag picking is one of the worst forms of child labor, and it is roughly estimated that more than 20,000 children are working as rag pickers in Karachi. Salman Mukhtar, General Secretary Initiator Human Development Foundation (IHDF), said that one can spotted these children at dumpsites, or in residential areas while collecting paper, plastics, and bottles, cardboard, tin, iron, and used syringes. He added that rag pickers get paid according to the quality of the materials they sell to middlemen or garbage collection centers.

They usually collect trash between 10 kilogram and 30 kilogram and spend 8 to 12 hours on the streets. They have very little earning to feed themselves and their families. It was informed that children of Afghan refugees are mostly working as rag pickers in Karachi. “When I don’t have money, I borrowed money from the owner of trash collector. He never refused to give me money and in return I have no choice but to sell all my trash to him on below market prices,” Noor Khan, a twelve year old rag picker informed. Not only Noor Khan but many rag pickers are under heavy debt and they are working in a bonded labor like situation.

Article 32 of CRC says: "State Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development".

Mr. Salman Mukhtar of IHDF observed that rag pickers children are vulnerable to all sorts of violence, abuse and discrimination. As, these children spend a considerable amount of time on the streets and without any adult supervision, they are generally harassed by the public and particularly by the police.
Gul Kareem, a ten year old rag picker, informed that, “police harassment is a routine episode for us and without any charges they search our sacks and sometime beat us severely. They demand money and even sexual favor; once on refusal they confined my friend for two days and perpetuated physical torture on him.”

Advocate Mohammad Hanif observed that rag pickers children are highly vulnerable to human and citizen rights abuses. He informed that the Constitution of Pakistan states: "No child below the age of fourteen, shall be engaged in any factory or mine or in any other hazardous employment." Also, "All forms of forced labor and traffic in human beings are prohibited." He told that a number of laws contain provisions prohibiting child labor or regulating the working conditions of child and adolescent workers; however, child rag pickers are not legally protected.

Dr. Iqra Raheem, a local Pediatrician, believed that due to their lifestyle these children are exposed to scabies, malaria, skin diseases and other health problems. There risk of falling ill is very high as they work in unhygienic, conditions and consume unhealthy food and Water. Additionally, their exposure to syringes puts them at risk of contracting infections like Hepatitis or HIV/AIDS. She suggested that hospitals, especially those running under government control, should adopt a comprehensive solid waste management policy.

Mr. Imdad Hussain, Program Officer in an environment focused NGO, observed that rag pickers provide a crucial support, to the city district government, in managing solid waste in Karachi. Though, we have never done any estimation to gauge the percentage of solid waste manage by the child rag pickers but it is assumed that they handle and dispose of atleast 12 percent of solid waste. These services allow the city district government to save a huge amount of money they would have to bear the cost and time of collecting solid waste.

The government has not recognized this as a priority issue, while very few citizen sector organizations are working on the issue of rag pickers in Pakistan. However, organizations working for child rag pickers clearly lacks understating about their problems and needs; therefore, actions that have been introduced to address the problems of child rag pickers have had very little impact so far. There is a dire need to understand the issue in totality and device strategies to tackle the problem effectively.

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984. The above statement has only been forwarded by the AHRC.

AUSSENKEHR – The security sector at Aussenkehr says one of the major obstacles to peace and stability in the area is in women and child abuse, of which child labour is a seeming growing concern.

Manager of Health, Safety and Security of the informal settlement, Mathias Hepute, says children are often brought to Aussenkehr by their parents or other relatives to work as babysitters for smaller children, and take responsibility for cooking and cleaning, while adults work in the grape vineyards. 

These children, he said, are in most cases taken out of school to work in the makeshift households. 

With an average of six people received at the informal settlement per day, the child population – of children between the ages of 0 to 14 – has grown from 580 last year to 720 this year, although the figure varies with seasonal workers moving in and out during the year. 

Hepute says in 2004, a case of child trafficking came to the attention of the security services, which for a long time served as a law enforcement agency in the absence of a police station in the town. 

This particular case involved an 11-year-old Zambian girl, brought to the settlement by an Angolan national, who kept the child at his makeshift home for domestic labour. 

The man eventually impregnated the child and subsequently he was given a jail sentence.

There are currently three cases the security service is aware of in the settlement, while residents claim that this is more prevalent than what the community – and the law enforcement agencies – care to acknowledge.

Fourteen-year-old Regina (not her real name), originally from Sauyema in the Kavango Region, told New Era that her mother had sent her to Aussenkehr to be the babysitter to her aunt’s then one-month-old baby. 

Regina said she had not been to school since she arrived at Aussenkehr, saying that there was no money for school. 

She attended Grade 6 while with her mother. 

Her aunt, who works for the Government-owned Namibia Grape Company, said Regina, leaves for work at 07h00, often returning home as late as 22h00 or 24h00. 

In the meantime, the 14-year-old is left alone and in charge of the baby – now nine months old – and responsible for housekeeping. 

“I want to go back home, and go back to school,” said Regina, while holding the baby on her hip. 

A security officer said they have received earlier reports of babies left in the care of others dying of thirst or other illnesses not detected by their young minders.

He said the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare has been informed of the situation in the informal settlement.

It was not clear what remedial action the ministry or any other agency of Government has taken so far. 

But while this problem persists, the abuse of women is similarly growing, as the prevalence of shebeens increases, said Hepute. 

The informal settlement now has 55 registered shebeens.

Over the last month-and-a-half, the security service recorded cases of women being chased out of the matrimonial homes by their husbands with their children in tow, refusing them money or food, and often beating them up. 
AUSSENKEHR – The security sector at Aussenkehr says one of the major obstacles to peace and stability in the area is in women and child abuse, of which child labour is a seeming growing concern.

Manager of Health, Safety and Security of the informal settlement, Mathias Hepute, says children are often brought to Aussenkehr by their parents or other relatives to work as babysitters for smaller children, and take responsibility for cooking and cleaning, while adults work in the grape vineyards. 

These children, he said, are in most cases taken out of school to work in the makeshift households. 

With an average of six people received at the informal settlement per day, the child population – of children between the ages of 0 to 14 – has grown from 580 last year to 720 this year, although the figure varies with seasonal workers moving in and out during the year. 

Hepute says in 2004, a case of child trafficking came to the attention of the security services, which for a long time served as a law enforcement agency in the absence of a police station in the town. 

This particular case involved an 11-year-old Zambian girl, brought to the settlement by an Angolan national, who kept the child at his makeshift home for domestic labour. 

The man eventually impregnated the child and subsequently he was given a jail sentence.

There are currently three cases the security service is aware of in the settlement, while residents claim that this is more prevalent than what the community – and the law enforcement agencies – care to acknowledge.

Fourteen-year-old Regina (not her real name), originally from Sauyema in the Kavango Region, told New Era that her mother had sent her to Aussenkehr to be the babysitter to her aunt’s then one-month-old baby. 

Regina said she had not been to school since she arrived at Aussenkehr, saying that there was no money for school. 

She attended Grade 6 while with her mother. 

Her aunt, who works for the Government-owned Namibia Grape Company, said Regina, leaves for work at 07h00, often returning home as late as 22h00 or 24h00. 

In the meantime, the 14-year-old is left alone and in charge of the baby – now nine months old – and responsible for housekeeping. 

“I want to go back home, and go back to school,” said Regina, while holding the baby on her hip. 

A security officer said they have received earlier reports of babies left in the care of others dying of thirst or other illnesses not detected by their young minders.

He said the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare has been informed of the situation in the informal settlement.

It was not clear what remedial action the ministry or any other agency of Government has taken so far. 

But while this problem persists, the abuse of women is similarly growing, as the prevalence of shebeens increases, said Hepute. 

The informal settlement now has 55 registered shebeens.

Over the last month-and-a-half, the security service recorded cases of women being chased out of the matrimonial homes by their husbands with their children in tow, refusing them money or food, and often beating them up. 

BRASILIA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Overworked, starved and humiliated, the 30-year-old Brazilian woman cannot forget what it was like as a child laborer. After all these years, the haunting memory is still biting when she recalls her childhood.

Etelca Vieira dos Santos started working when she was only 6. After her family moved into a small town, she was "given" to a family and worked for them in exchange for food and shelter.

"I was exploited," she said. "The environment was so harsh that I ran away from that house when I was 8. I was looking for my mother and found her but she gave me to another family in Campo Grande as soon as she could."

Etelca had lived for seven years with the family in Campo Grande, the capital city of Mato Grosso do Sul state. She used to work from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. in return for nothing but food and a place to sleep.

"I was always starving and humiliated. I did not know anyone in the city. I was badly treated from the moment I got up until bedtime," she said.

Child labor exploitation was one of the major social issues facing Brazil. According to the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 12.7 percent of children aged between 5 and 17 were child laborers in 2001 with 41.2 percent of them unpaid.

Fortunately, Etelca managed to study when she was young. Yet she was forced to grow mature without truly living her childhood and adolescence." The worst thing was the humiliation and lack of freedom to come and go and express ideas," Etelca said.

When Etelca turned 15, the family she worked for treated her nicely. Etelca was paid and taken care of. The family even paid for her to study tourism and gastronomy at college.

The story of Etelca has a happy ending. The efforts of the Brazilian government to eliminate child labor have also produced positive results. Survey showed the proportion of child laborers aged between 5 and 17 is dropping while that of children attending school in the same age group is increasing in recent years.

The government's efforts have drawn praise from the International Labor Organization (ILO). Michele Jankanish, director of the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC), said Brazil had managed to generate new skills and increase efforts to deal with the problem.

In October 2009, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and East Timor signed an agreement to work together to eradicate child labor and strengthen social protection by 2020, with the support of ILO.

Etelca now is working in a restaurant. She planned to go to SaoPaulo to work with well-known chefs and come back to Campo Grande to set up her own business.

"Dreaming is free, isn't it?" she said.

Although lack of a normal childhood has caused psychological problems that still disturb Etelca, she still has dreams about the future. In Etelca's eyes, the key to root out child labor is "investment in education and respect to child rights".

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/15/content_12458719.htm

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Labor and Employment will order the closure of any establishments or business firms found violating any provisions of Republic Act 9231, otherwise known as “An Act Providing for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor and Affording Stronger Protection for the Working Child.”

DOLE however clarified that business firms or establishments found violating any provisions of the law will only face closure after it will be “found to have violated three times.”

A proper procedure of closure such as prior notice and hearing shall be conducted first before the final closure, unless there are reasonable grounds to immediately close the said firms or establishments.

The DOLE secretary or the regional directors within their jurisdiction shall be the one to implement the said closure.
In its Department Circular No.3, Series of 2009 providing for the Guidelines on the Procedure for Closure of Business, Firm, or Establishment under R.A. 9231, DOLE specified that immediate closure shall be applied in any of the following circumstances: the violation of any of the provisions of RA 9231 has resulted in the death, insanity, or serious physical injury of a child worker; the firm or establishment is employing a child for prostitution or obscene or lewd shows; or there is imminent danger to the life and limb of the child.

With the said circular coming out, the DOLE shall go full-swing in its efforts to eliminate worst forms of child labor here in the country.

LIBREVILLE, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Gabon repatriated 28 children out of the 34 found on an immigrants boat on Friday evening to Benin, their country of origin, aboard an Ivorian Air airplane.

Well dressed, a doll in the hands of some trafficking victims, and others holding a photo, these children left the Gabonese capital Libreville under strict escort.

The UNICEF representatives, Gabon's Ministry of Labor officials and host families came to the airport to say good-bye to the children.

Arranged like school children, they jumped the metal detector with a UNICEF official from Benin, who had come from Cotonou to keep watch during their journey and the future insertion into their respective families.

There are six children from Togo and Mali still staying in Libreville. The formalities for their repatriation have not yet been started.

They all arrived in Gabon aboard a boat flying a Ghanaian flag and was taken on Oct. 18 by the Gabonese navy. The boat was transporting a total of 288 passengers including 135 from Benin, 78 from Togo, 22 from Mali and 21 from Burkina Faso.

Only 24 adults were legal passengers and allowed to stay in Gabon. The 34 minors on board were placed in a home pending their repatriation.

"We are pleased to see them go back very happily," said Jeanne Nyalendo from the Ministry of Labor.

"This case poses a problem of child trafficking and exploitation to Gabon," she added.

In the sad chain of child trafficking and exploitation in Africa, Gabon has become a recipient of child slaves. These children come from Benin, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso and sometimes Nigeria.

They are placed in the homes of the West African nationals who stay in Gabon and exploit them just as slaves, making them suffer inhuman treatment.

Under the international pressure, Gabon adopted a law prohibiting human trafficking in 2000

THE DEPARTMENT of Labor and Employment (DoLE) yesterday said any business establishment caught committing three counts of violating anti-child labor laws will face closure.

In a statement, Labor Secretary Marianito D. Roque said the new ruling was stated in the circular issued by the department last week for Republic Act 9231 which seeks the "elimination of the worst forms of child labor and affording stronger protection for the working child."

Prior notice and hearing will be made before closure orders are served, Mr. Roque said.

He added immediate closure, which shall not exceed five working days from the receipt by the Labor regional director of the complaint or petition for closure, however, will be applied if the violation results in the death, insanity or physical injury of the child worker, as well as if the firm employs the child for prostitution.

Mr. Roque said documentary evidence such as inspection report; proof of child’s age; sworn statement of the complainant child or children and their witnesses; photographs; daily time record or time sheet; results of physical and medical examination issued by a competent medical practitioner; accident report; and business license or permit or registration of the business, firm, or establishment concerned from the Securities and Exchange Commission should be attached to the closure order.

In an interview, Edgard G. Lacson, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: "Any firm or company hiring whether child or adult resulting in physical injury, insanity or even death due to gross negligence of employer or unfit working conditions should be looked into at the first instance. We do not have to wait for three instances. The firm should be closed at the first instance if the matter is proven that there was negligence on the part of the employer."

http://beta.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=1020

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has given regional directors the power to shut down operations of establishments that violate child labor laws.

Department Circular No. 3 s. 2009 says that any business, firm, or establishment that would violate any of the provisions of Republic Act No. 9231 “more than three times” may be ordered closed by the DoLE secretary or its regional directors.

The new guidelines also allow the immediate closure of firms under certain circumstances.

Labor and Employment Secretary Marianito Roque said the guidelines not only provides legal bases to enforce RA 9231 but also serves as a shortlist that DoLE regional directors as well as other law enforcement agencies can use in carrying out their duties.

"With the circular out, the DoLE shall go full-swing in our efforts to eliminate worst forms of child labor in the country. Through significant and cautious steps, we can look forward to a child labor-free Philippines in the immediate future," he said.

According to the guidelines, firms can be order closed immediately if a violation of any of the provisions of RA 9231 resulted in the death, insanity, or serious physical injury of a child worker; if the firm or establishment is employing a child for prostitution or obscene or lewd shows; or if there is imminent danger to the life and limb of the child.

Imminent danger, as defined under Rule 1012.02 of the Occupational Safety and Health Standards is a condition or practice that could reasonably be expected to cause death or serious physical harm before abatement under the enforcement procedures can be accomplished.

BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The international community has been making efforts to improve the welfare of children worldwide with the advocacy of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, approved by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1989.

The following are some figures released by the UNICEF on the improvement of children's welfare in the past 20 years and the challenges that still remain.

PHYSICAL HEALTH

In 1990, the population of children under 15 years old was 1.7 billion.

About 90 out of 1000 babies died before their fifth birthday, making the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) 90 per thousand. That year also saw 12.5 million deaths of children under five years old.

In the following years, routine immunization became increasingly important. This medical intervention is estimated to have saved 2.5 million lives annually.

At the beginning of this century, the UN set as one of its Millennium Development Goals to reduce the U5MR by two thirds by 2015.

Working towards this goal, governments have been taking action to enhance medical services for children.

In 2008, the population of children worldwide was 2.2 billion. The global U5MR dropped to 65 per thousand, and the under-five deaths decreased to 8.8 million.

However, a World Health Organization report issued in May 2009 stated that the U5MR reduction of nearly one third since 1990 still lags far behind the UN Millennium Development Goal.

EDUCATION

In 1990, 130 million children were not able to get proper education. This number dropped to 101 million in 2007. Moreover, the proportion of children who had studied until the last primary grade in developing countries was more than 90 percent from 2000 to 2007.

However, compared to primary education, secondary education is being promoted at a less satisfactory speed. In the developing world excluding China, only 42 percent of children are attending middle schools.

In addition, gender disparity is a major issue in education promotion. Girls rather than boys, rural rather than urban residents are more prone to be denied admission to school. Literacy among young men is 1.2 times higher than among young women in the least developed countries.

Gender discrimination in primary education is most serious in the regions of North, Middle and East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

DRINKING WATER SAFETY

Half of the world's children were not able to drink clean water in 1990.

More than 1.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water sources between 1990 and 2006, and thus many children's drinking safety was secured.

Nevertheless, approximately 42.5 million children still lack access to clean drinking water. A total of 1.5 million children under the age of five lost their lives because of unsafe drinking water or a shortage of sanitary facilities.

Drinking unsafe water is a more serious problem in rural areas because of the unbalanced clean water distribution. Piped water is more than twice as accessible to urban households than to rural residents. In the Asia-Pacific region alone, the drinking conditions for 560 million people need to be improved.

CHILD PROTECTION

Child labor is a major issue in the protection of the rights of the child. A number of initiatives have been made to reduce the number of children engaged in child labor. Among them, the most prominent is the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).

In 2004, a report issued by the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated the number of children engaged in child labor was 11 percent less than that in 2000.

However, according to the latest study by the UN Children's Fund, at least 150 million children under 14 were still engaged in child labor globally.

In addition, violation of children's rights are demonstrated by the following statistics.

Up to 500 million to 1.5 billion children are victims of violence to various degrees. In addition, 145 million children lost at least one of their parents, 15 million deaths being causedby AIDS. The lives of 60 million children in 33 countries are affected by military conflicts. Finally, 1.2 million children are victims of child trafficking every year.

CHENNAI: In a hitherto uncovered area in child labour, the Bt Cotton sector has now been found to be exploiting tribal children, as young as eight years, just because they come cheap.

That companies like Rasi, Monsanto, Bayer and Nuziveedu are employing tribal children in their contract farms has come to light through a study on supply chain in Hybrid Cotton Seed Production in Salem and Dharmapuri.

For a daily wage of Rs 80 the children toil from 5 am to 7 pm.

Since the peak work period is between October and December when cotton blooms, contractors visit tribal settlements in Shervoray Hills of the Eastern Ghats and take children by paying parents paltry sums of Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 as an advance.

According to Dr Davuluri Ven - kateswarlu, Director of Glocal Research Institute, Hyderabad, who conducted the study, of the 1,20,000 people employed in cotton seed production in Tamil Nadu, 75 per cent are under 18 years and 20 per cent below 14. The largest group, which is 45 per cent of the workforce, is aged between 16 and 18. Girls constitute 55 per cent of the workers.

Venkateswarlu said the children had to work for 90 days without a break as the cross pollination, which is facilitated by manually dusting the pollen on the bloom, has to be done within 24 hours of the flower blooming, to produce quality seeds.

Migrant labour forms eight per cent of the workforce in the 10,000 acres under Bt- Hybrid Cotton production in the state, of which 90 per cent is in Salem district.

The reason cited for employing these children is cheap labour.

New Delhi Ahead of the India-EU Summit on Friday, the European Union today raised issues of child labour and environment again, saying these must be addressed in the free trade area negotiations between the two sides.

“...in today’s world we have to address the relationship between trade and other things...we have to address these issues,” EU Ambassador to India Danielle Smadja said, adding it is the time to “jump into the cold water of give and take”.

India is in negotiations with the 27-nation European bloc for a FTA since 2007 but differences persist despite seven rounds of talks. It has been arguing that issues of child labour and environment should be kept away from trade.

Differences also persist on transparency on government procurement.

“The FTA negotiations are very complex...there are a number of factors which are making the negotiations slower,” Smadja said.

The 10th India-EU Summit to be attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (Sweden holds EU’s rotating presidency) would also discuss climate change, counter terrorism and regional issues.

“The Summit would give aspiration and put some political inspiration into the discussions of trade and investment,” Smadja said, adding “FTA would definitely be high on the discussions”. INDIA-EU 2 LST For concluding the FTA aimed at boosting USD 80 billion bilateral trade, the two sides need to find convergence on level of tariff reduction on bulk of the trade.

“We still have very difficult negotiations...there are sensitivities on both the sides,” Smadja said. However, she hoped the two sides could reach the trade opening deal in 2010.

The leaders would exchange views on how the countries are coping with the global financial crisis and the changing role of developing countries in the new world economic order.

Patna, Nov 5 (PTI) The Bihar government has launched a new plan for rehabilitation of child labourers, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said today.

"Under the action plan, specific steps for schooling, motivation, awareness and stringent enforcement of law will be taken for release and rehabilitation of child labourers," Modi said.

He expressed dissatisfaction over the manner in which the centrally-sponsored scheme, National Child Labour Project (NCLP), was being executed in the state.

To ensure proper utilisation of funds, Modi asked the Centre to send the money allocated for the scheme to the state government instead of directly sending it to the districts.

The state government should be given the authority to formulate its own schemes, he said adding that proper utilisation of NCLP funds meant setting up special schools for the rescued child labourers.

November 05, 2009

Accra, Nov 4, GNA -  Thirteen-year-old Kwasi Boadu stood in the middle of his father's farm confused and angry at himself for his inability to identify the big tree where his father had dumped a heap of cocoyam he was to collect home for the family's supper.
    
Opanin Yaw Mensah, a rich and accomplished farmer, had told Boadu to collect the cocoyam from under a big 'krupia' tree at the fringes of his maize farm.
     
Yes, he remembered the name 'krupia'. He had heard his father repeat the name of that hardy tree three times but was at pains to identify which of the numerous trees surrounding him went by that name.
    
Even if he knew the names of the birds chirping above his head and they could talk, by what name was he going to call any of them? 
    
Like a fish out of water, Boadu stood there helpless until one of his elder brothers, Kwame Ansah, a successful farmer, arrived and asked of his mission on the farm.
    
Ansah laughed mockingly at his hapless brother after listening to his story and dragged him impatiently by the collar of his neatly ironed and stainless shirt to a shady but bulky tree where he saw the heap of cocoyam and shamefully collected them home. 
    
Boadu's predicament is typical of the village child who did not have the opportunity to experience village life before his sister took him away to attend school in Accra.
    
He did not stay in the village long enough to be conversant with farming and things of his environment.  He had not grown up long enough to enable him to learn the art of weeding, raising yam mounds or sowing maize.  He drew a blank when Children uprooted from their villages to the cities lose touch with the culture and environment in their communities. Not only that. They lose the 'village tutorials', considered to be the bedrock of chid upbringing.
    
The typical village child upbringing places emphasis on the dignity of labour and hard work, respect for the elderly, traditions and cultures, strong extended family bonds, evening story-telling, and communal lifestyle.
    
It also emphasizes tolerance, patience, good moral behaviour and infuses in the child the fear of God, which is he beginning of wisdom.
    
These values are greatly cherished in the typical small Ghanaian community where everyone knows everyone and where no family wants its image tarnished by the bad or wayward behaviour of any single member.
    
The properly trained rural child thus abhors laziness and disrespect for the elderly and moral turpitude due to the repercussions these might bring onto the entire family.
    
The rural child undergoes training in the father's or mother's profession at an early age of between eight and 12 years. Of course, every occupation or vocation has its hazards.
    
One cannot therefore rule out a few ones like bee and wasp stings, getting one's feet perforated by creeping thorns, snake bites or occasional cuts from one's own cutlass and being soaked by rain.
    
Farming is a difficult but respected and dignified vocation garnered from many years of practical experience and hard work.  It is, therefore, wrong to talk of children assisting their parents on their cocoa and other cash crop farms as being engaged in the worst form of child labour.
    
It is normal practice that children take part in farm work as a matter of routine to expose them to various farming and weeding techniques on usually Saturdays or holiday periods.

Growing urbanization and financial pressures are gradually weaning the Ghanaian child, defined under the Children's Act (1998) as "a person below the age of eighteen years", away from the rural communities into the cities and urban centres in search of work.
    
They end up on the streets to engage in menial work, and street selling, resulting in streetism, growth of sprawling shanties and environmental degradation.
    
Very hard pressed parents give out their children to distant relations or outright strangers for ludicrous sums of money and allow them to be trafficked outside the country to engage in hazardous jobs and prostitution.

Dignified Child Labour

The Act prohibits "exploitative child labour" or any form of labour that "deprives a child of its health, education or development" and puts the minimum age for which a child shall be admitted to employment as 15 years and its engagement in light work at 13 years".
    
However, it allows for the engagement of the child in hazardous work at 18 years.
   
In our traditional setting, however, the child is subjected to dignified form of labour at an earlier age of say 10 years or even lower to learn a few rudiments of the family's vocation but usually under very close supervision.

Hazardous Work!

The Children's Act defines hazardous work as one that 'poses danger to the health, safety or morals of a person'.
    
It cites 'going to sea, mining and quarrying, porterage of heavy loads, manufacturing industries where chemicals are produced or used, work in places where machines are used.
    
It also includes work in places such as bars, hotels and places of entertainment where a person may be exposed to immoral behaviour'.
    
But at what point does the fisherman's son learn fishing to enable him to take up the vocation of his father or at what age does he go on apprenticeship?

The Act specifies that "the minimum age at which a child may commence an apprenticeship with a craftsman is 15 years or after completion of basic education".
    
Apprenticeship, of course, goes with specific conditions to guarantee the well-being of the child under his or her care. These relate, in part, to provision of food, safe and healthy environment, protection of his or her interest and responsibility for his or her moral training.
    
But are craftsmen and women conforming to these guidelines, rules and obligations; are the bodies entrusted with oversight responsibilities able to carry out their functions?
    
For example, are our child care homes able to abide strictly by the rules governing their operations to ensure maximum comfort for these children? Not only that! There are several cases whereby even close relations maltreat children under their care

Deviations

There are countless numbers of deviations in child care and upbringing, which fall under the category of the worst forms of child labour. There are television footages of children working under harsh conditions in factories or other unsuitable locations in many parts of the world.
    
There also stories of children sold to unknown or strange persons who subject them to maltreatment and virtual slavery or even prostitution, severe and cruel beatings and other inhuman treatment.
    
The challenges for fighting the worst forms of child labour are real, and enforcement of child labour laws is said to be weak across the globe as a result of lack of resources and corruption.
    
An AFP report issued last August confirms this challenge and cites a United States Labour Department study as saying: "Enforcement efforts were chronically hindered by insufficient resources" and that many children continue to be involved in "dangerous and demeaning work that robs them of their childhood and, often, their future".
    
The report submitted to the US Congress blames this situation on poor salaries and inadequate training for child labour inspectors.
    
According to the report, in many of the 141 countries and territories reviewed, "there is a broad array of efforts underway to eliminate the worst forms of child labour".
    
Among countries cited for increased enforcement mechanisms in child trafficking are Ghana,Jamaica, Bolivia, Guinea, Malawi and Sierra Leone.

Another AFP report on Egypt reveals the stark realities of child labour and its inevitability in some societies, quoting the United Nations agency UNICEF(UN Children's Fund) as estimating that 2.7 million children between the ages of six and 14 in Egypt work.
    
"According to official statistics, a third of Egypt's 80 million population is below the age of 15 and Non-governmental Organizations say some 10 per cent of this population are forced to work, often in difficult conditions.
    
"In a country where 20 per cent live below the poverty line and another 20 per cent just above it, the practice of making children work is a bleak necessity and a reality that hardly causes a blink for most," it adds.
    
The report states again that though Egypt is a signatory to the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child, it has "largely been ignored despite occasional government efforts to revive its fight against child labour".
    
The danger of children working under such difficult conditions is their "vulnerability to protection rackets, prostitution and AIDS".  
    
In Ghana, there is a growing phenomenon of child mothers emanating from head porters (kayayee) who are raped and impregnated by their attackers in a community of street dwellers selling or purporting to sell all kinds of items.
    
If we cannot prevent children from working under hazardous conditions to eke out a living, then we must create a congenial environment to improve their lot.
    
In spite of the loud noise we are all making about these issues, there is also the other side of the coin where some few affluent persons subject house-helps to virtual slavery.
    
Human rights activists, non-governmental organizations, Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, National Commission for Children and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service have a lot more work to do to unearth the various forms of undignified or hazardous labour we all crave to eliminate from society.
    
But they must be trained and well resourced to enable Ghana to abide by the international conventions to eliminate the worst forms of child labour.
    
Perhaps Ghana must embrace the village tutoring, which infuses in children the dignity and decency of labour and not wrongly label children assisting their parents on their farms as engaging in 'the worst form of child labour'.
GNA

Indian labour investigators have rescued 25 child workers in a dawn raid on four toy factories in New Delhi.

The children, aged between 8 and 14 years old, had been forced to work without pay for a sweatshop boss after their parents were tricked into sending them to the city to enrol in a school.

Labour Department agents, working with children's charity Bachpan bachao Andolan (BBA), stormed the buildings using powers granted by India's Bonded Labourers Act, which commits the government to tougher enforcement of regulations that outlaw child labour.

BBA organiser Umesh Gupta revealed that the children had been forced to sleep in the factory and work "every hour that they could."

Mr Gupta explained that most of the children had been trafficked from their homes 800 miles east of the capital in Bihar state, between Nepal and Bangladesh, and were put to work making simple children's toys and intricate bindi forehead decorations.

Saleem, the youngest of the rescued children, said that he had "not been paid for my work although I toil from early morning to late night so that we are able to complete the orders.

"We were given two meals a day, but we are beaten for very small things like sleeping late or not doing our job properly," he said.

Mr Gupta said that traffickers had persuaded Saleem's father to let the child be taken to New Delhi to study, but that Saleem had been passed on to the sweatshop owner.

But he added that "now the children had been rescued, they can go home.

"On being handed over to their parents, they will be given a 20,000 rupees (about £250) in compensation and enrolled in government schools.

"A bank account will be opened in the child's name at the nearest post office, and a stipend of 300 rupees (about £4) deposited every month so that he or she continues with their studies," he said.

Campaigners against child poverty celebrated the sweatshop raid, but urged the government to step up prosecutions of exploitative bosses.

Save The Children worker Shireen Miller stressed that although the government had exposed 2,229 violations of the law in the past year, only 211 employers had actually been prosecuted.

"What are these figures in a country the size of India? Next to nothing," she insisted, adding that even the government's own figures suggested that there are more than 12 million children working in India.

In China a nationwide crackdown on human trafficking has uncovered more than 2,000 abducted children.

The parents of 60 children found during the child trafficking crackdown have yet to be located, prompting an unprecedented nationwide television appeal to help find them.

The government estimates around 2,500 children are abducted each year in China.

Most are trafficked to families who want a son, or a second child to get around the country's one-child policy.
Police say trafficked children are usually sold for around $2,000.

As part of the six-month operation to crack down on the practise, they have launched a new website to try and get more information about the whereabouts of missing children.

But while the government is hailing the crackdown as a success, families of missing children do not agree.

One family says those who buy children are rarely punished, increasing demand for human trafficking.

In response, Chinese police have shown the ABC a video of three stolen 10-year-old boys being reunited with their real parents.

In the video, the children, who were abducted seven years ago, do not recognise their birth families and ask to be taken away from them.