World Wide Day Against Child Labour

12th June,2015

 

Poverty pushes a high number of children in world wide to drop out of school and enter child labour as early as 10 years old. The ILO supports efforts of rehabilitation of public institutions and social partners to eliminate child labour, with an emphasis on its worst forms.

Education the First Priority:

 The World Day Against Child Labour this year will focus particularly on the importance of quality education as a key step in tackling child labour. It is very timely to do so, as in 2015 the international community will be reviewing reasons for the failure to reach development targets on education and will be setting new goals and strategies.

Facts and Figures in World Wide:

• Global number of children in child labour has declined by one third since 2015, from 246 million to 168 million children. More than half of them,85 million, are in hazardous work (down from 171 million in 2015).
• Asia and the Pacific still has the largest numbers (almost 78 million or 9.3% of child population), but Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region with the highest incidence of child labour (59 million, over 21%).
• There are 13 million (8.8%) of children in child labour in Latin America and the Caribbean and in the Middle East and North Africa there are 9.2 million (8.4%).
• Agriculture remains by far the most important sector where child labourers can be found (98 million, or 59%), but the problems are not negligible in services (54 million) and industry (12 million) – mostly in the informal economy.
• Child labour among girls fell by 40% since 2014, compared to 25% forboys.

Pakistan

It is very difficult to make a precise estimate of the magnitude of child Labour in Pakistan on account of numerous limitations on collecting the data. The last child labour survey was conducted by Nawaz Sharif government in 1996. According to the survey, 3.3 million children were working, out of which 73 per cent were boys and 27 per cent were girls. The children made up about 7 per cent of the total work force, according to the findings of the survey.

The provincial distribution indicated that the volume of child labour only in Punjab was about 1.9 million; three-fifths (60 per cent) of total child labour in the country. The second on the list was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where about one million children were labouring. Sindh had a population of 2,98,000 child labourers. The lowest figure, 14,000, was for Balochistan because of the lesser number of households reporting child labour.

Out of all the child labourers in Pakistan, majority is employed in agricultural occupations. Their activities include shepherding, collecting firewood, fetching water, spraying fertilizers, catering and caring for the siblings. According to the 1996 survey’s findings, there were eight times more children working in the rural areas then in urban areas. In urban settings, children are employed in more diversified occupations such as loading and unloading of goods, serving at hotels and restaurants, working at fisheries, auto workshops, rag picking, shoe-shining, begging etc.

A Rapid Assessment on child domestic labour was made by Status of Provincial Child Labour (SPARC) in Islamabad and four provincial capitals, based on selected localities covering 2,492 households in 2004. It revealed that every fourth household in Pakistan employs children for domestic purposes. Majority of these 62 per cent were girls. However, there were distinct provincial variations in the prevalence of female child domestic workers. In Peshawar and Quetta, the proportion of girls was lower than in Lahore, Karachi and twin cities. The KP and Balochistan are relatively conservative regions and do not encourage female mobility and employment.

Street children are one of the main issues these days. They work in varieties such as shoe-shining, selling flowers, pens or similar stuff. The problem of children living on the street is somewhat different from that of children working in factories and workshops who go home at the end of the day, while street children are on their own and at the mercy of their employers. An estimated 1.2 million children are on the streets of Pakistan’s major cities and urban centers, constituting the country’s largest and most ostracized social group. These include ‘runaway’ children who live or work on the street, as well as the minority that return to their families at the end of the day with their meager earnings. According to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) survey, 72 per cent of working children are not in contact with their families and 10 per cent have no unaware of their families details.

Multiple NGOs are working on child labour abuse, whereas the Government is also helping these NGOs by providing staff or official database.

As part of the society, we should also discourage the Child labour and put every possible effort to minimise this social injustice. We must consider them as a vital part of our youth and let them grow free rather than slaves. Providing them with education will surely result in a great contribution to the development of the country. Moreover, it will also lessen the rate of crimes, as these child labourers especially scavengers and beggars are commonly found involved in different crimes.

Kabul, Afghanistan

Poverty forces children to work and sacrifice their chance at an education. Today, this is sadly a common occurrence in Afghanistan. Estimates are difficult to come by but through various sources it can be stated that between 21 and 25 percent of Afghan children are part of the labor force. Children as young as 6 are often involved.

Child labor is hard to overcome in Afghanistan because although it is illegal by law for anyone under the age of 14 to work, many families are so desperate that they need one of their children to work in order to survive. Employers are desperate for cheap labor as well. The government seems to be doing little to enforce this law.

A common job for Afghan children in Kabul is working in brick factories. They can work up to 12 hours for around $1.40 a day. Other potential jobs for these children are working in bakeries, weaving, selling toilet paper and shopping bags, mining, washing cars or farming. Some children even begin to beg.

It is important to look at the physiological affects of child labor. Childhood is a time when people are supposed to be able to play and avoid the stresses of life.  This crucial time period allows them to develop into healthy adults. Research shows that, “75 percent of brain development occurs after birth. Play helps with that development by stimulating the brain through the formation of connections between nerve cells.” It is essential for children to play with their parents and with other children.

If Afghan children are working, they are missing out on this crucial developmental step. It is possible that a work environment would replace play and stimulate a child’s brain but it is not certain if they are gaining the right type of knowledge that a child would otherwise gain from play. The stress children endure when having to work will also cause other stunted developmental issues.

The main reason children are sent off to work is so that they can feed their families. This is due to a loss of a parent or both parents. A child might have to go to work because their father dies and their mother is unable to find work because of her gender. Poverty and gender bias seems to be two of the causes of child labor in Afghanistan.

Poverty in Afghanistan is caused by many factors, one being the fact that it has been in a state of almost perpetual war since 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded, followed by Taliban rule and the post 9/11 American invasion coupled with Taliban guerrilla warfare. But regardless of the reasons as to why poverty exists in Afghanistan, it is essential to raise people out of poverty so that child labor will cease.

The task of raising the Afghan people out of poverty is certainly not an easy one. There are a range of problems arising from misallocation of USAID funds by the Afghan government, the inability of U.S. officials to better Afghan government institutions and just general distrust and confusion between the two countries.

A possible solution to this would be for the U.S. to give money to more grassroots NGOs and intergovernmental organizations who are currently working in Afghanistan. This would get the aid directly to the most vulnerable people in Afghanistan, specifically children. Organizations like the World Food Programme have operations already in place. Activities like school meals, food for training, Food-for-Work, nutrition programs and flour fortification are being carried out in Afghanistan today. They also support programs that try to close the gender gap.

Imagine if the U.S. gave more money to these programs instead of fighting with the Afghan government over misallocated funds?  These programs are already helping thousands of Afghan people, why not help even more? Child labor in Afghanistan is increasing, and with poverty as its main cause, the U.S. government should put more of its aid money toward proven, successful poverty alleviation programs.

India

India is sadly the home to the largest number of child labourers in the world. The census found an increase in the number of child labourers from 11.28 million in 1991 to 12.59 million in 2001. M.V. Foundation in Andhra Pradesh found nearly 400,000 children, mostly girls between seven and 14 years of age, toiling for 14-16 hours a day in cottonseed production across the country of which 90% are employed in Andhra Pradesh.Child Labour in India 40% of the labour in a precious stone cutting sector is children. NGOs have discovered the use of child labourers in mining industry in Bellary District in Karnataka in spite of a harsh ban on the same. In urban areas there is a high employment of children in the zari and embroidery industry.

Poverty and lack of social security are the main causes of child labour. The increasing gap between the rich and the poor, privatization of basic services and the neo-liberal economic policies are causes major sections of the population out of employment and without basic needs. This adversely affects children more than any other group. Entry of multi-national corporations into industry without proper mechanisms to hold them accountable has lead to the use of child labour. Lack of quality universal education has also contributed to children dropping out of school and entering the labour force. A major concern is that the actual number of child labourers goes un-detected. Laws that are meant to protect children from hazardous labour are ineffective and not implemented correctly.

A growing phenomenon is using children as domestic workers in urban areas. The conditions in which children work is completely unregulated and they are often made to work without food, and very low wages, resembling situations of slavery. There are cases of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of child domestic workers. The argument for domestic work is often that families have placed their children in these homes for care and employment. There has been a recent notification by the Ministry of Labour making child domestic work as well as employment of children in dhabas, tea stalls and restaurants "hazardous" occupations.

Iran

There are many pressing humanitarian issues in the Middle East, but one that is often overlooked and under reported is the issue of child labor. Throughout the Middle East, and in fact much of the world, child labor is a critical issue involving exploitation, human trafficking and a fundamental breakdown in foundations of society.

Human trafficking and child labor have become increasingly prevalent in Iran, which according to reports is now one of the worst offenders of children rights in the world. The Iranian government has done little to resolve this issue, and has in fact been implicated in human trafficking and the exploitation of children.

Historically low income families with multiple children within Iran have viewed their offspring as a source of labor and income for the family. The existing child labor laws in Iran, and the lack of societal support and advocacy for the rights of children have created a climate where children are commonly subject to abuse and exploitation.

According to recent statistics, as many as 3 million or 22% of Iranian children under the age of 18 are not attending school. At least half of these children (1.5 million) are estimated to be in the work force. This trend not only deprives children of a chance to develop through education, but perpetuates a cycle of poverty and ignorance, leaving millions of children without opportunity or freedom- and damaging society for generations to come.

According to Iranian children’s rights activist Ali Akbar Esmailpour the issue of child labor in Iran is far worse than reported. Esmailpour told the Iranian Labor News Agency on Tuesday that the Iranian government has failed to accurately report on just how many children work in sweatshops in Iran.

“The only information at hand is the statistics regarding street children, because they are very visible, but this does not give the complete picture.” Esmailpour noted that the sixth parliament passed a law that exempted workshops with fewer than 10 employees from following labor laws. 

“This is why the ministry does not stand accountable for the child workers in such workshops.”

Under Iranian law, child labor is prohibited until the age of 15, but there remains a loophole which promotes the exploitation of children.”There is one major problem to this law: domestic work is excluded, which means many children are employed at home or in domestic workshops without any legal prosecutions,” Mahsa Kayyal, head of the child rights committee of the human rights group ODVV

Invisible Children:

Current estimates put the number of children living on the streets at 200,000. At least half of Iran’s street children are thought to be Afghan refugees. The problem of “street children” in Iran extends to many urban centers such as in Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad, and Shiraz. Many of these children are runaways, fleeing from difficult circumstances or abusive families. Others may be Afghan refugees left to fend for themselves.

An article by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting from March 2011 reported that Afghan children were being taken from the streets by the Iranian security forces and deported back to Afghanistan. Some of these children had never been to Afghanistan before and appear to have been deported from Iran without their parents‘ knowledge.

According to the Institute for War and Peace Report, many of the children facing deportation are denied food and forced to perform work while they await deportation in transit camps. These children are also housed in the same facilities as adults, a condition which leaves the children vulnerable.

Abdul Majid, a twelve year old Afghan refugee is one such child who bore the brunt of the inhumane policies implemented by the Iranian government.

“The police beat me up,” he said in an interview in Ansar refugee camp in Herat province. “They asked me whether I was involved in violent groups. I swore I wasn’t connected with any. They finally deported me after eight days, and sent me to Afghanistan.”

Abdul Majid was sent alone back to Afghanistan, without the knowledge of his family, who remained in Iran. “I dream every night that my parents and brothers and sisters are looking for me. I wake up every morning crying,” he said.

Iran: A Hub for Human Trafficking

Though some of these children may survive on the street, or receive aid from welfare organizations, many fall into the wrong hands. Iran is a major crossroads in the world of human trafficking, involving prostitution, drugs and forced labor. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime, made note of the ongoing growth of human trafficking in Iran in their strategic programmatic framework for Iran for 2006-2008.

Iran stands as a hub for human trafficking between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Gulf States.

According to the UN, the fact that human trafficking presents a lower risk for criminals than trafficking in drugs under Iranian law makes the practice “a very attractive business alternative to drug trafficking bands in control of the southern drug smuggling routes.” (see pg 4 of UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Iran report)

The United States Department of State, 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report lists Iran as a source, transit, and destination country for sex trafficking and forced labor. In fact the report lists Iran as a “tier 3″ country in regards to trafficking, a status given to countries “whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.”

The report notes that refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iraq may migrate through Iran, and “are subsequently subjected to conditions of forced labor, including debt bondage, through the use of such practices as restriction of movement, nonpayment of wages, and physical or sexual abuse.”

Governmental Complicity:

The Iranian regime claims that it is working to stop the flow of child trafficking and child labor, however the facts paint a very different picture. In many cases it is apparent that it is the authorities who are violating the most fundamental rights of children in Iran.

According to the 2012 US State Department report, criminal organizations with political connections play a significant role in human trafficking in Iran, and “unconfirmed reports indicate that religious leaders and immigration officials are involved in human trafficking.” The report goes on to highlight themix of government complicity and apathy which enables the exploitation and trafficking of women and children within Iran:

“The Government of Iran does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and is not making significant efforts to do so. The government did not share information on its anti-trafficking efforts with the international community during the reporting period; this impedes the collection of information on the country’s human trafficking problem and the government’s efforts to curb it. Publicly available information from NGOs, the press, international organizations, and other governments nonetheless indicate that the Iranian government is not taking sufficient steps to address its extensive trafficking challenges. For these reasons, Iran is placed on Tier 3 for a seventh consecutive year.”

The Iranian regime has also reportedly prosecuted victims of sex trafficking for commiting what it claims are “unlawful acts”, despite the fact that they were committed under duress and as a direct result of being trafficked.

The policies of the Iranian government continue to defy international norms and regulations. Iran’s defiance of international law demonstrates the systematic violation of the rights of chil

dren, and the government’s complicity with human trafficking within the country.

Though Iran is a party to the Convention for the Rights of Children, its policies are in stark contrast to the articles of the convention.

Article 20 calls for children who cannot be looked after by their own family to have a right to special care and states that they must be looked after properly, by people who respect their ethnic group, religion, culture and language.

Article 22 states that “Children have the right to special protection and help if they are refugees (if they have been forced to leave their home and live in another country),” as well as all the rights in this Convention.Article 32 calls for government protection for children from work that is dangerous or might harm their health or their education. It further states that “children’s work should not jeopardize any of their other rights, including the right to education, or the right to relaxation and play.”

Article 34 calls for governments to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse.Article 35 calls for governments to take all measures possible to make sure that children are not abducted, sold or trafficked.

Iran is also not currently a party to the 2000 UN Trafficking Protocol, an important international agreement focused on the prevention of human trafficking.

Indeed much of the blame for the current exploitation of children should be laid at the feet of the Iranian regime. Not only has the government failed to tackle the poor state of affairs but it has, through it’s corruption and malfeasance, in fact enabled the practice of child exploitation to thrive. It is no coincidence that Iran is the only country in the world which continues to execute juveniles.

The children of Iran deserve protection from exploitation and the chance at proper education and societal support- not abandonment and abuse. The international community must do more to protect the vulnerable and invisible children of Iran.