Linking Theory and Practice to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor

Those ages 15 to17 years are considered child laborers if they do at least 43 hours of economic or domestic work per week. These quantifiable limitations to the definition of child labor have given not-for-profit organizations and child-protection lobby groups a measurable way to increase safety for this vulnerable group of children. The skills developed during childhood plays a vital role for the evolution of a successful adult. Employment of children during the key developmental period is detrimental to the creation of their overall personality and also their skills and competencies.

To put it simply, child labor discourages the formation of human capital, and in fact works as a barrier to building capacity. Child labor precludes the opportunity for upward mobility and prevents children from pursuing skills that could enhance their quality of life. Child labor therefore virtually perpetuates poverty. It is important to note that the terms child labor and child work are often used interchangeably for working children below age Not all work done by children can be labeled as child labor, however. These activities provide them with skills and experience, and help to prepare them to be productive members of society Lieten, The database also suggests that equal percentage of boys and girls are likely to be engaged in child labor, across all regions.

Table 1 shows the distribution in percentages. More than two thirds million were 5 to 14 years old, and about 4 in 10 child laborers 91 million were younger than As per the same report, the overall number of children ages 5 to 17 years engaged in child labor decreased by 7 million from million to million over four years. Most of the observed decline in child labor was in the number of girls and in the 5- to year-old age group.

The number of girl child laborers decreased by 15 million to 88 million, and the overall number of child laborers of both sexes below age 15 declined from million to million. The number of children in hazardous work declined by 13 million, from million in to million in There was only a slight decrease among boys, and the trend reversed in the case of adolescents 15 to 17 years old.

In the latter age cohort, the number increased by In the same report, the Asian-Pacific region had the most child laborers ages 5 to 17 Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of child labor, with one in four children involved. Child laborers broadly work in three main sectors of employment: The agriculture sector employs children in agricultural activities such as farming, fishing, and hunting, whereas the services sector includes employment in restaurants, hotels, transport and storage, wholesale, retail, communications, finance, insurance, and real estate services, as well as community and personal services.

The industrial sector include jobs in mining, quarrying, manufacturing, construction, and public utilities. This amounted to more than million children, of whom Among them, the majority The above illustration is representative of how agriculture has emerged as a major sector in child labor; wherein there are no formal contracts, and children are employed in picking, crop thinning, and weeding.

It is understood that this practice has ties to traditions from the Soviet era, when the state policy encouraged engaging families in cotton production as a main source of family income. The agricultural sector is also home to bonded-labor contracts; the most prevalent form is debt bondage. Often only the child is bonded ILO, Direct forced child labor, which in turn is often linked to child trafficking, is also found in agriculture ILO, The study found that hundreds of thousands of children were engaged in hazardous tasks on cocoa farms.

Many child laborers came from impoverished countries in the region, such as Burkina Faso, Mali, and Togo. It was also found that parents sold their children in the belief the children would find work and send earnings home. Besides farming, fishing and aquaculture are other sectors that employ children. Case studies, however, indicate that child labor in the sector is most common in informal and small-scale operations of capture fisheries, aquaculture, and post-harvest fish processing, distribution, and marketing.

Policy and Practice , highlights the findings of some countrywide and regionwide surveys conducted to explore child labor in fisheries. All these studies throw some light on the magnitude of child labor in fisheries. After farming and fisheries, forestry is another area where child laborers work. As per the ILO, it is the least researched activity. Isolation increases vulnerability to exploitation in forestry for indigenous and other ethnic minorities.

This can easily hamper law enforcement, trade-union representation, and community support. Isolation and migration can also make it difficult for children to enroll in and attend schools. The ILO Global Report, in a follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work a , highlighted that a number of serious violations of fundamental rights in forestry work, including the use of child labor and bonded labor, were been documented in the first decades of the 21st century by the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations.

For child laborers, agriculture is one of the three most dangerous industries to work in; the others are construction and mining ILO, In addition, it has been noted that the hazardous work that children do in agriculture fields often results in horrifying accidents ILO, For the protection of child laborers in the agriculture sector, the ILO passed some conventions, such as the Labor Inspection Agriculture Convention No. Labor inspection in agriculture includes securing the enforcement of national legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers, such as provisions relating to hours, wages, weekly rest and holidays, safety, health and welfare, and the employment of women, children, and young persons.

It includes provisions on preventive and protective measures, machine safety and ergonomics, handling and transport of materials, sound management of chemicals, and coverage in case of occupational injuries and diseases.

Worst forms of child labour (IPEC)

It specifies 18 years as the minimum age for assignment to hazardous work. It addresses the particular working situations and conditions in the fishing industry. The minimum age for admission to work on board a fishing vessel is specified. The general minimum age is 16 years. This partnership was launched in They further highlighted the limited coverage of agriculture and family undertakings in national labor legislations, limited unionization, fragmentation of the labor force, the low capacity of labor inspectors to cover remote rural areas, the majority of child laborers working as unpaid family labor without formal contracts, the continuity between rural households and the workplace, traditions of children participating in agricultural activities from a young age, low family income, and an absence of schools as some major issues preventing the liberation of child laborers in the agriculture sector.

Surveys of this sector have been done primarily in the area of domestic child labor. According to the Global Report under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work domestic child labor is largely carried out by girls because they can be easily isolated and have little protection or social support. Many girls migrate from rural areas to find work as domestic help or are trafficked for such work. Due to the hidden nature of this type of work, it is impossible to have reliable figures on how many children are globally exploited.

Some regional level data are available to highlight the prevalence of domestic labor in such regions, however.

Promoting Jobs, Protecting People

In rural areas of several Asian, North African, and Middle Eastern countries, where labor is abundant and cheap, many child laborers are found in the industry of carpet weaving. Mining and quarrying are forms of child labor that are dangerous for children. They are physically dangerous because of the heavy and awkward loads, the strenuous work, the unstable underground structures, heavy tools and equipment, the use of toxic and often explosive chemicals, and the exposure to extremes of heat and cold.

According to the ILO, child labor in mining has not received as much attention as some other forms of child labor, because the number of children involved in it is estimated to be roughly 1 million, with many countries having only a few hundred scattered here and there. The ILO considers this dangerous work that should be stopped immediately. Toward this end, on the World Day against Child Labor in June , tripartite delegations from 15 countries presented agreements of commitment to end child labor in small-scale mining within 5 to 10 years.

According to the ILO, the use of children in armed conflict is one of the worst forms of child labor, a violation of human rights, and a war crime. Regarding the prevalence of child labor in armed forces, UNICEF highlighted that more than 1 billion children live in countries or territories affected by armed conflict. Child trafficking is a disgrace that directly affects an estimated 1. In , the ILO estimated that , to 1,, children—both boys and girls—were in forced-labor situations as a result of trafficking.

The ILO considers commercial sexual exploitation of children a repugnant violation of the human rights of children and adolescents and a form of economic exploitation similar to slavery and forced labor, which also implies a crime on the part of those who use girls and boys and adolescents in the sex trade. According to ILO, this type of exploitation includes:.

Child labor tends to be prevalent in low-income and developing countries. Some of these factors are interrelated, and often more than one together contribute toward child labor. While focusing on the impact of poverty and lack of proper education, the ILO b emphasized in its report on Hazardous Child Labor that poverty and lack of access to quality education are the major root causes of child labor. According to the report, this issue can be addressed by providing adults with opportunities for employment and ensuring social protection for the vulnerable and marginalized sections of society, which in turn will make them less dependent on the work of children.

The key to making a substantial impact on protecting children from exploitation is to find a way to break their poverty cycle. According to UNICEF , where society is characterized by poverty and injustice, the incidence of child labor is likely to increase. Often, poor family conditions have played a major role in pushing children to work as child labor in agriculture, services, or industry. For example, in a study of street children in three Turkish cities, 28 of the 65 families interviewed included members who were seriously ill and had no health insurance or social security. Another study, of child domestic labor in Thailand, found that many parents want to earn money for their family through their children, and that is why they force their children into domestic labor despite the knowledge that the children may suffer physically and psychologically from hard work and abuse Phlainoi, Duryea, Lam, and Levison found that children in urban Brazil work more when adults in the household experience an unemployment spell.

Some studies have also highlighted the fact that in some cases, child labor in the agriculture sector is triggered either by problems or an increase in agricultural work that directly impacts the economic conditions of family. Beegle, Dehejia, and Gatti found that child labor increases in Tanzania when there is an unexpectedly poor harvest. Dammert found that children in the regions of Peru began to engage in more market work after coca production shifted to Colombia. For instance, in rural Tanzania, households with children working on coffee plantations and farms, on small and large-scale tea plantations, and on tobacco farms and plantations were found to have low levels of income, and many children were relying on themselves for food and other expenses ILO, Some cultures promote child work as a part of their traditions.

In the West and Central African subregion, participation of children—either by traveling with their parents or by being placed in the household of other members of the larger family for apprenticeship—is a widespread and traditional practice ILO, Many dominant cultural groups paradoxically may not desire their own children to be involved in child labor, but they are not as concerned if young people from racial, ethnic, or economic minorities do it.

Sometimes lack of laws or poor implementation of laws against child labor in some parts of the countries also results in a high prevalence of child labor. For example, child laborers in the agriculture sector have weak or nonexistent labor laws and nonenforcement of existing laws, greatly facilitate the practice of using child labor in agriculture ILO, Many times, the lack of a good-quality school infrastructure; cooperative, empathetic, and knowledgeable teachers in remote rural areas; affordable school fees; and accessibility of education to poor and rural children results in the involvement of children in labor.

In many countries, schools are allowed to close for several weeks so that children can work on the farms and plantations—an echo of past negative practices of some countries that are still being followed so that child labor may continue ILO, In communities with predominant engagement in agriculture, the number of child-headed households has increased as the parents have died from the virus and extended family networks cannot cope with the sheer numbers of orphans ILO, In the absence of family, the orphaned children are left to fend for themselves by working as child laborers in various sectors.

Child laborers are often paid less by adults because of age factors, and they are therefore considered a cheap source of labor. This is another reason behind involvement of children in labor. They did the same work as adults and were paid half the wage. Globalization has impacted developing and lesser-developed countries to export more of their agricultural products that in turn have led them to depend on migrant laborers, who increasingly include child laborers ILO, These numbers ought to be reducing as we fight against child labor practices, but the speed at which globalization is affecting the world is frighteningly dangerous for at-risk children.

As is evident from the earlier sections related to the magnitude and complexity of the problem of child labor, various approaches have consistently been adopted to provide children the space to enjoy their years of childhood. Poverty and lack of access to education seem to be the principal reasons for child labor. Though it may not be possible within this framework to list all the initiatives that have been implemented, we shall be able to cover major approaches and themes to facilitate a broad overview of this issue as related to the well-being of the next generation.

The problem is much deeper than it seems on the surface. In the recent history of child labor, there has been a shift in the approach to combat child labor—removing children from child labor requires phenomenal resources, both human and material. Hence, stopping children from working in hazardous and unsafe conditions became an urgent priority. Governments were pressured by the UN and other international bodies, civic organizations, and media campaigns to stop these practices. For other sectors of child labor, long-term measures were developed: To address directly the issue of child labor, strategies include implementing legislation, forming child-protection policies, enforcing of laws and policies, setting up programs for the education of children, advocacy campaigns regarding awareness of child labor issues for employers of child labor as well as public at large, civil-society movements for dealing with poverty issues, and envisioning child laborers themselves as a movement for the change under the umbrella of the UN convention of child rights.

Some such initiatives are discussed in this section. Among them, ILO has taken a lead, working toward elimination of child labor since through its various conventions, declarations, events, and programs. In , ILO adopted its first convention against child labor. Following this, the ILO adopted other similar conventions for fixing the minimum age for admission of children to other working sectors see Table 1. The most important initiative of the ILO toward eradication of child labor is its International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor IPEC , which was created in with the overall goal of progressive elimination of child labor, which was to be achieved through strengthening the capacity of countries to deal with the problem and promoting a worldwide movement to combat child labor.

As per ILO, these efforts, along with those of local like-minded organizations, leaders, and communities, have resulted in hundreds of thousands of children being withdrawn from work and rehabilitated, or prevented from entering the workforce. Complementary to the direct action there has been substantial in-depth statistical and qualitative research, policy and legal analysis, program evaluation, and child labor monitoring, which have permitted the accumulation of a vast knowledge base of statistical data and methodologies, thematic studies, good practices, guidelines, and training materials for the study of child labor.

It gives them a voice that often children working in hazardous conditions lack. Academies give youths intensive training on a particular topic, such as workplace health, safety, and rights. In an academy, youths not only learn, but they also develop strategies and plans for action that they can use when they return to their own communities to help ensure that young people do not get hurt on the job.

The ultimate aim of this project was to remove children from the streets, where they were exposed to various types of hazardous work, and to ensure their right to education. Encouraged by country-level collaborations, the ILO set the deadline of eradicating the worst forms of child labor by UNICEF is also working worldwide toward eradication of child labor through its action-based programs, policy initiatives, and documentation work in collaboration with different countries.

UNICEF has come up with some very useful publications, based on global and countrywide data, which are used as a major source for advocacy and awareness of child labor. These include Child Labor and School Attendance: WHO, through its initiatives against child labor, started in the s with technical research studies, prepared training manuals for health professionals, policy planners, and NGOs to intervene based on evidence that child labor impacts adversely the health, nutrition, and mental health of children Naidu, WHO has supported interagency initiatives, organized training programs for health administrators and policy planners, and co-sponsored conferences on the health implications of child labor.

WHO provided technical support to governments on prevention of health hazards of children employed in various situations Naidu. The guide provides technical advice for professionals working in governments, research institutes and NGOs on how to measure the extent of child maltreatment and its consequences; how to design, implement and evaluate prevention programs and on important considerations for detecting and responding to child maltreatment. WHO, ISPCAN and other partners are working intensively with a small number of selected countries to develop model prevention programs built around this guide, and WHO headquarters and regional and country offices will provide advice and technical support in response to requests for assistance more generally.

Since child labor is related to child maltreatment, this guide will prove to be an important tool toward control of child labor, mainly at family level. The World Bank is also contributing to the elimination of child labor by focusing mainly on improvements in educational systems in different countries. The road map calls for effective partnership across UN member states to address child labor, and for mainstreaming child labor laws into policy and development frameworks.

It also calls for improved knowledge sharing and for developing further methodologies and capacity to conduct research on child labor. UCW research activities are designed to identify policies that impact upon the lives of child laborers in countries where they are prominent. It provides a common understanding of child labor and a common basis for action against it. It extends to a variety of policy issues associated with child labor, including education, youth employment, and migration. As it is not possible here to share all the initiatives taken by governments and civil societies in all the countries, a sampling of some of the programs and policy-level initiatives taken by a country from each of these regions is mentioned here.

They provide an illustration of the diverse and intense actions taken against child labor in these countries. One of its core services is the National Child Helpline , a hour, toll-free helpline for children, young persons, and their families. Besides the helpline, it also runs numerous public-education programs about child rights and child-welfare issues through creating community awareness, organizing media events and school and community outreach sessions, and educating parents.

One such program is the School Outreach program, in which teachers and students are trained on child protection and children welfare. Another program uses a peer-education approach to child protection in which children are supported to promote their well-being through enhancing positive behavior change among their peers. The government of Kenya has made positive strides toward the elimination of child labor. This unit works with other ministries within the government, with NGOs, and with community leaders to promote education for girls.

India is the second most populous country in the world. Compared to other nations, it has a significantly high percentage of young people. As per the census of India in , there were This statistic is a cause for concern and necessitates implementation of initiatives for controlling the problem of child labor in the country. For controlling the problem of child labor, various innovative programs have been implemented by NGOs that are directly or indirectly working against child labor. An important point to note here is that although they all are working against child labor, they are using different innovative techniques to control this problem.

For example, Pratham, a national-level NGO, not only raises awareness about child rights issues and educating underprivileged children, it also rescues child laborers and victims of child trafficking through its Council for Vulnerable Children and prepares them to be mainstreamed into formal school. In addition to this, the council also partners with state governments in drafting official protocols for dealing with rescued children and advising legislation concerning child labor.

Similarly, another national-level initiative, Teach for India by Teach to Lead, works indirectly toward controlling child labor by providing quality education to the children with the help of college graduates and young professionals who commit two-years to teaching full-time in under-resourced schools.

CWC, through its union of working children, Bhima Sangh, works toward empowerment of child laborers and thus encourages them to take action against child labor themselves. Over the ensuing years, Bhima Sangh has intervened effectively in a wide array of problems for its members and other working children. Bhima Sangh is a perfect example of training children as change agents.

Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action YUVA , through its youth program Anubhav Shiksha Kendra ASK , trains and sensitizes youths about various social issues, including the issue of child labor, and thus prepares them to take action against such issues and work toward social transformation. As far as the role of government is concerned, the Ministry of Labor and Employment, in , formed the first committee the Gurupadswamy Committee to study the issue of child labor and suggest measures to tackle it.

The Act prohibits the employment of children in certain specified hazardous occupations, and it regulates the working conditions in others. The list of hazardous occupations and processes is progressively being expanded on the recommendation of Child Labor Technical Advisory Committee, which was constituted under the Act. With reference to the above approach, a National Policy on Child Labor was formulated in The policy seeks to adopt a gradual and sequential approach with a focus on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations and processes.

In addition to the above, the government is taking practical steps to tackle this problem through stringent enforcement of legislative provisions along with concurrent rehabilitative measures. Obviously, more work needs to be done in order to address the issue of child labor eradication comprehensively. The journey to achieve a child labor free world is a long one, because of the complexities involved not just at a local level but also on the global platform.

Child labor, in terms of percentage of children engaged in illegal employment, is on the decline, however. Both direct and indirect ways of addressing the problem are warranted. Social workers need to take a prominent role in formulating those policies that discourage or outlaw child labor. They also need to ensure that these policies are adequately implemented. They need to create broad awareness of the deleterious consequences of child labor—for the children involved, for their families, and for society as a whole.

They should work with the media, with employers, with unions, with faith-based institutions, and with other parts of the civil society to launch a sustained and multipronged attack on the practice of child labor. Two foci that indirectly address the prevalence of child labor are poverty alleviation and access to quality primary education. Both are absolutely important and need to be addressed simultaneously. The contributions of UN and other international agencies in dealing with the issues related to child labor are significant. What is important to note is that it is not just the multilateral collaborations among UN and other international agencies that stand against the hazardous employment of children, but also the cooperation of local governments and civic organizations that bring a gradual change over the decades toward ending child labor once and for all.

These cooperations can be and often are small-scale initiatives and efforts undertaken by civic organizations and not-for-profit agencies. Each and every child laborer who was helped by dedicated organizations and individuals is one life saved, one future preserved, and innumerable opportunities presented. A global voice for the plight of child laborers in the form of interventions by UN and international agencies has created awareness on the ill effects of letting children continue to work instead of going to school and created the necessary urgency so that state and political agencies may act in favor of child-centric policies.

We now have international tools that provide assessment and accountability for nation states so that they may gauge the development and well-being of children. International organizations have insisted on making legal, policy and program, and budget provisions for developmental opportunities for children for education, health, and recreation as active citizens of not just countries and cities but of the world. These global and local collaborations are the only solution to bring tangible results in the child labor scenario in cities and rural areas, and their continued progressive alliances bring hope for a better future for all children.

We all are aware, however, that the work is not yet complete. Our efforts must be enhanced by engaging professional schools and associations that work in the social work, education, psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, humanities, and liberal arts fields to develop research, promote advocacy and teaching-learning modules using digital technology, utilize new media tools, and find innovative solutions to free child laborers. Social work research also has a role. Collecting reliable data about child labor and assessing the efficacy of interventions to combat this problem, in collaboration with cognate professions, is a much-needed step.

Both the causes and consequences of child labor need to be more scientifically studied. Child labour is widespread throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, though there are also some 2. Asia has the largest number of working children, accounting for 60 per cent of the world's total. In India, one of the world's fastest-growing economies, the UN estimates that child labour contributes 20 per cent of gross national product. The government has banned child labour, but with even the lowest official estimate of children engaged in hazardous occupations standing at Children can be found working in many export-oriented industries, including garments and footwear, glass manufacturing, leather tanning, stone quarries, and gem stones.

Many work unacceptably long hours, often in unsafe conditions or with minimal respect for their rights. Their labour plays a key role in supplementing their families' meagre income. One of the main reasons for the high prevalence of child labour is the burden of debt, which forces families to send their children to work. Low literacy rates further compound the problem.

Child Labor

A major challenge for retailers in tackling child labour is how to actually detect whether or not it exists in the first place. The reasons for this include:. Some of the strategies employed by our members to detect child labour when carrying out workplace inspections include looking out for empty workplaces during site visits, checking production records against official numbers of workers, as well as combining on-and off-site inspections.

If a company discovers that children are involved in making its products we expect them to take swift action to protect the interests of the children and secure their urgent transition from work into good quality education. The challenges in achieving this can be significant. For example, simply demanding that the children are sent home could mean the loss of the only source of income of an entire family. Local educational provision may be poor or unaffordable - indeed, this may be one of the reasons why children are not attending school.

The company should also seek the commitment from the supplier concerned that it will end the recruitment of children and work towards full compliance with the ETI Base Code. We recognise that some issues will take time to resolve. If a supplier fails to make adequate progress against agreed corrective action plans, or reintroduces serious worker welfare issues, the company should consider terminating business with that supplier. Conversely, where suppliers have employed children but are taking the necessary steps to address the issue, the company should continue to do business with them.

In late , we published the findings of a major assessment of the impact of ETI members' ethical trade activities.

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The Sussex-based Institute of Development studies found that the incidence of employment of children and young workers at ETI member supply sites had decreased.