Eliminating child labour
THE other day a lady, a very sincere and dedicated social worker, described forced child labour as nothing less than slavery. She apologised for using such an odd expression, but insisted that she was not wrong in her assessment.
The wages may not mean much to these children but the fact that they are subjected to menial work when they see other children going to school and having time to play. This is bound to have a lasting impact on their minds and on their hearts, and is tantamount to slavery in many respects.
There was a time when even the most humane and sympathetic people felt no qualms in employing such kids as domestic servants. Their conscience was comforted by the self-assurance that they were treating these kids as part of their family. But nowadays, with increased awareness of social disapproval of domestic child labour they are becoming averse to the old practice. However, the practice of employing young boys in workshops and roadside eating places on a mere pittance goes on and the employers are too backward to feel bad about it.
As it is, throughout the world hundreds of thousands of children, particularly girls, are exploited when working as house maids. One is pained to see that in Pakistan hardly any politician or social reformer or religious leader feels inclined to campaign against this evil. That is the trouble with politics and social work. Those who choose to undertake this task, of course, for personal publicity do it in areas where the press and the electronic media are more interested. But child labour is a dark area; dark in the sense that the spotlight rarely falls on the volunteers who spend their time and efforts in pursuing it.
The truth is that many of those who are involved in this noble work do not see anything much wrong with little children working like grown-up adults in strange homes. This is despite the fact that now UN agencies like the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are extremely serious about the matter, though this is not an easy challenge for these bodies. Just look at what the ILO wants communities to ensure when they are engaged in campaigns against child labour. It wants these communities to spread awareness and address the root causes of exploitation of little ones, apart from the infinitely more difficult task of protection and withdrawal of children from harmful situations.
The ILO would like governments to develop time-bound measures and set specific goals to achieve results and then expose the affected children to education and skills for self-improvement. It advocates mobilisation of public support for actions to combat exploitation of children in domestic labour, especially its worst forms. And it expects governments to keep children’s rights high on their official agendas.
Which government in the Third World has time and inclination to do all this? However, the ILO has acquired unbounded patience over the long years when it has been pursuing such goals and keeps pestering governments, reminding them again and again, and seeking progress reports where there is hardly any progress. It asks about special measures taken by them and not just a rhetorical response and lip service to an unpleasant and difficult job.
I think it is appropriate to make the readers of this newspaper acquainted with at least the two ILO Conventions that are more intimately concerned with child labour. In their framework the ILO recognises three categories that must be abolished. One, all work done by children under the minimum legal age for that type of work. Two, work that endangers the health, safety and morals of the child. Three, worst forms of child labour defined as slavery, trafficking, bonded labour, forced recruitment into armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and activities such as the sale of drugs. All these are covered by Convention No. 182.
Convention No. 138 sets a minimum age of 15 years for employment, with an allowance of one year (i.e. 14 years) for developing countries. Very few of these countries however include domestic service in national minimum age provisions because of the difficulty, or rather impossibility, of enforcing it in private homes. And studies show that children enter domestic service when they are very young, mostly between 12 and 14. As an immediate step the ILO expects countries to prevent the employment of children under the minimum age and to gradually withdraw those who are under-age. Again, a Herculean task because of the extremely widespread nature of the problem.
Readers must pardon this scribe for being pessimistic about the ability of governments to do anything positive in this respect. I am not cynical by nature, but let us look at a hypothetical situation. Suppose the government actually succeeds in preventing small children from being employed in domestic labour, but can you visualise it withdrawing them from their jobs? Withdraw to where, and what to do with them when they are withdrawn?
So while I am all in favour of the ILO being strict in enforcing these Conventions, I am not optimistic about our government’s ability to expose these children to education and to skills that can enable them to acquire self-respect and self-reliance. That is why I believe that the campaign against child labour in homes should be run by society. In this connection I will like to make a positive suggestion. I know that private social welfare agencies do not have the clout to mobilise people against this evil. So this work must be taken up by various political parties.
If the political parties can have a serious showdown with the government on constitutional matters, why can’t they persuade themselves to be equally serious about helping to eradicate child labour from homes? Or aren’t they interested in the future of these small children who remain devoid of education which we, as Muslims, believe to be a basic right of every man, woman and child? I am sure that with the kind of popularity and influence they have, they can be very helpful in this regard.
By Hafizur Rahman
http://www.dawn.com/2008/01/16/op.htm -->
January 16, 2008 Wednesday