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THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 1997

Carol Bellamy Executive Director United Nations Children’s Fund THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 1997 Oxford University Press, Walton Street, The Library of Congress has catalogued this Oxford, OX2 6DP, Oxfordshire, UK. serial publication as follows: Oxford, New , Toronto, Delhi, Bombay, The state of the world’s children—Oxford and Calcutta, Madras, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, New York: Oxford University Press Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Nairobi, for UNICEF Dar-es-Salaam, Cape Town, Melbourne, v.; ill.; 20cm. Annual. Began publication Auckland and associated companies in in 1980. Berlin and Ibadan. 1. Children—Developing countries— Periodicals. Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford 2. Children—Care and hygiene—Developing University Press. countries—Periodicals. I. UNICEF. Published in the by HQ 792.2. S73 83-647550 362.7’ 1’091724 Oxford University Press, New York. UNICEF, UNICEF House, 3 UN Plaza,

Any part of THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN New York, NY 10017, USA. may be freely reproduced with the appropriate acknowledgement. UNICEF, Palais des Nations, CH-1211, Geneva 10, Switzerland.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Cover photo The state of the world’s children 1997 Honduras, 1989, UNICEF/89-0052/Vauclair 1. Children—Care and hygiene 613’0432 RJ101 Back cover photo Cambodia, 1992, UNICEF/92-5895/Lemoyne ISBN 0-19-262871-2 ISSN 0265-718X THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 1997

Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund

Published for UNICEF by Oxford University Press Contents

Foreword by United Nations Secretary-General 6 Chapter I The Convention on the Rights of the : A new era for children The Convention on the Rights of the Child is at the core of a revolutionary shift in the world’s approach to 7 children. The idea that children have special needs, which sparked the founding of UNICEF 50 years ago, has now given way to the conviction that children have the same spectrum of rights as : civil and political, social, cultural and economic. The Convention, nearing universal ratification, is setting in motion profound changes in laws, policies, institutions and practices. UNICEF itself has adopted a mission statement that looks to the Convention as its guiding force. This chapter shows how the world’s course towards peace, equality, development and justice can be has- tened and helped by the energies the Convention is generating. The year 2000 goals, established at the World Summit for Children in 1990, must now be pursued in the context of the Convention. Progress towards those goals, according to a report in late 1996 by the UN Secretary-General, shows great strides made, with mil- lions of children’s lives saved since 1990. But much remains to be done. The Convention expands the scope of action now under way and calls for continuing commitments of both political will and resources. Chapter II Children at risk: Ending hazardous and exploitative Over 250 million children around the world — in countries rich and poor — and many of them are at 15 risk from hazardous and exploitative labour. Denied education and trapped in cycles of poverty, their most basic rights, their health and even their lives are in jeopardy. This chapter examines the issue of child labour in all its complexity, exposing the common myths about it and exploring the causes. The contributing factors are multiple and overlapping, including the exploitation of poverty, lack of access to education, and tradi- tional restrictions, particularly for girls. Compounding the problem is the paucity of statistics about the num- ber of children working, especially those in hazardous conditions. More data are urgently needed in order to better monitor and prevent child labour violations, particularly since the vast majority of children labour in invisibility. Because the causes of child labour are complex, the solution must be comprehensive. The report calls for the immediate end to hazardous child labour and proposes strategies to help eliminate and prevent it includ- ing: access to education; wider legal protection; birth registration for all children; collection of infor- mation; and mobilization of the widest possible coalition of partners among governments, communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), employers and trade unions. The single most effective way to pro- tect children from hazardous and exploitative labour, the report argues, is to extend and improve education so that it will attract them and inspire their lives.

4 Chapter III Statistical tables Statistics provide an essential foundation for gauging children’s well-being and the level of care, nurture and 77 resources they receive. Statistics such as those on , immunization, maternal mortality, malnu- trition and school enrolment chart countries’ progress towards achieving the goals set at the 1990 World Summit for Children. Despite significant gains, more than 12 million children under five still die each year, mainly from preventable diseases and malnutrition. The tables cover basic indicators, health, nutrition, edu- cation, demographics, economic progress and the situation of women, plus indicators on less populous coun- tries, rates of progress and regional summaries. Countries are listed in descending order of their estimated 1995 under-five mortality rates, the first basic indicator in table 1.

Panels

1CHILDREN’S RIGHTS, CHILDREN’S VOICES 10 2BRINGING THE CONVENTION TO LIFE 12 3LEGISLATIVE LANDMARKS 19 4 IPEC PARTNERSHIPS FOR CHILDREN 22 5CHILD DOMESTIC WORK:HIDDEN EXPLOITATION 30 6KENYAN GIRLS FIND HOPE AT SINAGA 34 7AGRICULTURAL LABOUR:A HARSH HARVEST 38 8THE STREETS ARE THEIR WORKPLACE 42 9“HOW CAN I STUDY?” 49 10 NON-FORMAL EDUCATION:A BRIDGE FOR WORKING CHILDREN 50 11 ESCUELA NUEVA:ALTERNATIVE LEARNING FOR RURAL CHILDREN 56 12 AN AGREEMENT IN 60 13 THE PRIVATE SECTOR:PART OF THE SOLUTION 64 14 RUGMARK:HELPING TO KEEP CHILDREN OFF THE LOOMS 68

Text figures FIG. 1 CHILD LABOUR:A LOOK AT THE PAST 18 FIG. 2 THE WORLD’S CHILDREN:HOW MANY, HOW OLD? 24 FIG. 3 THE WORKING CHILD:1 OUT OF EVERY 4 IN THE WORLD 25 FIG. 4 LONG DAYS, LONG WEEKS 25 FIG. 5 PURCHASING POWER FALLS IN MANY REGIONS 27 FIG. 6 PURCHASING POWER:INDUSTRIALIZED VS. DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 27 FIG. 7 CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL:A COST AND A CAUSE OF CHILD LABOUR 52 Reference 74 Index 104 Glossary 107

5 Foreword

he well-being of children has been the inspiration and the driving purpose of the United Nations Children’s Fund for 50 years. It is from this unique perspective and experience that UNICEF adds its voice, concern and expertise to the debate about T child labour, the primary focus of The State of the World’s Children 1997 report. Child labour is a controversial and emotional issue. It is also a complex and challenging one that defies simple solutions. The thoughtful and comprehensive approaches required must be guided by the of the child and by a commitment to children’s , as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In this report, UNICEF urges that priority be given to efforts for the immediate end of hazardous and exploitative child labour and to urgent support for education, so that children may acquire the knowledge and skills that can enable them to improve their lives. It also stresses the need for basic services, social development strategies, income-generation measures and legal protection for chil- dren, their and communities. The United Nations and its related agencies have a long history of collaborative action on chal- lenging questions concerning human development and human rights, the environment and global health. It is a record of which the world can be justly proud. The State of the World’s Children emphasizes the need for such collective action to deal with child labour. By working together, as the report makes clear, governments, international and na- tional organizations and all members of the world community can help protect children from the economic exploitation so graphically described in this report. Ending hazardous child labour, a pri- ority concern of the International Labour Organization and of UNICEF, now needs to become the world’s shared and urgent goal. The United Nations system must take the lead.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali United Nations Secretary-General

6 Chapter I

The Convention on the Rights of the Child UNICEF/5391/Isaac

A girl in a non-formal school programme run by community volunteers in Pakistan.

7

A new era for children

ifty years ago, in the aftermath United Nations General Assembly. of the most devastating war in Since then, the Convention has been F history, UNICEF was created ratified (as of mid-September 1996) on 11 December 1946 to provide suc- by all countries except the Cook cour to children. Its establishment Islands, Oman, , Switzerland, stemmed from the concern that chil- the United Arab Emirates and the dren would not be adequately pro- United States, making it the most tected in the overall relief effort under widely ratified human rights treaty in way in . The international history. recognition that children required spe- The Convention has produced a The idea that children have cial attention was revolutionary at the profound change that is already be- special needs has given way time. ginning to have substantive effects on to the conviction that At the end of the postwar recon- the world’s attitude towards its chil- struction period, developing countries dren. Once a country ratifies, it is children have rights, emerging from the colonial era in- obliged in law to undertake all appro- the same full spectrum voked the same principle to demand priate measures to assist and of rights as adults: civil and that children be given specific atten- other responsible parties in fulfilling political, social, cultural and tion in international cooperation. their obligations to children under the UNICEF’s initial relief mandate was Convention. Now, 96 per cent of the economic. enlarged to include the survival and world’s children live in States that are development of children. legally obligated to protect children’s Now, the international approach to rights. children has changed dramatically Those rights are comprehensive. once again. The idea that children The Convention defines children as have special needs has given way to people below the age of 18 (article 1) the conviction that children have whose “best interests” must be taken rights, the same full spectrum of into account in all situations (article rights as adults: civil and political, so- 3). It protects children’s right to sur- cial, cultural and economic. vive and develop (article 6) to their This conviction, expressed as the full potential, and among its provi- Convention on the Rights of the sions are those affirming children’s Child, entered into international law right to the highest attainable standard on 2 September 1990, nine months of health care (article 24), and to ex- after the Convention’s by the press views (article 12) and receive information (article 13). Children A young girl in Beirut. have a right to be registered immedi-

9 UNICEF/5254/Toutounji Panel 1 Children’s rights, children’s voices

“We need more bridges over the road so we can get to the park,” says an eight- leisure; justice; child labour; year-old from Bristol (United Kingdom). Across the Irish Sea, a seven-year-old immigration and nationality; chil- says: “You need a see-saw and you need a big aeroplane and you need a wee dren and violent conflict (Northern rubber duck for your bath. You need somewhere to .” Ireland); abduction; and interna- tional obligations. Within each area, eports to the Committee on the ance with the Convention, but also the UK’s compliance with all rele- Rights of the Child by States to examine what is actually happen- vant articles is examined, along with Rthat have ratified the Con- ing in practice. compliance with three general prin- vention are the vital centre-pieces of Moreover, it includes the input of ciples or ‘umbrella’ articles: non- the monitoring process. However children, another innovation that il- discrimination (article 2), the best carefully and completely they may lustrates the extent to which the interests of the child (article 3) and be done, nevertheless, official re- Unit and participating NGOs were the right of children to express ports can rarely capture the fullest inspired by the Convention’s direc- views and have them taken seri- picture of children’s rights in a given tives to let the views of children be ously in all decisions affecting them country. That is ideally drawn from a heard and make the Convention (article 12). variety of sources and voices. provisions widely known to adults Thus, an 18-year-old from Nor- Alternative reports are important and children alike. thern Ireland, quoted in the chapter complements to official reports, pro- The voices of children echo through- on the “adequate standard of living” viding depth, details and perspec- out: “Parents shouldn’t have the right policy area, makes the impact of tive. The words quoted above come to hit children,” says a 13-year-old changes in the social security sys- from the UK Agenda for Children, from Lincolnshire. “It just makes chil- tem come alive: “We have to lock the produced by the Children’s Rights dren grow up to be violent.” door, turn off the lights and pretend Development Unit, a small British “At the age of 13, I was looking after we are not in every time we see the organization supported by the the house, looking after my mum, rent man or the milkman.” Gulbenkian Foundation and the UK shielding my mum from attacks Such contributions help bring to Committee for UNICEF. Conceived from my dad — which is a hell of a lot life an exhaustive study of chil- as an alternative report and issued in for a 13-year-old to take on,” says a dren’s rights for which no issue is July 1994, the Agenda has earned 17-year-old from Merseyside. too small for attention — school wide praise for its immediacy, rele- “Kids can’t play where I live; nee- uniforms, the opening of mail in vance and comprehensiveness. dles everywhere, stolen cars, no one children’s homes — or too large — It manages to be thorough and cares,” laments a 14-year-old from for instance, the chapter on children substantive, as lively as a personal Manchester. School club members, and violent conflict, which is de- diary, as pertinent as a morning’s children in jail, those in institutions, voted exclusively to Northern headline and as urgent as a cry for the homeless, those caring for sick Ireland. Transport policy, housing help. Committee member Hoda or disabled parents, abused children codes, environmental regulations Badran has called the Agenda “a and others were all heard in an effort are all put under the microscope. major innovatory contribution” to to reflect the wide and often difficult Nor does any problem defy solu- the methodology of monitoring child realities of children’s lives. The Unit tion. Sections on Actions Required rights in an individual country. set up more than 40 consultation for Compliance appear within chap- The innovations are several. sessions with children, who ranged ters, and the suggestions made are The document is the culmination in age from 6 to 18 years. summarized at each chapter end. of two years of research on the Their words strengthen the study, The Committee on the Rights of the part of the Unit and some 183 non- which analyses the Convention’s Child could hardly have a clearer pic- governmental organizations (NGOs) articles grouped in 12 key policy ture of the status of children’s rights in , Scotland, Wales and areas: personal freedoms, care of in the UK, nor a more systematic, Northern Ireland. Such broad partici- children, physical and personal in- constructive and eloquent guide to pation allows the report not only to tegrity; an adequate standard of liv- what needs to be done. review the UK’s legislation and ad- ing; health and health care services; ministrative procedures for compli- environment; education; play and

10 ately after birth and to have a name The reporting process has proved and nationality (article 7), a right to dynamic and constructive, with the di- play (article 31) and to protection alogue established helping to advance from all forms of sexual exploitation children’s rights. Unfortunately, how- and sexual abuse (article 34). ever, many countries have missed The Convention recognizes that their reporting deadlines, 28 of them not all governments have the re- by as much as three years, as of sources necessary to ensure all eco- September 1996. nomic, social and cultural rights The process of implementing the immediately. But it commits them to Convention still remains in its infancy make those rights a priority and to en- but, as we have noted, the interna- sure them to the maximum extent of tional treaty for children is already be- available resources. ginning to make an impact. As Fulfilling their obligations some- reported in 1996 in UNICEF’s annual times requires States to make funda- publication, The Progress of Nations, mental changes in national laws, of the 43 countries whose reports had institutions, plans, policies and prac- been reviewed at the time, 14 had in- tices to bring them into line with the corporated the principles of the Con- principles of the Convention. vention into their constitutions and 35 The first priority must be to gener- had passed new laws or amended ate the political will to do this. As the existing laws to conform to the Con- drafters of the Convention recog- vention. And 13 had built the Conven- nized, real change in the lives of chil- tion into curricula or courses to begin dren will come about only when the key process of educating children 1 social attitudes and ethics progres- about their rights. UNICEF/3703/Rotner sively change to conform with laws Around the world, teachers, Among the rights guaranteed by the and principles. And when, as actors in lawyers, police officials, judges and Convention on the Rights of the Child is the the process, children themselves caregivers are being trained in the right to play. A on a rope-swing in know enough about their rights to principles and the application of the Barbados, where the Convention was ratified claim them. Convention. Inspired by the Con- in 1990. The official monitor of this process vention, has demobi- of change is the Committee on the lized child soldiers. In Rwanda, Rights of the Child. Governments are UNICEF, under the Convention’s obliged to report to the Committee aegis, has been working to move chil- within two years of ratification, and dren held in detention centres every five years thereafter, specifying for alleged war offences to special ju- the steps taken to change national venile institutions and has hired laws and formulate policies and lawyers to defend them. And reforms, actions. changes and improvements continue The Committee, made up of 10 to accumulate around the world experts, gathers evidence from non- (Panel 2). governmental organizations (NGOs) The monitoring of the Convention and intergovernmental organizations, and media coverage of the issues have including UNICEF, and these groups promoted international awareness of may prepare alternative reports to that gross violations of children’s rights. of a government (Panel 1). The Com- Major initiatives such as the World mittee and the government then meet Congress against Commercial Sexual to discuss the country’s child rights Exploitation of Children, held in efforts and the steps necessary to Stockholm in August 1996, and the overcome difficulties. International Conference on Child

11 Panel 2 Bringing the Convention to life

child rights advocates as a pioneering and historic step for . Guided by the Convention, the Statute affirms the country’s commitment to meeting the needs of its youngest citizens. Among other measures, it empowers local au- thorities to establish Family and Chil- dren Courts in every district, spells out and adoption procedures, and establishes humane processes for the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. Tunisia’s Code for the Protection of Children, adopted in October 1995, contains 123 articles that bring na- tional laws into harmony with the Convention. has also adopted compre- hensive child rights legislation in its Children’s Act. Child welfare boards, consisting of representatives of gov-

UNICEF/95-0071/Shadid ernment ministries, NGOs and profes- sional groups, are being created at both district and national levels to im- ome of the most significant proposed Constitution also contains plement the Act. changes sparked by the Con- protections for children and families. Other countries that have passed Svention on the Rights of the Child Angola’s Family Code sets out the equal legislation on child rights concerns in- are those now occurring in the legal responsibility of mothers and fathers clude China, which enacted a law in systems of countries. for their children; the country’s Family 1995 that states that Chinese citizens, The measures range from broad en- Tracing Law is the legal foundation for regardless of ethnic group, race, sex, dorsements of children’s rights to the the efforts to reunite children and fami- age, occupation, property status or reli- revision of laws and changes in na- lies separated by years of civil conflict. gious belief, have the right and obliga- tional constitutions. , for instance, In Honduras, the country’s govern- tion to receive education. St. Kitts and has incorporated all operative articles ing body unanimously approved a new Nevis passed a law in 1994 establish- of the Convention into its new Con- detailed Children’s Rights Code based ing an agency to formulate policy and stitution. Other African countries that on the Convention. The new Code, deliver services benefiting children. In have introduced elements of the drafted over three years by members , a law has made child Convention into their Constitutions in- of non-governmental organizations rights part of both primary and sec- clude Angola, , Namibia and (NGOs) and government ministries, ondary curricula, and the country is . For example, Ethiopia’s Con- came into force in September 1996, on establishing courts and appointing stitution establishes the best interests Honduras’ National Day for the Child. judges for children. of the child as a primary consideration. To implement the Code, training is South Africa’s proposed Constitu- being provided for 75 judges, 293 tion recognizes, among others, the mayors and 300 staff of government rights of children to a name, to basic institutions and NGOs. nutrition, to education, to health and In Uganda, the new Children’s and to protection from Statute, signed by President Yoweri exploitative labour practices. Eritrea’s Museveni in April 1996, is regarded by A schoolroom in Burkina Faso.

12 Labour, scheduled for October 1997 As long as preventable death and in , derive their impetus from the suffering continue on a large scale in Convention. Highlighting the prob- the developing world, child survival lems in this way is an essential first must remain an urgent priority. But step towards their elimination. now, within the context of the Con- In a positive initiative to involve vention, UNICEF and the world com- the media in educating children about munity must not only maintain the their rights, the Asian Summit on commitment to the year 2000 goals Child Rights and the Media, held in but also look beyond them to social Manila in July 1996, included a wide protection and other important needs The world community must range of participants in four days of and rights not expressly contained in not only maintain the discussions on how to educate, inform the World Summit Declaration and commitment to the year 2000 and entertain children while also tak- Plan of Action. The Convention, by goals but also look beyond ing into account their best interests. expressing and protecting all the UNICEF itself is at a turning- rights of children, expands the scope them to social protection point. In its 50th year, the organi- of action required for children and and other important needs zation has adopted a mission state- throws a clear shaft of light on paths and rights. ment that looks to the Convention as that extend beyond the year 2000. its guiding force. Some of these will involve protect- This new mandate has important ing children and youth in conflict with implications for the work of the organi- the criminal justice system; others zation. Its efforts for children in the will ensure the development of the past two decades, including the year young child, support families, end the 2000 goals established by the interna- use of land-mines and continue to try tional community at the World Sum- to bring about a more equitable distri- mit for Children in 1990, are designed bution of resources. to alleviate the worst aspects of It is in this context that The poverty for the majority of the world’s State of the World’s Children 1997 children. These goals and agreements report explores the subject of child must now be pursued in the context of labour and its impact on children’s the Convention. development. In September 1996, the Secretary- The Convention requires families, General of the United Nations, societies, governments and the inter- Boutros Boutros-Ghali, reported to national community to take action the General Assembly on the progress designed to fulfil the rights of all chil- made in meeting the Summit’s year dren in a sustainable, participatory 2000 goals for children as the decade and non-discriminatory manner. In for action passed the halfway mark. practical terms, this means that the Much of the news is good, with mil- poorest, most vulnerable and often the lions of children’s lives having been most neglected children in all soci- saved since 1990. eties, rich and poor, must have first But much remains to be done. call on resources and efforts. More than 12.5 million children under The endeavours to touch their lives five in developing countries continue will be complex and will require a to die each year, 9 million of them sustained attack on the root causes of from causes for which inexpensive poverty and underdevelopment. solutions and measures such as im- In a world where technology and munization and antibiotics have been knowledge are available and easy to routinely applied in the industrialized share, and per capita income has tri- world for 50 years.2 pled in the past quarter of a century,3

13 there can be no excuses: the rights of spending on basic social services all children, including those who are from the current average of approxi- most disadvantaged, can be fulfilled. mately 13 per cent to 20 per cent, and The international community has for donor countries to earmark 20 per tried in this last decade of the 20th cent of official development assis- century to arrive at a consensus on the tance (ODA). way forward on a number of fronts: This kind of shift in the way the Redirecting just one quarter on human rights, on protection of the world uses its resources is no longer of the developing world’s environment, on reduction of uncon- an appeal to the charity of those with trolled population growth and on the power and the purse-strings but is military expenditure — or eliminating gender inequality. The a matter of rights and obligations. The $30 billion of $125 billion — avowed aim is sustainable develop- new era in child rights will still need for example, could provide ment for all on the basis of social jus- underpinning by attitudinal change, enough additional resources tice and human fulfilment. popular pressure and public demands. Good intentions will now have to Wherever opinion polls have been to reach most of the goals for be matched with the political will to undertaken they have shown that peo- the year 2000. act and fortified by changes in indi- ple support the ideas and ideals of vidual and national attitudes and pri- human rights, child rights and interna- orities. An additional $40 billion a tional solidarity. Part of the task, then, year could ensure access for all the is to channel this support into action. world’s people to basic social services For the past 15 years, The State of such as health care, education and the World’s Children has mobilized safe water.4 public and political support for child Two thirds of this amount could survival and development. UNICEF be found by developing countries if will continue to mobilize, now with they realigned their own budget pri- the added power and legitimacy of the orities. Redirecting just one quarter Convention, because the need for pas- of the developing world’s military sionate advocacy on behalf of the expenditure — or $30 billion of $125 world’s children has not diminished, billion5 — for example, could provide even now, half a century after the enough additional resources to reach need for UNICEF was internationally most of the goals for the year 2000. A acknowledged. similar shift in the targeting of devel- As Philip Alston, a leading child opment aid by donor countries could rights lawyer and activist, states: “In generate much of the rest. the final analysis, appropriate poli- This premise is set out in the 20/20 cies will be adopted... only in re- initiative, which calls for developing sponse to widespread and insistent countries to increase government public outrage.”

14 Chapter II

Children at risk: Ending hazardous and exploitative child labour UNICEF/89-0052/ Vauclair

In cottage industries throughout the world, all family members contribute. In Honduras, a young boy sleeps at the work table where he stitches softballs in his home.

15

Myth and reality

“Dust from the chemical powders and strong vapours in both the storeroom and the boiler room were obvious....We found 250 children, mostly below 10 years of age, working in a long hall filling in a slotted frame with sticks. Row upon row of children, some barely five years old, were involved in the work.”1

he description could come tle pay, knotting the strands of luxury from an observer appalled at carpets for export. In the United T the working conditions en- States, children are exploited in gar- dured by children in the 19th century ment industry . In the in British mills and factories. Philippines, young boys dive in dan- The world, you feel, must surely gerous conditions to help set nets for have banished such obscenities to the deep-sea fishing. distant past. But the quote is from a The world should, indeed, have report on the matchstick-making outgrown the many forms of abuse industry of modern-day Sivakasi, in labouring children endure. But it The world should, . hasn’t, although not for lack of effort. indeed, have outgrown And similar descriptions of chil- Child labour was one of the first and dren at work in hazardous conditions most important issues addressed by the many forms of abuse can be gathered from countries across the international community, resulting labouring children endure. the world. In Malaysia, children may in the International Labour Organi- But it hasn’t. work up to 17-hour days on rubber zation’s (ILO) 1919 Minimum Age , exposed to insect and Convention (Panel 3). snake bites. In the United Republic of Early efforts were hobbled, in part, Tanzania, they pick coffee, inhaling because campaigners struggling to pesticides. In Portugal, children as end child labour appealed to morality young as 12 are subject to the heavy and ethics, values easily sidelined by labour and myriad dangers of the con- the drive for profit and the hard struction industry. In , they realities of commercial life. Child hunch at looms for long hours and lit- labourers were objects of charity or humanitarian concern but they had no Among the most hazardous of jobs is legal rights. scavenging. Children, like this boy in , Today’s world is different at least collect used paper, plastics, rags and bottles in this respect. Children have rights from garbage dumps, selling them to retailers established in international laws, not for recycling. least in the Convention on the Rights

17 UNICEF/1457/Edinger Fig. 1 Child labour: A look at the past of the Child, which has now been rati- physical, mental, spiritual, moral or The industrialized world had significant numbers fied by all but a few countries. social development must end. Haz- of children working, as recently as 100 years ago. The Ratification specifically obligates ardous child labour is a betrayal of following charts show the composition of the governments — in article 32 — to every child’s rights as a human workforce, in some cases approaching 50 per cent protect children “from economic ex- being and is an offence against our children. Working hours were often long. For ploitation and from performing any civilization. instance, in Ghent industries in 1847, a child‘s work work that is likely to be hazardous or week was generally the same as an adult‘s: to interfere with the child’s education, Four myths about 13 hours per day, 78 hours per week. The charts do or to be harmful to the child’s health child labour not reflect the unpaid work done by children at home. or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or Belgium, ca. 1850 social development.” The recent surge of interest in child But beyond that article, children’s labour has too often been founded Work or exploitation in work contravenes upon — and contributed to — four industry many more of the rights enshrined in myths about child labour that it is Craft flax and hemp the Convention, among them chil- vital to confront. The first is that child

Industrial dren’s rights to care by their parents, labour is uniquely a problem of the cotton to compulsory and free primary edu- developing world. The second is that Clothing cation, to the highest attainable stan- child labour emerges inevitably and

Coal mines dard of health, to social security, and naturally out of poverty and thus will and coke to provisions for rest and recreation. always be with us. The third is that 0 20406080100 The rights of those children whose most child labourers are at work in % of workforce under 16 years of age primary activity is work are, without sweatshops producing cheap goods question, in jeopardy. for export to the stores of the rich England and Wales, ca. 1850 Looking at children’s work world. And the fourth is that there is a through the lens of children’s rights simple solution to the child labour Work or industry and the Convention on the Rights of problem — a ‘trade sanction’ or ‘boy- the Child, as this State of the World’s cott’ — that will end it once and for all. Working girls Children report seeks to do, offers not Non-working girls only new ways of understanding the Myth One problem of child labour but also pro- Child labour only happens in the Working boys vides new impetus and direction to poor world — While the vast major- Non-working boys the movement against it. ity of working children are found in As we will see, child labour is often developing countries, children rou- 0 20406080100 Children 10-14 years of age (%) a complex issue. Powerful forces sus- tinely work in all countries. In every tain it, including many employers, country, rich and poor, it is the nature vested interest groups and economists of the work children do that deter- Japan, 1900 proposing that the market must be free mines whether or not they are harmed Work or at all costs, and traditionalists believ- by it — not the plain fact of their industry ing the caste or class of certain chil- working. Few people in the industrial-

Match-making dren denudes them of rights. ized world, for example, would look Our lodestar must always be the upon the of a child to de- Rope-braiding best interests of the child. It can never liver newspapers for an hour or two Glass-making be in the best interests of a child to be before school as an exploitative form exploited or to perform heavy and of child labour, despite the fact that Rug-weaving dangerous forms of work. No child the child will certainly be paid less

0 20406080100 should labour in hazardous and ex- than normal adult rates for the job. % of workforce under 14 years of age ploitative conditions, just as no child Often such a job will be encouraged should die of preventable illnesses. in the interest of the child’s gaining Source: H. Cunningham, and P.P. Viazzo (eds.), Child Labour in Historical Perspective, 1800-1985: Case studies from Europe, On this point there can be no experience of the ‘real world’ of work Japan and Colombia, UNICEF International Centre, Florence, 1996, pp. 27, 42, 78. doubt. Work that endangers children’s and commerce.

18 Panel 3 Legislative landmarks

rom the first international child labour convention (1919), which saw working Minimum Age Recommendation No. children in terms of wage employment in formal-sector manufacturing, the 146 calls on States to raise the mini- Fworld’s position on child labour has evolved and expanded over the years. It mum age of employment to 16 years. has come to address non-industrial work by children, and most recently, to prohibit While not legally obligating, it none- any kind of work, paid or unpaid, that is injurious to children, and to set out safe- theless is a strong call to action on the guards and protections for children who work. States parties to the Convention on part of member States. Convention No. the Rights of the Child, for example, are required to provide for a minimum age or 138 and this Recommendation are re- minimum ages for admission to employment “having regard to the relevant provi- garded as the most comprehensive sions of other international instruments” (article 32). The laws outlined below are international instruments and state- international landmarks in protecting children. ments on child labour. 1989: Convention on the Rights 1919: Minimum Age (Industry) 1966: International Covenant on of the Child. Enshrines as interde- Convention No. 5. Adopted at the first Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. pendent and indivisible the full session of the International Labour Adopted by the UN General Assembly range of the civil, political, eco- Organization (ILO) and ratified by 72 in 1966 and entered into force in 1976, nomic, social and cultural rights of countries, the Convention established it reaffirms the principles of the all children that are vital to their 14 years as the minimum age for chil- Universal Declaration of Human Rights survival, development, protection dren to be employed in industry. It with regard to economic, social and and participation in the lives of was the first international effort to cultural rights. Article 10 enjoins States their societies. Because of this con- regulate children’s participation in the parties to protect young people from nection between children’s rights workplace and was followed by nu- economic exploitation and from em- and their survival and develop- merous ILO instruments applicable to ployment in work harmful to their ment, virtually all the Convention’s other economic sectors. morals, their health or their lives, or articles address issues — such as likely to hamper their normal develop- education, health, nutrition, rest 1930: ILO Conven- ment. It also commits States parties to and relaxation, social security, the tion No. 29 provides for the suppres- set age limits below which the paid responsibilities of parents — that sion of the use of forced or compulsory employment of child labour should be are related to child labour and its labour in all its forms. The term “forced prohibited and punishable by law. effects on children. One of the or compulsory labour” is considered to Ratifications: 135 States as of mid- tenets of the Convention is that in mean all work or service exacted from September 1996. all actions concerning children, any people under the threat of penalty their best interests should be taken and for which they have not offered 1973: ILO Minimum Age Con- fully into account. Article 32 recog- themselves voluntarily. Ratifications: vention No. 138 supersedes prior nizes children’s right to be pro- 139 States as of mid-September 1996. instruments applicable to limited eco- tected from work that threatens 1966: International Covenant on nomic sectors. The Convention their health, education or develop- Civil and Political Rights. Adopted by obliges member States to pursue a ment and enjoins States parties to the UN General Assembly in 1966 national policy designed to ensure set minimum ages for employment and entered into force in 1976, it reaf- the effective abolition of child labour. and to regulate working conditions. firms the principles of the Universal In this connection, it establishes that Ratifications: 187 States as of mid- Declaration of Human Rights (1948) no child can be employed in any eco- September 1996. with regard to civil and political rights nomic sector below the age desig- ILO proposes for discussion a and commits States parties to take ac- nated for the completion of compulsory 1996: new convention on hazardous child tion to realize these rights. Article 8 schooling — and not less than 15 labour or the elimination of the most states that no one should be kept in years. The minimum age for admission intolerable forms of child labour. or servitude or be required to to any work likely to jeopardize health, perform forced or compulsory labour. safety or morals is 18 years. Ratifications: 135 States as of mid- Ratifications: 49 States as of mid- September 1996. September 1996.

19 This is also how children’s work is a third had themselves been sprayed, regarded by many families in the de- either directly or indirectly.4 veloping world — with the difference that these families are often in dire Myth Two need of the income or help their chil- Child labour will never be eliminated dren can provide, whereas children in until poverty disappears — It is true industrialized countries are often that the poorest, most disadvantaged working for pocket money. sectors of society supply the vast ma- When all forms of work are consid- jority of child labourers. The conclu- ered, the percentage of children work- sion often drawn from this is that ing in industrialized countries can be child labour and poverty are insepara- surprisingly high. In the United ble and that calls for an immediate Kingdom, for example, the most reli- end to hazardous child labour are un- able estimates available show that be- realistic. We are told we must tolerate tween 15 and 26 per cent of the intolerable until world poverty is 11-year-olds and between 36 and 66 ended. per cent of 15-year-olds are working.2 This is very convenient for all those Most of these child workers in who benefit from the status quo. But it industrialized countries also attend is also untrue. The fact remains that school. But there is a naïvety in the when a child is engaged in hazardous assumption that the only kind of labour, someone — an employer, a work undertaken by children in the customer or a — benefits from West is on the ‘pocket money’ model. that labour. It is this element of ex- Industrialized nations tend to see them- ploitation that is overlooked by those selves as having completely eradicated who see child labour as inseparable the harsher forms of child labour and from poverty. However poor their

UNICEF/5530/Isaac thus preach that poorer countries families may be, children would not The long hours and strains of carpet-weaving should follow their example. be harmed by work if there were not cause muscular diseases and deformities, and Yet hazardous forms of child people prepared and able to exploit the inhalation of carpet fibre and chemicals labour can be found in most rich them. And child labour, in fact, can ac- leads to respiratory infections. A boy in countries. Usually, the exploited chil- tually perpetuate poverty, as a working Afghanistan works at a loom. dren come from ethnic minorities or child grows into an adult trapped in immigrant groups, as with the Gypsy unskilled and badly paid jobs. and Albanian communities in Greece. Of course, poverty must be re- In the US, for example, the majority duced. Its reduction by economic of child workers are employed in growth, by employment generation , and a high proportion of and by investment, by better distribu- them are from immigrant or ethnic- tion of income, by changes in the minority families. A study by the US global , as well as by better General Accounting Office showed a allocation of government budgets and 250 per cent increase in child labour better targeting of aid flows will reduce violations between 1983 and 1990. In the potential pool of child labourers. a three-day sting operation in 1990, But hazardous child labour can the US Department of Labor discov- and must be eliminated independently ered more than 11,000 children work- of wider measures aimed at poverty ing illegally.3 The same year, a survey reduction. of Mexican-American children work- At the highest level, governments ing on New York state farms showed have begun to move on the issue, to that almost half had worked in fields make good the commitments they still wet with pesticides and more than assumed in ratifying the Convention

20 on the Rights of the Child. In New active in more than 300 different Delhi in 1996, for example, labour kinds of jobs outside the export sec- ministers of the Non-Aligned Move- tor. These ranged from household ment agreed that “exploitative child work to brick-making, from stone- labour wherever it is practised is a breaking to selling in shops and on moral outrage and an affront to streets, from bike-repairing to human dignity.” They resolved to give garbage-collecting and rag-picking.7 “immediate priority for total and de What is more, this assessment took The end of hazardous child facto elimination of child labour in into account only jobs done in cities. labour does not have to — 5 hazardous .” At the Most children work on farms and and must not — wait for the local level, activists’ groups and non- plantations or houses, far from the governmental organizations (NGOs) reach of labour inspectors and from end of poverty. are exploring ways to remove chil- media scrutiny. dren from dangerous work situations If we allow the notion that the and provide alternatives for them. most exploited child workers are all And in August 1996, the third South in the industrial export sector to take Asian Association for Regional hold, we would do a grave disservice Cooperation (SAARC) Ministerial to that great majority of children who Conference on the Children of South labour in virtual invisibility. Asia committed member States to ending bonded labour by the year Myth Four 2000 and to “eliminate the evil of The only way to make headway child labour” by 2010. against child labour is for consumers The end of hazardous child labour and governments to apply pressure does not have to — and must not — through sanctions and — wait for the end of poverty. World This is incorrect on two counts. First, poverty cannot be eliminated by the it implies that all the momentum for end of the decade. But hazardous child action on child labour is generated by labour — and the grave violation of Western pressure — and that people, the rights of the children involved — NGOs, the media and governments in can be. developing countries have been ignor- ing or condoning the problem. In fact, Myth Three activists and organizations, both local Child labour primarily occurs in ex- and international, have been diligently port industries — Export industries at work in developing countries for are the most visible sector in which years, exposing child labour abuses, children work. Soccer balls made by developing local and national pro- children in Pakistan for use by chil- grammes and promoting consumer dren in industrialized countries may awareness in their own countries and be a compelling symbol. But we must in the West through international not lose sight of the tens of millions campaigns. of children all around the world who The ILO International Programme work in non-export areas, often in on the Elimination of Child Labour is hazardous or exploitative conditions. one important example. Launched in In fact, only a very small percentage 1991 to help children in six countries, of all child workers are employed in it now works with NGO and govern- export-sector industries — probably ment partners in 19 countries (Panel less than 5 per cent.6 4). To cite just two others, in a A 1995 study in Bangladesh, for UNICEF-assisted programme in the example, revealed that children were Philippines, teams composed of gov-

21 Panel 4 IPEC partnerships for children

committee to coordinate the various participating groups and oversee the programme’s management. This in- volvement of many partners both strengthens a nation’s capacity to ef- fect change and builds a sense of country ownership of IPEC programmes. Another essential element of the IPEC approach is to create awareness of the dangers and extent of child labour. The message is spread in vari- ous ways, such as radio programming, which has proven to be a powerful and cost-effective tool, particularly in rural areas. In Thailand, cartoon and picture books describe the dangers of child labour. IPEC also helps countries strength-

UNICEF/Halevi en legislation and enforcement and monitoring capacities. Many countries have started training labour inspectors n Brazil, trade unions have publicized the German Government, IPEC cur- as they are often the only ones who can the problems of child labour and have rently has 19 participating countries — gain access to ‘invisible’ child workers. Imanaged to secure child labour Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa A field-tested labour inspection manual clauses in contracts with employers in Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, developed by IPEC is now available in 88 municipalities in 8 federal states. In India, , Kenya, Nepal, several languages. Programmes also northern Thailand, the Daughters’ Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, the focus on other broader legislative is- Education Programme is helping Philippines, Tanzania, Thailand sues, such as reconciling labour and young girls in 70 communities with and Turkey. Another 10 countries are education laws to ensure that the mini- basic non-formal education, coun- preparing to launch the programme. mum age for employment in a country selling and skills training and alerting An IPEC programme begins with the is higher than the age at which a child them, their families, their teachers and signing of a Memorandum of completes . the leaders of their communities to the Understanding between the govern- Education and awareness-raising dangers that poses. ment and ILO, detailing areas of coop- are often complementary components These are only two examples of eration. Studies and surveys define the of programmes. In India, for example, how the International Labour Or- nature and magnitude of child labour when the Centre for Rural Education ganization’s (ILO) International Pro- problems in a country, and together and Development Association gramme on the Elimination of Child with consultations, form the base on (CREDA), supported by the Indian Labour (IPEC) is working to end haz- which the national plan of action is Government and IPEC, conducted a ardous and exploitative child labour. created. wide awareness campaign among IPEC has distinguished itself with its Once a country’s plan is developed, community members, loom owners creative and flexible approach, tailored government agencies, employers’ and and children, more than 4,500 child to fit children’s needs and countries’ ca- workers’ organizations, NGOs, univer- workers left the carpet industry. The 68 pacities. It has also earned respect for sities and the media carry it out. Since centres for non-formal learning that reinforcing the national commitment no single organization or strategy can CREDA has set up in the area give the and structures on which permanent im- offer a complete solution to the prob- children a basic grounding in life skills provements depend. lem of child labour, partnerships and al- and vocational training, nutrition, Launched in 1991 with a grant from liances are vital. A country establishes a health and child rights. As a result of

22 ernment inspectors, social workers, police, NGOs, prosecutors and the media regularly investigate working children’s conditions, removing those in danger. And in Bangladesh, where primary education is a high priority, a joint NGO/government non-formal strong parental and community education programme for 1.4 million support, many other children were poor urban children was designed in released from looms; an additional late 1995. 1,500 at-risk children were admitted Second, this myth implies that to government schools. The needs of children who com- there is one clear highway, usually in- bine work with school are also ad- volving trade sanctions and consumer dressed by IPEC. In Indonesia, for boycotts, speeding a newly impas- example, learning materials have sioned global society all the way to been developed for use in a large the resolution of the problem. government-funded non-formal ed- International commitment and pres- Iolanda Huzak ucation programme. The curriculum sure are undoubtedly important. But A boy feeds a charcoal furnace in Mato includes subjects such as literacy, Grosso do Sul (Brazil). numeracy, basic housekeeping, hy- sanctions affect only export indus- giene and life skills set out in a tries, which, as we have seen, exploit teacher’s guide and trainee booklets. a relatively small percentage of child Several ILO-IPEC implementing labourers. And sanctions are also agencies have started to use the ma- blunt instruments with long-term con- terials. sequences that may not be foreseen, None of these innovations would with the result that they harm, instead be possible without the support of IPEC’s donors, which include of help, children. Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway The Harkin Bill, which was intro- and the United States. Last year, the duced into the US Congress in 1992 Government of Spain provided a with the laudable aim of prohibiting grant to expand IPEC to 13 countries the import of products made by chil- in Latin America. dren under 15, is a case in point. As of The IPEC budget is small, and September 1996, the Bill had yet to programme costs seem especially low when weighed against the ben- find its way onto the statute books. efits: better lives and futures for But the mere threat of such a measure children. panicked the garment industry of Bangladesh, 60 per cent of whose products — some $900 million in value — were exported to the US in 1994.8 Child workers, most of them girls, were summarily dismissed from the garment factories. A study spon- sored by international organizations took the unusual step of tracing some of these children to see what hap- pened to them after their dismissal. Some were found working in more Photo: Vocational training is a part of hazardous situations, in unsafe work- many IPEC programmes. In Thailand, a shops where they were paid less, or in boy sews garments. prostitution.

23 Fig. 2 The world’s children: This, then, was a classic case of safety hazards they present: for exam- How many, how old? good motives gone wrong. However, ple, the charcoal furnaces in the The world’s children (0-18 years) number over 2 not all was lost. A ground-breaking Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, billion. Nearly 9 out of 10 of them (87 per cent) live agreement was reached to protect the or the glass-bangle factories of in developing countries. affected children (Panel 12). Firozabad in India. Hazardous work is A clear lesson can be learned in all simply intolerable for all children. 800 of this. Because of their potential to But to treat all work by children as do harm, in any situation where sanc- equally unacceptable is to confuse 700 tions are contemplated, a child-impact and trivialize the issue and to make it

600 assessment would need to be made at more difficult to end the abuses. This the point of application, and constant is why it is important to distinguish 500 monitoring would be needed there- between beneficial and intolerable

400 after to gauge the long-term effects on work and to recognize that much child children. labour falls into a grey area between Number (millions) 300 these two extremes. A decade ago, UNICEF deter- 200 What is child labour? mined that child labour is exploitative 100 It is time to define terms. The phrase if it involves: ‘child labour’ conjures up a particular † full-time work at too early an age; 0 0-4 5-9 10-14 15-17 image: we see children chained to † too many hours spent working; Age group (years) looms in dark mills and sweatshops, † work that exerts undue physical, Developed countries as if in a long and nightmarish line social or psychological stress; Developing countries running from in the † work and life on the streets in bad World right through to the South Asia of the conditions; 1990s. † inadequate pay; Source: UN Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 1994 revision, United Nations, New York, 1995. In reality, children do a variety of † too much responsibility; work in widely divergent conditions. † work that hampers access to This work takes place along a contin- education; uum. At one end of the continuum, the † work that undermines children’s work is beneficial, promoting or en- dignity and self-esteem, such as slav- hancing a child’s physical, mental, ery or bonded labour and sexual spiritual, moral or social development exploitation; without interfering with schooling, † work that is detrimental to full so- recreation and rest. cial and psychological development.9 At the other end, it is palpably de- The impact of work on a child’s structive or exploitative. There are development is the key to determining vast areas of activity between these when such work becomes a problem. two poles, including work that need Work that is harmless to adults can not impact negatively on the child’s be extremely harmful to children. development. Among the aspects of a child’s devel- At the most destructive end, no one opment that can be endangered by would publicly argue that exploiting work are: children as prostitutes is acceptable in † physical development — including any circumstances. The same can be overall health, coordination, strength, said about ‘bonded child labour’, the vision and hearing; term widely used for the virtual en- † — includ- slavement of children to repay debts ing literacy, numeracy and the acqui- incurred by their parents or grandpar- sition of knowledge necessary to ents. This also applies to industries normal life; notorious for the dire health and † emotional development — includ-

24 ing adequate self-esteem, family which are particularly Fig. 3 The working child: attachment, feelings of love and ac- vulnerable; 1 out of every 4 in the developing ceptance; † children mistreated in the work- world † social and moral development — place may be so traumatized that 1100 including a sense of group identity, they cannot concentrate on school 1000 the ability to cooperate with others work or are rejected by teachers as 900 and the capacity to distinguish right disruptive.12 800 from wrong.10 700 The physical harm is, of course, 600 How old is a child? 500 the easiest to see. Carrying heavy 400 Number (millions) loads or sitting for long periods in un- All cultures share the view that the 300 natural positions can permanently dis- younger the children, the more vul- 200 able growing bodies. Hard physical nerable they are physically and psy- 100 0 labour over a period of years can stunt chologically and the less they are able Children, Working 5-14 years, children children’s physical stature by up to 30 to fend for themselves. Age limits are in developing in developing countries countries per cent of their biological potential, a formal reflection of society’s judge- as they expend stores of stamina that ment about the evolution of children’s should last into adulthood.11 capacities and responsibilities. Children are also vulnerable psy- Almost everywhere, age limits for- chologically: they can suffer devastat- mally regulate children’s activities: Fig. 4 Long days, long weeks ing psychological damage from being when they can leave school; when Of the projected 190 million working children in in an environment in which they are they can marry; when they can vote; the 10-14 age group in the developing world, three demeaned or oppressed. Self-esteem when they can be treated as adults by quarters of them work six days a week or more and is as important for children as it is for the criminal-justice system; when one half work nine hours a day or more. adults. they can join the armed forces — and Education is one of the keys that when they can work. Work week: will unlock the prison cell of haz- But age limits differ from activity 6+ days Hours/day: ardous labour in which so many chil- to activity and from country to coun- 9+ hours dren are confined. It is almost impos- try. The legal minimum age for all 0 20406080100 sible to overemphasize this point. work in Egypt, for example, is 12, in Working children ages 10-14 Education helps a child develop the Philippines 14, in Hong Kong 15. in developing countries (%) cognitively, emotionally and socially, Peru adopts a variety of standards: and it is an area often gravely jeopar- the minimum age is 14 in agricul- Note: Because of the scarcity of data on child labour, Figs. 3 and 4 represent projections of the numbers of the developing dized by child labour. Work can inter- ture; 15 in industry; 16 in deep-sea world’s working children and of their hours, based on ILO fere with education in the following fishing; and 18 for work in ports and surveys in specific countries. ways: seafaring.13 † it frequently absorbs so much time Many countries make a distinction that school attendance is impossible; between light and hazardous work, † it often leaves children so ex- with the minimum age for the former hausted that they lack the energy to generally being 12, for the latter usu- attend school or cannot study effec- ally varying between 16 and 18.14 The tively when in class; ILO Minimum Age Convention also † some occupations, especially sea- broadly adopts this approach, allow- sonal agricultural work, cause chil- ing light work at age 12 or 13, but dren to miss too many days of class hazardous work not before 18.15 even though they are enrolled in Nevertheless, ILO also establishes school; a general minimum age of 15 years — † the social environment of work provided 15 is not less than the age of sometimes undermines the value chil- completion of compulsory schooling. dren place on education, something to This is the most widely used yardstick

25 when establishing how many children ILO, to better quantify the are currently working around the problem, recently launched experi- world. mental surveys in Ghana, India, Indonesia and Senegal, which em- How many ployed local statisticians to study a children work? sample of about 4,000 households and 200 businesses in each country. The Nobody knows for sure. ILO, one au- results showed that the average per- thority on the subject, considers the centage of economically active chil- existing statistics vastly inadequate dren aged between 5 and 14 was 25 and unreliable and the process of data per cent, and in Senegal it was as high collection fraught with complications. as 40 per cent.17 A recent ILO limited survey, which Worldwide, the big picture looks indicated that 73 million of the something like this: the vast majority world’s children are employed — of all child labourers live in Asia, equivalent to 13 per cent of those aged Africa and Latin America. Half of 10 to 1416 — helps illustrate some of them can be found in Asia alone, al- the problems. though their proportion may be de- The survey was limited for many clining in South-East Asia as per reasons. Many national governments capita income increases, basic educa- did not respond. It did not include tion spreads and family size de- children at work in industrialized na- creases. Africa has an average of one tions. It did not count the millions of in three children working.18 In Latin

UNICEF/93-1226/Andrew child workers believed to be under 10 America, one child in five works.19 HIV/AIDS has resulted in greater numbers of years of age, nor those employed in These proportions have increased children as heads of household who must fend the informal sector, or attending partly due to the economic crisis of for themselves. A girl in , one of nine school who might also be working. the 1980s and, in Africa, because of children in a family orphaned by AIDS, Nor did it include the biggest the lack of public investment in edu- carries a bowl full of mangoes. group of invisible workers: all those cation as well as because of armed children — mainly girls — who are conflict. In both Africa and Latin engaged in domestic labour, whether America, only a tiny proportion of for their own families or as servants. child workers are involved in the for- The collection of solid and reliable mal sector. The vast majority work for data regarding child labour is limited their families, in homes, in the fields also by the fact that, in certain in- and on the streets. stances, it is presumed officially not Child labour has increased sub- to exist and therefore is not included stantially in Central and Eastern in surveys or covered by official European countries as a result of the statistics. Further uncounted child abrupt switch from centrally planned labourers can be discovered if we sur- to market . In industrial- mise that children currently not en- ized countries, such as the UK and the rolled in or attending school are US, meanwhile, the growth of the ser- working in some form or another. In vice sector and the quest for a more India alone that would add some 90 flexible workforce have contributed to million children, most of them girls, an expansion of child labour. Political to the total. So, while it is impossible unrest and HIV/AIDS in African to cite a single authoritative figure, it countries have resulted in increased is clear that the number of child work- reliance on child labour. ers worldwide runs into hundreds of To see behind this big picture, the millions (Fig. 3). need for reliable measurements of the

26 prevalence of child labour, according tween hunger and a bare sufficiency. Fig. 5 Family purchasing power to internationally agreed definitions, Survey after survey makes this clear. falls in many regions is paramount. Governments, NGOs A high proportion of child employ- and international institutions need to ees give their entire wages to their Children can be forced into hazardous labour when work together on this massive task. parents. Children’s work is consid- family income and purchasing power decrease and Above all, we need to know how ered essential to maintaining the eco- parents cannot provide for their needs. The drop in purchasing power since 1990 has been dramatic in many children are involved in detri- nomic level of the household the Russian Federation and in some neighbouring mental work, at the worst end of the (Figs. 5 and 6). A review of nine countries in Asia. Families are growing poorer in continuum. This is the group of chil- Latin American countries has shown sub-Saharan Africa and have lost economic ground dren that policies and programmes that without the income of working recently in the Middle East and North Africa also. need to reach most urgently. children aged 13-17, the incidence of

Without this clearer information, poverty would rise by between 10 7000 the true scale of the problem will re- and 20 per cent.20 CEE/CIS* and Baltic States 6000 main unknown. What has long hidden If employers were not prepared to Latin America and Caribbean in the shadows will only emerge into exploit children there would be no 5000 the light, fully and finally, when we child labour. The parents of child Middle East can measure it, and thus systemati- labourers are often unemployed or un- 4000 and North Africa cally move to eradicate it. deremployed, desperate for secure em- 3000 East Asia and Pacific ployment and income. Yet it is not they Sub-Saharan 2000 Africa

The but their children who are offered the GNP per capita (1994 US dollars) jobs. Why? Because children can be 1000 of child labour South Asia paid less, of course. (In Latin America, 0 Most children who work do not have for example, children aged 13-17 earn 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 the power of free choice. They are on average half the pay of a wage- * Central and Eastern Europe/Commonwealth of not choosing between career options earning adult with 7 years of educa- Independent States with varying advantages, drawbacks tion.21) Because children are more and levels of pay. A fortunate - malleable: they will do what they are ity have sufficient material means told without questioning authority. Fig. 6 Purchasing power: behind them to be pulled towards Because children are more powerless: Industrialized vs. developing countries work as an attractive option offering they are less likely to organize against them even more economic advan- oppression and can be physically The gap continues to widen between strong tages. But the vast majority are abused without striking back. industrialized economies and those in the developing world. pushed into work that is often dam- Put simply, children are employed aging to their development by three because they are easier to exploit. 25000 key factors: the exploitation of Many employers, if challenged, will Industrialized countries poverty; the absence of education; plead their own relative poverty and 20000 and the restrictions of tradition. their need to pay the lowest wages in 15000 order to compete and survive. Others The exploitation of poverty are more unashamed about their role, 10000 The most powerful force driving chil- seeing the exploitation of children’s 5000 Developing countries

dren into hazardous, debilitating work as a natural and necessary part GNP per capita (1994 US dollars) 0 labour is the exploitation of poverty. of the existing social order. Owners of 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 Where society is characterized by bonded labourers quoted by an Indian poverty and inequity, the incidence of researcher, for example, believed that Note: These charts reflect local purchasing power in constant 1994 prices based on per capita gross national child labour is likely to increase, as low-caste children should work rather product (GNP). South Africa’s GNP is not included in the does the risk that it is exploitative. than go to school. “Once they are al- sub-Saharan data.

For poor families, the small con- lowed to come up to an equal level, Source for both figures: 1995 data. tribution of a child’s income or assis- nobody will go to the fields. Fields tance at home that allows the parents will be left uncultivated everywhere. to work can make the difference be- We have to keep them under our

27 strong thumb in order to get work ing numbers of child labourers. In done.”22 Zimbabwe, for example, both govern- Exploitation of the poor and the ment and ILO reports have linked the powerless not only means that adults explosion of child labour directly to are denied jobs that could better have the impact of the country’s structural sustained their families. It not only adjustment programme.23 means that children are required to Gradually, structural adjustment work in arduous, dangerous condi- programmes have been modified in an tions. It also means a life of unskilled attempt to mitigate their effects on the In half of 14 countries work and ignorance not only for the vulnerable. In new agreements being surveyed, classrooms for child but often for the children of gen- concluded between governments and grade 1 have sitting places erations to come. Any small, short- the international financial institutions, term financial gain for the family is at public expenditure on primary educa- for only 4 in 10 pupils. the cost of an incalculable long-term tion and other basic social services is Half the pupils have no loss. Poverty begets child labour increasingly being protected from textbooks. Half the begets lack of education begets poverty. budget cuts. But most developing classrooms have no Yet, poverty is not an eternal verity. countries are still living with the poli- It is sustained or diminished by politi- cies of the recent past: unmodified ad- chalkboards. cal and economic policies and oppor- justment packages still impact heavily tunities. Unfortunately, both national on their poorest citizens. And it is in and international economic develop- this state that they must now face the ments in recent decades have served implications of the worldwide scram- to increase inequality and poverty. ble for competitiveness associated The 1980s marked a serious down- with ‘’. turn in the fortunes of many de- And many still concentrate scarce veloping countries, as government resources on military rather than so- indebtedness, unwise internal eco- cial priorities. Sub-Saharan Africa nomic policies and recession resulted now spends around $8 billion annu- in economic crisis. The World Bank ally on the military, despite the fact and the International Monetary Fund that 216 million people in the region (IMF) responded by imposing on in- live in poverty. Similarly, South Asia — debted nations, in return for loan with 562 million in poverty — spent guarantees, a package of policy pre- $14 billion on the military in 1994.24 scriptions known as structural adjust- A serious attack on poverty will re- ment programmes. These sweeping duce the number of children vulnera- economic reforms aimed to orient ble to exploitation at work. Social countries towards the needs of the safety nets are essential for the poor, global economy, promoting export as are access to credit and income- crops and offering incentives to for- generating schemes, technology, edu- eign investors while at the same time cation and basic health services. slashing government expenditure. All Budgetary priorities need to be re- too often, the cuts in expenditure fell examined and redirected in this light. on health and education, on food sub- Tackling the exploitation itself sidies and on social services, all does not have to wait until some fu- needed most by the poor. ture day when world poverty has been Firsthand experience in most brought to an end. Hazardous child countries shows that the real cost of labour provides the most powerful of adjustment is being paid dispropor- arguments for equality and social jus- tionately by the poor and by their chil- tice. It can and must be abolished here dren. It is also being paid by increas- and now.

28 The lack of stand, they would not teach us. So I relevant education dropped out of school.” Cuts in social spending have hit edu- Sudhir’s decision to drop out of cation — the most important single school is hardly surprising. And that step in ending child labour — particu- decision — often made by parents — larly hard. is mirrored worldwide. Overall, 30 In all regions, spending per stu- per cent of children in developing dent for higher education fell during countries who enrol in primary school the 1980s, and in Africa and Latin do not complete it.26 The figure rises America, spending per pupil also fell to 60 per cent in some countries. In for primary education. Latin America, enrolment in school is A pilot survey, sponsored by the comparatively high, yet only half United Nations Educational, Scien- those who enter school finish it, tific and Cultural Organization broadly the same proportion as in (UNESCO) and UNICEF and carried Africa with its much lower levels of out in 1994 in 14 of the world’s least enrolment. Even Brazil, one of the developed countries, reinforced con- richest countries in the region, has a cerns about the actual conditions of primary school completion rate of primary schools. In half of these only 40 per cent.27 countries, classrooms for grade 1 have Education has become part of the sitting places for only 4 in 10 pupils. problem. It has to be reborn as part of Half the pupils have no textbooks and the solution. half the classrooms have no chalk- boards. Teachers commonly have to Traditional expectations attempt to handle huge classes — an The economic forces that propel chil- UNICEF/93-1956/Pirozzi average of 67 pupils per teacher in dren into hazardous work may be the A girl in Niger goes about her chores. Bangladesh and nearly 90 per teacher most powerful of all. But traditions in Equatorial Guinea. In 10 of the 14 and entrenched social patterns play a countries, most children are taught in part, too. a language not spoken at home. And In industrialized countries, it is most homes, of course, have no books now almost universally accepted that or magazines in any language.25 if children are to develop normally Education is clearly underfunded, and healthily, then they must not per- but the school system as it stands in form disabling work. In theory at most developing countries is blighted least, education, play and leisure, by more than just a lack of resources. friends, good health and proper rest It is too often rigid and uninspiring in must all have an important place in approach, promoting a curriculum their lives. that is irrelevant to and remote from This idea emerged only relatively children’s lives. recently. In the early decades of The quality of teaching is fre- industrialization, work was thought to quently abysmal and the discipline vi- be the most effective way of teaching olent, as 11-year-old Sudhir from children about life and the world. Kone in India can testify: “In school, Some residue of this notion remains teachers would not teach well. If we in the widespread expectation that ask them to teach us alphabets, they teenage children should take on ca- would beat us. They would sleep in sual jobs alongside school, both to the class. If we asked them about a gain an understanding of the way the small doubt, they would beat us and world functions and to earn spending send us out. Even if we did not under- money of their own.

29 Panel 5 Child domestic work: Hidden exploitation

surveyed left previous domestic jobs because of a “cruel boss.” Child do- mestics are exposed to emotional and sexual abuse by household members, deprived of their parents’ affection and support, and exposed to humiliation by the children of their employers, all of which can deeply affect their self-es- teem. The hours are long. Child domes- tics in Jakarta work 12 to 15 hours a day. In Dhaka (Bangladesh), half the children interviewed in one study work even longer — 15 to 18 hours. Along with regular chores, like laun- dry, cooking, cleaning, and minding their employers’ children, they are often on call into the night, bringing re- freshments and polishing shoes, at the

UNICEF/95-0647/Toutounji whim of all household members. They earn little, and girls consis- tently earn less than boys. Sometimes orldwide, millions of children the past decade or so. The entry of the only remuneration is leftover food toil in obscurity in private more women into formal and informal and discarded clothing. A recent survey Whomes, behind closed doors, labour markets, together with cut- in Kenya showed that 78 per cent of as domestic workers. One of the most backs in social services in many coun- child domestics report payment “in widespread and least researched tries, has created a larger demand for kind,” usually in the form of the occa- forms of child exploitation, domes- domestic workers, and women and sional new dress or shoes. Only 17 per tic work holds many risks for the more and more children from impov- cent say they are paid in cash. children — 9 out of 10 of them are erished families, including those fami- Few ever attend school. In , girls — who are trapped in a cycle of lies driven by poverty from rural to for example, only 10 per cent received dreary tasks amounting often to virtual urban areas seeking employment, are any formal education, leaving them slavery. a ready source of such workers. Once trapped without skills or options. By Because such work is largely hid- seen by many as an arrangement of drawing on and thus helping sustain a den, its true extent is difficult to gauge, ‘patronage’, child domestic work reservoir of uneducated young girls, but recent studies have helped define should be acknowledged for what it domestic service in turn perpetuates the problem more clearly. In Jakarta has become: the exploitation of child the problems of poverty and lack of (Indonesia), a survey discovered that labour. opportunity so deeply associated with almost one third of all domestic work- Children are employed by wealthy the gender gap. In Dhaka, for example, ers — about 400,000 — are under 15. families and by families of modest in- only about 10 per cent of girl domes- Haiti has an estimated 250,000 child come also, but living and work condi- tics are interested in education. domestics, 20 per cent of whom are 7 tions are inappropriate in either case. In the , a child to 10 years old. The children are often expected to domestic is known as a ‘puerta cer- Children work as domestics in sleep where they can, on the kitchen rada’, or ‘closed door’ servant. In Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle floor or in the corner of a child’s room. Bangladesh, they are the ‘tied down’. East and parts of southern Europe. They may live for days on bread and Their isolation can be almost com- Several factors are believed to have and they endure scoldings and plete, enduring as they do separation precipitated increasing numbers of beatings. In Togo, for instance, an from parents, often for months at a children into this form of labour over overwhelming majority of children time. In Dhaka, over half of those sur-

30 There is a darker side to the expec- tations about children’s work. The harder and more hazardous the jobs become, the more they are likely to be considered traditionally the province of the poor and disadvantaged, the lower classes and ethnic minorities. In veyed see their parents once every India, for example, the view has been The harder and more nine months or even less often. that some people are born to rule and According to a worker at the hazardous the jobs become, to work with their minds while others, Maurice Sixto Shelter for child do- the more they are likely to be mestic workers in Port-au-Prince the vast majority, are born to work (Haiti), 80 per cent of the children with their bodies. Many traditionalists considered traditionally she sees suffer illnesses — upset have been unperturbed about lower- the province of the poor stomachs, headaches — from emo- caste children failing to enrol in or and disadvantaged, the lower tional trauma. dropping out of school. And if those Few programmes address the children end up doing hazardous la- classes and ethnic minorities. multiple developmental risks that bour, it is likely to be seen as their lot child domestic workers face. The 28 Maurice Sixto Shelter is one such in life. programme, aiding 300 child do- The rigidity of the caste system in mestics working in a Port-au- India only dramatizes what is true in Prince suburb. Shelter workers most of the world, including the West. gain the employers’ consent to The dominant cultural group may not unite child domestics as often as wish its own children to do hazardous possible with their natural fami- labour, but it will not be so concerned lies. The child workers attend non- formal classes with other children if young people from racial, ethnic or in the afternoon. economic minorities do it. In northern Another programme is the Europe, for example, child labourers Sinaga Women and Child Labour are likely to be African or Turkish. In Resource Centre in Nairobi the US, they are Asian or Latin (Kenya). Opened in 1994, it hopes American; in Canada, they are Asian. to better the lives of some of In Brazil, they tend to be the descen- Kenya’s estimated 200,000 child do- dants of slaves or the children of in- mestic workers by providing basic education classes and skills train- digenous people with no political ing (Panel 6). clout. In , many are Bolivian Domestic work represents grave and Paraguayan. In Thailand’s fishing risks and potential damage to chil- industry, many are from . dren’s development. The world is And as traditional forces push chil- obliged to recognize and acknowl- dren into work in many parts of the edge these risks and ensure that world, the situation is worsened by these invisible workers are allowed to enjoy their childhood and their the growing culture of consumerism. rights. Understanding all the various cul- tural factors that lead children into work is essential. But deference to tra- dition is often cited as a reason for not acting against intolerable forms of child labour. Children have an ab- solute, unnegotiable right to freedom Photo: Two girls in the courtyard of the from hazardous child labour — a right Maurice Sixto Shelter in Haiti, where young domestic workers receive basic now established in international law education and psychological counselling. and accepted by every country that

31 has ratified the Convention on the Haiti. She is a restavek — Creole for Rights of the Child. Respect for di- rester avec — the local term for a type verse cultures should not deflect us of child domestic found all over the from using all the means at our dis- world, one who has been handed over posal to make every society, every by a poor rural family to live with and economy, every corporation, regard provide domestic ‘help’ for a usually the exploitation of children as un- urban, wealthier family. She gets up at Child domestic workers are thinkable. five in the morning and begins her day very often cut off from the by fetching water from a nearby well, community, denied rest and The shapes of balancing the heavy jug on her head child labour as she returns. She prepares breakfast play. In Lima (Peru), a survey and serves it to the members of the estimated that nearly a third The many manifestations of child household. Then she walks the fam- of domestic workers never labour can be broken down into seven ily’s five-year-old son to school; later, main types, none of which are unique at noon, she brings him home and leave the home where they to any one region of the world. These helps him change clothes. work. are domestic service, forced and Next, she helps prepare and serve bonded labour, commercial sexual ex- the family’s lunch before returning ploitation, industrial and the boy to school. In between meal work, street work, work for the family times she must buy food in the market and girls’ work. and run errands, tend the charcoal fire, sweep the yard, wash clothes and Domestic service dishes, clean the kitchen and — at Child domestic workers are the least once a day — wash her female world’s most forgotten children, boss’s feet. She is given leftovers or which is why it is worth considering cornmeal to eat, has ragged clothes their plight before that of other, more and no shoes and sleeps outdoors or familiar groups of child workers on the floor. She is not allowed to (Panel 5). Although domestic service bathe in the water she brings to the need not be hazardous, most of the household. She is regularly beaten time it is just that. Children in domes- with a leather strap if she is slow to re- tic servitude may well be the most spond to a request or is considered vulnerable and exploited children of disrespectful. Needless to say, she is all, as well as the most difficult to pro- not allowed to attend school.29 tect. They are often extremely poorly The very nature of domestic work paid or not paid at all; their terms and means that those doing it are shut conditions are very often entirely at away from the eyes of the world, un- the whim of the employers and take protected from abuse. As we have no account of their legal rights; they seen, this isolation also makes it dif- are deprived of schooling, play and ficult to establish reliable estimates social activity, and of emotional sup- of the number of children involved. port from family and friends. They are Some idea of the scale of the prob- vulnerable to physical and sexual lem can, however, be gleaned from abuse. What more miserable situation local surveys. could there be for a child — some- A survey of middle-income house- times as young as age five — than to holds in Colombo (Sri Lanka) showed experience such conditions among that one in three had a child under 14 often hostile strangers? years of age as a . A Consider, for example, a day in the study of a lower-middle-class residen- life of seven-year-old Marie, from tial area in Nairobi (Kenya) found that

32 20 per cent of households employed a third of domestic workers never children in 1982, though by 1991 this leave the home where they work.35 had dropped to 12 per cent, perhaps Haitian psychologists who have due to falling living standards. A sur- worked with restaveks describe con- vey of domestic workers in Uruguay ditions of depression, passivity, sleep found that 34 per cent had begun work- and eating disorders, as well as ing before they were 14.30 A survey in chronic fear and anxiety.36 Among the India, noting that 17 per cent of domes- most common adjectives used to de- tic workers were under 15 years old, scribe child domestic workers are reported that girls aged 12 to 15 were ‘timid’ and ‘listless’. Childhood has the preferred choice of 90 per cent of been stolen from these children. employing households.31 Children are Research in this field is still in its often preferred to adults precisely be- infancy. But to promote it, early in cause they can be dominated more eas- 1996 Anti-Slavery International orga- ily and, of course, paid less. nized a seminar at Charney Manor, The impact of a life like Marie’s on Oxfordshire (UK) for NGOs and in- a child’s development is profound. An stitutes that have investigated the situ- obvious negative is poor nutrition, ation of children in domestic service. since it is rare that child domestics Supported financially by ILO-IPEC share equally in the family meals. and by UNICEF, participants came A Peruvian girl says: “They would from Bangladesh and Nepal in South

give us two rolls to eat with tea. After Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines in UNICEF/93-0032/Murray-Lee that I used to go to bed. Meanwhile South-East Asia, Kenya in East Family work, the most common of all labour they were eating buttered toast, coffee Africa, Senegal and Togo in West done by children, may be beneficial and give with milk, steak, and on top of that, Africa, Haiti in the Caribbean and children a sense of self-worth. But it may grapes, pears, apples and peaches.”32 Guatemala in — elo- demand too much of children, even keeping The evidence is not just anecdotal: a quent testimony to the extent of the them from school. A girl, 12 years old, in study of 15-year-old restaveks in Haiti problem. Several major common Bangladesh, helps with the household chores. compared them with other local chil- themes emerged: dren and found them on average † “There is no problem.” In virtually 4 centimetres shorter and 18 kilo- all countries where children carry the grams lighter.33 burdens of household work, society Sexual abuse is often regarded by does not regard it as a reprehensible the employer as part of the employ- practice. Even some of the activists at ment terms. Jeanne, a 15-year-old the seminar were not convinced that working in Cotonou (Benin), has the the practice itself — as opposed to normal heavy workload, is unpaid and its most exploitative forms — was is beaten when her employers are dis- damaging. satisfied with her work. But her great- † Access to children working in est problem is the family’s 23-year- homes is very difficult. Several old son, who rapes her regularly. If researchers reported obstruction from she resists, he creates situations that employers. Even where access was lead to her being beaten.34 obtained, it was difficult to conduct Even when not sexually abused, meaningful interviews with children child domestics can suffer severe when employers insisted on re- damage in terms of their psychologi- maining present. cal and social development. They are † The need for accurate estimates of very often cut off from the commu- the numbers of child domestics and nity, denied rest and play. In Lima the conditions under which they work (Peru), a survey estimated that nearly was emphasized. Information about

33 Panel 6 Kenyan girls find hope at Sinaga

Few of the girls are assertive, though. “A child of 12 who’s been labouring in a home since she was 7, cut off from con- tacts, often undernourished, bullied and abused by the woman employer, some- times violated by the male, is usually very cowed,” comments Sinaga’s coor- dinator, Jane Ong’olo. The Centre, al- though functioning to an extent as a refuge for the girls, has as its main objec- tive to equip them for the time when their usefulness to the employer is exhausted. Mrs. Ong’olo explains, “Very often these girls are pregnant at 14 or 15. Once that happens, they are put out on the streets, and their options for survival are ex- tremely limited.” Having started out providing basic lit- UNICEF/ESARO/Pirozzi eracy for the youngest girls, and setting hristine, age 11, cheeks flushed typical day. It is also a source of hope up the skills courses for the teenagers, with heat, gingerly lifts a hot tray for the future. Sinaga is finding that there is a demand Cfrom the oven and displays her Housed in a two-storey, white- for continuous service to assist the in- baking — a dozen glistening buns, painted concrete block building in between-age girls. “We’re not equipped Christine’s first success in her first cook- Nairobi’s industrial area, the NGO Sinaga to provide a school but the need is indi- ing lesson. They are also an important offers basic education and training cated. We would also like to offer coun- part of Christine’s job training. courses — including cooking classes selling and legal advice for girls who are Christine is one of the thousands of — as well as comfort to young domestic battered or abused. Sometimes they run domestic child workers who provide workers. Barely two years old, its full title away and come here — but we don’t the labour in the urban households of is Women and Child Labour Resource have the resources to act as a shelter,” Kenya, allowing the wife or female Centre, and it is funded by the says Ms. Musungu. head of the household to work for in- International Labour Organization’s As the sole centre of its kind in Kenya come outside the home. International Programme to Eliminate that offers both skills training and basic Very often these girl workers are re- Child Labour (ILO/IPEC). literacy to girls who are domestic work- lated to the employer, children of broth- Nearly 100 girls are currently enrolled ers, Sinaga has a ground-breaking role ers, sisters and cousins in the rural areas. in a six-month course that includes basic to play in sensitizing and informing the The rural family is only too glad to be re- literacy, cooking, and introduction to general public and authorities alike about lieved of the responsibility of feeding a skills such as tailoring and typing. The conditions for domestic child workers child. And usually, the relative under- girls attend classes either in the morning and ways to improve them. Mrs. Ong’olo takes to educate the child. or the afternoon, an arrangement negoti- says, “This sort of work for children will Once in the city, however, no one is ated with their employers by the Centre’s not disappear overnight, but we can en- there to check whether this promise is field worker, Mary Musungu. sure that better conditions and working fulfilled — or to note the long hours of There is no charge to the employer. hours are mandatory.” drudgery, discrimination and isolation Ms. Musungu notes, “Once they realize that are often the lot of these children. that the child will get some education Sinaga is the name of a town in and that their work will still get done, they western Kenya. To Christine and the agree. But we have instances when girls Photo: Reaching child domestic workers with other girls, the name has become syn- are prevented from attending if they start training and support programmes is a major onymous with relief from the loneli- to be too assertive, or question how they challenge. A child in Uganda prepares a ness and neglect that characterize their are treated in the home.” family’s vegetables.

34 how many suffer physical or emo- or pledged by their parents for paltry tional damage, and to what degree, is sums of money. Most of them are kept even more hidden behind closed in captivity, tortured and made to doors.37 work for 20 hours a day without a Accurate information can be put to break. Little children are made to good use. In Kenya, for example, evi- crouch on their toes, from dawn to dence of psychological and emotional dusk every day, severely stunting their damage has helped convince parents growth during formative years. Social and society at large that the problem activists in the area find it hard to must be tackled (Panel 6). Both there work because of the strong mafia-like and in Senegal, community drama control that the carpet loom owners projects have raised awareness, par- have on the area.”39 ticularly in the rural areas likely to be Of course, most worst-exploited the source of future domestic work- children belong to the most marginal- ers. A different approach has been ized segments of society. As in other taken in Sri Lanka, where the countries, these ethnic minorities and Government has targeted employers disadvantaged groups are routinely with large newspaper advertisements seen as having no rights whatsoever. stressing that employing child do- Often they themselves have come to mestics is illegal.38 believe that they deserve no rights. This kind of virtual is

Forced and bonded labour usually associated only with India, UNICEF/93-1257/Noorani Many of the forms of child labour Nepal and Pakistan. But it exists in In Nepal, children and women carry bricks on practised around the world are other parts of the world, too. In Brazil, their heads from the brick field to a truck. ‘forced’ in the sense that children are for example, forced labour is found They earn $0.25 for every 100 trips. taught to accept the conditions of their from the charcoal-burning projects of lives and not to challenge them. Minas Gerais and Bahia to the sugar- But the situation of some children cane estates of Espíritu Santo and the goes far beyond the acceptance of north-east. While most such labour is poor conditions. They find themselves performed by adults, children are in- in effective slavery. In South Asia, this evitably involved also. In 1993, a has taken on a quasi-institutional form British Member of Parliament re- known as ‘bonded’ child labour. ported having seen children working Under this system, children, often to cool down charcoal kilns with mud only eight or nine years old, are in Açailândia.40 Also in 1993, children pledged by their parents to factory as young as four were said to be at owners or their agents in exchange for work in the cotton harvest in Paraná.41 small loans. Their lifelong servitude In Mauritania, thousands of children never succeeds in even reducing the are still born each year into effective debt. slavery. A tradition for generations, In India, this type of transaction is servitude was officially outlawed in widespread in agriculture, as well as 1980, but 400,000 black Africans in industries such as cigarette-rolling, serve as slaves, either formally or in- carpet-making, matchstick-making, formally, to their Berber masters.42 slate and silk. The most notorious Another example is in Myanmar, of these is the carpet industry of where hundreds of thousands of peo- Mirzapur-Bhadohi-Varanasi in Uttar ple, including children, work on con- Pradesh. According to a recent study, struction projects aimed at fostering the thousands of children in the carpet tourism and economic expansion, industry are “kidnapped or lured away often in appalling conditions.

35 Governments of countries where employers, either as perpetrators or forced child labour exists must redou- intermediaries. ble their efforts to stamp out the prac- Village loan-sharks often act as pro- tice and challenge the vested interests curers for city brothels, lending money that so immorally maintain and bene- to the family that the daughter’s work fit from it. must pay off. However it happens, al- most all such children are betrayed by Village loan-sharks often act Commercial sexual those they trust and may end up traf- as procurers for city brothels, exploitation ficked long distances and across bor- lending money to the family The underground nature of the multi- ders. Rescue and rehabilitation is billion-dollar illegal industry in the complicated for children. They often that the daughter’s work commercial sexual exploitation of end up being prosecuted by the very must pay off. children makes it difficult to gather legal system that should be protecting reliable data. But NGOs in the field them. Even if they make it home, per- estimate that each year at least 1 mil- haps having been deported as illegal lion girls worldwide are lured or immigrants, they may face stigma and forced into this form of hazardous rejection by their families and commu- labour, which can verge on slavery. nities. Shunned, ignored and invisible, Boys are also often exploited. they often have little choice but to re- When scandals about child prosti- turn to the brothel or the streets. tution in developing countries break The physical and psychosocial in the international media, it is usually damage inflicted by commercial sex- a story about the phenomenon called ual exploitation makes it one of the sex tourism in which holiday-makers most hazardous forms of child labour. from the rich world, mainly, though No matter how high the wages or how not exclusively, men, travel to loca- few the hours, the children involved tions such as Brazil, the Dominican have to confront serious health risks Republic, Thailand and elsewhere in every day, including respiratory dis- search of sex with children. eases, HIV and sexually transmitted But we should not lose sight of the diseases, unwanted pregnancies and fact that many thousands of young drug addiction. But they are also girls in numerous countries serve the plunged into a distorted reality in sexual appetites of local men from all which violence and distrust, shame and social and economic backgrounds. rejection are the norms. “We have the And widespread ex- same place that bums do in society,” ists in industrialized countries. In the said a 15-year-old Senegalese girl ex- US alone, at least 100,000 children ploited through prostitution. “No one are believed to be involved. wants to know us or be seen with us.” Direct links between the commer- It is crucial that the international cial sexual exploitation of children public should understand the layers of and other forms of exploitative labour complicity that envelop this area of are numerous. Notorious in their own child exploitation. Although it is al- right for appalling working condi- ways easier and more comfortable to tions, Nepalese carpet factories, blame the exploiting ‘pimps’ or ‘per- where 50 per cent of the workers are verts’ or even the victims themselves, estimated to be children, are common no social sector can escape responsi- sites of sexual exploitation by em- bility for the commercial sexual ex- ployers as well as recruitment centres ploitation of children. Families — for Indian brothels. Children are espe- entrusted with the care, nurture and cially powerless to refuse abuse by development of children — may be

36 complicit in allowing the child’s sex- glass stuck on the tips of iron rods, ual exploitation. Research has consis- which are just two feet away from tently indicated that and their bodies; drawing molten glass incest are common precursors of the from tank furnaces in which the tem- commercial sexual exploitation of perature is between 1,500 and 1,800 children. Then, in addition to the peo- degrees centigrade and the arm is al- ple who actually buy sex, there are the most touching the furnace because the traffickers, agents and intermediaries arm of a child is so small; joining and who profit from the sale of children. annealing the glass bangles where the There are the professional criminals work is done over a small kerosene and syndicates that run brothels. flame in a room with little or no venti- There are the entrepreneurs who orga- lation because a whiff of air can blow nize sex tours or who produce tourist out the flame. The whole factory floor brochures encouraging the notion that is strewn with broken glass and the young girls or boys are sexually avail- children run to and fro carrying this able. And there are all the people, in- burning hot glass with no shoes to cluding corrupt or apathetic officials, protect their feet. Naked electric wires who look the other way. are to be seen dangling everywhere Beyond even these actors are more because the factory owners could not elusive and impersonal influences that be bothered to install insulated inter-

contribute to the child sex trade, such nal wiring.” This is a description of Iolanda Huzak as a deeply rooted gender discrimina- the glass-bangle industry in Firozabad Nearly a third of the agricultural workforce in tion that blunts the perception of vio- (India), in which one quarter of the some developing countries is made up of lence committed against girls. — around 50,000 — are children, according to a recent ILO report. 43 market forces have also contributed to children under 14. This young cane cutter is one of millions of the problem by widening the gap be- All over the world, children work children under the age of 14 working in tween rich and poor — encouraging in hazardous conditions. The indus- Brazil. migration, destabilizing families, de- tries are manifold, from leather- stroying support systems and safety working in the Naples region of Italy nets. Conflicts and wars, dozens of to the pre-industrial brick-making of which are occurring around the world, Colombia and Peru, which can in- also create conditions in which volve children as young as eight. children are sexually exploited. Children are sometimes exploited The problem is out in the open in mining operations that would be now, after decades of what has considered too risky for adults in the amounted to a cross-cultural conspir- industrialized world — for example, acy of silence. The World Congress in the diamond and gold mines of against Commercial Sexual Exploita- Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa, and in tion of Children, held in Sweden in Colombian coal mines. Typically, the August 1996, put the issue on the children work with the barest mini- world’s agenda for the first time. The mum of safety equipment and con- Agenda for Action agreed upon by stantly breathe in coal dust. participants will guide governments The respiratory problems faced by in developing programmes to address child miners are also common in other the problem. industries. Many suffer from tubercu- losis, bronchitis and asthma. Children Industrial and working in earthenware and porcelain plantation work factories, for example, are often un- “Children work on all types of jobs, protected from the silica dust. In the such as carrying molten loams of lock industry, they inhale noxious

37 Panel 7

Agricultural labour: face poisonous snakes and insects and cut themselves on tough stems and on A harsh harvest the tools they use. Rising early to work in the damp and cold, often and dressed in inadequate clothes, they develop chronic coughs and pneumo- nia. The hours in the fields are long — 8- to 10-hour days are not uncommon — and spent far from running water or other simple comforts. Skin, eye, respiratory or neurologi- cal problems occur in children exposed to agrochemicals or involved in pro- cessing crops like sisal. Children har- vesting in Tanzania experience the nausea, vomiting and faintness of nicotine poisoning. Frequent heavy lift- ing and repetitive strains can perma- nently injure growing spines. And fatigue plagues those lucky enough to attend school after their work. Because children have traditionally helped on family farms and in fields, UNICEF/96-0461/Balaguer legislation designed to protect children rom a distance, the scene has a world food and agricultural commodity from damaging work — in factories, bucolic beauty, with deep green production. mines and other industries — usually Ftea plants massed against the In Bangladesh, fully 82 per cent of does not apply to agriculture, making hillside and figures moving slowly the country’s 6.1 million economically agricultural workers among the least through the rows. The sun is barely active children work in agriculture, protected of all. up, and the early morning mist according to a 1989 survey. As many as But such work has always had the clings low on the ground. Distance, 3 million children, age 10 to 14, are esti- potential to harm children’s develop- however, masks reality. mated to work in Brazil’s sisal, tea, ment. Some societies make provisions Those who pick the tea or coffee — sugar-cane and tobacco plantations. for children’s help in the fields — long or cut cane or sisal, or harvest rubber In Turkey, a 1989 study found that 60 summer holidays in the northern hemi- and cocoa — know the harshness of per cent of workers involved in cotton sphere for instance, so children’s agricultural work firsthand. The back- cultivation were 20 years old or school work doesn’t suffer. Many oth- bone of countless societies is back- younger. Children are believed to com- ers do not. breaking labour, done with little help prise one fourth of all agricultural work- And commercial agriculture — re- from , under gruelling ers in Kenya. And a 1993 study in moved from sight, on remote farm- conditions. And in this planting and Malawi found that the majority of chil- lands and plantations and with its plucking, hoeing and raking, chil- dren living on tobacco estates were quotas, high use of chemicals and dren play a large — and largely working full- or part-time (78 per cent of profit pressures — has more in com- invisible — role. 10- to 14-year-olds and 55 per cent of 7- mon with industrial sweatshops than No comprehensive data exist on how to 9-year-olds). The situation is by no with an ideal family farm. many children work the world’s fields. means restricted to the developing Legal, social, economic and educa- But a recent report from the International world. Entire families of migrant tional initiatives are all needed to pro- Labour Organization (ILO) says that in labourers, including children, help plant tect children from the dangers they some developing countries, nearly a and harvest the industrialized world’s face, especially since agricultural work- third of the agricultural workforce is fruits and vegetables. ers are among the world’s poorest. comprised of children. Only relatively re- The risks are multiple. Children pick The Child Welfare Association of cently have specific ILO country studies crops still dripping with pesticides or Thailand, in collaboration with the shown how much children contribute to spray the chemicals themselves. They country’s Ministry of Agriculture and

38 Cooperatives, studied child workers fumes given off by dangerous chemi- in sugar-cane and rubber planta- cals. In the brassware industry, chil- tions and proposed that the same dren work at high-temperature fur- labour laws for the industrial sector naces and inhale the dust produced in be applied, with appropriate excep- polishing.44 tions, to the agricultural sector. They The numbers of children exploited recommended that laws provide for: by plantation agriculture across the minimum age for workers because world may be just as great — and the In the brassware industry, of hazardous working conditions; dangers associated with much of their children work at high- written employment contracts; and work are no less appalling (Panel 7). temperature furnaces and days off and paid leave for all work- In Brazil’s sugar plantations, for ex- ers. A rate of at ample, children cut cane with ma- inhale the dust produced least 80 per cent of the adult mini- chetes, a punishing task putting them in polishing. mum wage was urged for children at constant risk of mutilation. They who had reached the age of legal make up a third of the workforce in employment. To ensure compliance some areas and are involved in over with the legal provisions, a special 40 per cent of the work-related acci- government body should oversee a dents. Brazilian children are also ex- trained inspectorate, with exclusive posed to snakebites and insect stings responsibility for child agricultural on tobacco plantations, and carry labour. loads far beyond their capacities. In The study also recommended that public education campaigns be Colombia, young people who work conducted and that government of- on flower-export farms are exposed to ficials, NGO workers, employers, pesticides banned in industrialized children and their families be made countries. thoroughly familiar with the mean- In Africa, meanwhile, children ing and ramifications of child labour work on the plantations that grow the laws. Greater educational opportu- export crops on which the continent’s nities and skills training were also economies rely — from the cocoa and called for. coffee estates of Côte d’Ivoire to the Children who live in poor, rural tea, coffee and sisal plantations of communities face the greatest risks Tanzania. In Zimbabwe, children from hazardous and exploitative work a 60-hour week picking cotton agricultural labour. Improving the or coffee for about $1. An ILO study infrastructure of rural areas through on child labour in Zimbabwe found better roads and power supplies that the most significant exploiters of can boost agricultural productivity child labour seemed to be the large- and help protect the rights of scale commercial farmers who have children and families. Broader used children in their fields for family participation in credit and decades, especially during planting income-enhancing schemes are and harvesting.45 These commercial other invaluable measures. farmers campaigned against the Government’s draft child labour regu- lations in 1995, on the grounds that they would interfere with children’s Photo: Commercial agriculture with its right to work. The same year, farmers quotas, use of chemicals and profit asked a District Education Officer to pressures has more in common with close down the schools to allow chil- industrial sweatshops than with an ideal family farm. A child in Peru helps carry dren to help bring in the tea and cof- grasses. fee crops. The request, which was

39 reported in the local press, was companies need to adopt codes of turned down. conduct that bar hazardous child In Indonesia, children — most of labour. them girls — work on tobacco planta- tions for $0.60 a day, well below the Street work legal minimum wage.46 In Nepal, In contrast with child domestic work- children work on tea estates for wages ers, some children work in the most so low that they often need to work 14 visible places possible — on the hours a day. Children are also em- streets of developing world cities and ployed on the tea plantations of towns (Panel 8). They are every- Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka,47 where: hawking in markets and dart- while child labourers in the sugar- ing in and out of traffic jams, plying cane and rubber plantations of their trade at bus and train stations, in Thailand are at constant risk of injury front of hotels and shopping malls. from dangerous equipment.48 They share the streets with millions of While much of this industrial and adults, many of whom regard them as plantation work is carried out by na- nuisances, if not as dangerous mini- tional subcontractors, some of it is criminals. What most of these chil- overseen by transnational corpora- dren actually do on the streets is, of tions whose products find their way course, work. into the ordinary stores and homes of The street is a cruel and hazardous the West. The maquiladoras (assem- workplace, often jeopardizing even bly plants) of Central America and children’s lives. They can be mur- Mexico are a case in point. Large cor- dered by organized crime, by other

UNICEF/96-0262/Toutounji porations based in rich countries have young people or even by the police. The numbers of children working on the transferred their assembly functions The world reacted in horror in 1993 streets have grown in recent years in certain to poorer countries to take advantage when Rio de Janeiro police officers areas. A girl sells brown sugar cones on a of their lower wage and benefit costs. massacred six street children. In 1996, city street in Egypt. In a much publicized case in Hon- a Rio police officer confessed and be- duras, for example, 12- and 13-year- came the first-ever police officer to be old girls working for a US-based convicted of the murder of street chil- transnational were locked inside a dren. But the killings of street youth textile factory. Hours were long, had already started in Rio by 1990. A wages pitiable, the temperature hit report from the state 100 degrees Fahrenheit and there stated that, on average, three street was no safe drinking water.49 children are killed every day in Rio, Such cases have led activists many by police at the request of mer- both in the home and the host coun- chants who consider the begging, tries of these transnationals to pres- thieving and glue-sniffing a major sure them to establish codes of con- nuisance.50 duct not only for their operations but Many children do pursue these ac- also for those of the subcontractors tivities. But many more struggle at le- they use. All corporations should gitimate work on the street for their adopt such codes of conduct as an es- own or their family’s survival. sential step towards eliminating haz- Children who work on the streets ardous child labour. often come from slums and squatter But most child labour in the formal settlements, where poverty and pre- economy cannot be tied so directly to carious family situations are common, the operation of transnationals. This is where schools are overcrowded and why national as well as transnational poor, and where safe places to play

40 simply do not exist. Their numbers drug trafficking and prostitution. The have increased in places experiencing subculture that envelops the lives of armed conflict, like Freetown (Sierra these children is marked by aggres- Leone) and Monrovia (), as sion and abuse, exposing them to ex- caretakers have been killed, the treme hazards. economy disrupted and family and Scavenging is one example of the community ties severed. extreme risks children face in street Street child labour, virtually un- work. In cities across the developing heard of prior to the transition to a world, young children spend their market economy, is now a growing days picking up used paper, plastics, problem in the Russian Federation. In rags, bottles, tin and metal pieces Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia, the num- from the street, garbage dumps and bers of children working on the waste bins, and selling them to retail- streets, selling food and other prod- ers for recycling. ucts, have increased dramatically over “The nature of their work is… the last three years. Many have most unhygienic, dangerous, demean- dropped out of school or never at- ing…. They develop several kinds of tended classes. skin disease like ulcers, scabies, etc. On the streets, they shine shoes, While collecting rusted iron pieces, wash and guard cars, carry luggage, they usually receive cuts on their hawk flowers and trinkets, collect re- hands and become susceptible to cyclables and find a myriad other in- tetanus. The broken glass lying hid- genious ways to make money. The den in the garbage may injure their amount they earn may be small but is bare feet, which may develop into fes-

sometimes more than they would re- tering wounds. Many other sicknesses UNICEF/ESARO/Pirozzi ceive from formal-sector work. arise from exposure to extreme Most children working on the street struggle The large majority of these chil- weather conditions, like cases of sun- at legitimate jobs for their own or their dren return home each night. They are stroke, pneumonia, influenza and family’s survival. In Tanzania, a boy washes children on the streets, not of them. malaria. Carrying heavy loads under cars. Still, life is often precarious and vio- the arms or on their back adversely af- lent, unhealthy and unfair. Some are fects the height, weight, strength and able to combine some schooling with stamina. Added to these hazards is the their street work, but nevertheless lure of eating thrown away or left- many are exploited and cheated by over food…[leading] to digestive dis- adults and peers and must spend many orders and food poisoning.”51 hours earning their survival. Many Attempts are being made in many suffer from malnutrition and from countries to wean children off the illnesses including tuberculosis. Self- streets and to protect them while they esteem is often low, despite the are on the streets. One inspiring ex- superficial air of exaggerated self- ample of action is in Brazil, long a confidence they may assume to appear country identified with the ‘problem’ street-smart. of street children. The National For about 1 in 10, the street does Children’s Movement — a partner- become home. Inevitably these chil- ship between the children and volun- dren become more prone to engage in tary ‘educators’, themselves from marginal and illegal work, such as poor backgrounds — was established begging and petty thieving. Many are in 1985, and its first meeting in 1986 led into the illicit, thrilling and dan- caused a national sensation, helping gerous world of crime syndicates that to enshrine child rights in the fledg- run rings for pickpocketing, burglary, ling . Each of its national

41 Panel 8 The streets are their workplace

manipulated by organized crime, street gangs, pimps and unscrupulous em- ployers, sometimes dealing drugs or working in prostitution. In the words of Josie, 10, who has been selling candy on Manila thoroughfares since she was four: “Every day I pray not to end up in evil hands.” Less commonly known is the find- ing that children who work the streets provide critical financial support for their families, as well as paying for their own education when they can. Their hallmarks are ingenuity, practical intelli- gence and a relentless will to survive — whether that means hunting scraps of metal for the mattress-makers in the markets of Dakar, or, as in the Philippines, praying in churches on be- half of customers. In a striking contrast to the largely throw-away cultures of the industrial- ized world, in the developing world, UNICEF/96-0046/Charton many children subsist as waste-heap recyclers. Plastic bags, blown-out tyres, junked car parts, empty bottles and tins, en-year-old Shireen, a profes- ization, runaway population growth even scrap paper — all are collected sional scavenger, has never and increasing disparities in wealth. diligently by children who scour the T been to school. But she is well Their rising numbers also indicate a urban landscape. Pre-teens in the versed in the economics of survival: if constellation of other trends, such as Philippines comb city streets, collecting she sells 30 to 50 cents’ worth of waste cut-backs in government social and everything from bronze wire to old paper and plastic bags, she eats lunch; educational budgets, as well as the newspapers. In a country where the per if she earns less, she goes without food. breakdown of traditional family and capita gross national product (GNP) is Such is the cruel but practical calculus community structures, which leaves about $900, these children earn up to $3 of work and life on the streets. children unprotected. a day from their scavenging, supplying Shireen is one of hundreds of In Zaire, they are called moineaux their families with necessities like rice, thousands of children who work day or ‘sparrows’. In Peru, pájaros firewood, gas and mosquito repellent. to day on city streets, sometimes fruteros or ‘fruitbirds’. But every- Similarly, six hours on Manila’s im- making their homes there as well. where, children working on the mense ‘Smoky Mountain’ garbage Whether raking through garbage streets are scorned, mistreated and dump can earn a child more than an dumps, shining shoes outside hotels misunderstood. “People don’t love adult earns for a 10-hour shift at a or begging at busy intersections, they us,” says Tigiste, a 12-year-old girl, nearby factory. are living barometers of societies in who sells roasted barley and begs for Regardless of what it can pay, stress. Largely found in the develop- change at stop lights in the Ethiopian though, scavenging is hazardous work, ing world — but also in affluent coun- capital of Addis Ababa. also considered so degrading by the tries — children working on the Often fleeing abuse and neglect at children themselves that many quit, streets are the progeny of some of home, children find further abuse and even turning to prostitution. “The na- the most disturbing social phenom- exploitation on the street. In many ture of their work and work environ- ena in the world today: rapid urban- cases, without legal identity, they are ment is most unhygienic, dangerous,

42 congresses — the fourth was held in 1995 — has heralded a new advance in thinking about children’s problems. Just as important, the Movement bases its organization on small groups (nucleos de base) of working children who meet to discuss common prob- demeaning and destructive of self- lems and to take joint action. This Of all the work children worth,” writes one social scientist model of organization seeks to em- who has studied the rag-pickers of power children. “What would I do if do, the most common is (India). Tramping there was no nucleo de base?” an 11- agricultural or domestic through garbage heaps in every kind of weather exposes children to year-old delegate to last year’s con- work within their own skin infections, tetanus and other gress responded to a reporter. “I families. diseases. Back-breaking loads stunt would go right out and start one.”52 growth, and eating discarded food often brings sickness. Furthermore, Work for the family the life of trash collecting offers no Of all the work children do, the most hope for a better future. common is agricultural or domestic Organizations like Reach Up in the Philippines and the Bosco work within their own families. Most Yuvodaya Street Children Project of families around the world expect their Bangalore have begun helping chil- children to help in the household, dren to band together and collec- whether preparing food, fetching tively defend their interests. Op- water or groceries, herding animals, portunities for formal and non- caring for younger siblings or more formal education and apprentice- arduous work in the fields. This kind ship training, such as those offered of work can be beneficial. Children by Uganda’s Africa Foundation and the Undugu Society of Kenya, offer learn from a reasonable level of par- hope for a better future. ticipation in household chores, sub- Children living on the street, sistence food-growing and income- without homes or families, pose the generating activities. They also derive greatest challenge in terms of reha- a sense of self-worth from their work bilitation, often needing long-term within their families. one-on-one counselling. Preventive But it is by no means always bene- measures are, therefore, vital to protect children from the risk of full ficial. On the contrary, work for the exposure to life on the street. family may demand too much of chil- dren, requiring them to labour long hours that keep them from school and take too great a toll on their develop- ing bodies (Panel 9). Such work can prevent children from exercising their rights and developing to their full potential. One powerful testimony to the rigours of work in the rural home comes from a group of Nepalese chil- dren now working in a Kathmandu carpet factory. They were attracted by stories of the excitement of the city Photo: At a large refuse dump in Cambodia, a girl collects waste she and by the idea of earning wages both can sell for recycling. for themselves and to send back to

43 their parents. But most of all, they very least it will spread the message said, they had come to the factory be- that there are strict limits as to what cause life at home was so difficult: can be expected of a child’s labour in climbing up steep slopes to get fod- the home. It may also make affirma- der, risking leeches; having to labour tive action more possible, and open endlessly to feed the family.53 To social discussions involving parents avoid these lives, they had ended up in and community members on what is Girls and women routinely carpet-making, an industry notorious considered to be good for a child. bear burdens and endure for its exploitation. In rural Africa and in South Asia, Girls’ work treatment that reflect their children begin helping with domestic “Nearly all our girls work as sweep- unequal status. Working girls chores well before school age. Girls ers,” says a mother from India, herself are often invisible, treated as must fetch the household’s water and a sweeper or latrine-cleaner. “Why if they did not exist. fuelwood. Children of both sexes help should I waste my time and money on with farm work, looking after animals sending my daughter to school where and performing all tasks to do with she will learn nothing of use?… So water, jobs often physically taxing in why not put my girl to work so that the extreme. They also work in the in- she will learn something about our formal sector of the rural economy, profession? My elder girl who is 15 including traditional crafts and small years old will be married soon. Her trades essential to village life, espe- mother-in-law will put her to cleaning cially shopkeeping. latrines somewhere. Too much school- Similar patterns of early labour are ing will only give girls big ideas, and reported in a survey of five Latin then they will be beaten up by their American countries.54 In rural Colom- husbands or abused by their in-laws.”55 bia, for instance, one in four children Most of the hazards faced by boy aged 6 to 9 and one in three aged 10 labourers are faced by girls, too. Yet and 11 work, either in the home, tend- girls have extra problems of their ing the family vegetable garden, car- own: from the sexual pressures of em- ing for animals, or helping in a ployers to exclusion from education. grocery store or small business. In the No strategy to combat child labour country’s large cities, one in six of 10- can begin to be successful unless and 11-year-old children and one in these special dangers facing girls are ten of 6- to 9-year-olds participate in systematically taken into account. the labour market in some way. In virtually every area of life and in Much of this work, particularly by every country, as these annual State of girls within their homes, is invisible to the World’s Children reports have the statistician aiming to measure the long noted, girls and women routinely scale of child labour. It is also ex- bear burdens and endure treatment cluded from child labour legislation, that reflect their unequal status. So it partly because of the difficulty of is with child labour. Working girls are policing child labour within the fam- often invisible, treated as if they did ily. Yet to accept that such work can- not exist. not be regulated is to accept that hun- According to ILO, 56 per cent of dreds of millions of children can have the 10- to 14-year-olds currently esti- no legal protection. mated to be working in the develop- Legislation must be made more in- ing world are boys. Yet, if we were clusive, but this will not of itself pro- able to measure the numbers of girls tect these children. The difficulties of doing unregistered work as domestic enforcement will remain. But at the help, or working at home to enable

44 other family members to take up paid write — 37 per cent — is extremely employment, the figures would show low, the 11 per cent figure for female more female child labourers than literacy is appalling.58 The over- male. Girls also work longer hours on whelming majority of girls either average than boys, carrying a double have never gone to school or have workload — a job outside the home dropped out to work. Discrimination and domestic duties on their return. soon becomes exploitation. Lack of In Guatemala, working girls spend education, early arranged , an average of 21 hours a week on stark poverty and lack of power make household duties on top of a 40-hour girls enormously vulnerable. Long working week outside. And in five before they are physically prepared Latin American countries surveyed, for it, many are forced to work, most domestic work by girls in their own of them ending up, if not in domestic home was widespread, with many service then in the carpet industry, on failing to attend school.56 tea estates or in brick-making. All over the world, more girls than The gender gap becomes a vicious boys are denied their fundamental circle for girls all over the developing right to primary schooling. In some world. Unable to attend school be- regions, including the Middle East cause of their low social status or their and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa domestic responsibilities, they are de- and especially South Asia, the gender nied the extra power and wider hori- gap is still enormous.57 Educational zons that education would bring. If equality between the sexes is being they seek work outside the home, approached in East Asia and Latin their opportunities are limited to the America and the Caribbean, but else- most menial tasks. Their low status is where little progress has been recorded. reinforced and passed on to the next

Gender bias is not simply a ques- generation. UNICEF/1860/Sprague tion of attitudes — it is enshrined in Both the individual and the society Two young girls threshing rice in Indonesia. all the main institutions of society. suffer. It is well established that Nepal illustrates the point only too the more schooling a girl has, the well. Women’s socio-economic status fewer children she will bear. The is often deplorable. And while the more children a poor family has, the proportion of men who can read and more child workers there will be.59

45