The Exploited Child
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Child Studies Titles from Zed Books Too litde attention is still given in the Social Sciences to children. Zed Books has a smalllist of titles devoted to this extremely important social group. Jo Boyden, Chi/dren ofthe Cities Judith Ennew and Brian Milne, The Next Generation: Lives of Third World Chi/dren William E. Myers (ed.), Protecting Working Children Bernard Schlemmer (ed.), The Exploited CjJild Jeremy Seabrook, No HidingPlace: Child Sex Tol/rism: The Role ofExtra- tem/orial Legislation For full details about these tides and Zed's general and subject catalogues, please writ6 to: The Marketing Department, Zed Books, 7 Cynthia Street, London NI 91F, UK or e-mail: [email protected] Visit our we~ite at: http://www.zedbooks.demon.co.uk THE EXPLOITED CHILD edited by Bernard Schlemmer translated by Philip Dresner Zed Books LONDON·•NEW YORK in association with l'Institut de Recherche pour le Développement PARIS The Exploited Child was lirst published in 2000 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London NI 9JF, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA in association with l'Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 213 rue La Fayette, 75480 Paris Cedex 10, France. Originally published as L'enfant exploité: oppreuion, mise ail lravai4 prolétarisation, Editions Karthala-ORSTOM, Paris, in 1996 (522 pp.) (Diffusion: Karthala, 22-24 Boulevard Arago, 75013 Paris). Distributed in the USA exclusively by St Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA. Editorial copyright © Bernard ScWemmer, 2000 Copyright © the individual contributors, 2000 Cover designed by Lee Robinson!Ad Lib Design, London N 19 Set in Monotype Garamond by Ewan Smith Printed and bound in Malaysia The rights of the contributors to be identilied as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the International Programme for the Eradication of Child Labour (IPEC-ILO) and the Swiss magazine, Page 2 (Lausanne) for their linancial support. The views expressed in this book are the sole responsibility of their respective authors. Dnder no circumstances may they be ascribed to the institutions to which they belong or which have linanced their work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library us eIP has been applied for. ISBN 1 85649 720 8 cased ISBN 1 85649 721 6 limp Contents About the Contributors ix l General Introduction Bernard Schlemmer Part 1 The Economie and Social Context of Child Labour 19 2. Introduction: A History of Exploited Children in Europe 2.1 Alessandro Stella 1a Child Labour in the Current Economie System 39 3 The Economy and Child Labour: An Overview 41 Claude Meillassoux 4 Child Labour and the Export Sector in the Indian Carpet Industry 51 Mohini Gulrajani Growing Up in Ghana: Deregulation and the Employment of Children 67 Martin Ver/et 6 Living and Working Conditions: Child Labour in the Coal Mines of Colombia 83 Béatriz S. Céspedes Sastre and Maria-Isabel Zarama "V," Meyer 7 Stigmatization versus Identity: Child Street-workers in Mexico 93 Elvira Taracena and Maria-Luisa Tavera lb Child Labour in Society 107 8 Public Policy, Society and Child Labour 109 Francis Gendreau 9 Why is Child Labour Tolerated? The Case of Brazil 118 Lia Fukui v vi THE EXPLOITED CHILD 10 Rapid Economie Growth: The Social Exclusion of Children in Thailand 135 Chantana Banpasirichote Il The Public Policy Problem: Child Labour and the Law in India 146 Usha Ramanathan 12 Debates on Poor Children in Brazil: Between Marginalization and Premature Labour 160 Rosilme Alvim Part II The Structure and Dynamics of Exploitation 177 13 Introduction: Child Labour in the Light ofBonded Labour 179 Michel Bonnet lia The Domination of Fathers as the Typical Social Relationslùp 193 14 Paternal Domination: The Typieal Relationship Conditioning the Exploitation of Children 195 Alain Morice 15 Child Employment in a Capitalist Labour Market: The British Case 214 Michaël Lavalette 16 Coffee Beans and the Seeds of Labour: Child Labour on Guatemalan Plantations 231 Charles-Édouard de 5uremain 17 The Exploitation of Apprentices in Togo 239 Yves Marguerat 18 Apprentieeship in France: A ParaUel Case in an Industrialized Society 248 Bernard Garet lib From Socialization through Work to Exploitation for a Profit 261 19 Family versus the Logic of the Market 263 Robert Cabanes 20 The Demand for Labour within the Household: Child Labour in Togo 268 Marie-France Lange CONTENTS vii 21 The Household Economy and the Commercial Exploitation of Children's Work: The Case of Kerala 278 Olga Nieuwenhuys 22 The Disintegrating Social Fabric: Child Labour and Socialization in Senegal 292 Serigne Mor Mbqye andAbdou Salam Fall 23 'Unexploited' Labour: Social Transition in Madagascar 300 Bodo Ravololomanga and Bernard Schlemmer 24 Looking Ahead: A General Conclusion 31 5 Claude Meillassoux Index 330 About the Contributors ROSILENE ALVIM is a sociology lecturer at Rio de Janeiro Federal University, involved in ground-breaking studies on the working children of Brazil and author of, among other work, Constitufao da Familia e Trabalho Industrial (1985)' CHANTANA BANPASIRICHOTE is the author of research reports and an adviser to NGOs and government projects on child labour in Thailand. She currencly teaches at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. MICHEL BONNET is currencly an official representative at the ILO where he has long worked as an expert, chiefly with the IPEC programme, and is recognized internationally as one of his field's top specialists. He has recencly published Regards sur les enfants travailleurs (1997) which is currencly being translated into English. ROBERT CABANES is a director of research at IRD, specializing in the sociology of industry and work in the developing world. BÉATRIZ S. CÉSPEDES SASTRE has led a number of UNICEF surveys on working children in her native Colombia. ABDOU SALAM FALL is a researcher and lecturer in sociology at the Dakar Institut fondamental d'Afrique Noir (Senegal). LIA FUKUI is a sociologist working, among others; for the Brazilian Ministry of Childhood, Family and Social Welfare (Sao Paulo). She has headed several surveys and for more than twenty years was the editor of numerous pub lications on child labour in Brazil. BERNARD GARET is a former French teacher dismissed for his criticisms of the professional training establishment. He currencly chairs the Maine et Loire regional branch of the League of Human Rights. FRANCIS GENDREAU is a demographer and a director of research at IRD, specializing in developing world population studies. Currencly, he is president of the Committee for International Cooperation in National Research in Demography. MOHINI GULRAJANI is a lecturer at Delhi Unversity and pursues extensive research on the socio-economic aspects of child labour in India. ix x THE EXPLOITED CHILD MARIE-FRANCE LANGE is a researcher at IRD, and a renowned expert in the sociology of education in Africa (see, among others, L'école et les filles en Afrique, 1998). MICHAËL LAVALETTE has published widely on child labour: Child Labour in the Capitalist Labour Market, 1994; A Thing of the Past? Child Labour in Britain 180()-Present, 1999; with Sandy Hobbs and Jim McKechnie, The ABC-CLIO World History Companion to Child Labour, 1999. YVES MARGUERAT is a sociologist at IRD where he is working on African youth issues, and co-founder of MARJUVIA (Juvenile Marginality in African Towns). SERIGNE MOR MBAYE is a psychologist working with deprived children at the Centre of Child Guidance in Dakar (Senegal). CLAUDE MEILLASSOUX is internationally renowned for the pioneering work which sparked what came to be known as the French school of economic anthropology. He is a CNRS silver medal winner and author of, among others, Femmes, greniers et capitaux (19n). ALAIN MORICE is an anthropologist at the CNRS (France). His publication, Th~ Exploitation of Children in the 'InformaI Sector': ProposaIs for Research, is a classic reference work in this field. OLGA NIEUWENHUYS teaches at the University of Amsterdam, the Nether lands. She is one of the ail too few anthropologists to work on the issue of the exploitation of children and is the author of, among other works, Children~ Lifeworlds: Gender, Welfare and Labour in the Developing World (1994). US HA RAMANATHAN is a wel1-known specialist in labour law who teaches at Delhi University (India). BODO RAVOLOLOMANGA is a Madagascan researcher and author of, among other works, Être femme et mère à Madagascar (1992). She now works at the Institut de Civilisations, Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie, Antananarivo, Mada gascar.. BERNARD SCHLEMMER is a director of research at IRD and head of the 'Savoirs et Développement' programme, which includes his personal research on child labour and scholarship in Morocco. ALESSANDRO STELLA is an historian at the CNRS, a specialist in labour and slavery issues in Western Europe, one of the very few in the world to have worked on the exploitation of children. CHARLES-ÉDOUARD DE SUREMAIN is an anthropologist at IRD. He spent rune years in the field in Guatemala, studying the social organization of large coffee plantations (see Jours ordinaires à la finca, 1996). ABOUT THE CONTRIBUT ORS xi ELVIRA TARACENA teaches at the Mexican Independent National University and has led several teams investigating the lives of street children in Mexico. MARIA-LUISA TAVERA is a researcher and lecturer at ENEP-Iztacala, the National School of Education (UNAM, Universidad Autonoma de Mexico). She is also a psychotherapist and works in institutions for abandoned children. MARTIN VERLET is a sociologist at IRD and a renowned Ghana specialist. He is now working on education in Ghana. MARIA-ISABEL ZARAMA V. MEYER has worked in Colombia with Bogota shanty-town children and their mothers (as part of the 'Casas Vecinales' programme) and has carried out surveys on the working children of Boyaca (fopaga).