|
||
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
||
|
|
Issue No. 140 | 14 June 2002 |
|
||
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Abbott's Rule of Law
Interview: Party Girl Unions: Touch One, Touch All Industrial: Condition Critical International: Innocence Lost History: Strange Bedfellows Organising: Just Say No Review: Choosing Life Beneath The Clouds Poetry: Did We Make a Big Mistake
The Soapbox The Dressing Room The Locker Room Week in Review Bosswatch
 Luke and LearnDue CreditTom's FooleryMore LathamMore Tom
|
|
|
International Innocence LostPrepared by the ILO
Alice - At 14, Alice lost her parents. Unwanted by relatives, she accepted the offer of a family "acquaintance" to come to Nigeria's capital Lagos, two days' journey from her home town. Instead of taking her to vocational classes as promised, the woman took Alice to a brothel. There, she was forced to stay and pay off the debt of her travel expenses. "I was afraid all the time," she confides. Today, Alice is in Geneva, no longer trapped in the unconditional worst forms of child labour. Instead, she's recalling her experiences as part of events being organized for the first World Day Against Child Labour. She's part of the effort to intensify support for the global campaign against child labour which will be held annually, during the International Labour Organization's annual conference, where member states will discuss the report. According to the ILO's Global Report on Child Labour released last month, there are 246 million child workers between the ages of 5 and 17. That's one out of every six children in the world. "We are asking everyone to join together in working towards a world where no children will be deprived of a normal, healthy childhood, where parents can find decent jobs and children can go to school," says Juan Somavia, Director-General of the ILO. Sergei, 13, remembers a normal childhood. He attended school till the age of 11, when his father abandoned the family and his baby sister Nina was born. Then everything changed. "My mother said to me, 'We have no money for food,' " says Sergei. "I was afraid my baby sister would die." Ten hours a day, Sergei begged outside a metro station in St. Petersburg. While the public perception of child labour confines it to developing economies, 2.5 million of the world's child labourers are in industrialized countries, and another 2.4 million, like Sergei, live in transition economies. The vast majority of child workers (127 million) live in Asia, followed by sub-Saharan Africa (48 million), Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa. Surveys in developing countries indicate that the vast majority (70 per cent) of children who work are in agriculture, fishing, hunting or forestry. Others are in domestic work, transportation, construction, and retail. Political and economic instability and criminal exploitation play a part in child labour. If parents cannot find work, or if the system provides little social protection and educational opportunity, children end up as breadwinners. Sergei's mother had to stop working when his baby sister was born handicapped. Alice survived a criminal enterprise. The demand for consumer goods has fed the child labour market. Many large corporations prefer a young and therefore cheap workforce. Family-owned, small-scale enterprises cannot afford adult paid labour. Weak law enforcement makes matters easier all around. Alice often suffered violence at the hands of police who came to raid the brothel. One of the goals of the ILO's International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) is to stamp out the worst forms of child labour. 8.4 million children are forced to work as prostitutes, bonded slaves, or armed combatants. Action must come at various levels. The ILO says that governments must be encouraged to ratify the conventions on child labour. And as Alice and Sergei's stories show, children need a world at peace and a measure of economic and social security. This requires partnerships between governments, employers' and employees' associations, and non-governmental organizations. Alice's way out came in the form of such a partnership, through a chance conversation at her hairdresser's'. "A woman there told me about Womens' Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON)," which is supported by IPEC. Through WOCON, Alice receives counseling and training as a hairdresser. She is working towards establishing her own salon. Sergei met a social worker on the street one day who bought him some bread and made a phone call. "That phone call was like a light in the window," says Sergei matter-of-factly. It was a call to an IPEC-supported programme for street children. Through the programme, Sergei's mother was able to apply for a state allowance. Now Sergei attends school, and is planning to be a railway engineer, "so I can ride the trains all the time." The duo has a message for the Geneva gathering: "I want you to prevent children having to work. There are many kids on the street, and there shouldn't be any," says Sergei. "I want people to know what happens to children like me, and I want it to stop," Alice says softly. "I want to be proud of what I do. I want to be proud of myself." Asif's story Asif helps make some of the world's surgical instruments. At the age of 12, he is at the end of a supply chain worth 30 billion dollars a year, producing instruments for hospitals, doctor's rooms and beauty parlours across the globe. His workshop may sell a surgical scissor for about $27 which then can be sold through a string of middlemen on the international market for up to $143. But little of that profit trickles back to Sialkot, where Asif has been working since the age of seven. To help repay debt incurred by his father, Asif works on 600 pieces a day, filing and grinding. He is exposed to hazards most adults wouldn't tolerate. The fine metal dust damages eyes and causes breathing problems. Various machines cause cuts and burns. But the larger danger is intangible. In 1999 the surgical manufacturers industry in Sialkot decided to remove all children from this dangerous work. But immediate withdrawal would mean a disastrous loss of income for families already mired in poverty - and a risk that parents would put their children into even more hazardous work. So the International Labour Organisation opted for a gradual approach: they helped establish non-formal education centres. For two hours every afternoon, children like Asif go to this special school, taking classes and interacting with children their own age. Like this they still earn money every day, while catching up on their education. The ILO hopes to reach this target by ensuring that no new children are recruited into the industry and that working children continue with their schooling until adulthood. The biggest challenge however will still come from families struggling to survive - until perhaps more educated sons like Asif help turn their situation around.
|
| Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue |
|
© 1999-2002 Workers Online 
|
|
Visit the 
