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SASKATCHEWAN ELOCUTION AND DEBATE ASSOCIATION
ASSOCIATION D’ELOCUTION ET DES DEBATS DE LA SASKATCHEWAN
Child Labour
BIRT this house supports the use of child
labour.
Research prepared by Janessa Weir
Winter 2009
www.saskdebate.com
This is a values resolution. SEDA receives funding fromSEDA SEDA PATRONS
The Saskatchewan Elocution and Debate Honorary Patron - Hon. Dr. Gordon L. Barnhart,
Association (SEDA) is a non-profit organization Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan
that promotes speech and debate activities in Saskatchewan Lotteries Trust Fund for
English and French. The Association is active Sport, Culture, and Recreation
throughout the province from grade 5 through Saskatchewan Law Foundation
grade 12, and at the University of Regina and the Celebrate Canada Committee for Saskatchewan
University of Saskatchewan. The Association co- Luther College High School
ordinates an annual program of speech and debate Official Minority Language Office,
tournaments and other special activities, including a Department of Education
model legislature. Mrs. Morris Shumiatcher
John Archer Family
SEDA’s staff, along with printed and audio-visual Olivia Shumski
materials, are available to assist any individual or
group interested in elocution and debate.
Affiliations
SEDA is a registered charitable organization.
Charitable No. 11914 0077 RR0001. Canadian Student Debating Federation
SaskCulture Inc.
For further information:
Saskatchewan Elocution
and Debate Association
1860 Lorne Street
Regina, Saskatchewan
S4P 2L7
Telephone: (306) 780-9243
Fax: (306) 781-6021
E-Mail: info@saskdebate.com
Web: www.saskdebate.com
SEDA receives funding from3
What is Child
Labor?
Child labor is work that harms children
or keeps them from attending school.
Around the world and in the U. S.,
growing gaps between rich and poor in
recent decades have forced millions of
young children out of school and into
Child labor can be found in
work. The International Labor
Organization estimates that 246 million nearly every industry
children between the ages of 5 and 17
currently work under conditions that are Agriculture
considered illegal, hazardous, or
extremely exploitative. Underage Nearly 70% of child labor occurs in
children work at all sorts of jobs around agriculture, fishing, hunting, and
the world, usually because they and their forestry. Children have been found
families are extremely poor. Large harvesting:
numbers of children work in commercial
• bananas in Ecuador
agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, • cotton in Egypt and Benin
mining, and domestic service. Some • cut flowers in Colombia
children work in illicit activities like the • oranges in Brazil
drug trade and prostitution or other • cocoa in the Ivory Coast
traumatic activities such as serving as • tea in Argentina and Bangladesh
soldiers. • fruits and vegetables in the U.S.
Child labor involves at least one Children in commercial agriculture can
of the following characteristics: face long hours in extreme temperatures,
health risks from pesticides, little or no
• Violates a nation’s minimum age laws pay, and inadequate food, water, and
• Threatens children’s physical, mental, sanitation.
or emotional well-being
• Involves intolerable abuse, such as child Manufacturing
slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage,
forced labor, or illicit activities
About 15 million children are estimated
• Prevents children from going to school
• Uses children to undermine labor
to be directly involved in manufacturing
standards goods for export, including:
• Carpets from India, Pakistan, Egypt
Where does most child labor
• Clothing sewn in Bangladesh;
occur? footwear made in India and the
Philippines
• Soccer balls sewn in Pakistan
• Glass and bricks made in India
34
• Fireworks made in China, the “Unconditional Worst Forms” of
Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Child Labor
Guatemala, India, and Peru
• Surgical instruments made in Pakistan
8.4 million children are involved in work
that, under any circumstance, is
Mining and Quarrying
considered unacceptable for children,
including the sale and trafficking of
Child laborers suffer extremely high
children into debt bondage, serfdom, and
illness and injury rates in underground
forced labor. It includes the forced
mines, opencast mines, and quarries.
recruitment of children for armed
Children as young as 6 or 7 years old
conflict, commercial sexual exploitation,
break up rocks, and wash, sieve, and
and illicit activities, such as producing
carry ore. Nine-year-olds work
and trafficking drugs.
underground setting explosives and
carrying loads. Children work in a range
of mining operations, including: Causes of Child
•
•
Gold in Colombia
Charcoal in Brazil and El Salvador
Labor
• Chrome in Zimbabwe
• Diamonds in Cote d’Ivoire Child labor persists even though laws
• Emeralds in Colombia and standards to eliminate it exist.
• Coal in Mongolia Current causes of global child labor are
similar to its causes in the U.S. 100 years
Domestic Service ago, including poverty, limited access to
education, repression of workers’ rights,
Many children, especially girls, work in and limited prohibitions on child labor.
domestic service, sometimes starting as
young as 5 or 6. This type of child labor Poverty and unemployment levels
is linked to child trafficking. Domestic
are high.
child laborers can be victims of physical,
emotional, and sometimes sexual abuse.
Poor children and their families may rely
upon child labor in order to improve
Hotels, Restaurants, and Retail
their chances of attaining basic
necessities. About one-fifth of the
Some of the work of young people in
world’s 6 billion people live in absolute
this sector is considered legitimate, but
poverty. The intensified poverty in parts
there are indications of considerable
of Africa, Asia, and Latin America
abuse. Low pay is the norm, and in some
causes many children there to become
tourist areas, children’s work in hotels
child laborers.
and restaurants is linked to prostitution.
In at least one example, child hotel
workers received such low pay that they Access to compulsory, free
had to take out loans from their education is limited.
employers; the terms of the interest and
repayment often led to debt bondage. Approximately 125 million children in
the world do not attend school, limiting
future opportunities for the children and
45
their communities. The Global prohibits children under 16 from
Campaign for Education estimates that industrial work...
but excludes agriculture.
free, quality education for all children Bangladesh
would cost ten billion dollars, the same specifies a minimum age for work...
as 4 days of global military spending. but sets no regulations on domestic
work or agricultural work.
Existing laws or codes of conduct
are often violated. Workers’ rights are repressed.
Even when laws or codes of conduct Workers’ abilities to organize unions
exist, they are often violated. For affect the international protection of core
example, the manufacture and export of labor standards, including child labor.
products often involves multiple layers Attacks on workers’ abilities to organize
of production and outsourcing, which make it more difficult to improve labor
can make it difficult to monitor who is standards and living standards in order to
performing labor at each step of the eliminate child labor. For example, in
process. Extensive subcontracting can 2001, 10,000 workers were fired and
intentionally or unintentionally hide the 4,000 workers were arrested as a result
use of child labor. of their union activity, according to the
International Confederation of Free
Laws and enforcement are often Trade Unions.
inadequate.
The global economy intensifies the
Child labor laws around the world are effects of some factors.
often not enforced or include exemptions
that allow for child labor to persist in As multinational corporations expand
certain sectors, such as agriculture or across borders, countries often compete
domestic work. Even in countries where for jobs, investment, and industry. This
strong child labor laws exist, labor competition sometimes slows child labor
departments and labor inspection offices reform by encouraging corporations and
are often under-funded and under- governments to seek low labor costs by
staffed, or courts may fail to enforce the resisting international standards. Some
laws. Similarly, many state governments U.S. legislation has begun to include
allocate few resources to enforcing child labor standards and child labor as criteria
labor laws. for preferential trade and federal
contracts. However, international free
National Laws Often Include trade rules may prohibit consideration of
child labor or workers’ rights.
Exemptions
The effects of poverty in developing
Examples countries are often worsened by the large
interest payments on development loans.
Nepal
minimum age of 14 for most work... The structural adjustments associated
plantations and brick kilns are exempt. with these loans often require
Kenya governments to cut education, health,
and other public programs, further
56
harming children and increasing pressure global “race to the bottom” increases
on them to become child laborers. poverty while lowering labor standards.
Since the 1980’s, incomes of the richest
Debt and Child Welfare 20% of the population in nearly every
nation have grown, while incomes of the
The example of Sub-Saharan Africa middle and lower classes have stagnated
or declined. There are 300 million more
While debt payments soar, people in extreme poverty today than 10
Sub-Saharan Africa pays $40 million in years ago.
debt each day.
Educational opportunities are few...
40% of Sub-Saharan African children These workers sew at a maquila, or
receive no education sweatshop in Central America. Many
And getting fewer. Central Americans have been trafficked
In the 1990’s, the number of children into forced labor situations, including
entering primary schools fell in 17 sweatshops, where they toil under harsh
African countries.
conditions of indentured servitude.
Global Economy Free Trade Rules
The many factors that lead to child labor Most child labor occurs because children
occur on a global scale. Although and families are poor and lack options
countries may agree on the importance for education or income. Many factors
of labor standards, in practice, many affect poverty, but international agencies
obstacles to the enforcement of child are increasingly paying attention to trade
labor standards remain. These obstacles policy as a key factor. The 2003 UN
include global competition, free trade Human Development Report, for
rules, and the structural adjustment example, identifies “unfair trade rules”
policies attached to international as one of four key obstacles to economic
development loans. progress in poor countries.
Global Competition Many poor countries rely heavily on
exports of primary commodities, which
have suffered from declining prices as
As multinational corporations expand
global competition has increased and
across borders, countries often compete
markets have tightly concentrated with a
with each other for jobs, investment, and
few firms dominating key sectors. For
industry. International competition
example: world coffee prices hit 100-
sometimes slows child labor reforms by
year lows in 2002-2003. These
encouraging corporations and
extremely low prices depressed
governments to seek low labor costs by
economies in parts of Central America
resisting enforceable international
and Africa that depend on coffee
standards and repressing trade union
exports, and child labor in some regions
activism.
reportedly increased.
Many labor unions and other
organizations are concerned that this Debt and Structural Adjustment
67
Poor countries often face staggering Such structural adjustment policies can
interest payments on development loans intensify the conditions, such as poverty
from the World Bank and the and inadequate education funding, that
International Monetary Fund. These lead to child labor. For example, debt is
loans often require the countries to one factor, in addition to war and
follow the policies of structural disease, that may lower school
adjustment programs: deregulation, attendance in Sub-Saharan Africa (where
opening trade and financial markets to 48 million children under 14 work).
global competition, weakening labor While Sub-Saharan Africa pays $40
laws or enforcement, privatizing million on debt each day, 40% of its
government jobs, and cutting children receive no education. In the
government spending on public health 1990’s, the number of children entering
programs and education. primary schools declined in 17 African
countries.
http://www.childlaborphotoproject.org/childlabor.html
WHAT IS "CHILD LABOR"? paid? Then he or she is being exploited.
As Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s
"Child labor" is, generally speaking, Children Report puts it, "Children’s
work for children that harms them or work needs to be seen as happening
exploits them in some way (physically, along a continuum, with destructive or
mentally, morally, or by blocking access exploitative work at one end and
to education). beneficial work - promoting or
enhancing children’s development
BUT: There is no universally accepted without interfering with their schooling,
definition of "child labor". Varying recreation and rest - at the other. And
definitions of the term are used by between these two poles are vast areas of
international organizations, non- work that need not negatively affect a
governmental organizations, trade child’s development." Other social
unions and other interest groups. Writers scientists have slightly different ways of
and speakers don’t always specify what drawing the line between acceptable and
definition they are using, and that often unacceptable work.
leads to confusion.
International conventions also define
Not all work is bad for children. Some "child labor" as activities such as
social scientists point out that some soldiering and prostitution. Not everyone
kinds of work may be completely agrees with this definition. Some child
unobjectionable — except for one thing workers themselves think that illegal
about the work that makes it work (such as prostitution) should not be
exploitative. For instance, a child who considered in the definition of "child
delivers newspapers before school might labor." The reason: These child workers
actually benefit from learning how to would like to be respected for their legal
work, gaining responsibility, and earn a work, because they feel they have no
bit of money. But what if the child is not other choice but to work. For further
discussion of this dispute, see New
78
Internationalist Magazine, No. 292, July nature is hazardous to their safety,
1997 issue on Child Labor. physical or mental health, and moral
development. Moreover, some 8.4
To avoid confusion, when writing or million children were engaged in so-
speaking about "child labor," it’s best to called 'unconditional' worst forms of
explain exactly what you mean by child child labor, which include forced and
labor — or, if someone else is speaking, bonded labor, the use of children in
ask for a definition. This website uses armed conflict, trafficking in children
the first definition cited in this section: and commercial sexual exploitation." --
"Child labor" is work for children under see "Every Child Counts"
age 18 that in some way harms or (www.ilo.org/public/english/
exploits them (physically, mentally, standards/ipec/simpoc/others/globalest.p
morally, or by blocking children from df)
education).
Unicef’s State of the World’s Children
Report says only that although the exact
number is not known, it is surely in the
WHO IS A "CHILD"? hundreds of millions.
International conventions define children More information about who child
as aged 18 and under. laborers are, where they live, and new
statistics on the total number can be
Individual governments may define found on www.ilo.org; also, the US
"child" according to different ages or Dept. of Labor’s By The Sweat and Toil
other criteria. of Children, Vol. VI: An Economic
Consideration of Child Labor.
"Child" and "childhood" are also defined
differently by different cultures. A ( http://www.dol.gov/)
"child" is not necessarily delineated by a
fixed age. Social scientists point out that For more information about
children’s abilities and maturities vary individual child laborers, see stories
so much that defining a child’s maturity produced by Child Labor and the
by calendar age can be misleading. For a Global Village: Photography for
discussion, see Jo Boyden, Birgitta Ling, Social Change.
William Myers, "What Works for
Working Children" (Stockholm: Radda
Barnen and Unicef, 1998), pp 9-26.
WHERE DO CHILD
WHO ARE CHILD LABORERS? LABORERS LIVE?
AND HOW MANY ARE
THERE? 61% in Asia, 32% in Africa, and 7% in
Latin America, 1% in US, Canada,
In 2000, the ILO estimates, "246 million Europe and other wealthy nations In
child workers aged 5 and 17 were Asia, 22% of the workforce is children.
involved in child labor, of which 171 In Latin America, 17% of the workforce
million were involved in work that by its is children. The proportion of child
89
laborers varies a lot among countries and Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s
even regions inside those countries. See Children Report says "The growth of the
Child Labour: Targeting the Intolerable, service sector and the quest for a more
Geneva, 1998, p. 7; and other ILO flexible workforce in industrialized
publications. countries, such as the United Kingdom
and the US, have contributed to an
"In Africa, one child in three is at work, expansion of child labour."
and in Latin America, one child in five
works. In both these continents, only a "Hundreds of thousands" of children
tiny proportion of child workers are work in US agriculture, according to a
involved in the formal sector and the report by Human Rights Watch
vast majority of work is for their published in June 2000. See
families, in homes, in the fields or on the http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/frmwr
streets." -- Unicef’s 1997 State of the kr/.
World’s Children Report
Back to Top
WHAT DO CHILD LABORERS
IS THERE CHILD LABOR IN DO?
THE UNITED STATES?
Work ranges from taking care of animals
Yes, if you are talking about "child and planting and harvesting food, to
labor" as defined by the US law. The many kinds of small manufacturing (e.g.
Fair Labor Standards Act sets the of bricks and cement), auto repair, and
minimum working age as 15, with some making of footwear and textiles. (See a
exceptions. For a copy of the Fair Labor list in US Dept. of Labor, By the Sweat
Standards Act, see the US Dept. of & Toil of Children, Vo. V: Efforts to
Labor’s Employment Standards Eliminate Child Labor, Appendix C.
Administration of the Wage and Hour http://www.dol.gov
Division,
http://www.elaws.dol.gov/flsa/docs/flsa- A large proportion of children whom the
child-pubs.htm. ILO classifies as child laborers work in
agriculture.
In the United States: An estimated
290,200 children were unlawfully See Child Labour: Targeting the
employed in 1996. Some — it’s not clear Intolerable (1998) "Every Child Counts"
how many — were "older teens working (2002) and other ILO publications
a few too many hours in after-school (http://www.ilo.org).
jobs." About 59,600 were younger than
age 14, and some 13,100 worked in More boys than girls work outside their
garment sweatshops, according to an homes. But more girls work in some
Associated Press series on child labor jobs: for instance, as domestic maids.
published in December 1997. (Available Being a maid in someone’s house can be
on www.igc.org, by searching for "child risky. Maids typically are cut off from
labor" on IGC sites and IGC member friends and family, and can easily be
sites.)
910
physically or sexually abused by their HOW WAS CHILD LABOR
employers. REDUCED IN TODAY’S
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES?
Note: Less than 5% of child laborers
make products for export to other Four main changes took place:
countries. Sources for this statistic
include Unicef’s State of the World’s 1. economic development that raised
Children Report 1997. family incomes and living standards
2. widespread, affordable, required
and relevant education
3. enforcement of anti-child labor laws
(along with compulsory education
WHY SHOULD WE CARE? laws)
4. changes in public attitudes toward
Many children in hazardous and children that elevated the
importance of education
dangerous jobs are in danger of injury,
even death.
Sources of information about the history
of include Hugh Cunningham and Pier
Beyond compassion, consider who
Paolo Viazzo, eds, Child abour in
today’s children will become in the
Historical Perspective, 1800-1985: Case
future. Between today and the year 2020,
Studies from Europe, Japan and
the vast majority of new workers,
Columbia (Florence: Unicef, 1996).
citizens and new consumers — whose
Other sources of information about
skills and needs will build the world’s
history — and controversies about which
economy and society — will come from
of the four elements were most
developing countries. Over that 20-year
important, are listed on the site
period, some 730 million people will
www.childlabor.org.
join the world’s workforce — more than
all the people employed in today's most
developed nations in 2000. More than 90
percent of these new workers will be
from developing nations, according to WHAT ARE SOME "MYTHS"
research by Population Action OR MISUNDERSTANDINGS
International. How many will have had ABOUT CHILD LABOR?
to work at an early age, destroying their
health or hampering their education? Unicef lists four "myths":
1. It is a myth that child labor is only a
problem in developing countries.
"But in fact, children routinely work
HOW CAN ORDINARY in all industrialized countries, and
PEOPLE HELP REDUCE hazardous forms of child labour can
be found in many countries. In the
CHILD LABOR? US, for example, children are
employed in agriculture, a high
Learn about the issue. Support proportion of them from immigrant
organizations that are raising awareness, or ethnic-minority families. A 1990
and providing direct help to individual survey of Mexican-American
children working in the farms of New
children.
1011
York state showed that almost half Poverty is widely considered the top
had worked in fields still wet with reason why children work at
pesticides and over a third had
themselves been sprayed."
inappropriate jobs for their ages. But
2. It is a myth that child labor will only there are other reasons as well -- not
disappear when poverty disappears. necessarily in this order:
Hazardous labor can, and should be
eliminated by even the poorest 1. family expectations and traditions
countries. 2. abuse of the child
3. It is a myth that most child laborers 3. lack of good schools and day care
work in sweatshops making goods 4. lack of other services, such as
for export. "Soccer balls made by health care
children in Pakistan for use by 5. public opinion that downplays the
children in industrialized countries risk of early work for children
may provide a compelling symbol, 6. uncaring attitudes of employers
but in fact, only a very small 7. limited choices for women
proportion of all child workers are
employed in export industries -
probably less than 5 per cent. Most "The parents of child labourers are often
of the world’s child labourers unemployed or underemployed,
actually are to be found in the desperate for secure employment and
informal sector - selling on the income. Yet it is their children - more
street, at work in agriculture or powerless and paid less - who are
hidden away in houses – far from
the reach of official labour offered the jobs. In other words, says
inspectors and from media scrutiny." UNICEF, children are employed because
4. It is a myth that "the only way to they are easier to exploit," according to
make headway against child labour the "Roots of Child Labor" in Unicef’s
is for consumers and governments 1997 State of the World’s Children
to apply pressure through sanctions
and boycotts. While international Report.
commitment and pressure are
important, boycotts and other The report also says that international
sweeping measures can only affect economic trends also have increased
export sectors, which are relatively child labor in poor countries. "During
small exploiters of child labour.
Such measures are also blunt the 1980s, in many developing countries,
instruments with long-term government indebtedness, unwise
consequences that can actually internal economic policies and recession
harm rather than help the children resulted in economic crisis. Structural
involved." adjustment programmes in many
countries accentuated cuts in social
(Source: Unicef State of the World’s spending that have hit the poor
Children’s Report, 1997, "Four Myths disproportionately. " Although structural
about Child Labor," adjustment programs are being revised
http://www.unicef.org/sowc97/) to spare education from deep cuts, the
report says, some countries make such
cuts anyway because of their own, local
priorities. In many countries public
WHAT CAUSES CHILD LABOR education has deteriorated so much, the
TODAY? report declared, that education itself has
become part of the problem — because
children work to avoid going to school.
1112
This conclusion is supported by the work 3. Social services — that help children
of many social scientists, according to Jo and families survive crises, such as
disease, or loss of home and shelter
Boyden, Birgitta Ling, and William 4. Family control of fertility — so that
Myers, who conducted a literature search families are not burdened by
for their 1998 book, What Works for children
Working Children (Stockholm: Radda
Barnen, Unicef, 1998). The ILO’s International Programme for
the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC)
Children do some types of low-status has explored many programs to help
work, the report adds, because children child laborers. See IPEC documents on
come from minority groups or the www.ilo.org site.
populations that have long suffered
discrimination. " In northern Europe, for The 1989 Convention on the Rights of
example, child labourers are likely to be the Child calls for children to participate
African or Turkish; in Argentina, many in important decisions that will affect
are Bolivian or Paraguayan; in Thailand, their lives.
many are from Myanmar. An
increasingly consumer-oriented culture, Some educators and social scientists
spurring the desire and expectation for believe that one of the most important
consumer goods, can also lead children ways to help child workers is to ask their
into work and away from school." opinions, and involve them in
constructing "solutions" to their own
Other sources: Child Labor: Targeting problems. Strong advocates of this
the Intolerable, published by ILO, approach are Boyden, Myers and Ling;
Geneva, 1998. ILO information Concerned for Working Children in
available using: www.ilo.org. Karnataka, India; many children’s
"unions" and "movements," and the Save
the Children family of non-governmental
organizations.
More information about the need for
WHAT ARE SOME families to have affordable access to
SOLUTIONS TO CHILD methods to control their fertility can be
LABOR? found in many analyses of the role of the
"demographic transition" in economic
Not necessarily in this order: development. See Rodolfo Bulatao, The
Value of Family Planning Programs in
1. Increased family incomes Developing Countries ( Santa Monica,
2. Education — that helps children CA: Rand, 1998),
learn skills that will help them earn a http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/M
living R978/
Work isn't always grim: a brother and sister helping to make panama hats in San Antonio de
1213
Work damages many children. morning or after seven in the evening.
But it can help others, as Chris Often such work is actively encouraged
Brazier explains. so that a child can gain experience of the
'real world' of work and commerce.
http://www.newint.org/issue292/k
The standard view would be that while
eynote.html this kind of harmless work for pocket
money certainly takes place, there is no
'C hild labour'. I wonder what image
dangerous 'child labour' in the North.
The same view would be likely to
maintain that work done by children in
those two words conjure up in your the South is more often than not
mind. My guess is that it will bring forth hazardous and exploitative.
two images in parallel. On the one hand
the children of Victorian Britain locked Actually both these statements are
in their dark satanic mills as the untrue and examining why will show
Industrial Revolution took hold. On the that 'child labour' is altogether more
other, children from India or Pakistan complex and less clear-cut an issue than
today, also chained to looms and forced is normally supposed.
to endure harrowing conditions. And
against these nightmarish images are North...Examples of hazardous child
probably counterposed the children of labour can unfortunately still be found in
Western societies, freed from the most rich countries and their incidence
necessity of work, enjoying free is probably increasing rather than
education and free play. decreasing. The reason this kind of child
work is largely removed from public
Yet if we are not careful these potent notice or that a blind eye is turned
images will lead us into a blind alley towards it is that it takes place largely
one marked 'complacency'. People in the within ethnic-minority or immigrant
rich world tend to assume that child groups. In the US, for example,
labour, like slavery, is something that immigrant children, usually of Hispanic
was abolished in the rich world about a origin, routinely take part in agricultural
century ago and that it only exists now in work, especially at harvest time; in
developing countries and this certainty Britain they are more likely to be South
leads them to feel they can preach from Asian children doing piece-work at
the moral high ground to poorer home or in garment sweatshops; in
countries still locked in their medieval Greece they are likely to be of gypsy or
castles of ignorance and backwardness. Albanian origin.
Of course children still routinely work in There is one highly damaging variety of
rich countries but few people see it as work, though, which is extremely visible
exploitative that a child should be and is rife in all rich countries: child
employed, for example, to deliver prostitution. It is illegal but the laws tend
newspapers for an hour or two each day not be enforced and the economic and
even if they are paid less than adult rates social conditions that produce it go
and local child-labour laws are infringed unchallenged. And somehow nobody
by their working before seven in the
1314
ever conceives of it as a form of child dusk every day, severely stunting their
labour. growth during formative years. Social
activists in the area find it hard to work
No-one, however, could read Paula's because of the strong mafia-like control
Story, in which a child prostitute from that the carpet-loom owners have on the
Middlesbrough, England, talks about her area.'1
life, and still maintain that hazardous
child labour does not occur in the rich The continued existence of working
world. Paula has every bit as bleak a life conditions like these is a deep stain on
as the child workers from the Third human civilization and any action to
World interviewed elsewhere in the eliminate child labour has to concentrate
magazine and far less control of her first and foremost on cases like these.
own destiny than most of them.
Yet it is vital to recognize that the
People in the industrialized world and majority of work done by children in the
the media that represent them have a Third World is neither so hazardous nor
perfect right to scream from the rooftops so exploitative. This is why the term
about the iniquities of hazardous child 'child labour' is too explosive and
labour. But they need to look inside their negative to be applied to all work by
own houses as well as towards the children. It is insulting to children whose
distant shores. lives are being ruined by hard labour to
lump them into the same category as
: Most of the world's hazardous and those who help out in the family shop for
exploitative child labour, it is true, takes a couple of hours after school.
place in the South. At its most extreme it
is a modern form of slavery, from the Indeed, some kinds of child work are
children forced to labour on the sugar- useful, positive contributions to child
cane estates of north-east Brazil to those development. The idea that childhood
the Burmese military government has should be an entirely work-free zone is a
ordered to work on a new railroad. In the luxurious and rather sentimental Western
Indian subcontinent this virtual slavery idea. Work for a few hours a day that
is institutionalized in the shape of contributes to the family's well-being
'bonded' child labour, which sees whether by performing domestic duties
children as young as eight or nine or helping in the family fields is more
pledged by their parents to employers in likely to foster a child's development
payment of a debt. than to damage it.
One of the most notorious examples of And between the two extremes of
bonded child labour is the carpet positive and negative child work in a
industry of the Indian state of Uttar grey area less susceptible to cut-and-
Pradesh where, according to a recent dried judgment as to whether it is
study, thousands of children in the carpet exploitative or damaging come the vast
industry are 'kept in captivity, tortured majority of children's occupations in all
and made to work for 20 hours a day their multiplicity and diversity. Children
without a break. Little children are made haul water and collect firewood. They
to crouch on their toes, from dawn to deliver newspapers and tea. They take
1415
care of younger siblings. They work on confrontation with European labour
the streets washing windshields, shining ministers and trade unionists over child
shoes or selling cigarettes. They can be labour in Amsterdam and second to their
found in sweatshops or in their family's own 'manifesto'
sewing room. They are servants in the
homes of the better-off . Their message is clear and simple
enough: they wish to assert their own
If we treat all work by children as right to work in non-exploitative
equally unacceptable we are trivializing conditions. Given that they are forced to
the issue and making it less likely that make their way in a brutal world which
we will be able to root out the most will offer them no alternative, this is
damaging forms of child labour: blanket entirely understandable. We can't simply
condemnation helps no-one.People in tell them to wait until the glorious day
the rich world consider work by their when all child labour is abolished and
own children to be acceptable when it is their material and spiritual needs are
performed for pocket money to buy more nearly provided for. There has to
computer games. It would be thoroughly be an interim strategy of protection.
bizarre if Westerners who allowed their
own children to work for pocket money We should listen to them carefully but
to buy compact discs should seek to that does not have to mean that we have
outlaw child work in the Third World to accept as given a world in which they
which is often driven by a poor family's must work to survive. On the contrary,
desperate need. In every country, rich or we should keep in clear mental view a
poor, it is the nature and conditions of world in which children like these will
children's work which determines have options, in which they will have the
whether or not they are exploited not the chance to develop to their full potential
plain fact of their working. and redouble our efforts to bring that
world into being.
Into this middle territory neither entirely
negative nor entirely positive falls the So what action should we take to combat
work of many of the children covered in child labour? The current media furore
this issue. Ask most of them and they in the West about child labour makes
will tell you very clearly that they want people want to leap into action. And the
to work and that the last thing they want most natural weapons to reach for are
is for Westerners to take away their understandably boycotts or trade
livelihood by means of legal bans or sanctions these are often, after all,
consumer boycotts. They are even tactics which this magazine would
getting themselves organized favour, in response, for example, to
movements of working children are gross human-rights abuses.
springing up all over the Majority
World, from the famous street children But, like aid programs, anti-child-labour
of Brazil to the less celebrated domestic initiatives must adapt to local conditions.
servants of French West Africa. This is All attempts to cure Third World
such an interesting development that we problems are doomed to do more harm
have given over five pages of this issue than good if they are designed in the air-
to their views: first to an account of their conditioned offices of Western capitals.
1516
And, despite the extra emotive power, hearts and minds, that expands their
the battle against child labour is no horizons beyond the gate marked
exception. 'drudgery'.
Who would oppose, for example, the The world needs to recover its passion
notion that employers in Bangladesh's for providing decent, relevant education
garment industry should be barred from for all children instead of accepting that
using children's labour? Surely we're on educational provision will suffer death
safe ground here this is hardly the stuff by a thousand public-spending cuts in
of which heavy-handed development the rich world as well as the poor.
disasters are made. Wrong: when
children (most of them girls) were Education needs much more of our
expelled from the garment factories as a money; it also needs our creative
result of US pressure in 1993 their thinking about how to develop schools
families' poverty drove them to more relevant to the needs of actual and
desperate avenues of employment on potential child workers. When a child
the streets, in smaller, more hazardous says, like Assane from Senegal on Page
workshops, or even, some claim, to 14, that he will run a mile if you try and
prostitution. The full fascinating story of put him in school, he is partly reflecting
this episode the implications of which the inadequacy of the current
have fundamentally altered the approach educational provision. Schools in the
to child labour of the key UN agencies Third World are all too often forbidding
is told by a Bangladeshi journalist on in and inappropriate, and can seem to
the article Thank you, Mr Harkin, sir!. children as much like a prison as some
of the working environments we so
It is clear that any program of decry. Sudhir, an 11-year-old from Kone
eliminating child labour which does not in southern India, testifies to that: 'In
provide reasonable alternatives for the school, teachers would not teach well. If
child workers it ousts which simply we asked them to teach us alphabets,
casts them out of a workplace they had they would beat us. They would sleep in
only entered due to extreme poverty is the class. If we asked them about a small
dumping on them from the moral high doubt, they would beat us and send us
ground an avalanche of negative out. Even if we did not understand, they
consequences. would not teach us. So I dropped out of
school.'2
But the goal clearly has to be to stop
children entering exploitative work in Schools must teach useful skills, that are
the first place, which is why education is seen as relevant by both children and
bound to be the key to any serious parents. They need to be more flexible
onslaught on child labour. We need an and adapt to local children's
education system in the developing circumstances, for example by adjusting
world as different from the current one their time-table to the seasonal farming
as the sun is from the moon one that is calendar. The Escuela Nueva program in
properly resourced and valued, that Colombia is a fine example of a state-
reaches the poorest children not just in school system which has adapted
terms of geography but in terms of successfully to the needs of rural people
1617
achieving better results and far fewer 'The poorest people in the world pay the
drop-outs as a result, as well as greatest price,' Jamaica's Health
enhancing its students' self-esteem.3 Minister, Peter Phillips, once said about
the breaking of developing countries'
Education of this empowering kind can social and educational provision on the
help prevent a child from being trapped wheel of structural adjustment. 'But that
by an exploitative employer and, after was the price of the international
all, it is exploitation rather than poverty agencies. We made all the noise in the
alone which generates child labour. If world. None of our appeals had any
there were no employers prepared to effect. We do not live in a world in
exploit children, there would be no child which morality takes precedence.' Child
labour. Children are more easily labour makes it clearer than any other
intimidated, less likely to organize in issue: it's time to move morality to the
trade unions and can be paid much less. fore. *
This allows employers to put their
products on the market at the cheapest
possible prices thereby undercutting any
company which offers decent wages and FOOTNOTES: 1 Neera Burra, Born to Work:
Child labour in India OUP Delhi 1995. 2
conditions to adults. In an increasingly Concerned for Working Children, Education:
globalized economy the scramble for Views of the working children, Gramashrama,
competitiveness is even more crazed, India 1995. 3 UNICEF, The State of the World's
which is one reason why pious Children1997.
condemnations of child labour by
enthusiasts for free trade and
globalization in Washington seldom play
to great applause in the Majority World.
consequences
Thank you, for the children of Bangladesh, as
Shahidul Alam reports.
Mr Harkin, No. No photographs. Saleha is scared.
Many a time she has hidden under
tables, been locked up in the toilet, or
sir! been sent to the roof in the scorching sun
for two or three hours. It happens
whenever foreign buyers enter the
http://www.newint.org/issue292/thank.ht factory. She knows she is under-age, and
m doesn’t want photographers messing
things up – she needs the job. The whole
industry has suddenly become sensitive.
When US Senator Tom Harkin Owners want their factories open. The
proposed a boycott of the products workers want their jobs. The special
of child labour, schools for former child labourers want
Western campaigners applauded. aid money. No photographs.
But there were unforeseen
1718
Neither Saleha nor any of the other child had supported her and her grandmother
workers I have interviewed have ever but now they must both depend on
heard of Senator Tom Harkin. All they relatives.
know is that pressure from the US,
which buys most of Bangladesh’s Other children have had no alternative
garments, has resulted in thousands of but to seek new kinds of work. When
them losing their jobs at a stroke. UNICEF and the ILO made a series of
follow-up visits they found that the
According to a press release by the children displaced from the garment
garment employers in October 1994: factories were working at stone-crushing
‘50,000 children lost their jobs because and street hustling – more hazardous and
of the Harkin Bill.’ A UNICEF worker exploitative activities than their factory
confirms ‘the jobs went overnight’. jobs.
The controversial bill, the ‘Child Labor ‘It is easier for the boys to get jobs
Deterrence Act’, had first been again,’ Moyna complains, pointing to
introduced in 1992. A senior ex-garment boys who have jobs in
International Labour Organization (ILO) welding and bicycle factories. Girls
official has no doubt that the original bill usually stay at home, doing household
was put forward ‘primarily to protect US work and looking after smaller children;
trade interests’ – Tom Harkin is many end up getting married simply to
sponsored by a key US trade union, and ease money problems.
cheap imports from the Third World
were seen as undercutting American Rethinking
workers’ jobs. ‘When we all objected to In the wake of the mass expulsion of
this aspect of the Bill,’ says the ILO child garment workers it was plain that
official, ‘which included a lot of something had gone very wrong.
resistance in the US, the Bill was UNICEF and the ILO tried to pick up the
amended, the trading aspect was toned pieces. After two years of hard talking
down, and it was given a humanitarian with the garment employers they came
look.’ It was when it was reintroduced up with a Memorandum of
after these amendments in 1993 that the Understanding. This guaranteed that no
Bill had its devastating impact in more children under 14 would be hired,
Bangladesh. that existing child workers would be
received into special schools set up by
The child workers themselves find it local voluntary organizations and would
particularly hard to interpret the US receive a monthly stipend to compensate
approach as one of ‘humanitarian them for the loss of their wages.
concern’. When asked why the buyers
have been exerting such pressure against Some garment owners feel that, instead
child labour, Moyna, a ten-year-old of doing a deal, they should have called
orphan who has just lost her job, the US bluff and continued employing
comments: ‘They loathe us, don’t they? young children. ‘We export 150 million
We are poor and not well educated, so shirts a year to the US,’ says one. ‘The
they simply despise us. That is why they K-mart $12 shirt would have cost $24.
shut the factories down.’ Moyna’s job Bill Clinton would have lost his job.’
1819
As of now 10,547 of the estimated Taking home 2,200 taka ($52) a month
50,000 children have been registered, (with overtime) Sabeena, at 13, is now
and of these 8,067 have enlisted in the main breadwinner in the family. She
school. Most weren’t registered initially, is lucky to have work, though she would
as few garment owners admitted having rather study. She laughs when I talk of
children working in their factories. Many her going to school. She has mouths to
lost their jobs before the registration feed, and to give up her job for a 300-
process began. Unregistered children, taka-per-month stipend for going to
regardless of their age or their schooling, school simply wouldn’t make sense.
are not admitted into the scheme. Besides, the special schools only teach
up to Grade Five. The better students,
Saleha is tall for her age. Though in her who have studied that far, find they have
factory there are quite a few under-age neither jobs nor seats in the school. So
children, in most factories children that Sabeena’s studies begin at around eleven
look small are no longer taken. This is at night, with a paid private tutor,
what Moyna and Ekram and the other usually by candlelight. At seven in the
children repeatedly say: ‘We didn’t morning she has to leave for work.
make the size.’ In a country where births Seven days a week.
are not registered there is no way of
accurately determining a person’s age. Money is a key concern even for those
Children with good growth keep their children who have been received into the
jobs. Children who look smaller, perhaps special schools. At the school run by the
because they are malnourished, do not. Bangladesh Rural Advancement
Committee (BRAC) in Mirpur, the
The reliance on size rather than age children gather round a worker doing the
means that many children are still at rounds. ‘When do we get paid, sir?’ they
work in the factories – and many have keep asking.
no inclination to take up a place in one
of the special schools. Take Sabeena. Despite the promises, not a single child
Her factory is colourful with tinsel when that I have interviewed has received the
I visit and many of the girls have glitter full pay they are owed. In some cases
on their faces. It is the Bangla New Year field workers, eager to improve their
and Eid all in one and they are admission rates, have promised
celebrating. Sabeena proudly shows me considerably more than the stipulated
the machine she works on. She is almost 300 taka ($7) per month. In others,
14 and, like Saleha, big for her age. She unfounded rumours have created
has been working at a garment factory expectations that the schools cannot
ever since she finished Grade Five, meet.
about 18 months ago. Until then,
schooling was free. There was no way Shahjahan (pictured on the facing page)
her parents could pay for her to go to was one of the lucky ones admitted to a
school and, with her father being poorly, BRAC school. The 300 taka per month
Sabeena needed to work to keep the is a small sum for him too, but he works
family going. in a tailoring shop from nine till eleven
in the morning, and again from two-
thirty in the afternoon till ten at night.
1920
He doesn’t complain. Though the The notion that a garment employer
scheme does not encourage it, he feels might be helping children by allowing
he is getting the best of both worlds: free them to work may seem very strange to
schooling, including a stipend, as well as people in the West. But in a country
paid work and a potential career. where the majority of people live in
villages where children work in the
A strange question home and the fields as part of growing
Did they like working in garment up, there are no romantic notions of
factories? The children find this a childhood as an age of innocence.
strange question. They earned money Though children are cared for, childhood
because of it, and it gave them a certain is seen as a period for learning
status that non-working children did not employable skills. Children have always
have. They put up with the long hours. helped out with family duties. When this
The exceptions remind me that it is evolves into a paid job in the city neither
children we are talking about. ‘I cried children nor their families see it as
when they forced me to do overtime on anything unusual. In poor families it is
Thursday nights,’ says Moyna. ‘That simply understood that everyone has to
was when they showed Alif Laila work.
(Arabian Nights) on TV.’
The money that children earn is
Child workers are popular with factory generally handed over to parents, who
owners. ‘Ten- to twelve-year-olds are run the household as best as they can.
the best,’ says Farooq, the manager of Most parents want their children to go to
Sabeena’s factory. ‘They are easier to school. But they also feel that schooling
control, not interested in men, or movies, is a luxury they cannot afford. The
and obedient.’ He forgets to mention that garment industry has increased the
they are not unionized and that they income of working-class families in
agree to work for 500 taka ($12) per recent years and this has also led to a
month when the minimum legal wage change in attitudes. Many middle-class
for a helper is 930 taka. homes now complain that it is difficult
to get domestic ‘help’ as working-class
Owners see Tom Harkin as a well- women and children choose to work in
meaning soul with little clue about the garment factories rather than as servants.
realities of garment workers’ lives. ‘As a This choice – made on the grounds not
student, I too hailed the Bill,’ says Sohel, just of better economics, but of greater
the production manager at Captex self-respect – is one many children have
Garments. ‘I was happy that someone lost because of the Harkin Bill.
was fighting for children’s rights. But
now that I work in a factory and have to The US is wielding power without
turn away these children who need jobs, responsibility. A nation with a history of
I see things differently. Sometimes I take genocide and slavery, and a reputation
risks and, if a child is really in a bad for being a bully in international politics,
way, I let them work, but it is suddenly proclaims itself a champion of
dangerous.’ people’s rights, but refuses to make
concessions over the rates it will pay.
The dollar price-tags on the garments
2021
produced in some factories suggest a difference will these two or three years
vast profit being made at the US end. in school make to these children? In
The buyers claim that what they pay for three years, the helper could have been
the garments is determined by ‘market an operator, with better pay and more
forces’. The garment owners make the savings. Even if the manufacturers keep
same claim with regard to the conditions their word and give them back their jobs
of employment for their workers. Both at the end of their schooling, the
are simply justifying their own version Memorandum children will hardly be
of exploitation – and to address child better off, while their peers will have
labour without addressing exploitation is gotten on with their careers. We have
to treat the symptom, not the disease. spent millions of dollars on 8,000
children. The money itself could have
The garment-industry experience has led transformed their lives. This is an
to an active debate amongst experiment by the donors, and the
development workers and child-rights Bangladeshi children have to pay.’
activists. ‘What we have done here in
Bangladesh is described as fantastic,’ Shahidul Alam is a photographer, writer and
says a senior ILO worker. ‘I wonder how activist who runs Drik Picture Library in Dhaka.
The children’s names have been changed to
fantastic it really is. How much protect them.
THE SHOE-SHINER – soil and sowing rice seeds. But we didn’t
produce enough and he sent me away.
SENEGAL
Uncle Demba told me that it would be
http://www.newint.org/easier- hard in the city. But it will be good for
english/child_labour/assane.html me whether or not I bring him back
money one day. ‘With travel you gain
Assane’s story experience,’ he said. It is good for a
child to know suffering. Then I will
Assane Diallo is a 10-year-old appreciate life when I am older. That is
shoe-shine boy in Ziguinchor, the the Toucouleur way.
capital of Senegal’s southern region.
Like hundreds of other children from Of course I was scared to leave but I also
the north of Senegal, he has fled not wanted to go. I am proud that he has sent
war, but a bad agricultural policy. me. I hope I make lots of money. I hope
The French Government is trying to I can come back to my village and give
get the Toucouleur people to grow all my relatives presents. And I’ll be
rice. But their Futa Toro region is too wearing jeans and sneakers. I already
dry and the result is that the have this nice T-shirt .
Toucouleur, traditionally nomadic
cattle herders, are becoming more In the village I just wore rags.
impoverished. Sometimes there wasn’t enough food to
eat. We worked very hard but there was
I come from the village of Bronkagne in never enough rain. And rice needs lots of
the Futa Toro. I used to work for my rain. Still, we Toucouleur always find a
Uncle Demba cultivating rice, tilling the way to survive. If we can’t make money
from farming then we go out and
2122
become traders. That is what my family [Senegal’s capital] and bring back
wants me to do. broken shoes which we younger boys
repair for them. I have already begun
I already did it last year. I went to the helping to repair shoes and my friends
town of Bakel for three months between are impressed at how fast I am learning.
the sowing and harvesting seasons. I
sold baobab and bissap juice on the So my fourth step will be repairing shoes
street for a market woman. I came back and my fifth step will be to be a shoe
to Brokagne with new clothes and gave trader like the older boys. But when I go
my uncle money. He was very happy to Dakar I won’t just bring back broken
with me. That’s why he wanted me to go shoes. I will bring all sorts of things.
again this year. That is how I will get rich.
My aim in life is to be a big trader. As I don’t need to go school. What can I
my father died when I was a baby, Uncle learn there? I know children who went to
Demba inherited his land instead. So school. Their family paid for the fees
now his sons will inherit it from him, not and the uniforms and now they are
me. That is why I must be a trader. I educated. But you see them sitting
want to travel to Bangkok and bring around. Now they are useless to their
back textiles and jewellery to sell here. families. They don’t know anything
Then with the profits I will open my own about farming or trading or making
store. That is what we Toucouleur do. If money. Even though I have never been
you go to any town in Senegal you will to school, I can count and quickly give
find us with our little stores. My friend’s the correct change. I also know how to
uncle has a big store in New York. bargain with customers and always make
a profit.
I am now on the third step to my life
goal. The first step was working for my The only thing I need to learn is to read
uncle cultivating rice. The second step and write. But I have started. People
was selling drinks on the street. Now the from ENDA [a Dakar-based agency]
third step is being a shoe-shine boy. It is teach me and my friends every Tuesday
not easy. You have to find people who evening. That’s good because it doesn’t
look like they have a little extra cash and mess up our work schedule.
convince them that they need their shoes
shined. And sometimes they won’t pay My friends told me that a white woman
you. They say ‘Oh, I don’t have the came to talk to them once and told them
change, I’ll pay you next time,’ and you it is bad that children have to work. She
never see them again. They also won’t said she would put them all in school but
pay if you get any shoe polish on their she never came back, and I am glad. If
socks. anyone tries to put me in school I will
run away. I wouldn’t be making any
That’s why I don’t want to do this for money. Then I would be ashamed ever
long. I want to learn how to repair shoes. to go back to my village.
Then I can work for the older boys who
are shoe traders. They go to Dakar Assane was interviewed by David Hecht.
Published on Thursday, March 16, 2000 in the Washington Post
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