CHILD LABOUR

Child Labour

Child Labour

Introduction

In the world today, approximately 215 million children work, on full-time basis. They do not go to school and have no or little time to play. They often do not receive food or care of their choosing. They are deprived of their childhood. Over half of these children are exposed to the worst forms of child labour, unsafe working conditions, slavery or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities, including drug trafficking and prostitution; recruitment into armed conflict. These facts are guided by the principles enshrined in the Convention (No. 138) of the ILO Minimum Age Convention and (No. 182) on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, the ILO InFocus Programme for Abolition of Child Labour (IPEC) is working to obtain the effective eradication of child labour. Therefore, all the issues related to child labour will be discussed in detail.

Overview of Child Labour

Child labour is a global problem affecting both industrialized and developing countries. Currently it is estimated that at least 250 million children aged 5 to 14 should work and that nearly half of them is forced to work full time. Millions more are not registered and cannot be. They are everywhere but invisible. Child labour can take many forms that can be classified into seven categories, none of which are specific to a particular region of the world:

Domestic work

The sexual exploitation for commercial purposes

Bonded labour

Military work

Work in industry and plantations

Family work

The street trades

The most vulnerable children, the most exploited and also the most difficult to protect by doing so are probably the CDWs. Estimated at several million, they are often poorly paid, if at all, and working conditions depends entirely on the goodwill of the employer. They often have a heavy workload: they do the laundry, cooking, cleaning and they take care of children. They often sleep on the floor in the kitchen or in a corner of the nursery. They sometimes work 18 hours a day and most of them are out of school, play and social activity and psychological support from family and friends. They were finally exposed to physical violence and sexual abuse. According to the ILO, the first region in Asia is important but the phenomenon is now found in Latin America, Africa and in Western countries. Prostitution rings were also developed to meet demand. The form of slavery the most common today is debt bondage, which would affect tens of millions of people in much of Asia (India, Nepal and Pakistan) and in Brazil. Rich usurers or industrial landowners advance money to needy families. In return, these families become the property of the lender, a labour to thank a person subject to inhumane working conditions in construction sites, brick kilns, carpet shops or agricultural plantations. Their work is not always paid, but when it is, the wages are so meagre that they are never sufficient to repay the debt. So, this bondage to debt short sometimes several generations (Christiaan, 1999, ...