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Articles: Business | World Economy & Child labour
- Mr. T.R.Sridhar Prasad. Uppalapati.
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What does the ILO want to abolish? They define child labor in three general categories:
1. Child too young for type of work. Labor performed by persons under a minimum age specified by 'national legislation, in accordance with accepted international standards.' Essentially it means that children are doing work that they are too young to do, based on social standards established by national legislation and international standards. The ILO offers that the general minimum should be not less than 15; 16 as a target which countries should strive for; but that developing countries may wish to apply 14 as a more realistic standard. Light work 'compatible with schooling' from age 12 is acceptable.
2. Hazardous work. 'Labor that jeopardizes the physical, mental or moral well-being of a child, known as hazardous work.'
3. Unconditional worst forms of child labor. The so-called 'unconditional worst forms of child labor,' namely, slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, forced recruitment into military service, prostitution, pornography or other illicit activities.
Not surprisingly, the ILO estimates 70 percent of child laborers are in agriculture, often (but not always) on family farms. A significant number work in commercial agriculture. Because it involves long hours, the use of poisonous chemicals and/or dangerous equipment, the work is hazardous. In manufacturing, children tend to work in 'supply chains producing for the domestic market' rather than directly for export-oriented industry. Still, the poverty of workers in such industries contributes directly to the need for families to send small children to work.
Even a five- or six- year-old child is an economic asset who can help the family survive until next week or next month when parents' wages are too low to support children and send them to school. While the very worst forms of child labor, such as prostitution or forced recruitment into military service, are significant, they comprise relatively small numbers of the children who are at risk. The estimated 300,000 child soldiers and 1.8 million sex industry workers comprise a minority of the 8.4 million in the 'unconditional worst forms of child labor,' most of whom, 5.7 million, are in forced labor.
Poverty, Child Labor and Illiteracy:
THE ILO SPEAKS OF POVERTY as 'inextricably linked to child labor.' But the report's authors insist that other factors play a role in giving us a full portrait of the causes for child labor. 'Inadequate social protection coupled with under-resourced, poor-quality education systems play a large part in perpetuating child labor.'
That's pretty clear: Poverty, bad schools and a lack of social protection lead the most vulnerable, children, into work -- whether in agriculture, fishing or other primary industries -- or in manufacturing or 'service' industries, a particularly pernicious category when we are speaking of children, as it includes domestic work but also illegal activities such as drug trafficking or prostitution.
A poverty cycle exists, where children born into abysmal poverty are forced by circumstances to work too young, which is directly detrimental to their health but indirectly also leads to inferior education -- which only condemns the next generation to more or less the same situation. 'It is abundantly clear that the poverty conundrum at the very heart of this problem -- where poverty breeds the worst forms of child labor and the worst forms of child labor breed poverty -- must be tackled head on,' the report explains.
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