Education is a basic right of every child, but worldwide there are around 300 million children and youth around who do not go to school. They do not get to put on a uniform and walk or take a bus to school; they do not get to sit in a classroom, listen to a teacher, read a textbook and take notes. They do not have the opportunity to learn to read, write and do math. The situation in Sri Lanka is very different, as there is near-universal school attendance by both boys and girls (in many countries, girls are compelled to stay at home doing housework, which is an unpaid form of child labour).
There is a good chance that many of these children who cannot attend school for whatever reason end up doing menial jobs to support their parents. Too many children around the world don’t even have a chance to be children. Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 160 million children are engaged in child labour, half of whom are in hazardous work; 112 million are in agriculture. The recruitment of child soldiers continues.
During the 2016-2020 period, child labour increased by 8.9 million, entirely among children aged 5-11.
Most often because their families live in poverty, children are asked to contribute to their livelihoods or to “earn their keep”. They do household chores like cleaning, cooking and fetching water, selling goods or working in factories. Child labour can be a couple of hours a day to a full day. The children are paid very little, if at all.
Plight of child soldiers
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* Africa ranks highest among regions both in the percentage of children in child labour — one-fifth — and the absolute number of children in child labour — 72 million. * Asia and the Pacific ranks second highest in both these measures — 7 of all children and 62 million in absolute terms are in child labour in this region. * Africa, Asia and the Pacific regions together account for almost nine out of every ten children in child labour worldwide. * The remaining child labour population is divided among the Americas (11 million), Europe and Central Asia (6 million), and the Arab States (1 million). * In terms of incidence, 5 percent of children are in child labour in the Americas, 4 percent in Europe and Central Asia, and 3 percent in the Arab States. * 9 percent all children in lower-middle-income countries, and 7 percent of all children in upper-middle-income countries, are in child labour |
Child soldiers are deployed in many conflicts around the world, which means they have no chance at all for any kind of education, apart from weapons training. This is another very harsh form of child labour, if the term can be applied to this situation. It is a gruelling life as many of them are abducted in the first place and then compelled to undergo training, with rudimentary facilities and meagre food rations. In Sri Lanka, the LTTE had such “baby brigades” and rebel groups in many countries deploy child soldiers.
Thousands of children are also trafficked for sex and slavery worldwide. Slavery is the worst form of child labour. Conflicts and terrorist incidents have displaced children and separated them from their parents, as have natural disasters. More than 50 million children have been uprooted from their homes due to conflict, poverty and climate change while millions more face violence in their communities.
The world has to confront the “uncomfortable truth” that around the planet, the rights of millions of children are being violated every day. But this is an issue that calls for global action as child labour and similar phenomena are found worldwide.
Tomorrow June 12, the World Day Against Child Labour is to serve as a catalyst for the growing worldwide movement against child labour. The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the first World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 as a way to highlight the plight of children engaged in child labour. Emphasising the link between social justice and child labour, the slogan for the World Day in 2023 is ‘Social Justice for All. End Child Labour!’. The abolition of child labour is a cornerstone of the aspiration for social justice, through which every worker can claim freely and on the basis of equality of opportunity and treatment their fair share of the wealth that they have helped to generate.
Achieving social justice
The United Nations (UN) and experts tackling Child labour over the course of the last three decades has demonstrated that child labour can be eliminated, if the root causes are addressed. The 2023 World Day Against Child Labour should be a moment for all those committed to ending child labour to demonstrate that change can be achieved when will and determination come together.
Tomorrow June 12, the UN, UNICEF (UN Children’s Fund) and the ILO (International Labour Organisation) is calling for: Reinvigorated international action to achieve social justice, particularly under the envisaged Global Coalition for Social Justice, with child labour elimination as one of its important elements; Universal ratification of ILO Convention No. 138 on the Minimum Age, which, together with the universal ratification of ILO Convention No. 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour achieved in 2020, would provide all children with legal protection against all forms of child labour; Effective implementation of the Durban Call to Action adopted at the 5th Global Conference for the Elimination of Child Labour in 2022. This called for immediate, intensified, gender-responsive, well-coordinated, multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder, rights-based action to end child labour in all its forms by 2025. It is a blueprint for turning the tide against child labour using every available economic, political and social lever. It seeks to ensure that he goal of eliminating child labour is prioritised in national and global policymaking and activities, in development cooperation and in financial, trade and investment agreements. During the International Labour Conference, ILO will hold a high-level panel on June 12, which will highlight examples of how ILO constituents have followed up on their commitments and how these are important steps towards increasing social justice.
Steady progress
Since 2000, for nearly two decades, the world had been making steady progress in reducing child labour. But according to the UN, over the past few years, conflicts, crises and the Covid-19 pandemic, have plunged more families into poverty – and forced millions more children into child labour. Economic growth has not been sufficient, nor inclusive enough, to relieve the pressure that too many families and communities feel and that makes them resort to child labour. Almost one in ten children worldwide is still engaged in child labour.
Africa ranks highest among regions both in the percentage of children in child labour — one-fifth — and the absolute number of children in child labour — 72 million. Asia and the Pacific ranks second highest in both these measures — 7 percent of all children and 62 million in absolute terms are in child labour in this region.
Africa, Asia and the Pacific regions together account for almost nine out of every ten children in child labour worldwide. The remaining child labour population is divided among the Americas (11 million), Europe and Central Asia (6 million), and the Arab States (1 million). In terms of incidence, 5 percent of children are in child labour in the Americas, 4% in Europe and Central Asia, and 3 percent in the Arab States.
While the percentage of children in child labour is highest in low-income countries, their numbers are actually greater in middle-income countries. Nine percent of all children in lower-middle-income countries, and 7 percent of all children in upper-middle-income countries, are in child labour. Statistics on the absolute number of children in child labour in each national income grouping indicate that 84 million children in child labour, accounting for 56 percent of all those in child labour, actually live in middle-income countries, and an additional 2 million live in high-income countries. But in these countries and even in low income countries, some categories of child labour are somewhat hard to define. If a child works after school in a shop owned by the parents, is it child labour or just helping the parents out ? Such unseen (and unpaid) child labour is a major issue.
Stringent measures
Sri Lanka has taken stringent measures to curb child labour but the last ILO survey in 2016 revealed that around 43,000 children engaged in labour, mostly in rural areas as contributing family members. For example, many children work in the farms owned or leased by their parents. Though these numbers may have come down in the intervening years, there still are pockets of child labour in agriculture, construction and industry. However, unlike in many other countries in our region, the majority of them are boys. Again, the biggest consequence is that many of them attend school irregularly and some drop out altogether by Year 8 or 9. They do not pick up any other skills too in the meantime and are destined to a life of menial labour.
Thus child labour is a blight on our future and should be eliminated as soon as possible. Nevertheless, 2025 (just two years away) is too ambitious a target to end child labour – 2030 or 2035 looks like a more realistic target. But Governments and other stakeholders must begin work on it right away so that it will be possible to eliminate this scourge from our midst within the next decade or so.