Elimination Of Child Labour
Right Strategies Needed

By Khilendra Basnyat

CHILD labour has become a grave problem for the world. It hits us wherever we go, with tiny feet running around cars, small hands breaking bricks, washing utensils, etc. The contributions of these boys and girls are never recognised in the society, and they are forced into the adult world of responsibility and hard labour at a very young age.

Unpaid

A child activity survey indicated that the majority of working children were unpaid family workers who work in agriculture, housekeeping, quarries, construction sites and some other sectors.

The occupational health hazards to which working children are exposed rely on the type of work they are engaged. They are exposed to both physical and psychological health hazards which have short and long-term impacts on the development and health of children.

Children working in agriculture are exposed to health hazards due to exposure to insecticides and to viral or bacterial infections. Aside from this, they are susceptible to gastric disorders including worm infestations.

Respiratory complications such as allergic conditions due to inhalation of insecticides and pollen can result in respiratory disorders such as bronchial asthma.

Children workers in quarries are exposed to lung complications. Most of them are diagnosed at later stages as suffering from lung cancer and skin diseases. What is more, they face a hazardous environment which can cause accidents or even death.

Child workers in the fishing trade are prone to lung, skin as well as gastric disorders. Sexually exploited children are victims of sexually transmitted diseases. It has been found out that working children are exposed to physical injuries and to psychological trauma during the course of employment.

According to a WHO study, sixty-one per cent of street walkers had been abused sexually during their childhood. Likewise, of the thirteen prostituted girls interviewed, seven admitted having been sexually abused at the age of eleven to fifteen years. This shows that child sex abuse results in the abused child becoming involved in prostitution, the girls are put at risk of becoming victims of child sexual trafficking or pornography.

In fact, poverty is the main reason for child labour in developing countries exacerbated by a lack of education, socio-economic expectations and the political culture. In rural areas of these countries, a lack of infrastructure makes awareness programmes particularly difficult.

Poverty can result in the sale of children by their own parents for commercial sexual purposes. The sale of children is related to rural-urban migration. In general, children of poor families by nature of their poverty are less likely to be protected and they face a higher risk of commercial exploitation.

Children working as servants in households are vulnerable to their long working hours and poor working conditions. Verbal and physical abuse and discrimination are usually handed out to these children. Since they have to carry out various kinds of work everyday, most children cannot read or write. Some child domestic workers never receive recreation or leisure time. Apart from these, sexual abuse by employees, especially household owners occurs.

Since there are many child workers in the informal sector, there should be protective measures and services for them in this sector. The legal measures that protect child workers in the informal sector should be expanded, for instance for domestic child workers, child workers in agriculture and the children on streets.

It is necessary to identify the occupational hazards to which children are exposed in various employment sectors. Appropriate steps should be taken to protect these children from these occupational hazards.

It is essential to address the issue of unpaid of child workers who supplemented family income. Since legislation will not help solve the problem of unpaid family workers, it is necessary to teach parents the importance of education for their children’s future development. Parents should be motivated to send their children back to school apart from identifying alternate income generation sector for parents and finding places for working mothers to leave their children while they are at work. Incentives or rewards to keep children in school and supplements to education cost would also be beneficial.

There are a large number of children involved in Nepal’s agriculture sector. Children are generally engaged in collecting firewood, fodder, animal care, weeding, planting etc. They work as unpaid labour providing help to their parents in domestic farm work. Female children are more involved in other domestic work such as looking after siblings, bringing water, cooking meals and other household chores.

Time and again the actions of governments are just for show in order to gain publicity by claiming that the problem has been solved. However, these actions lack the necessary details, such as the social measures to really help children. In addition, the actions simply hide the children who are in the existing forms of child labour. This group of child workers will feel guilty that they are the worst forms of child labour and lose their self-respect. However, there are no measures to help these children out from their situation. In order to solve this problem, there have to be numerous measures with all the concerned people and not just one organisation or institution.

International donor communities have been assisting many programmes to support the development of such an infrastructure but Nepal is often unable to reap benefits from them. In fact, the government as well as other social organisations have to work in concert in a sustainable manner. If we fail or delay our task to launch appropriate programmes, the elimination of child labour will be difficult.

There is a need for international commitment, which we have secured as a member of the South Asian Association for Regional cooperation countries. The state commitment to address the issue has also been secured. What is needed at present is the services of experienced and committed persons on child labour to facilitate the implementation of programmes in order to ensure their effective

Strategies

Ratifying into convention for introducing new legislation is not the answer to eliminate child labour. Appropriate strategies must be adopted to reach our objectives.

Creating Healthy Public Opinion Essential

By Bhimsen Thapalia

THE highest priority accorded to political reporting by media at the cost of the social issues indicates to the fair balance and responsibility lacking today on the part of the Fourth Estate. Political topics often painted with the colours of sensationalism hit the front pages of the broadsheets and tabloids in overly inflated typefaces. At the same time, grave social and developmental issues having direct bearing on the lives of a large number of people are treated unfairly by editors. And they are not happening by accident.

Politics naturally has larger effects on many aspects of life and it is not the subject that media can afford to despise. However, it is not something that should be sensationalised every day by overshadowing the wider development and social agenda. In fact, politics’ impact is pervasive and dominant for it is the decision making sphere of national affairs. It deserves due coverage with neutrality and authenticity. The problem, however, is with the tendency to overemphasise political reporting merely for the sake of political sensationalism. Justice could perhaps be done by linking the issues of high political offices with the social and development issues that are closely connected with the lives at the grassroots.

In most cases, the problem is not with the coverage of political issues but with the way in which such issues are treated in relation to social issues. In a mad pursuit for sensationalism, political issues are not only overprioritised, but often manipulated and twisted which turn facts into ambiguity. Ambiguity does more harm to the public than good. Therefore, the need is to treat political topics in a more sober and unbiased manner so as not to confuse the audience. Instead, it is proper to accord due priority to development topics that are part of the wider social process. The responsibility of the ‘development journalists’ here is to work to make things happen rather than to sensationalise, confuse and mislead.

A responsible media should place people at the focal point of priority. The foremost task is to change their thinking pattern for better so that they can themselves unleash the catalytic forces. As change is the soul of any development process, media ought to be mindful of understanding the complex socio-economic process and giving them proper headway. Meeting this goal largely depends on the social conscience and responsibility of development journalists. By informing, educating and mentally preparing the society, media can provide a strong stimulus for change. When the society embraces the right course of progress, a desirable political and economic environment naturally emerges.

Development journalism is the need of developing countries and emerging democracies. As such nations have yet to jettison the hindersome burden of old-regime stereotypes and embrace the new socio-political culture, skilled media professionals should play a role of a catalyst. To enable democracy to function in line with the popular aspirations, it is essential to motivate, prepare and assimilate the grassroots masses in the mainstream of development process. Centralised power and deprived people are characteristics of the past autocratic regime though its hangover still exists. Therefore, it is necessary to pressurise the top leadership to devolve authority and empower people, especially women, to solve their own problems. Alan Chalkley, a development journalism expert, says, "You must get your readers to realise how serious the development problem is, to think about the problem, to open their eyes for possible solutions— to punch a hole in the vicious circle."

When launching developing activities, the implications may be both negative and positive. Development journalists have to dig deeper down the surface of issues and build awareness on making development sustainable. People should not be complacent about urbanisation and large projects as they may invite a number of environmental and social problems. Here, media has to be strong and skilled enough to influence the development policy of the government so that due priority is accorded to sustainability aspect.

For sustainable development, it is vital to minimise dependence. For this, sustainable development programmes have to be framed with greatest consideration to the local needs and context. Emphasis should be placed on the best utilisation of the local manpower and resources while guarding against any adverse impact on the environment and cultural heritage. The wisdom lies in not being swayed by temptation of short term benefits at the cost of sustainability. If the people are not aware and policy makers do not care to be responsible towards people, how can that goal be achieved ? Skilled media people with their investigative reporting and effective dissemination can make a lot of difference for the better.

Media may not work effectively by just trying to reprimand those in policy making positions. To make things happen, the focus should be on the masses. Media can do its duty of informing and educating the public with the dissemination of factual information. This creates a healthy public opinion which can play more effective role to give pressure to the decision makers to review and remould development policies and programmes in the larger interests of the people. This will make leadership more accountable and responsive to public needs.

Development in its broader sense means a whole range of social and economic change. A development journalist should go beneath and beyond the superficial level of matter to grasp the problems pertaining to this complex process. Development journalism is not just the reporting of the initiation or the completion of a development project. It is much more than that. The project’s environmental impact, real benefit to the people, the financing, use of manpower and technology and local resource mobilisation make more relevant news. He has to be sceptical about the official statistics and statements and try to unearth more. Development journalists should always follow an investigative approach of coverage and provide a long term vision for the nation’s development.