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.

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