Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Education Project
Today, over 246 million children, many as young as five, are involved in child labor
around the globe. Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending
school. It involves work by children under conditions that are hazardous, illegal, or
exploitive.
“I am the child.
All the world waits for my coming.
All the earth watches with interest to see what I shall become.
Civilisation hangs in the balance.
For what I am, the world of tomorrow will be.
I am the child.
You hold in your hand my destiny.
You determine, largely, whether I shall succeed or fail,
Give me, I pray you, these things that make for happiness.
Train me, I beg you, that I may be a blessing to the world.”
Government has been alive to the need for release of these children from
hazardous work and for their rehabilitation – physical, emotional & economic
through education with a project approach. With this end and view the National
Policy on Child Labour was formulated in August, 1987 and the National Child
Labour Projects were conceptualized & launched around the same time. These
initiatives which were rather on a small scale in the beginning were
subsequently reinforced and strengthened by the announcement made by the
former Prime Minister on 15.08.1994 for the total liberation of all children (5-
14) who are employed in hazardous work and for their physical and emotional
rehabilitation through a composite package called National Child Labour
Projects which are to be administered by the District Child Labour Project
Society registered as such under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
Agriculture
Nearly 70% of child labor occurs in agriculture, fishing, hunting, and forestry. Children
have been found harvesting:
• bananas in Ecuador
• cotton in Egypt and Benin
• cut flowers in Colombia
• oranges in Brazil
• cocoa in the Ivory Coast
• tea in Argentina and Bangladesh
• fruits and vegetables in the U.S.
Children in commercial agriculture can face long hours in extreme temperatures, health
risks from pesticides, little or no pay, and inadequate food, water, and sanitation.
Manufacturing
Electroplate Worker
Child laborers suffer extremely high illness and injury rates in underground mines,
opencast mines, and quarries. Children as young as 6 or 7 years old break up rocks, and
wash, sieve, and carry ore. Nine-year-olds work underground setting explosives and
carrying loads. Children work in a range of mining operations, including:
• Gold in Colombia
• Charcoal in Brazil and El Salvador
• Chrome in Zimbabwe
• Diamonds in Cote d’Ivoire
• Emeralds in Colombia
• Coal in Mongolia
Domestic Service
Many children, especially girls, work in domestic service, sometimes starting as young as
5 or 6. This type of child labor is linked to child trafficking. Domestic child laborers can
be victims of physical, emotional, and sometimes sexual abuse.
Child Prostitute
8.4 million children are involved in work that, under any circumstance, is considered
unacceptable for children, including the sale and trafficking of children into debt
bondage, serfdom, and forced labor. It includes the forced recruitment of children for
armed conflict, commercial sexual exploitation, and illicit activities, such as producing
and trafficking drugs.
Poor children and their families may rely upon child labor in order to improve their
chances of attaining basic necessities. About one-fifth of the world’s 6 billion people live
in absolute poverty. The intensified poverty in parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America
causes many children there to become child laborers.
Approximately 125 million children in the world do not attend school, limiting future
opportunities for the children and their communities. The Global Campaign for Education
estimates that free, quality education for all children would cost ten billion dollars, the
same as 4 days of global military spending.
Even when laws or codes of conduct exist, they are often violated. For example, the
manufacture and export of products often involves multiple layers of production and
outsourcing, which can make it difficult to monitor who is performing labor at each step
of the process. Extensive subcontracting can intentionally or unintentionally hide the use
of child labor.
Carpet Weaver
Nepal, 1993
Child labor laws around the world are often not enforced or include exemptions that
allow for child labor to persist in certain sectors, such as agriculture or domestic work.
Even in countries where strong child labor laws exist, labor departments and labor
inspection offices are often under-funded and under-staffed, or courts may fail to enforce
the laws. Similarly, many state governments allocate few resources to enforcing child
labor laws.
Examples
Nepal
minimum age of 14 for most work...
plantations and brick kilns are exempt.
Kenya
prohibits children under 16 from industrial work...
but excludes agriculture.
Bangladesh
specifies a minimum age for work...
but sets no regulations on domestic work or agricultural work.
Workers’ abilities to organize unions affect the international protection of core labor
standards, including child labor. Attacks on workers’ abilities to organize make it more
difficult to improve labor standards and living standards in order to eliminate child labor.
For example, in 2001, 10,000 workers were fired and 4,000 workers were arrested as a
result of their union activity, according to the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions.
As multinational corporations expand across borders, countries often compete for jobs,
investment, and industry. This competition sometimes slows child labor reform by
encouraging corporations and governments to seek low labor costs by resisting
international standards. Some U.S. legislation has begun to include labor standards and
child labor as criteria for preferential trade and federal contracts. However, international
free trade rules may prohibit consideration of child labor or workers’ rights.
The effects of poverty in developing countries are often worsened by the large interest
payments on development loans. The structural adjustments associated with these loans
often require governments to cut education, health, and other public programs, further
harming children and increasing pressure on them to become child laborers.
Health Issues
Physical Differences between Children and Adults May Increase
Children’s Work-related Risks
Working conditions that are safe and healthy for adults may not be safe and healthy for
children because of their physical differences. Risks may be greater for children at
various stages of development and may have long-term effects. Factors that may increase
the health, safety, and developmental risk factors for children include:
Match Factory Worker
India, 1993
Metal Worker
India, 1995
• Long hours of work on a regular basis can harm children’s social and educational
development.
U.S. adolescents who work more than 20 hours per week have reported more
problem behaviors (e.g., aggression, misconduct, substance use), and sleep
deprivation and related problems (falling asleep in school). They are more likely
to drop out of school and complete fewer months of higher education.
• The unconditional worst forms of child labor (e.g., slavery, soldiering,
prostitution, drug trafficking) may have traumatic effects, including longer term
health and socioeconomic effects.
Agriculture accounts for about 8% of youth employment in the U.S., but represents 40%
of work-related fatalities. Several conditions cause the relatively high rates of injuries,
health problems, and fatalities among agricultural child laborers:
• Exposure to pesticides
• Working with machinery and sharp tools
• Lack of clean water, hand-washing facilities, and toilets
• Beginning to work at very early ages, often between 5-7 years of age
• Less restrictive standards for agricultural work
Global Economy
The many factors that lead to child labor occur on a global scale. Although countries may
agree on the importance of labor standards, in practice, many obstacles to the
enforcement of child labor standards remain. These obstacles include global competition,
free trade rules, and the structural adjustment policies attached to international
development loans.
Global Competition
As multinational corporations expand across borders, countries often compete with each
other for jobs, investment, and industry. International competition sometimes slows child
labor reforms by encouraging corporations and governments to seek low labor costs by
resisting enforceable international standards and repressing trade union activism.
Many labor unions and other organizations are concerned that this global “race to the
bottom” increases poverty while lowering labor standards. Since the 1980’s, incomes of
the richest 20% of the population in nearly every nation have grown, while incomes of
the middle and lower classes have stagnated or declined. There are 300 million more
people in extreme poverty today than 10 years ago.
Most child labor occurs because children and families are poor and lack options for
education or income. Many factors affect poverty, but international agencies are
increasingly paying attention to trade policy as a key factor. The 2003 UN Human
Development Report, for example, identifies “unfair trade rules” as one of four key
obstacles to economic progress in poor countries.
Many poor countries rely heavily on exports of primary commodities, which have
suffered from declining prices as global competition has increased and markets have
tightly concentrated with a few firms dominating key sectors. For example: world coffee
prices hit 100-year lows in 2002-2003. These extremely low prices depressed economies
in parts of Central America and Africa that depend on coffee exports, and child labor in
some regions reportedly increased.
Poor countries often face staggering interest payments on development loans from the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. These loans often require the countries
to follow the policies of structural adjustment programs: deregulation, opening trade and
financial markets to global competition, weakening labor laws or enforcement,
privatizing government jobs, and cutting government spending on public health programs
and education.
Such structural adjustment policies can intensify the conditions, such as poverty and
inadequate education funding, that lead to child labor. For example, debt is one factor, in
addition to war and disease, that may lower school attendance in Sub-Saharan Africa
(where 48 million children under 14 work). While Sub-Saharan Africa pays $40 million
on debt each day, 40% of its children receive no education. In the 1990’s, the number of
children entering primary schools declined in 17 African countries.
• Around 5% of the world’s child laborers (15 million children) are involved in
producing manufactured or mined goods for export to the U.S.
• 80% of child laborers work in agriculture (including both domestic and export
sectors); worldwide, children make up around 7-12% of workforces on
plantations producing commodities for export.
A few examples of goods or commodities imported to the U.S. that have been linked to
child labor in recent years include:
Harvesting Bananas
Ecuador
Today, when U.S. leaders argue for “free trade” they are arguing that fewer “trade
barriers” (tariffs, quotas, regulations, etc.) will lower the cost of moving goods from one
country to another, increasing incomes and wealth for all.
But others are arguing that the wealth created by trade is not being shared equally, that
trade rules aren’t always applied fairly—and that hasty removal of “trade barriers”
sometimes has negative effects on workers, economies, and environments (especially in
small or poor countries).
WTO rules currently do not include provisions on labor standards or child labor, and at
present there are no plans to consider labor standards in WTO negotiations. At its 1996
Ministerial meeting, WTO members passed a resolution stating that “the ILO should
remain the supranational agency charged with developing and monitoring core labor
standards.”
Some U.S. trade legislation has included labor standards and child labor (for example, as
criteria for preferential trade or for goods procured under federal contracts). However,
international free trade rules may begin to prohibit certain considerations of labor
standards in trade legislation. For example, when U.S. Senators proposed legislation
banning imports of goods made with child labor in the early 1990’s, Congressional
researchers acknowledged such a ban would likely violate current rules of the WTO,
because countries affected by a child labor import ban could challenge the ban as an
unfair trade barrier or impose fines on U.S. exports as a penalty for the violation.
Current U.S. trade policy (Trade Act of 2002) directs U.S. trade negotiators to:
• “promote respect for worker rights and the rights of children consistent with core
labor standards of the ILO”
• “seek provisions in trade agreements under which parties to those agreements
strive to ensure that they do not weaken or reduce the protections afforded in
domestic environmental and labor laws as an encouragement for trade”
• “promote universal ratification and full compliance with ILO Convention No. 182
Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the
Worst Forms of Labor”
Since its creation in 1919, the ILO has adopted 184 Conventions that establish standards
for a range of workplace issues including (but not limited to):
Market Vendor
Mexico, 1992
• Pensions
• Maternity
• Child Labor
• Weekly Rest
• Forced Labor
• Hours of Work
• Discrimination
• Social Security
• Minimum Wage
• Safety and Health
• Right to Organize
• Disability Insurance
• Collective Bargaining
• Education and Training
• Unemployment Benefits
• Rights of Rural Workers
• Vacations and Holidays
• Family Responsibilities
• Migrant Labor Protections
• Workers’ Compensation
Two of the most fundamental ILO Conventions regarding child labor are
Conventions 138 and 182:
ILO Convention 138
Sets minimum age of 15 for employment
ILO Convention 182
Prohibits the “worst forms” of child labor and requires countries to act toward
eliminating “worst forms”
Many workers and unions in the U.S. and other countries are supporting efforts to end
child labor by forging alliances with unions in other countries. These alliances work to
achieve enforceable global labor standards, such as ILO Convention 182, and hold
transnational companies accountable for labor practices.
In 2002, as news of child labor abuses and attacks on workers in Ecuador’s banana
plantations spread around the world, workers, consumers, and students contacted Los
Alamos plantation owner Alvaro Noboa to demand that he recognize the workers’ union
and cease using illegal child labor. Presidents of the AFL-CIO, the International Union of
Food and Allied Workers (IUF), the Teamsters, and many other labor leaders also issued
letters in support of Los Alamos workers’ struggle.
When the 2000 Olympics were held in Sydney, Australia, Australian labor federations
created and signed an agreement with the Olympic organizing committee requiring all
sponsors and licensees to adhere to minimum labor standards, including international
conventions on child labor.
Pressure from human rights groups, consumers, and international trade unions led the
group overseeing the World Cup (FIFA—Federation Internationale de Football
Association) to adopt a Code in 1998 stating it would cease using soccer balls made with
child labor. This year, when reports indicated that children were still working in the
soccer ball industry and that adult workers were not being paid a living wage, activists
launched a new publicity and letter-writing campaign, mobilizing soccer fans, consumers,
and politicians to demand FIFA improve factory monitoring and live up to the promises
in its Code.
When the use of child labor in the rug-making industries of Pakistan and India gained
international publicity in the 1990s, consumer groups—building on the history of
effective “union label” initiatives—worked with manufacturers to begin phasing out the
use of child labor and licensing companies to use “no child labor” labels if production
facilities were regularly inspected by independent monitors. The resulting “RUGMARK”
label program uses licensing fees to fund monitoring programs and education and
rehabilitation for children removed from carpet jobs. Consumer groups and unions play a
role in educating the public about the label program and ensuring it maintains strict
standards for licensed companies.
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions
(ICEM) signed in 2000 and recently renewed a “global agreement” with the multinational
Freudenberg corporation, which owns chemical and rubber manufacturing plants all over
the world. Freudenberg is headquartered in Germany/Japan, but the agreement covers all
Freudenberg workers in the U.S. and 40 other countries. Among other recognitions of
workers’ rights, the agreement commits Freudenberg to a ban on “child labour according
to the definitions included in ILO Convention 138.”
Cambodia
Trade agreements between the U.S. and Cambodia have successfully included incentives
for garment manufacturers to improve factory working conditions. Agreements require
factory owners to respect core labor standards, including eliminating child labor and
respecting workers’ rights to organize unions and collectively bargain.
The International Labor Rights Fund and other groups have begun pursuing legal action
against companies for alleged labor abuses in other countries. In 1996, for example, ILRF
filed a suit against Unocal for using slave labor to build pipelines in Burma; and with the
support of U.S. labor unions, ILRF recently filed a suit against Coca-Cola for using
paramilitary forces to suppress organizing and assassinate union leaders in Colombia
(these suits are still pending). If effective, this strategy could be used in the future to hold
transnational corporations accountable for child labor abuses.
Educational materials containing more information on Ending Child Labor are available
through this web site:
Workshop Materials
Child labor is a large problem, but educated workers and citizens are effectively
challenging it, including by increasing public awareness of related issues. The Child
Labor Public Education Project has developed workshops on child labor issues.
Workshops provide information, discussion, and resources on various topics. Related
educational materials include instructors’ manuals, Power Point overheads, activities, and
handouts. These materials are available on this website. You may adapt these materials to
meet your group’s needs.
The following workshops/materials have been prepared for adult education purposes.
Links
Organizations
AFL-CIO
This extensive website covers a wide range of topics regarding the global
economy: trade agreements, effects of the global economy on particular groups
including children, labor laws, AFL-CIO resolutions. Provides links to many
websites.
AFT - Child Labor Project
American Federation of Teachers. Child labor curriculum designed for school
children. Also Internet resources, posters, and video.
Alliance for Responsible Trade
National network of labor, farm, religious, women's, environmental, development
and research organizations that promotes equitable and sustainable trade and
development. Website describes trade proposals and agreements.
Child Labor Coalition
National network for the exchange of child labor information. Seeks to influence
policies and enforcement of policies. Website includes news, case studies, and
some statistics.
Child Labor Research Initiative,
University of Iowa Center for Human Rights
Legislative Database provides on-line access to national laws regarding child
labor from throughout the world. Modules for teaching child labor are available
for pre-college and college-level courses.
Free the Children
International youth organization—helps build schools and provides information
about child labor. Website contains a 5-page Q & A regarding child labor.
Global March Against Child Labor
Read recent news about child labor around the world. Link to detailed reports,
photos, case studies, and information about current campaigns.
Global Policy Network
Website offers information, statistics, and analysis regarding socioeconomic
developments that influence living standards and working conditions around the
world.
Global Trade Watch
Promotes government and corporate accountability in the globalization and trade
area. Website offers news, action alerts, and reports on trade proposals and
agreements.
Human Rights Watch
NGOs in US. Children’s Rights Division focuses on examples of global child
labor. Website includes publications, news, and directory of international legal
standards.
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Program areas include the links among agriculture, trade, environment, food, and
health. Website provides news/analysis of international trade proposals and
agreements.
International Child Labor Program
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs. Website
contains copies of OL Dreports on child labor, statistics, and background on ILO
conventions.
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
Global coalition of trade unions that launched a 2-year global campaign to stop
child labor. Website includes campaigns, reports, book, and video “Combating the
Unacceptable.”
International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
U.N./International Labor Organization
Website contains reports, statistics, and information about international
conventions and programs to combat child labor. It also contains suggestions for
action, as well as news and events information.
Labors of Love Project
Stanford University Child Labor Project. Website includes stories, reports, titles
of books, videos, child labor curriculum, and links to other Internet sites.
National Labor Committee
Focuses on sweatshop conditions relating to U.S. corporations. Videos, reports,
and literature can be purchased from the website.
Oxfam
Addresses global poverty thru development programs, humanitarian responses,
and policy advocacy. Addresses trade issues through Make Trade Fair campaign.
TransFair USA
Read about Fair Trade products available in the U.S., how to purchase Fair Trade
coffee, and campaigns to expand the availability of other fair trade products.
Provides information to locate retailers.
Understanding Children’s Work
Cooperation project on child labor information between UNICEF, the ILO, and
the World Bank Group. Websites contains bibliographies, statistics, and reports
on child labor.
U.S. Department of Labor
Find detailed reports covering many aspects of the child labor problem, proposed
solutions, news, and updates.
World Bank Group—The Global Child Labor Program
The Global Child Labor Program website includes copies of reports and
publications, including on child labor in general and child labor and health.
International Campaigns
Global March
Read recent news about child labor around the world. Link to detailed reports,
photos, case studies, and information about current campaigns.
The Child Labor Public Education Project of the University of Iowa Labor Center and
Center for Human Rights provides educational workshops and materials on a range of
issues regarding child labor in the U.S. and other countries:
Workshops and related handouts discuss these issues and efforts to end child labor
through: advocacy by unions, churches, and community organizations; reform of laws
and regulations; and consumer actions.
The Child Labor Public Education Project has related educational materials that you may
adapt to meet your group’s needs. Training manuals for adult education and K-12
teachers are available, along with overheads and educational handouts
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS
1. ARTICLE – 24: PROHIBITION OF EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN IN
FACTORIES ETC.
No child below the age fourteen years shall be employed in work in any
factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.
(e) that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the
tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not
forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their
age or strength.
(f) that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a
healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that
childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against
moral and material abandonment.
The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from
the commencement of this constitution, for free and compulsory
education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.