What Can You Do?
There are many approaches to ending child labour and no one magic solution. In recent years there has been a lot of debate about the best policies and strategies to address child labour. Some "solutions" may even cause more problems. There is a real danger that efforts to stop child labour will push children further into the invisible, informal sector or into the streets and create worse problems for them. There's also the danger that communities who pull out when children and child rights activists make business difficult.
Ending child labour will take all out voices, all out strategies, all out creativity, and a lot of resources.
So you've read all about child labor and visited all the sites, and you're PUMPED. You want to do something to help, but you're not sure what. Well heres some info that might help. Read it and then check out the sites on the bottom of this page to learn more about how you can make a difference.
Get rid of the cause
Poverty. International financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have made child labour worse by demanding that countries with big loans cut public spending on schools, health care, and real job creation. These Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) have increased poverty and child labour. The World Bank and the IMF should forgive debt as well as re-direct their loans to make sure social spending is increased, not cut back. The World Bank is only just beginning to take responsibility for undoing some of the damage they've caused.
Support education
Poor education and child labour are the opposite sides of the same coin. It's estimated that 20% of the world's school-age children receive no primary education at all. In some countries school is compulsory; in some countries schools are public and free. But in many countries, especially those where SAPs have led to privatized schools tuition, books and uniform costs make it impossible for parents to send their children to school. For education to become a solution to child labour, schools need to be close by, free, well-staffed, and compulsory (up to the minimum age of work). It is much easier to monitor school attendance than to inspect factories and workshops. It is also easier to convince parents to send their children to school than to forbid employers to employ children.
Most of all, children need schooling that is useful to them they need proof that their schooling will advance their lives rather than simply prevent them from earning money.
Few countries can be proud of the limited resources they put into their children's education. According to the World Bank, governments are more interested in producing a small number of highly educated people than providing decent basic education to most people: 71% of school-age children share 22% of the primary educational budgets. Governments must make education and poverty alleviation higher priorities. This includes the Canadian government, who has an additional responsibility to make sure that some of our development assistance to other countries supports education.
Enforce labour laws
Most countries have laws against child labour. An increasing number of countries are taking steps to enforce these laws. Nevertheless, some governments are prepared to tolerate child labour in the belief that it can gain them a competitive advantage. Generally, there are too few inspectors; they are frequently denied access to workplaces; they do find child labour, penalties are not strict nor are they enforced. In many countries, factories employing less than 10 workers are not covered by labour laws. For example, the carpet industry in Pakistan is very largely a cottage industry, deliberately organized in this way to avoid labour laws.
The fight to end child labour won't be won solely through legislation, but it can't be won without it.
Rehabilitate and protect child workers
Taking children entirely out of employment isn't necessarily the best answer they can end up in worse situations in the informal sector, and families can be left poorer. Some child rights activists offer protection to children in dangerous working situations providing them with information about their rights, working with them to enforce better health and safety conditions at work, etc. Other groups help children make the transition form work to school by creating flexible school timetables, or moving the school to the workplace or the street. These projects aren't intended to say that child labour is okay as long as it's relatively safe and kids can also go to school; they are simply interim measures that recognize the complexity of the situation. These projects focus on the welfare of children before they are released and after.
Organize!
Traditionally, there is little or no child labour wherever trade unions are strong. Until trade union rights and human rights are respected, child labour will only get worse, as companies flock to union-free zones and work hand in hand with military dictatorships oppressing human rights. Whatever their age, workers deserve the fundamental right to form unions and bargain for better working conditions and wages.
Stop the trade in children
There are adults around the world who buy and sell children for a living. These children are sols as farm slaves, servants, and prostitutes.
In the case of child sex trade workers, several countries including Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United States, and now Canada, have laws to prosecute their citizens who commit sex offenses against children abroad.
Governments everywhere need to clamp down hard on this hideous trade in children.
Consumer pressure. Remember, Responisble Consumption is a Moral Imperative!
Consumers can refuse to buy products made by children and insist on "child labor free" labels for products where child labor is a problem. They can ask questions in stores and demand that companies prove that child labor was not used in production or distribution.
Multinational companies should be pressed to adopt codes of conduct for themselves, their subsidiaries, and all of their subcontractors. These codes should be independently monitored, not monitored by the companies themselves! (An organized workplace is the best solution; it provides full-time monitors.) Just as importantly, these codes need to be linked to programs that provide for children who leave the workforce. Consumer pressure that results in children being put out on the street without care is not the answer.
We need consumers who are prepared to speak up. And we need strong penalties against employers who exploit children. Your local labour council has materials to help you raise consumer awareness in your community.
Women's equality
The campaign to abolish child labour cannot be separated from women's struggles for recognition, decision-making power, autonomy, equality with men, a fair division of paid and unpaid work, and other measures to end poverty and violence. The social welfare of children is closely related to the position of women. Throughout the world it is women who spend the most time caring for children. Women are the hardest hit by Structural Adjustment Programs: their spending power is reduced; their workload is increased; and they are often left to care for families alone. They may have no choice but to let the children work for the sake of the family as a whole. As soon as a woman's income improves, so too does the situation of her children. Women invest in their children: in their food, water, housing, clothing, and schooling. Women need access to decent jobs and good childcare. A commitment to women's equality must be part of the commitment to end child labour.
Fair trade
It seems like every day we hear about a new trading agreement. These agreements need to adopt internationally recognized, core labour standards that guarantee basic trade union and human rights and prohibit child labour. Trouble is, our government (like most others) doesn't have the courage to demand such standards. If they did, and poorer countries could access financial and technical support from an International Social Fund, they could then improve their human and trade union rights records. And those countries who continually break these rules would lose their trading rights. Negotiating for fair trade would help stop the race to the bottom; would help stop the dirty trade in child labour; and would support countries wanting to end child labour.
Replace child workers with adults
Because so many families depend on their children's income to survive, we need solutions that won't plunge families further into poverty. Replacing child workers with their parents (many of the parents are unemployed) would actually increase a family income because adults are more highly paid. The small increase in production costs which would result from replacing child workers with adults would have a small effect on sales in importing countries. Research carried out in the hand-made carpet industry shows that the cost of replacing children with adults in the factories only adds about 4% to the price of a carpet. This would not mean losing all - important export markets surveys show importers will pay up to 15% more. Only where other exporters can continue to use children could export markets possibly be threatened. So it is important to have rules concerning child labour and trade that are enforceable.
Place special emphasis on girls and minority children
All steps taken to end child labour need to ensure that they take into consideration the specific situations of girls and ethnic minorities often these children work in the most invisible and most dangerous situations. Some "solutions" to child labour may not apply or be applied to them if racist, sexist, and cultural barriers get in the way.
FOR MORE THINGS YOU CAN DO, CHECK OUT THESE SITES:(also on links page)
Americas.org
A great site with info on Fair Trade.
Free The Children
An excellent child labor site.
Sweatshops.org
All about how you can put an end to sweatshops
All information on this page (with the exception of links) is from the Free The Children website. Copyright 2000.
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