CHILD
LABOUR TODAY:
FACTS AND FIGURES
(World of Work N.
6/96)
Although the
internationally recommended minimum age for work is
15 years (ILO Convention No. 138) and the number of child
workers under the age of 10 is far from negligible,
almost all the data
available on child labour concerns the 10-to-14 age
group. Combining various official sources,
the ILO estimates that more
than 73 million children in that age group alone were
economically active
in 1995, representing 13.2 per cent of all 10-to-14
year olds around the world.
The greatest
numbers were found in Asia - 44.6 million (13 per
cent) followed by Africa - 23.6 million (by far the highest rate
at 26.3 per cent) and Latin America - 5.1 million
(9.8 per cent).
Estimates by country showed the following rates of
economic activity among children 10-to-14:
Bangladesh
(30.1 per cent), China ( I 1.6), India (14.4),
Pakistan (17.7), Turkey (24), Cote d'lvoire (20.5), Egypt ( 11.2),
Kenya (41.3), Nigeria (25.8), Senegal (31.4),
Argentina (4.5), Brazil
(16.1), Mexico (6.7), Italy (0.4), Portugal (1.8).
"But
this is only part of the picture," says Assefa
Bequele, departmental Director and child labour
specialist at the ILO.
"No reliable figures on workers under 10 are
available though their numbers, we know, are
significant. The same is true of children between 14
and 15 on whom few reports exist. If all of these could be
counted and if proper account were taken of the
domestic work performed
full-time by girls, the total number of child workers
around the world today might well be in the hundreds of
millions."
Though
mostly prevalent in the developing regions, child
labour also exist in richer industrialized countries.
"In southern Europe, there have always been
relatively large numbers of children working for pay,
in particular in seasonal activities, street trades,
small workshops or in a home setting," notes an
ILO report - prepared for a meeting to be held in
conjunction with this year's session of the
International Labour Conference (4-20 June 1996).
In central
and eastern Europe, the difficulties connected with
the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy has
led to a substantial increase in child labour. The
ILO report points
out that "the same is true of the United States,
where the growth of the service sector, the
rapid increase in the supply
of part-time jobs and the search for more flexible
workforce have contributed
to the expansion of the child labour market."
Traditionally,
the proportion of working children has been much
higher in rural than in urban areas - nine out of ten are engaged in
agricultural or related activities. In the towns and
cities of developing
countries, where child labour has increased steadily
as a result of the rapid urbanization of recent
years, working children are found mainly in trade and
services and to a lesser extent in the manufacturing
sector.
Experimental
statistical surveys carried out by the ILO in Ghana,
India, Indonesia and Senegal have shown that the economic
activity of over three quarters of children between
the ages of and 14
takes place in a family enterprise setting. With the
exception of Latin America where their numbers appear to be substantial,
"children employed as wage earners usually
account for a relatively
small percentage of total child labour," says
the report. "At the international
level," notes the report, "attention
focuses mainly on children employed in Third World
countries and predominantly export industries, such
as textiles, clothing, carpets and footwear. In fact,
though, children producing for export are
substantially fewer than those employed in branches
of activity geared essentially to meeting domestic
consumption needs."
Available
statistics suggest that more boys than girls work.
"It should be borne in mind, however,
that the number of working
girls is often underestimated by statistical surveys,
as they usually do not take into account full-time
housework performed by many children, the vast
majority of whom are girls, in order to enable their
parents to go to work." Girls,
moreover, tend to work longer hours, on average, than
do boys. "This is especially true for the many
girls employed as domestic workers, a type of
employment in which hours of work are typically
extremely long. This is also the case of girls
employed in other types of jobs who, in addition to their professional
activity, must help with the housework in their
parents' home."
One of the
factors affecting the supply of child labour is the
high cost, in real terms, of obtaining an education. Many children work to
cover the costs of school expenses. But, "many
schools serving the
poor are of such abysmal quality, or chances of
upward mobility for graduates are so slim, that
the expected return is not
equal to the sacrifice made...While it is true that
many children drop out of school because they have to
work, it is equally true that many become so
discouraged by school that they prefer to work."
Refuting
The "Nimble Fingers" Argument.
In
manufacturing industries, children are most likely to
be employed, says the report, "when their
labour is less expensive or
less troublesome than that of adults, when other
labour is scarce, and when they are considered
irreplaceable by reason of their size or perceived
dexterity."
The ILO
investigated this latter question in 1992 as it
applied in the hand-woven carpet and glass
bracelet (bangles)
industries in India, subsequently expanding its
studies to include the diamond polishing, gem polishing, slate,
limestone and mosaic chip quarrying
industries. The findings of these
studies, says the ILO, "clearly refute the
'nimble fingers' argument - the claim that only
children can do certain jobs, or can do them better
than adults." Very often, the studies found,
"the jobs that only children perform consist of
menial unskilled work that adults could do at least
as quickly."
"Some
of the best carpets, those having the greatest
density of small knots, are woven by adults,"
states the report. If child dexterity is not uniquely
necessary to knot the finest carpets, it is difficult
to imagine other trades for which the 'nimble
fingers' argument could be valid.
Many working
children face significant threats to their health and
safety. The majority are involved in farming and are routinely
exposed to harsh climate, sharpened tools, heavy
loads as well, increasingly,
as to toxic chemicals and motorized
equipment. Others, particularly girls
working as domestic servants away from their homes,
are frequent victims of physical, mental and sexual
abuses which can have devastating consequences on
their health.
"Prostitution
is another type of activity in which children,
especially girls, are increasingly found,"
says the ILO report.
"The AIDS epidemic is a contributing factor to
this trend, as adults see the use of children for
sexual purposes as the best means of preventing
infection. The laissez-faire attitude of the
authorities in charge of national and international
tourism is also largely responsible for the current
situation." Another "extremely serious
problem," says the report, is child slavery.
"Available
information points to the existence of traditional
forms of child slavery in South Asia and sub-Saharan East Africa.
Instances have also been found in two Latin American
countries." Contemporary
forms of child slavery however, appear to be evolving
" either by a link being established between an adult' s
work contract and the availability of a child or by
the exchange of a child
for a sum of money that is often described as an
advance on wages."
"A
large number of child slaves" who, according to
reports cited in the ILO report, may number in
the tens of millions,
"are to be found in agriculture, domestic help,
the sex industry, the carpet and textile industries, quarrying and
brick making."
"Child
slavery predominates mainly where there are social
systems based on the exploitation of poverty, such as debt bondage,
when the motivation is the debt incurred by a family
to meet a social or religious obligation or simply to
acquire the means of survival," says the report,
adding that wars are also conducive to child slavery.
"A
different approach is needed for each of these
different forms of child slavery," warns the
ILO. "In the first instance, any external, and
particularly international, intervention is doomed to
failure if it is not accompanied by a process of
social transformation implemented by the communities
concerned. In the second case, the enslavement of
civil populations in the context of an armed conflict
is a crime against humanity," which the
international community has an obligation to stop
and to punish. There is a
growing body of opinion "that national and
international efforts need to be more sharply focused on the most
abusive and hazardous forms of child labour, granting
them first concern
and priority," underlines the report.
"Perhaps
the most telling social argument against child labour
is that its effects are highly discriminatory, adding to the
burden and disadvantage of individuals and groups
already among the socially excluded while benefiting
those who are privileged."
"For
that reason, child labour is inconsistent with
democracy and social justice."
Estimated
percentages of economically active children between
10 and 14 years of age,
1995
(Selected countries and territories)
Africa
Algeria
1.63
Burkina
Faso 51.05
Burundi
48.97
Cameroon
25.25
Cote
d'lvoire 20.46
Egypt
11.23
Ethiopia
42.30
Ghana
13.27
Kenya
41.27
Mali
54.53
Morocco
5.61
Niger
45.17
Nigeria
25.75
Senegal
31.36
South
Africa 0.00
Tunisia
0.00
Uganda
45.31
Zambia
16.27
Zimbabwe
29.44
Asia
Bangladesh
30.12
Bhutan
55.10
China
11.55
East
Timor 45.39
Hong
Kong 0.00
India
14.37
Indonesia
9.55
Iran
4.71
Iraq
2.95
Japan
0.00
Jordan
0.68
Malaysia
3.16
Nepal
45.18
Pakistan
17.65
Philippines
8.04
Saudia
Arabia 0.00
Syrian Arab
Rep 5.78
Turkey
24.00
Thailand
16.22
Viet Nam
9.12
Yemen
20.15
Europe
Albania
1.11
Hungary
0.17
Italy
0.38
Portugal
1.76
Romania
0.17
Latin
America
Argentina
4.53
Bolivia
14.36
Brazil
16.09
Chile
0.00
Colombia
6.62
Costa
Rica 5.48
Cuba
0.00
Dominican
Rep 16.06
Guatemala
16.22
Haiti
25.30
Mexico
6.73
Nicaragua
14.05
Paraguay
7.87
Peru
2.48
Uruguay
2.08
Venezuela
0.9
Oceania
Papua
New Guinea 19.31
Solomon
Islands 28.89
Polynesia
3.67
Statistics
on Child Workers in China
(Child Labour Bullettin
n. 25, april 1996)
Data-collection
in China is difficult due to limited accessibility to
information, particularly on sensitive issues like industrial
accidents, child labour, prostitution, etc. Moreover,
the absence of independent
non-government organisations (NGOs) in China means
that it is difficult to establish cross-references to official
information from independent sources.
Although
there are no comprehensive statistics, estimates
published in various newspapers and magazines provide a starting point
for constructing the picture. In addition, the extent
of child labour can
be inferred from indirect information on the
enrollment and drop-out rates among school-age
children.
It is
estimated that half a million children migrated to
the southern coast and Guangdong Province in 1991 alone (Asian Labour
Update, No. 16, July-September 1994, Hong Kong). Most
of them are
believed to be engaged in some kind of income-earning
activities (Child Workers in Asia, Vol. II, No. 1, Jan-March 1995,
Thailand). It is obvious that they will take up some
jobs, notably in the mushrooming
small-scale rural enterprises
(township-and-village-level enterprises, TVEs, and
private enterprises) where
law enforcement is much less effective than in
foreign-invested enterprises. It has been reported
that in some rural enterprises, child workers make up
as much as 20% of the workforce (Workers' Daily,
1993.08.27, China). It has been reported that the
coastal provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian, where rural
enterprises are booming, are the regions with the
largest number of child workers. Most are around 13
and 14 years of age, and are working in various rural
enterprises (Legal Daily, 1995.05.02, China).
The actual
number of child workers in China far exceeds half a
million if we take into account the number of non enrolled school-age
children and drop outs, and their 'career paths'. As
shown in the following
calculation, the number of child workers nationwide
is estimated at around five million.
As stated in
the Report, in 1993 a total of 2.61 million
school-age children did not enroll in primary schools, representing 2%
of the country's school-age children. The drop-out
rates among primary
and junior secondary school students in 1992 were
2.19% and 5.7% respectively.
Discounting
the reliability of official data, these percentages
alone represent an enormous number of children who stay out of
school. The number is even greater if we include
those who do not go on
with their studies after primary school. Calculations
based on official data reveal that in 1993
there were about 10.66
million minors staying out of school (4.94 million
primary school students and 5.72 million junior secondary
school students).
Out of
school, most of these children are expected to take
up jobs to help alleviate their family's financial burden. Taking this into
account, the current number of child workers
throughout the country
is estimated at around five million, assuming that
50% ofthe minors who stay out of school take up work. This tends to be a
rather conservative estimate, as much higher
percentages have been
reported.
The
educational authorities in Sichuan conducted a study
on 58 secondary and primary schools in a certain
county and found that in the first term of 1993,
there were 5,260 drop outs (19% of the total number
of students). 85% of these drop outs went to work
outside the province. (Dapeng Bay, June 1995, China)
Among the
drop-outs and non-enrolled children, girls make up a
marked majority. In 1993, more than 2/3 of the 2.61 million
non-enrolled primary school children were girls (Sing
Tao Evening Post, 1995.02.09,
Hong Kong). Hard-hit by rural poverty and the
increasing school fees, rural families invariably force girls to quit
school so that they can take up income-earning
sideline jobs at home. Some parents simply do not send
their girls to school. In general, the rate of school
enrollment for girls
is lower than that for boys. It is also not uncommon
for families to send their daughters to work in the
TVEs or as babysitters and domestic servants in the
cities. Some girls follow their neighbours all the
way to look for jobs in the coastal special economic
zones. Factory bosses are eager to recruit these young hands, as they
can keep their wages at a minimum. A 1991 study of
six provinces including Guangdong, Shandong, Liaoning
and Hebei recorded 1,217 child workers in some
of the counties and
villages. Among them, 880 were girls (73.5%) (Iron
Rice Bowl, Black Rice Bowl and Golden Rice Bowl, 1993,
China). This is just one of the myriad examples of
the deep-rooted
discrimination against girls in China.
Setbacks
in China 's Educational Policy
While the
Report states that rural poverty has held back the
implementation of compulsory education in poor areas, it fails
to face up to the role of the educational policy in
creating the problems
of non-enrollment and dropping out.
Education in
China is provided on the basis of a three-level
system whereby senior secondary schools are run in counties;
junior secondary schools, in towns; primary schools,
in villages. Administratively,
local governments at different levels are responsible
for school management at the corresponding levels. Financially,
the central government pays for the wages of state
teachers (centrally
allocated and on state payrolls) and part of the
capital expenses. In other words, local governments have to take care of
the rest of the capital expenses and other recurrent
expenses. This is
what the Chinese government describes as 'education
run by the people'. In practice, this is tantamount to 'limited
education for the people' as education is given a low
priority, especially in poor areas. Ironically, the poor
villages, to which the central government should
commit more resources,
are granted the precious 'decentralisation'.
Educational
expenses from village governments are minimal.
Villagers have to bear the major financial burden. In poor villages
where people can barely support their basic living,
little can be collected
for educational purposes. Moreover, the government
only pays half of the wages of 'collective teachers' recruited by
the schools themselves (as against those allo cated
by the state). The
other half is to be paid by the schools themselves.
In practice, the burden is shifted to the students who are required to pay
for various kinds of expenses. Even though basic
education in China
is free for all, students still have to pay
miscellaneous charges to cover the schools' operating
expenses. There are various fees and charges such as
application fees, examination fees, extra lesson
charges, examination paper fees, library charges,
insurance charges, health care charges, heating charges, water charges,
electricity charges, and fundraising for various
campaigns. Such expenses
place a great burden on families in poor areas. In
view of the financial burden and the bleak prospect of higher
education, many school-age children, especially
girls, are forced to drop out of school. Some stay at home,
helping with domestic chores; some get into sideline
jobs; some work
as child workers in local enterprises or even in
distant regions along the coast.
World
Trade and Working Children
The
exploitation of child labour is a worldwide problem.
Many millions of children suffer as a result
of working too young, for
too many hours, and in hazardous conditions. By the
time such children reach
adulthood they are often damaged physically,
emotionally, morally and intellectually; they
have lost the opportunity
for an education that would open up a better future.
Children are
exploited because they offer employers a cheap
workforce, do not protest and are largely unrepresented by trades
unions. In the long-term, however, the exploitation
of child labour not
only damages the children concerned but also inhibits
the emergence of a skilled workforce, forcing the countries concerned
into a cycle of impoverishment.
The
conclusion of the Uruguay round of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) aimed to lift restrictions on
markets and increase world trade. The first
ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization, set up
to administer international trade, will take place in
Autumn '96. It is
against this background that the recent calls for
trade boycotts on goods produced by child labour have gained currency.
Western consumers are naturally concerned that the
products they buy
from abroad should not have been produced using
methods that exploit children. Trade unions
in the 'North' are
legitimately concerned with supporting workers in the
'South'. They also fear that in order to compete with
cheap imports produced using child labour, hard won
labour standards in their own countries will be
gradually eroded.
Anti-Slavery
International (ASI), has been working on the issue of
child labour for over 20 years. It can demonstrate, perhaps more than
most, a long-term desire to see an end to the
exploitation of child
labour. For many reasons however, ASI has resisted
calls for trade sanctions. Although there are some advantages in linking
basic human rights standards to international trade
agreements, we believe
that with regard to child labour there are signifcant
dangers associated with this approach.
Everyone
is against 'Child Labour' but what do they mean?
When we talk
about 'banning' child labour we may be talking about
a number of different things. 'Child labour' is generally used
in a pejorative sense, and taken to imply some form
of exploitation. But
different organisations and different societies
attach different meanings to the phrase. Most
people recognise that there
is some work that children pelform that is not
exploitative, and, indeed, is an essential part of growing
up. Most will also agree that certain situations are
totally unacceptable.
These two extremes however will always be separated
by a grey area which is difficult to codify. In some
languages there is great difficulty , even in
expressing this range of meanings.
There are
arguments about ages (the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child defines a child as being under 18 years
of age) and different stages of maturity; there are
arguments about culture and stages of development; there are
arguments about the merits of formal education as
compared with work
experience. Table 1 proposes a hierarchy of child
labour exploitation based on interpretations
of key international
instruments. It also suggests where the priorities
should lie when designing solutions to the problem of
working children.
What
Causes Child Labour?
Poverty -
Child Labour is rooted in poverty. In many cases
families depend on a child's wages for their suIvival.
Lack of
Alternatives - It is widely acknowledged that the
provision of compulsoIy prima y education is the state' s main
method of controlling child labour. But the equation
is not quite that simple.
Schooling must be affordable and relevant to the
child's circumstances, and should provide practical skills and knowledge if
it is to be seen as a worthwhile investment by the
child's family. Lack
of Awareness - Many people in positions of
responsibility may not see some forms of child
labour, for example domestic
senice, as exploitation. Children and their families
may also be unaware
of their rights. Cultural
Traditions - The worst situations occur where it is
children from marginalised groups who are set to work These might
include: former slave families; indigenous peoples;
forest dwellers; pastoralists
and other nomads; migrants; and 'untouchables'. The
issue of child labour then becomes part of a much wider issue of
discrimination and disenfranchisement. In many
countries too, the education
of girls is seen as a lower priority than that of
boys, and girls are set to work earlier than
their brothers.
Demand for
Child Workers in the Labour Market - Children
represent a cheap and compliant workforce. All too often there are
those who are prepared to exploit children for
profit.
The
implementation of trade sanctions, as a measure in
isolatlon, addresses only the last of these issues; and it is only
the export sector that would be affected. The
economic impact
might even exacerbate the problem, particulary in the
short-term.
Laws -
solutions or obstacles?
National
laws and international treaties specify minimum ages
for light work (12/13 years), normal work (14/15 years) and dangerous
work (18 years). Some laws are drafted for specific
industries, such
as mining and seafaring. However the labour laws in
many countries remain unimplemented
because of severe economic
conditions and prevailing social attitudes. In some
cases the laws are so
unrealistic that they are impossible to implement. In
particular, the lack of compulsory birth registration means that the ages
of children cannot be verified in work situations. In
addition they sometimes
fail to address the informal sector it is often in
small workshops, agriculture, domesdc service, begging and prostitution
that the worst forms of child labour are to be found.
The mere
presence of labour laws may mean that there are no
statistics and no registers of working children, because what they are
doing is illegal. This clearly impedes the
formulation of programmes intended to help such children.
Trade
sanctions will have the most serious effect on those
countries where information is readily available. This may well
lead governments and employers to try to conceal the
problem and drive it further
underground.
Child
labour in the Export Sector
In countries
undergoing transformation from an agricultural to an
industrial economy, children are increasingly being sucked into the
urban centres to work. The fact that they are
migrants and often separated
from their parents makes them particularly vulnerable
to exploitation. There have been many reports, some
by Anti-Slavery International, detailing the
exploitation of children working in manufacturing and
service industries and in domestic work. The export
sector is no different in this respect: children are
used in many countries for the production of goods
such as shoes, textiles and clothing, which are sold
in foreign markets.
The direct
link to the consumer in the 'North' has made the
export sector the inevitable focus of international condemnation. In
tackling child labour, however, it would be wrong to
assume that the exploitation
in this sector is greater than in other areas, or
that it can be dealt with separately from the rest of the economy.
There is
some evidence to suggest that working conditions in
the export sector may, if anything, be better than elsewhere. There are
several reasons for this. Flrstly this sector tends
to be more profitable;
wages are therefore usually higher, and equipment
better. Secondly some multinational companies working in this sector
have had a positive influence (see Recommendations
below), providing
for example on-site education and creche facilities.
If we are to
eliminate child labour we must look not only at the
export sector but at the economy as a whole,
including the service sector and all manufacturing
industries. Trade sanctions will only directly affect
the export sector. Without an improvement in
education facilities and general economic conditions,
forcing children out of the these industries might
result in their working in worse conditions.
Implementing trade sanctions might salve the
consciences of consumers in the 'North', but
ultimately may not be in the best interests of the children involved
(Article 3, UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child).
Moreover,
such measures create a climate of hostility that may
damage national campagns to address the problem.
Conclusions
Child labour
is a complex problem which demands a range of
solutions and sensitive treatment. The curlent debate about trade
sanctions tends toover-sirnplify the sinuation and to
ignore the many issues
involved. The debate must take account of the limited
effectiveness of trade sanctions in combating child labour. Including
trade sanctions within the terms of any Įsocial
clauseČ of international
trade agreements must be seen as a last resort; and
their implementation should apply only to the worst situations. The
international community must take greater
responsibility for funding local programmes that will
tackle the root causes of child labour.
Recommendations
Child
Slavery should be the first priority for abolition
(see Table 1). There is evidence that some
children falling into this
category are involved in producing goods for export.
Many governments have
not taken action to address this situation and some
even refuse to acknowledge that it exists.
Where there
is evidence of forced or slave labour, and where
govemments have failed to take action to
address the problem,
Anti-Slavery Intenational supports the use
of trade sanctions to bring about the eradication of
practices prohibited by the UN's 1956 Supplementary
Slavery Convention and ILO Conventions Nos. 29 and 105.
Consumers in
'Northern' markets have a right not to buy products
made by exploited children. However, we believe that blanket
bans of the imports of goods produced by child labour
might result in
greater exploitation. We advocate instead:
Product-labelling
that identifies those items that are confirmed to be
free of child labour.
Encouraging
multinational companies to adopt and enforce codes of
conduct, either directly or through their
sub-contractors. Wherever practical, training,
education and creche facilities should be provided.
The companies should also actively engage in the
labour rights debate in the countries where
they operate.
Encouraging
all importers and retailers to insist that their
suppliers adopt the minimum international
standards on child labour and to set up effective
monitoring procedures.
Child labour
will only be eliminated through long-term, national
programmes that involve the broad support of the
populace and address all the causal factors. The
international comununity must support these movements by:
Better
targeting of development aid to help states provide
primary education. This should be aimed at
marginalised children and other at-risk groups
such as children working as domestic servants.
me provision of job-orientated education, education in the
workplace, free school meals or stipends to parents
to replace the child's earnings may be necessary.
Encouraging
countries to work with the ILO and UNICEF to adopt
long-term programmes of action aimed at
reducing and eventually eradicating the use of
child labour.
