Causes of Child Labour

CHILD LABOUR

At least one of every four in the developing world is tailing under conditions resembling slavery, according to the UN Children Found (UNICEF). Although child labour is commonly thought of as a problem of the developing world. However it is by no means a thing of the past in the rich countries. “Child labour is so grave an abuse of human rights that the world must come to regard it in the way it does slavery – as something unjustifiable under any circumstances”. says UNICEF Executive Director Coral Bellamy.

An estimated 250 million children aged 5-14 years are engaged in hazardous work, prostitution, and banded labour, according to the 1997 states of the world’s children report released in Geneva by UN on 4^th December 1996. The 107 pages study report says that four of the most persistent myths that help perpetuate child labour throughout the world. On myth is that children work only in poor countries. In the United States, one of the world’s richest countries, a high proportion or ethnic minority families. Majority of children work for their families or in agriculture or hidden away in houses, far from the reach of law. Recent study in Bangladesh identified 300 such occupations, ranging from brick making and stone breaking to street hawking and rag-picking.

On 10^th December 1996 Supreme Court of India has called for a fund to be set up to help free around 100 million child workers by the year of 2000. The Court ordered for setting up of the fund with contributions of Rs. 25000 from every offending employer, to make India-child-labour free by the end of the century. India has the world’s largest force of young workers. The Court also ordered offenders to pay Rs.20,000 to each child workers as compensation and employ an adult from the child’s family. “We have the fond hope that the closing years of the 20^th century would see us keep the promise made to our children by our constitution half a century ago”, the 83 pages ruling said. The Court ruling said, “let the child of the 21th century find himself into that heaven of freedom which our poet laureate Rabindranath Tagare has spoken of”.

Tagare, a poet philosopher who was the first Indian to win the Noble Prize, deplored child labour and spoke of a Utopain world “ Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high”.

It is quite possible that Pakistan would not have had to face the barrage of criticism and curbs on imports from the west had the government ensured the existing laws on child labour were maintained. There always had been corpus laws that defined child labour, laid down rules and regulations governing such labour and pronounced the penalties for their infringement. These laws were promulgated by the British as a minor reflection of the large scale social and labour reform that were taking place in British.

The huge profits that were being garnered by the carpet and sport industries where child labour was not only found to be most suitable for the work but highly economical ultimately led to the burgeoning of the scandal that has shocked the west. In absence of any apparent concern of the government a few social workers interested in this field, the motley company of labour officials, industrialists and other of their ilk had field day. Today, the country is reaping an embarrassing harvest.

If this failure to ensure that laws concerning child labour were followed, was not bad enough, what was even more shocking was that the government though it fit to deny the matter all together. The publicity machinery was pressed into proving wrong what was already public knowledge abroad because foreign and local NGOs involved in protecting child labour and thoroughly done their home work. The west particularly the European states took the matter far more seriously.

The Vice president of the European Commission, Mr. Manual Marin, during his visit to Pakistan adopted a cooperative approach. He offered help to eradicate the problem and tried to remove the impression that the criticism was Pakistan specific. He offered some sound advice, and our than authorities would do well to be more pragmatic about the issue rather than continue to follow a myopic policy.

Ms Nelien Haspels, a child labour expert with the International Project for Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), Geneva, has said that her organization is planning to lauch an action programme in cooperation with the ILO, various NGOs and other world for a and the manufactures of  Pakistan to prohibit child labour in the football industry of Sialkot.

Addressing member of Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), she added that ILO had already initiated a detailed programme for the eradication of child labour from different countries under an action plan, efforts would be made to ensure that a child should go to school instead of stitching football.

Labour policies should have to be designed and implement in such a way that the employment of children in hazardous jobs and their exploitation by the unscrupulous employers are checked and such practices are positively discouraged.

Satyarthi, whose South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS) has freed thousands of government apathy and a lack of political will had made India “ a blot on the face of humanity”.

“It is the country’s greatest shame that more than 60 million children work in India today, after 50 years of independence.” He said, “Child labour, according to government statistics has increased by 25 percent every decade”.

Child labour is the employment of children as earners. This said problem is associated with the rise of industrial production and the appearance of capitalism. This is not to imply that children did not work in earlier ages. Children on the medieval manor helped in agriculture almost as soon as they could toddle; illustrated manuscripts show children working beside their parents in the field, and contracts between land lord and serf specifically mentioned the obligation of children to work.

The movement to regulate child labour began in Great Britain at the close of the 18^th century, when the rapiddevelopments of large scale mining and industrial work.

Experts in the ILO (international Labour Organization) have assisted government in drafting labour codes and laws containing basic provisions, in setting up labour inspections services, and in training staffs. Regional conference have given special attention to the problem of young workers in agriculture, coal mines, chemical and glass industries and to elementary projective measures needed in Middle East, Asia and Latin America.