7:39 PM Jun 11, 1996

LABOUR: OVER 70-MILLION CHILD WORKERS IN THE WORLD

Geneva 10 June (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- Issues of Child Labour and their eradication are to be discussed at the International Labour Conference Wednesday at a Ministerial level informal Tripartite meeting.

An International Labour Office document for the discussion estimates that there are some 73 million children in the 10-14 age group working in the developing world and provides some data based on surveys in a number of developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

And while it says, child labour also exists in richer industrialized countries, including in countries like the United States, and anecdotal stories make the media from time to time, the ILO document does not provide any data on this.

The report however notes that in southern Europe child labour has always been relatively large, "with children working for pay, in particular in seasonal activities, street trades, small workshops or in a home setting."

The difficulties connected with transition from a centrally planned to a market economy in central and eastern Europe has also led to a substantial increase in child labour.

"The same is also 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 a more flexible workforce have contributed to the expansion of the child labour market

The ILO however says that though reliable statistics are rare, available information suggests that the number of working children remains extremely high and no region of the world today is entirely free of child labour.

The ILO document uses the term 'child labour' to cover all economic activities carried out by persons less than 15 years of age, regardless of their occupational status -- wage earners, own account workers, unpaid family workers etc. But it does not include household work performed in parents homes unless this is assimilable in an economic activity -- such as a child devoting its time to work to enable its parents to be employed outside the home.

The ILO 1973 Minimum Age Convention (ratified by some 48 countries) authorizes the ratifying countries to set the minimum age for work - but require that this should not be lower than the school-leaving age provided by law. It does not even require prohibition of all work by children, and even authorizes employment in 'light work' under certain specified conditions.

Combing data from various official sources, the ILO estimates that more than 73 million children in the 10-14 age group, or 13.2% of all 10-14 year olds in the world, are economically active.

The greatest numbers are found in Asia (44.6 million or 13%), followed by 23.6 million or a 26.3% rate in Africa and 5.1 million or 9.8% in Latin America.

Countrywise, Bangladesh has the highest rate of 30.1%, China 11.6%, India 14.4%, Pakistan 17.7%, Turkey 24%, Cote d'Ivoire 20.5%, Egypt 11.2%, Nigeria 25.8%, Senegal 31.4%, Argentina 4.5%, Brazil 16.1%, Mexico 6.7%, Italy 0.4% and Portugal 1.8%.

Assefa Bequela, ILO Director and child labour specialist however cautions that no reliable figures of workers under 10 are available, though their numbers are said to be significant, not of children between 14 and 15.

If all could be counted, and proper account is taken of domestic work performed full-time by girls, the total number of child workers around the world could well be in the hundreds of millions, he says.

An ILO survey in Ghana, India, Indonesia and Senegal has shown that economic activity of over three-quarters of children between 5-14 takes place in a family enterprise setting. And with the exception of Latin America where their numbers seem to be substantial, "children employed as wage-earners usually account for a relatively small percentage of total child labour," says the report.

Attention on child labour at international level, the report notes, focuses on children employed in Third World countries in predominantly export industries -- such as textiles, clothing, carpets and footwear.

But in fact children producing for export are substantially fewer than those employed in branches of activity geared essentially in meeting domestic needs, the report points out.

Also, a large proportion of child labour is in rural areas and in plantations.

These would however suggest that using trade sanctions against exports produced with child labour would not really solve the problem.

The report brings out how threat of trade sanctions has acted in some places for child labour to be overnight eliminated, with the children thrown on the streets and forced into prostitution.

A factor affecting supply of child labour, the report notes, is the high cost in real terms of education. Many children work to cover the costs of school expenses

Says the report, "Many schools serving the poor are of such abysmal quality, or chances of upward mobility for graduates so slim, that the expected return (on education) is not equal to the sacrifice made.. And 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."

The report says that children are likely to be employed in manufacturing industries when their labour is less expensive or less troublesome than that of adults, when other labour is scarce and why they are considered irreplaceable by reason of their size or perceived dexterity.

However on the basis of investigations of this last -- in the handwoven carpet industry and the glass bangle industry of India, and subsequently in the diamond polishing, gem polishing, slate, limestone and mosaic chip quarrying industries -- the ILO report refutes this "nimble finger" argument.

"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 with the greatest density of small knots, are woven by adults."

If child dexterity is not uniquely necessary to knot the finest carpets, it is difficult to imagine other trades for which 'nimble fingers' argument could be valid.

Child workers, the ILO says, face significant threats to health and safety - with the majority involved in farming where they are routinely exposed to harsh climate, sharpened tools and heavy loads as well as to toxic chemicals. Girls working as domestic servants away from home are also frequently subject to physical, mental and sexual abuses.

Prostitution is another type of activity in which children, especially girls, are frequently found says the ILO and blames the AIDS epidemic as a contributing factor.

It blames the laisse faire attitude of national and international tourism authorities for this particular evil.

The report also speaks of the traditional forms of child slavery in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, but also in Latin American countries. But contemporary forms of child slavery is emerging in terms of link between an adult's work contract and the availability of child labour or exchange of a child for a sum of money often described as an advance on wages.

The number of such child slaves, ILO estimates, could range in the tens of millions -- in agriculture, domestic help, sex industry, carpet and textile industries, quarrying and brickmaking.

While poverty is the main cause of child labour, it is not the only one and the problem cannot be resolved merely by economic growth and gradual elimination or reduction of poverty.

To achieve lasting progress against the scourge of child labour, attitudes have to change among different social groups and the passivity or indifference must give way to understanding, anger and will to take actions.

But none of the actors in the fight against child labour can solve it alone, says the ILO and calls for national efforts supported by international cooperation and active involvement of NGOs as well as workers organizations.

The evil has to be combated on several fronts.

The knowledge of the problem must be improved and the general public informed of the nature and gravity of the problem and need to find urgent solutions so that pressure could be mounted on the authorities.

There should be legislation covering the types of employment, work or activity in which children are most likely to be employed and exposed to economic exploitation or hazardous working conditions.

The services responsible for enforcement of national regulations must be strengthened. In addition to immediate measures, long-term measures are also needed to promote economic growth and the type of growth that would focus greater concern on disadvantaged population groups, facilitating their access to productive and adequately remunerative employment as well as a minimum level of social protection, says the ILO report.