End in Sight to Global Problem of Child Labor
June 12, 2006
According to the ILO, a UN body, the number of child laborers is falling for the first time -- witness, the organization says, to an increased political commitment even among the poorest countries to eliminating the problem.
"An end to child labor is in sight," said Frank Hagemann from the ILO in Geneva. "For a long time this target has been seen as a very distant goal closely linked to tackling poverty. The theory was that the only way to eliminate child labor was by establishing global prosperity."
But Hagemann and his team were surprised to discover that between 200 and 2004, child labor fell by 11 percent without any corresponding drop in world poverty.
"Even so, the figures are still shocking," he said. Some 218 million children worldwide are forced to work, 126 million of whom do so in dangerous and difficult conditions such as prostitutes or in mines and quarries.
Making trade fair
The situation in the textiles industry is particularly acute. But even here, there is reason for optimism.
"The situation has improved since the 1990s," said Barbara Küppers from Terre des Hommes. "A number of suppliers to the major companies no longer employ children." Partially in response to growing pressure from organizations like the Clean Clothes Campaign, many companies now adhere to codes of conduct to ensure that their garments are produced in decent working conditions. But there is still no shortage of firms making profits a first priority -- including German discount supermarkets Lidl and Aldi.
The Rugmark stamp of approval ensures no illegal child labor was used in the manufacture of a carpet or rug. Even though the rugs now make up 15 percent of India's carpet exports and over 50 percent of Nepal's, the initiative is still only restricted to these countries, as well as Pakistan.
Moreover, Claudia Brück from TransFair, which issues the stamp, stresses that only 5 percent of child laborers work in sectors in which export plays a significant role. That's not the only snag.
"The problem is that it is only possible to introduce this kind of system with the help of a local NGO," she said, pointing out that local children need to be offered alternative work and ongoing support.
Barbara Küppers from Terre des Hommes agreed. "Any campaign which tries to prevent child labor without making sure that children get places in decent schools is not helping the children but harming them," she said.
Some 100 million children across the globe fail to go to school and, as the ILO report concluded, improving school attendance would be a major step towards ending child labor.
"An increasing number of countries contributed to tackling child labor by introducing compulsory schooling up until the age of 14," it reported.
Government responsibility
In South Africa, many of the country's child laborers are AIDS orphans, while in Vietnam they tend to be refugees from Burma. In the US, they more often than not come from immigrant Hispanic families.
In India, they tend to be children from the lower castes, explained Alok Vajpeyi from the Indian NGO Global march Against Child Labor.
Vajpeyi conceded that awareness of the problem has grown considerably in India in recent years, but said the government had done little to help and too many children still fail to attend school.
Moreover, companies realize they can get away with it.
"There have been raids," he said. "But the employers who employ the children never receive punishment."
A number of African governments have been better about clamping down. In Uganda, the government has introduced a special body to tackle child labor which works closely with international organizations.
Andrew Mawson, head of child protection for the UNICEF office in Uganda, where 1.8 million of the country's 2.7 million child laborers work in unacceptable conditions, said that improvements have taken place in the commercial farming sector, but marked just the beginning of what need to be wider reforms.
"In certain areas the government has not yet found a way," he said. "Domestic labor for example is potentially abusive but it is very widespread."
Another ILO study suggested that such reforms would pay off. Even though the cost of replacing child labor with education would amount to some $760 billion (600 billion euros), it estimated that the economic benefits of the investment would be almost seven times greater.