Child labour in agriculture
Saturday, 9 June 2007
Sazeda Khanam
ENGAGING child labour in different economic activities, particularly in worse forms of work, is not only an issue of concern for our country but also for many other countries of the world. This year, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) will observe the World Day Against Child Labour on June 12 focusing on children engaged in the agriculture sector. It has identified agriculture as one of the three most dangerous sectors alongside mining and construction where children work facing hazards and risks. As this sector accounts for 70 per cent of the child labour world-wide, the ILO and other UN organisations are now giving importance to elimination of the child labour from this sector so that children can get the scope to work in less health hazardous areas of the economy for helping their parents and for growing up normally.
But the way ILO looks at the child labour situation cannot be viewed as realistic by the poor countries like ours. Although we do not have a clear picture of child labour including those in the agriculture sector, it is well known that the children of the poverty-stricken families are engaged in various farming activities. Being helpless in the face of poverty, poor parents send their children to work in farms and factories to help themselves and manage a living. The alternative is starvation or a quasi sub-human existence with little or no food. Afflicted as they are with abject poverty, many of these parents have some mental, physical and financial barriers to improving their conditions. They cannot find ways to come out of their pitiable situation. It has been even found that the government's stipend programme on education also could not check the trend of child labour and drop-out of children from schools as the sum doled out is not enough for supporting them individually.
It is necessary to work for getting reliable information about the state of child labour and the economic status of their parents. A realistic planning can be then made and a vigorous social movement, launched to eliminate poverty of their parents for reducing child labour. Without this, wordy debates about the adverse consequences of child labour in farms and factories would be both unproductive and harmful. When children knocked off from labourious jobs end up as sex workers or get trafficked abroad for the same purpose, the harm done becomes painfully conspicuous. The emptiness of our big words also appears like a cruel joke.
ENGAGING child labour in different economic activities, particularly in worse forms of work, is not only an issue of concern for our country but also for many other countries of the world. This year, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) will observe the World Day Against Child Labour on June 12 focusing on children engaged in the agriculture sector. It has identified agriculture as one of the three most dangerous sectors alongside mining and construction where children work facing hazards and risks. As this sector accounts for 70 per cent of the child labour world-wide, the ILO and other UN organisations are now giving importance to elimination of the child labour from this sector so that children can get the scope to work in less health hazardous areas of the economy for helping their parents and for growing up normally.
But the way ILO looks at the child labour situation cannot be viewed as realistic by the poor countries like ours. Although we do not have a clear picture of child labour including those in the agriculture sector, it is well known that the children of the poverty-stricken families are engaged in various farming activities. Being helpless in the face of poverty, poor parents send their children to work in farms and factories to help themselves and manage a living. The alternative is starvation or a quasi sub-human existence with little or no food. Afflicted as they are with abject poverty, many of these parents have some mental, physical and financial barriers to improving their conditions. They cannot find ways to come out of their pitiable situation. It has been even found that the government's stipend programme on education also could not check the trend of child labour and drop-out of children from schools as the sum doled out is not enough for supporting them individually.
It is necessary to work for getting reliable information about the state of child labour and the economic status of their parents. A realistic planning can be then made and a vigorous social movement, launched to eliminate poverty of their parents for reducing child labour. Without this, wordy debates about the adverse consequences of child labour in farms and factories would be both unproductive and harmful. When children knocked off from labourious jobs end up as sex workers or get trafficked abroad for the same purpose, the harm done becomes painfully conspicuous. The emptiness of our big words also appears like a cruel joke.