To Apologists, Researchers and Pundits President Barack Obama’s Message: Child Labor Perpetuates Cycle of Poverty: World Day Against Child Labor
Statement by President Barack Obama on World Day Against Child labor
Even in this modern era, children around the world are forced to work in deplorable and often dangerous conditions at a time in their lives when they should be in classrooms and playgrounds. Global child labor perpetuates a cycle of poverty that prevents families and nations from reaching their full potential. That’s why, earlier this week, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis reaffirmed my Administration’s commitment to this issue by announcing $60 million to fight child labor.
I also find it fitting that this year’s World Day Against Child Labor focuses on drawing attention to the particular plight young girls face. Of the 218 million child laborers worldwide, 100 million are girls – more than half of whom are exposed to hazardous work. That’s unacceptable, and this world cannot allow it. We must stand united in opposition to child labor and recommit ourselves to ending this practice in all its forms – today and every day.
Fewer Bombs and More Books, Fewer Troops and More Teachers
No More IMF Loans and No More IMF Restructuring Calls for donors to redouble commitments to ILO
Senator Tom Harkin
Senator Tom Harkin speaking at the International Labor Conference 98th Session, Geneva, 2009 on June 12th World Day Against Child Labor said that ILO to work with and take some leadership from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to ensure that loans are linked to pledges by governments to increase access to schools and to maintain social safety nets for the poor. He also urged the ILO to continue reaching out to sister organizations within the United Nations to develop joint strategies for improving education and fighting poverty.
He also categorically warned that the no more IMF loans, no more IMF restructuring, instead he said that the World Bank loans should be linked in accordance with the country pledging that they are going to make education available to every poor kid in their country.
He also encouraged member States to embrace proven programmes, such as Brazil’s Bolsa familia initiative which offers a stipend by the Government of US$35 a month in return for a commitment to keeping their children in school and taking them for regular health checkups.
He demanded increasing resources for the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC). He praised IPEC as being enormously successful in providing technical assistance to end child labor and getting kids into schools. In response to the worldwide recession, he reminded that it is time for other governments to dramatically increase their funding for IPEC. He alerted that powerful global forces threaten to take us backwards and to drag a new generation of children into abusive and exploitative labor. For the first time since the 1930s, he said, “we are experiencing a global recession – a downturn that has been especially hard on people in developing countries. Unemployment is surging and prices for basic food staples are skyrocketing. These dire circumstances provide a fertile breeding ground for the worst forms of child labor. Desperate people resort to desperate and degrading measures just to survive, including forcing children into abusive labor.” He passionately urged for the redoubling of the commitments to ILO for eradicating the exploitation of children.
10th Anniversary of ILO Convention 182, Worst Form OF Child Labor
The 80,000 kilometer long march across 103 countries, Global March Against Child Labor led by the child victims of slavery, prostitution, dangerous work, trafficking and various other forms of exploitation demanded immediate end to this human menace social evil and global crime. Millions of others joined with their strong voice and the slogan “No more tools in tiny hands we want books we want toys and no more child prostitution children want education”. It was an historic moment when ILO opened its doors to these marchers where they strongly and loudly questioned the world leaders, labor ministers and government delegation “Are You So Poor That You Can’t Take Away Our Tools and Give Us Books?” This generated unprecedented moral force which was immediately translated into a collective commitment to adopt a new international law. Global March played a pivotal role in conceptualizing the demands, building and mobilizing widest possible support and for shaping up of the ILO Convention 182 and later on campaigning for its ratification and implementation. The Global March has strengthened all ILO’s efforts in this regard as well.
"On June 12th 2009 was celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Agreement on the worst forms of the child labor. On this occasion, Terre des Hommes Suisse and its partners gathered again for the Global March against Child labor.
From 6th to 13th June 2009, former working children came from South America, Africa and Asia to Switzerland in order to talk about their own lives and their will for the future. These five guests visited some primary and secondary schools in Geneva where they increased young people awareness of the issue (i.e. Child labor). They also talked with the international press and eventually talked to the members of the ILO (International Labor Organisation) and the Great Council of Geneva. They were given the opportunity to show that in spite of the signature of the Agreement by 175 countries there are still millions of children who do not have access to a proper education. Anyway, they also testified that the number of children working has globally decreased."
U.S. Department of Labor marks 2009 World Day Against Child Labor with roundtable of employers, unions, academics, organizations, experts and activists
Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis led discussion joined by Sen. Tom Harkin and White House Council on Women and Girls Executive Director Tina Tchen
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today marked the 2009 World Day Against Child Labor by hosting a roundtable discussion at the department with Sen. Tom Harkin; Tina Tchen, executive director of the White House Council on Women and Girls; representatives of many U.S. companies, unions, employer groups, nongovernmental and international organizations, and academia; and dozens of other experts and activists. The event focused on this year's World Day theme of "Give Girls a Chance — End Child Labor."
Secretary Solis reiterated the administration's commitment to assist vulnerable children worldwide, including supporting collaborative efforts to end the worst forms of child labor. Participants shared their experiences in combating exploitative child labor and provided insights on challenges and opportunities in addressing this widespread problem.
"Many challenges remain in the fight against child labor, but the department is committed to raising awareness, improving the quality of and access to education, and building the capacity of governments and civil society organizations to address the issues of children in need. This year's World Day calls for us to focus our attention on the special circumstances and needs of girls who are being used as child laborers," said Secretary Solis.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) launched World Day Against Child Labor in 2002, and it has been held annually on June 12, marked throughout the week by special events worldwide.
According to ILO estimates, of the 218 million child laborers worldwide, 100 million are girls. More than half of those girls are exposed to hazardous work in a variety of sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, mining, domestic services and commercial sexual exploitation. In many cases, work performed by girls is hidden from the public eye, leaving the girls vulnerable to physical danger and abuse.
Girls are often forced to carry a double burden by contributing significantly to their own households' chores, including child care, as well as undertaking other employment outside of their homes.
At the same time, gender inequalities persist in primary education. Of the 75 million out-of-school children in 2006, 55 percent were girls, and for every 100 boys in school, there are only 94 girls.
Secretary Solis also announced that the department will provide more than $60 million for programs to address exploitive child labor globally. These programs will provide education and vocational training opportunities to children and help parents find viable alternatives to child labor. Since 1995, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) has funded approximately $720 million in anti-child labor programs and rescued more than 1.3 million children from exploitation.
ILAB conducts research on and formulates international economic, trade and labor policies in collaboration with other U.S. government agencies. It also provides international technical assistance in support of U.S. foreign-labor policy objectives. For more information, visit http://www.dol.gov/ilab.
ILO: Global Financial Crisis Could Lead to More Child Labor
By Lisa Schlein
Geneva, June 10th 2009
The International Labor Organization, or ILO, warns that the global financial crisis could push more children, particularly girls, into child labor. The ILO is highlighting the plight of girls in a new report that finds girls are just as likely as boys to be forced into some of the most hazardous forms of child labor. The report is being released in advance of the World Day Against Child Labor, which falls on June 12.
Child labor is an equal opportunity employer. It does not discriminate between boys and girls. The new ILO report finds that nearly half of the 218 million child laborers around the world are girls.
More than half of the girls are forced to work in prostitution and pornography or in bonded labor in hazardous work in agriculture, mining and quarrying.
Patrick Quinn, co-author of the ILO study, says children as young as five work long hours for little or no pay. He says all children are vulnerable, but girls run particular risks. He says girls very often are entrapped in hidden work situations, which leave them open to abuse.
"For example, children in child domestic labor, possibly working a long way from their families and their communities," said Patrick Quinn. "The fact that they may be physically weaker than boys. They may be exposed to sexual exploitation in some situations, the fact that girls bear a double burden very often of working both in the home and in other economic activity
outside the home. These various factors put girls very often in a situation of having multiple disadvantages."
In 2006, the ILO reported that there were 218 million child laborers around the world. This was a significant decrease from the 246 million child laborers reported four years earlier.
Frank Hagemann, the Head of Research and Policy at the ILO, says he fears that the current global economic crisis will reverse the decline in child labor.
"Not in all regions, but particularly in Latin America and a stabilization of child labor in Asia and also in Africa," said Hagemann. "We now risk that this positive, generally positive trend is going to be reversed through declining commodity prices on the one hand, through credit constraints on the other hand. In the recession and with declining household income, children are put out of school and put into work. And girls are often among the first."
The report finds a strong link between child labor and education. The ILO says that when forced to make a choice, poor families will send their boys rather than their girls to school. So not only do girls lose out on education, but they also are in danger of being forced into labor.
The ILO says that investing in the education of girls is an effective way of tackling poverty and protecting girls from child labor.
Kenya: Desperate refugees turn to child labor in Mandera
Incidences of child labor are increasingly becoming a major source of concern in Mandera town. Authorities in the town are calling upon parents to stop encouraging children under eighteen to work but an inflow of desperate refugees and the current drought means the trend is likely to continue
GNA, June 13, 2009
Ghana on Friday commemorated the World Day Against Child Labor with a durbar to raise awareness and provide the platform for a call to action on the urgent need to eliminate all forms of child labor.
The celebration, under the theme: "Give Girls a Chance: End Child Labor," further stressed the need to intensify advocacy on equal access and opportunities in educating girls and ensuring they attained higher completion levels in education.
Mr Stephen Amoanor Kwao, Minister for Employment and Social Welfare (MESW), in a keynote address said although a lot had been achieved nine years after Ghana's efforts to eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor (WFCL) and give equal opportunities to both boys and girls in education, most girls still faced challenges in their education.
He said some girls still faced multiple challenges, with burdens of having to combine household chores with economic activities and school attendance.
This had led to drop-outs for most of them because of parental choices, socio-cultural factors and poverty.
The Minister said it had been established globally that educating girls was very crucial to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goal 3 on promoting gender equality and empowerment of women.
He said this was because their acquisition of knowledge could impact positively on reducing poverty and other health conditions as well as socio-economic problems.
Mr Kwao said the current global statistics of an estimated 218 million child-laborers, with 100 million being girls, was alarming.
"About 53 million of these are exposed to hazardous works such as domestic laborers, street hawkers and head porters (Kayayee). Worst of all, some are victims of bonded servitude such as the Trokosi, prostitution and production of pornography," Mr Kwao said.
He said government with support from the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) had created conducive environments to address the problem since 2000.
The Minister mentioned the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), Capitation Grant and School Feeding Programme, as some of the interventions to increase school enrolments and alleviate part of the economic burden of parents and guardians.
Mr Kwao said government had also addressed the problem of child labor through the improvement of various policies, legislations, sensitization and social mobilization, capacity building at all levels and improvement of knowledge-base.
He said government intended to adopt comprehensive policies to reduce poverty, increase access and enrolment as well as improve the quality of education to ensure progress in efforts to deal with the problem.
"Child labor has been mainstreamed into the GPRS II and the guidelines of the Medium Term Development Plans of all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for adequate government support to implement interventions to effectively deal with the WFCL.
Mr Kwao said the ILO's Global Action Plan to eliminate the WFCL by the year 2016 required commitment and action by all stakeholders.
He said to ensure a more holistic and frontal attack on child labor, government was collaborating with the ILO and IPEC to develop a seven-year comprehensive National Plan of Action to address child labor in all sectors from 2009 to 2015.
Mr Kwao said it would be an integrated framework for tackling the child labor problem in a coordinated and sustainable manner. He called for increased commitment by all stakeholders including parents, teachers, the media and children in educating communities and sensitizing them on the importance of girls’ education in poverty reduction and the attainment of MDG 3.
Ms Akua Sena Dansua, Minister for Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC), blamed the continuous poverty cycle among various families and communities on their failure to educate the girls and admit the fact that they were major agents of national development.
She said it could be logical to some extent that an uneducated girl would also fail to send her children to school due to lack of interest or realization of the important role of education in poverty reduction.
Ms Dansua expressed worry over situations where government and non-governmental organizations had extended support in terms of skill development and seed capital to a large number of women and girls, especially in the cities, to enable them to go back to their hometowns and work, but they had remained on the streets.
She said there was the need to research into why those people had consistently refused to heed the plea of government to leave the streets after putting them into positions that would enable them to enter into profitable businesses.
Ms Dansua called for coordination of efforts and activities by various bodies, as there were currently too many agencies and organizations performing the same functions.
Mr Jonathan Tackie-Komme, Member of Parliament for Odododiodioo, commended IN Network Ghana (INNG), formerly International Needs Ghana, for providing counseling, prevention and withdrawal of 613 children from commercial sexual exploitation since 2004.
He said contribution of the organization to Kpeshie, Ablekuma South and Ashiedu-Keteke Sub-Metropolitan Assemblies was enormous and had contributed to the placement of a large number of children in formal basic schools, with the provision of school uniforms, bags and educational materials.
Ghana: Child workers earn as little as GH¢6.00 per month
Thursday, 11 June 2009
An estimated 85 per cent of all domestic child workers in Ghana are girls and are paid between GH¢5.00 to GH¢6.00 per month.
This was contained in a press statement issued by the child rights organization, Challenging Heights in Accra and signed by James Kofi Annan, Executive Director.
The statement coincides with the observation of World Day against Child Labor which falls on Friday, June 12, 2009.
The theme for the occasion is “Give girls a chance: Tackling child labor, a key to the future.”
“More than 40 per cent of these children are recruited from child domestic work force before they attain the age of 12, and this is a complete violation of their rights to basic education.
“In 44 per cent of the cases, the only payment these children receive for their services are a place to sleep, food to eat and the rejected cloths they receive from the children of their employers,” the statement said.
Mr. Annan expressed worry over industrial and economic expansion and its attendant increases for the services of girl domestic workers.
With a worrying school attendance rate of 36 per cent of child domestic workers, Mr. Annan urged all stakeholders to send their girl child to school.
Whilst asking people who require the services of domestic workers to pay for the services of adult workers, Mr. Annan asked government to honor poor parents who show commitment towards the education of their children and advised the public against taking advantage of vulnerable children.
Ghana: Poverty responsible for 90 percent of child labor in Ghana
GNA Ho, June 23, 2009GNA
Other causes are outmoded and harmful cultural and traditional practices, ethnic violence, discriminatory inheritance and parental neglect. Ms. Stella Ofori, a Senior Labor Officer, Child Labor Unit of the Ministry of Manpower and Social Welfare, made these assertions in a paper she presented at a two-day workshop to identify types of child labor in the Volta Region and ways to tackle them. It was organized by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) under the auspices of Education International, a Global organization of teachers and other education workers and funded by FNV Mondail, a coalition of Unions in the Netherlands. Participants include teachers, parents, social workers, assembly members and pupils and students from first and second cycle institutions.
Mrs Ofori whose paper looked at "The concept and variants of child labor in Ghana", said commercial sex, carrying of head-loads for a fee, mining, fishing and agriculture, were some of the areas that children were forced by circumstances to engage in. She said between 2000 and 2008 about 25,000 children were rescued from child labor.
Mrs Ofori said "child labor creates and sustains poverty cycle and creates high dependency rate and large pool of illiterate citizens". She therefore advised parents to prioritize their children's education as part of a holistic approach to dealing with the problem. Mr. Jacob Anderson, Head of Membership of Education of GNAT, said the workshop was to create an opportunity for pupils and students to interact with parents and stakeholders to find solutions to child labor in the region.
Ghana: Female students in Tema appeals to government
Tema, June 23, GNA - Female students in the Tema metropolis have appealed to the government and law enforcement agencies to ensure that the public adhere to legislations that concern the protection of the rights of children especially the girl child.
They have also called on religious bodies, members of parliament, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies and other stakeholders to complement government efforts to end child labor.
Miss Ewurasi Boadu, a student of St Albans Anglican School, made the appeal on behalf of the students in a petition to the government through the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), Mr Robert Kempes Ofosuware as part of activities in the metropolis to mark the world day against child labor.
Ms Boadu said implementation of legislations against child labor would help increase the opportunities for girls engaged in child labor to have quality education.
She said apart from undertaking challenging work as boys, the estimated 100 million girls involved in child labor around the world often endured additional hardships and face extra risks as they are often exposed to some of the worst forms of child labor. The students said girls engage in domestic work in third party homes hidden from the public eye leading to dangers and extreme exploitation of the girls.
Ms Boadu said girls have to combine long hours of households chores with some form of economic activities outside the household leaving little time and opportunity for them to attend to school. She reiterated the call on stakeholders to intensify their advocacy on the need to eliminate child labor to give educational opportunity to children to escape the cycle of poverty. Receiving the petition Mr Ofosuware said there was the need to distinguish between child labor that is injurious to the child and work that children do to assist their parents which is not necessarily harmful to them.
He cautioned parents against acts that contravene the fundamental rights of their wards enshrined in the 1992 constitution and other conventions on children.
Mr Ofosuware said although Ghanaian cultural heritage and socio-economic challenges make it difficult to exempt children from all forms of work, especially when it contributes towards moulding their character, parents must be guided by Article 28 (2) of the constitution which states that "every child has the right to be protected from engaging in work that constitutes a threat to their health, education and development." 23 June 09
Pakistan: End to child labor in Pakistan still a distant dream?
Daily Times, June 12th, 2009 By Fawad Ali Shah
KARACHI: The launching ceremony of the annual report titled, ‘The State of Pakistan’s Children, 2008’ by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) was held on Thursday. SPARC is the national coordinator of Global March. Apart from representatives of the civil society, the ceremony was attended by Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Khuhro and Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Sharmila Farooqui.
The report, which presents data regarding child labor, education and health facilities for children and child abuse cases, claims that 30-40 percent of children of school going age across the country, are not attending schools.
It also revealed that there are 156,000 schools across the country in which 5.6 million students study. The report also made an appalling revelation that among 454,000 primary school teachers listed in the country, 30,000 are ‘ghost teachers’.
The report claimed that 4,446,000 children are born in Pakistan every year, and among them, 40,000 die before attending the age of five years.
The report also mentions that according to a survey conducted by the International Labor of Organization, the number of children doing labor across Pakistan in 1996 was 3.3 million, whereas according to a survey conducted by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), the number stood at 11 million.
Also interesting were the arguments by representatives of the government and the civil society at the launch ceremony.
Representatives of the civil society targeted the government for not doing much to curb child labor, and termed the laws regarding this bane as futile.
“The government has allocated only 2.4 percent of the budget for education and 0.5 for health, but it did not take many steps to end child labor,” argued Iqbal Detho, National Manager, Child Labor, SPARC.
He said the government had failed to implement the Juvenile Justice Ordinance, 2000.
He added that there were only three probation officers across Sindh to investigate the cases of arrested children.
“The government of Sindh has banned raids on industrial units by inspectors of the labor department,” he said taking a swipe at the government.
Zulfiqar Shah, another member of the civil society regarded poverty as a major cause of child labor in the country.
“The government has failed to make industrialists and other people pay minimum wages announced by the government,” Shah insisted.
Nisar Khuhro, however, differed with the speakers and claimed that the government has taken plenty of steps for the welfare of children including opening schools after every two kilometers.
“Most of the teachers do not perform duties in their respective areas and leave the schools empty,” he said giving some insight into the problem.
“It requires love for your land,” he went on to say, adding that if locals start serving their respective areas, the problem will be solved to some extent.
He further said the health sector has a similar problem as doctors want to be transferred to urban areas instead of serving their rural area.
He argued that the government was trying to work out things within the available resources, but without the civil society’s contribution, this would be impossible.
Sharmila Farooqui stressed the need for a civil society-government partnership to curb the menace of child labor.
She demanded officials of the labor department to make arrangements to conduct raids on industries in order to stop them from using children as laborers. It is pertinent to mention that the government of Pakistan has vowed to end child labor in the country till 2010, however, according to Sharmila Farooqui, this looks “absolutely impossible”.
India: Problem of child labor directly linked to drop-outs’
Ahmedabad
Even as the Gujarat government claims the success of its various schemes in eliminating child labor while increasing the enrolments in schools across the state, the government’s ‘State Action Plan for Elimination of Child Labor 2009’ dossier presents a contrary figure. Prepared by the Department of Labor and Employment, the dossier, which is
marked ‘For Internal Circulation Only’, presents a contrasting picture relating to the drop-out percentages for Class VI and VII. The dossier states that the drop-out rate for Classes VI and VII, which was 6.69 per cent in 2005-06, increased to 7.05 per cent in 2006-07 and showed a marginal drop to 6.89 per cent in 2007-08.
In the document, the government also acknowledges that the ‘the problem of child labor is directly linked to drop-out’. It adds: “The rate of drop-out from Class VI and VII is very high, and these dropout children are mostly child laborers.” In effect, the problem of drop-out and child labor are inter-connected, it says. The dossier also quotes a graph of drop-out rate in Gujarat, adding: “It indicates that new schemes are successful up to some extent, but are unable to prevent drop-out in Class VI and VII, who are surely child laborers. In the last three years, the rate of drop-out is constantly around seven.’ Interestingly, similar findings are also revealed in a booklet – ‘Action plan for Development of Training Material on Elimination of Child Labor’, prepared by the Mahatma Gandhi Labor Institute, Ahmedabad, and sponsored by INDUS Child Labor Project, International Labor Organization.
On its part, the government continues to be in the denial mode. R M Patel, Principal Secretary, Labor and Employment, said: “It is an old data and the observations are outdated.” When asked why the observations were outdated as the dossier was signed by
Vaju Vala, Minister, Labor and Employment on February 2, 2009, he said: “Contact the Education Department for further details.”
‘Need to cut drop-out ratio in villages’
FOREST and Environment Minister Kiritsinh Rana on Thursday admitted that there is a need to cut the drop-out ratio in the villages, according to a state government release.
The minister was on a visit to villages in Ghogha taluka of Bhavnagar as part of inauguration of Praveshotsav (celebrating new admissions in schools) in the district.
The release said that Vibhavri Dave, the local MLA from Bahvnagar South, also drew his attention to the drop-out ratio and requested him to take up the matter seriously.
India: Education can eradicate child exploitation, says PM’s wife
June 12th, 2009 - 9:41 pm ICT by ANI
(ANI): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur has highlighted the need to education the masses so as to eradicate the social evil of exploiting children and extracting work from them.
Addressing a seminar here on Friday, she said it was often that one hears about the cases of physical, mental and sexual abuse against children.
“The situation of secondary education needs urgent attention. Further the quality of school education needs to be far better so that the children learn to become self confident and self reliant,” said Gurusharan Kaur.
The seminar was jointly hosted by the International Labor Organization (ILO), UNICEF and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
‘Give Girls a Chance’ happens to be the theme of this year’s World Day against Child Labor.
Other delegates and speakers also stressed on the need to usher equity and justice among the girl children.
“There is a lot to do in relation to the girl child and that’s why girl child is particularly targeted with this year’s message because the girl children are not only having double burden…. because they not only work outside home but they also do a mammoth portion of household chores,” observed Leila Tegmo, Representative of International Labor Organization in India.
According to official estimates, around 12.6 million children under the age of 14 are employed in various occupations such as domestic servants and in teashops, restaurants and other odd jobs.
These children work in conditions adverse to their health and well-being.
They often have to handle poisonous chemicals, carry excessive weights and are usually overworked and underpaid, leave alone any time to play and giggle. (ANI)
June 12- World Day against Child Labor 2009 was observed with rally from Basantpur and various programmes at Nepal Academy, Kathmandu. The programme was organised jointly by General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions, Global March South Asia led by CWIN, and CIWISH including 24 different organizations with the theme – "Give Girls chance and End Child Labor". Nepal Government was also a partner of the programme.
This year World Day against Child Labor has been organized with a participation of hundreds of children. Children participatants were asked various questions on child labor and shown the best performance as a part of cultural program.
Similarly, GEFONT Secretary General Umesh Upadhyaya and other delegates from different organizations addressed the program with commitments to end child labor. Earlier in the rally against the use of child labor, GEFONT President Bishnu Rimal was also a leading personality along with other organizational heads.
Bangladesh: World Day against Child Labor was observed across the country Friday with holding various programmes
In observance of the day, Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies (BILS), in cooperation with International Labor Organization (ILO), organized a rally and a roundtable in the city. The rally began from Central Shahid Minar at 10 am and paraded some city streets.
Students of Non-formal Education and Vocational Training Centres of Tongi and Keraniganj, which are operated under BILS-Child Labor Elimination Programme, attended the rally.
Mujibur Rahman Bhuiyan, Acting Chairman of BILS, AJM Ifzalul Haque Chowdhury, Officer-in-Charge of ILO-Child Labor Elimination Project and singer Fahmida Nabi were present.
Later, a roundtable titled 'Girl Child at Domestic Work: Social Responsibility and Action' was held at the Press Club VIP Lounge at 11am.
Domestic Workers' Rights Network organized the roundtable in cooperation with ILO.
Advocate Sultana Kamal, former adviser to the caretaker government and human rights activist, addressed the function as key discussant with Hosne Ara Kashem, Executive Director of Shoishob Bangladesh in the chair. BILS is the secretariat of Domestic Workers' Rights Network formed by 23 human rights organizations and national trade union federations.
Bangladesh: Law to be updated to save kids from hazardous work
Law Minister Shafique Ahmed
Law Minister Shafique Ahmed today said the government will update the labor law in order to stop children's engagement in hazardous works. The child labor should not be stopped at a time by enacting any law, since many families depend on the incomes of their children, he said.
He said the government is trying to rehabilitate the poor children, who are engaged in different works, by gradually creating facilities for their education and financial development. He was speaking as chief guest at a meeting organized by Disadvantaged Adolescents Working NGOs (DAWN) Forum on the occasion of World Child Labor Resistance Day 2009 at Dhaka Mohanagar Natya Moncho this morning.
Presided over by DAWN Forum Chairperson Gulshan Ara Chowdhury, the meeting was addressed by, among others, parliament members Meher Afroz Chumki and Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, Jamil Chowdhury, Executive Director of Dhaka Ahsania Mission Ehsanur Rahman and Dawn Forum General Secretary Kazi Baby. Bangladesh University faculty member Begum Nilufar presented a keynote paper at the function.
The law minister said many children are engaged in hazardous labor for minimum costs due to their financial crisis. The employers should be discouraged to engage the children in such works for such remuneration, he said, adding that the present government is pledge-bound to ensure the betterment and development of women and children of the country. He said poverty is the main reason of child labor, which is a serious problem of the country.
"An amount of money has been allocated in the proposed budget for the development of the disabled women and children," he added. He urged the people not to torture their house servants. Meher Afroz Chumki and Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury stressed the need for establishing the rights of the women and children.
Different cultural programmes took place at the daylong function, which was attended by about 700 children and juveniles and representatives from different public and private organizations.
A new report from the International Labor Office warns that the global financial and economic crisis could push an increasing number of children, particularly girls, into child labor. Eliminating child labor in developing countries like Mongolia will depend on keeping access to education open to children, especially girls who are vulnerable in times of economic downturn.
Thailand: promises equal education to all children
by Usa Pichai
Saturday, 13 June 2009 12:47
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Chaiwut Bannawat, Thailand’s Deputy Education Minister on Friday said the government will introduce a new policy of providing equal educational opportunities to all children in the Kingdom including over 100,000 stateless and migrant children.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of “The World Day Against Child Labor” in Mae Sot district of Tak Province, near the Thai-Burmese border, the Deputy Minister said, while the Kingdom has strived to provide possible educational opportunities to all children, there remains a large number of children who have failed to receive education.
“In Tak province, there are 20,000 children who lack educational opportunities. Some 14,000 children are in the school system in 120 public schools and 9,816 children are in education centres, which follow the international education agreement of UNESCO. In the future we will be providing higher education, which ought to be provided in respect of their human rights,” the Deputy Minister was quoted as saying by a Thai news website Manager.
More than 1,500 children along with their teachers participated in the ceremony being held on the border provinces with Burma -- Chiang Rai, Ranong, Tak and Samut Sakorn, where numerous migrant and stateless children from Burma live.
Marking the ‘The World Day Against Child Labor’, the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Friday, released a statement saying the World Day this year marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the landmark ILO Convention No. 182, which addresses the need for action to tackle the worst forms of child labor.
While celebrating the progresses made during the past 10 years, the World Day will highlight the continuing challenges, with a focus on exploitation of girls in child labor, the statement said.
The ILO said that an estimated 100 million girls around the globe are involved in child labor. Many of these girls undertake similar types of work as boys, but often also endure additional hardships and face extra risks. Moreover, girls are all too often exposed to some of the worst forms of child labor, often in hidden work situations.
The ILO called for policy responses to address the causes of child labor, paying particular attention to the situation of girls, urgent action to tackle the worst forms of child labor and greater attention to education and skills training needs of adolescent girls - a key action point in tackling child labor and providing a pathway for girls to get ‘Decent Work’ as adults.
Meanwhile, Tattiya Likitwong, a project coordinator of the Child Development Foundation said that the child labor situation in Thailand has not improved because children from Burma, Laos and Cambodia are found working in several businesses, particularly in big cities.
“Many of the children are found working in fishery industries, selling flowers on the roads or begging. In addition, employers have registered more than 200,000 migrant children between the ages of 15 to 18 working in their business while many more have not been registered,” she said.
According to ‘The Mirror Foundation’, there are many reports of children disappearing from their homes. Some are forced to work as beggars or sell flowers, tissue or small products in restaurants. Smaller children are sold in Malaysia or Vietnam claiming that they are being adopted but are forced to work.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) has presented a new ILO report that despite recent progress in eliminating child labor which affects 218 million children globally, girls make up an estimated 100 million and more than half of them are under the age of 12. The report cites evidence that as a result of the economic crisis, more girls are kept out of school than boys with the result that they may enter the workforce at an early age.
The report was produced for the World Day Against Child Labor on June 12.
The ILO report, entitled Give Girls a Chance: Tackling child labor, a key to the future, notes that while recent global estimates indicate the number of children involved in child labor has been falling, the financial crisis threatens to erode this progress.
"We have seen some real progress in reducing child labor. The policies chosen in the present crisis will be a test of national and global commitment to take this fight forward." said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.
Crisis increases child labor, especially among girls.
The report says the danger of girls being forced into child labor is linked to evidence that in many countries families give preference to boys when making decisions on education of children. It states that because of the increase in poverty as result of the crisis poor families with a number of children may have to make choices as to which children stay in school. In cultures in which a higher value is placed on education of male children, girls risk being taken out of school, and are then likely to enter the workforce at an early age.
Other factors which could push up the numbers in child labor include cuts in national education budgets, and a decline in remittances of migrant workers, as these remittances often help to keep children in school.
This year's World Day against Child Labor also coincides with the tenth anniversary of ILO Convention No. 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labor.
"With 169 ratifications we are now just 14 short of universal ratification by our member States" said Mr. Somavia. "It is a remarkable expression of commitment. This Convention calls for special attention to the situation of girls and we want to highlight the particular risks that girls face during this crisis. Protecting girls - and all children - from child labor calls for integrated responses that include jobs for parents, and social protection measures that help them to keep both girls and boys in school. Access to basic education and training for girls and boys must also be part of the solutions for the future."
Gender inequality
The ILO report says the most recent global estimate indicated that more than 100 million girls are involved in child labor, and many are exposed to some of its worst forms. Girls face a number of particular problems that justify special attention, including:
1. Much work undertaken by girls is hidden from public view, which creates particular dangers. Girls make up the overwhelming number of children in domestic work in third party households and there are regular reports of the abuse of child domestic workers;
2. In their own homes, girls take on household chores to a much greater extent than boys. Combined with economic activity outside the household, this imposes a "double burden" that increases the risk of girls dropping out of school; and,
3. In many societies girls are in an inferior and vulnerable position and are more likely to lack basic education. This seriously restricts their future opportunities.
The report highlights the importance of investing in the education of girls as an effective way of tackling poverty. Educated girls are more likely to earn more as adults, marry later in life, have fewer and healthier children and have decision-making power within the household. Educated mothers are also more likely to ensure that their own children are educated, thereby helping to avoid future child labor.
Turkey one of the worst offenders
According to the report, Turkey is the third among the sixteen countries studied in terms of the hours that child laborers work. Only following Mali and Senegal, girls in Turkey aged 5-14 work around 30 hours a week, while boys work over 25 hours.
The average for the sixteen countries is 20.2 hours for girls and 19.2 hours for boys.
According to 2006 data, around one million children in Turkey are working.
Still many children not in school
A report published in Turkey on 11 June, produced by the Educatino Reform Initiative (ERG), there are 220,000 children aged 6 to 13 who are not registered for education in Turkey. Of these, 130,000 are girls, and 90,000 boys. Around 100,000 of the children not being educated are from central Anatolia and the southeast of the country. In addition, there are children who are not even registered as born, and have thus not been counted.
If a household is attached to a social security institution through work, this increases the probability of a child attending middle school (years 6-8) by 15 percent. However, around 54 percent of urban families have no steady income. This rate is at 84 percent in Gaziantep and 91 percent in Diyarbakır, in the southeast of the country.
At higher levels of schooling, the number of girls drop. While there are 96 girls to every 100 boys in primary 1, there are only 91 girls in 8th grade.
According to the child labor report of the Turkey Statistical Institute (TÜİK), six percent of Turkey's 6-17-year-old population is working. 66 percent of these are boys, and 34 percent girls. 41 percent work in agriculture, 28 in industry, 23 in trade and 9 percent in the service industry. The TÜİK report also warns that forcing children to work obstructs their education and calls for an integration of all children into the education system. (TK/AG)
Philippines observes World Day Against Child Labor on June 12
Friday, June 10, 2005
Labor and Employment Acting Secretary Manuel G. Imson today said the Philippines is commemorating the World Day Against Child Labor today, June 12, 2005, at the same time that the country celebrates its 107th Independence Day.
He said the observance of the World Day Against Child Labor led by the International Labor Organization (ILO) underscored the country's solidarity with the world community in condemning, and pushing efforts to eliminate child labor, specially its worst, and most hazardous forms.
The event, he said, sets into a stronger focus the partnership of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and labor, employers, and other stakeholders in anti-child labor efforts including the rescue and rehabilitation of child labor victims.
Imson also remarked that that the sustained National Program Against Child Labor led by the DOLE's Bureau of Women and Young Workers (BWYW) resulted in the rescue of another 195 minors and children from child labor last year, on top of the 1,440 child labor victims the DOLE-led inter-agency Sagip Batang Manggagawa team rescued from 2001 to 2003.
The BWYW's Working Youth Center (WYC) program, which complements the efforts to stave off and eliminate the menace of child labor, also assisted some 57,172 youth belonging to a total of 2,043 organizations last year. The program likewise assisted 776 livelihood projects with a total of 5,283 beneficiaries.
Imson said the ILO-led World Day Against Child Labor in 2005, the fourth since 2002, is being celebrated locally and globally on the theme, "A Load Too Heavy."
He said that in the Philippines, the DOLE is participating in various programs and activities nationwide with its social partners to commemorate the global anti-child labor initiatives, as follows:
The launching in Cebu City, courtesy of the Visayan Forum Foundation, (Global March Regional Coordinator for South East Asia)of the one million signature campaign for Batas Kasambahay, a proposed legislation that aims to institutionalize protection for both child and adult domestic workers; a "Celebration with Child Miners in Mt. Diwata" under the auspices of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) in Mt. Diwata, Davao; a three-day radio program sponsored by the Archbishop Mabutas Media Center in Davao, and; the celebration of the World Day Against Child Labor in Region 3 (Central Luzon) centered at Marilao, Bulacan in cooperation with various local government units (LGUs).
The DOLE will also participate in the endorsement by the various sectors, including the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), FFW, and the management sector, of the "Call to Action" manifesto that jibes with the global call inspired by ILO to eliminate child labor in the mining and quarrying industries by the year 2015.
Earlier, the ILO held the National Forum on Child Labor and Mining in the Philippines. The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) also conducted a round table discussion on child labor in the mining and quarrying Sector, which reiterated the employers' commitment to the elimination of the worst forms of child labor.
The DOLE's Institute for Labor Studies (ILS) has also scheduled the Sub-Group Forum on Child Labor Studies tentatively within the month.
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Chaiwut Bannawat, Thailand’s Deputy Education Minister on Friday said the government will introduce a new policy of providing equal educational opportunities to all children in the Kingdom including over 100,000 stateless and migrant children.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of “The World Day Against Child Labor” in Mae Sot district of Tak Province, near the Thai-Burmese border, the Deputy Minister said, while the Kingdom has strived to provide possible educational opportunities to all children, there remains a large number of children who have failed to receive education.
“In Tak province, there are 20,000 children who lack educational opportunities. Some 14,000 children are in the school system in 120 public schools and 9,816 children are in education centers, which follow the international education agreement of UNESCO. In the future we will be providing higher education, which ought to be provided in respect of their human rights,” the Deputy Minister was quoted as saying by a Thai news website Manager.
More than 1,500 children along with their teachers participated in the ceremony being held on the border provinces with Burma -- Chiang Rai, Ranong, Tak and Samut Sakorn, where numerous migrant and stateless children from Burma live.
Marking the ‘The World Day Against Child Labor’, the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Friday, released a statement saying the World Day this year marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the landmark ILO Convention No. 182, which addresses the need for action to tackle the worst forms of child labor.
While celebrating the progresses made during the past 10 years, the World Day will highlight the continuing challenges, with a focus on exploitation of girls in child labor, the statement said.
The ILO said that an estimated 100 million girls around the globe are involved in child labor. Many of these girls undertake similar types of work as boys, but often also endure additional hardships and face extra risks. Moreover, girls are all too often exposed to some of the worst forms of child labor, often in hidden work situations.
The ILO called for policy responses to address the causes of child labor, paying particular attention to the situation of girls, urgent action to tackle the worst forms of child labor and greater attention to education and skills training needs of adolescent girls - a key action point in tackling child labor and providing a pathway for girls to get ‘Decent Work’ as adults.
Meanwhile, Tattiya Likitwong, a project coordinator of the Child Development Foundation said that the child labor situation in Thailand has not improved because children from Burma, Laos and Cambodia are found working in several businesses, particularly in big cities.
“Many of the children are found working in fishery industries, selling flowers on the roads or begging. In addition, employers have registered more than 200,000 migrant children between the ages of 15 to 18 working in their business while many more have not been registered,” she said.
According to ‘The Mirror Foundation’, there are many reports of children disappearing from their homes. Some are forced to work as beggars or sell flowers, tissue or small products in restaurants. Smaller children are sold in Malaysia or Vietnam claiming that they are being adopted but are forced to work.
Cambodia: Crisis poses added hurdles to elimination of child labor
Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Christopher Shay
Friday, 12 June 2009
Photo by: Sovann Philong
Two child laborers collect plastic bottles for recycling along Phnom Penh’s Street 63 this week. World Day Against Child Labor, observed today, marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of an International Labor Organization (ILO) convention stressing the need to end the worst forms of child labor. Members of the ILO and other groups say the crisis poses additional hurdles to achieving this goal.
OU Kunthear, 19, is one of tens of thousands of garment workers in Cambodia who have lost their jobs as factories across the Kingdom have shut down as a result of the economic crisis. As a garment worker, Ou Kunthear would regularly send US$30 back to her family in Kampong Speu province. Since losing her factory job, she can no longer send remittances, leaving her parents too poor to pay for food.
In response, her parents have taken her younger siblings - all under the age of 15 - out of school and forced them to work washing clothes and making charcoal.
"I pity my younger siblings, because they should be learning. They should not be working over charcoal stoves or washing stations," she said.
The eighth World Day Against Child Labor, observed today, marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of an International Labor Organization convention stressing the need to end the worst forms of child labor.
As the global economic crisis has hit Cambodia, however, pressure has mounted on families to pull their children out of school and push them into the workforce, experts said.
According to a statement released Thursday, Child Fund Australia estimated that 40 percent of all children aged between 7 and 17 years are currently engaged in some form of child labor.
But the ILO has said that efforts from the government and donors could help transform the crisis into a catalyst for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor in Cambodia.
"The economic downturn is one of the most unexpected, hardest challenges impacting child labor. But the downturn - even though it's a threat - can be turned into an opportunity," said Joseph Menacherry, the chief technical adviser at the ILO's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor.
When the construction sector was growing rapidly, there was a sharp increase in demand for child labor, Menacherry said. As the boom goes bust, there are fewer jobs available to children, he said.
"This gives us an opportunity to be able to put into place sufficient awareness, sufficient sensitivity and sufficient mechanisms for monitoring and enforcement, so that once the economy starts to go up, we will be able to ensure that children do not go back to this hazardous construction sector," he said.
I PITY MY YOUNGER SIBLINGS ... THEY SHOULD NOT BE WORKING OVER CHARCOAL STOVES.
Menacherry said that eliminating child labor during an economic crisis has the added benefit of opening up jobs for adults, allowing more families to preserve their incomes and keep their children in school.
"Why are we sending children to work when there is an economic crisis? When there is an economic crisis we should be pulling children out of work and making sure adults go there," he said.
At the moment, however, the crisis is forcing more children into the worst forms of child labor, said Haidy Ear-Dupuy, advocacy and communications manager for World Vision Cambodia.
"Many workers have lost their jobs and seen their income drop," Ear-Dupuy said, adding that this has led many parents to force their children to find jobs.
Menacherry said the number of children working in hard labor conditions in Cambodia had grown from an estimated 250,000 in 2002 to about 300,000 this year.
Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON
A child fixes a motorbike tyre at a mechanic’s shop in Kandal province.
Promoting economic growth
Child labor is one of the major hurdles Cambodia must clear if it is to achieve sustained economic growth in the future, said Bill Salter, director of the ILO's sub-regional office for Southeast Asia.
"Child labor has to be tackled in Cambodia - not only as a social issue, but also as an issue of human resource development that can help the economic growth of the country," he said.
The ILO, with the help of the World Bank and UNICEF, is finalizing estimates of how much funding would be necessary to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in Cambodia.
Menacherry said the task would cost "not more than US$100 million", adding that he viewed the figure as "modest".
Even though child labor has increased over the last seven years, Menacherry said, the ILO's goal to end the worst forms of child labor in Cambodia by 2016 was "extremely realistic" if sufficient resources were made available.
In work, out of school
Knut Harald Ulland, country director for Save the Children, said the economic crisis could cause more teachers to begin collecting informal fees, which would make more families unable to send their children to school.
"Because teachers have felt the impact of the crisis, school fees may have increased" already, he said, calling informal school fees the biggest obstacle to education in Cambodia.
"As long as teachers don't have a living salary, it's difficult to crack down on," he added.
Four years ago, informal fees drove Ran Rin, 12, out of the classroom and into a salt-production job in Kampot province. He told the Post this week that he left school because his family could not afford the fees charged by his teachers.
"Poverty was the obstacle for my studies.... If teachers do not demand money from their students, then children of poor families like me would not have to drop out," he said.
Jordan: ‘Government committed to tackling child labor’
By Hani Hazaimeh
AMMAN - With over 32,600 children across the country working in several fields, child labor remains a concern to the government, labor officials stressed on Saturday.
According to a report compiled between 2006-2007 and issued recently by the Department of Statistics, 90 per cent of working children are between the ages of 12 and 17, most of whom work in car repair, trade and agriculture.
The figures come despite an 11 per cent drop in child labor internationally between 2000 and 2004, spurring officials to enact several programmes, Labor Ministry officials said on Saturday.
"Child labor statistics are still alarming as there are more than 220 million working children in the world, 12 million in Arab countries alone, most of them working in tough and dangerous conditions," the ministry’s secretary general, Mazen Odeh, said on Saturday in a conference titled, "No to Child Labor”.
During the one-day event, held in commemoration of World Day Against Child Labor, observed on June 22, and organised by the ministry in cooperation with the International Labor Organization, Odeh said the ministry will enact several anti-child labor initiatives, including establishing a database on working children.
"The ministry will soon implement a programme to train labor inspectors in child labor inspection in addition to launching an awareness programme targeting families and students," Odeh, who deputized for Labor Minister Ghazi Shbeikat, said.
In a speech yesterday, Adnan Abu Ragheb, president of Jordan Chamber of Industry (JCI), said Arab and international labor conventions prevent employers from recruiting children under the age of 15.
In addition to holding awareness meetings with employers to stop child labor, Abu Ragheb said the JCI has contributed to the introduction of a code of ethics for industrialists which bans the employment of children under the age of 16 in Jordan.
Uganda People News: Media urged to sensitize public about child labor
The MP for Budaka Loi Kiryapawo has urged the media to help sensitize the public about the difference between child work and child labor.
Kiryapawo says today many Ugandans do not know the difference between child labor and child work because some parents make their children do work that is not proportionate to their ages which tantamounts to child labor.
She has told journalists today at Parliament that the media for instance can help educate Ugandans that such actions of parents are also forms of child labor and not only the employment of workers below 18 years is child labor.
Kirapawo says the Media can also carry out a survey to see how many Ugandans are employing domestic workers who are below 18 as this will help the country easily assess the magnitude of the problem and therefore look for appropriate solutions.
She says the problem of child labor needs concerted effort from a number of institutions in the country to be able to overcome it and says all Ugandans should come together and help eliminate this vice from the country.
Uganda will on Tuesday June 16th join the rest of the world to mark the international day against child labor.
Uganda: On World Day Against Child Labor, Uganda needs to do more to tackle its serious problem
11 June 2009
Kampala, Uganda
With the World Day Against Child Labor fast approaching on 12 June, a newly published survey shows that 15 per cent of children in north and northeast Uganda are involved in harsh, dangerous labor – often putting them in harm’s way and depriving them of the chance to go to school.
The survey, commissioned by two aid agencies – the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and AVSI Foundation – found that an additional 26 per cent of children are 'at risk' of becoming child laborers.
"Every day, tens of thousands of children in Uganda are engaged in the worst forms of child labor – from breaking stones in quarries and working in the fields, to burning charcoal and prostitution," says Dorothy Jobolingo, an IRC child labor expert.
"At best, these children are being deprived of the opportunity to go to school. At worst, they are being exposed to great safety risks, including engaging in work that could result in death," Jobolingo adds.
The survey backs up the Government of Uganda’s own statistics, which show around 1.76 million (or 17 per cent) of all 5 to 17 year-olds in Uganda are working in various forms of child labor.
Nearly half of the survey's 1,500 respondents said that financial constraints prevented their children from going to school. Poor families living in areas with few employment opportunities need their children to work and help put food on the table. They also struggle to afford school fees, uniforms and textbooks.
"The Government of Uganda and international donors must increase sustainable livelihood opportunities for parents – only then will a significant reduction in child labor be achieved," says Jobolingo.
In north and northeastern Uganda, the problem is further compounded by decaying school infrastructure and poor teaching standards – the result of years of conflict in the north and decades of underinvestment in the northeast.
Many schools are extremely run-down and lack the most basic of materials such as desks and blackboards, while the survey found that on average teachers turn up to work only 72 per cent of the time.
"Parents told us they are hesitant to send their children to school because they don't believe it's worth it; they don't think the quality of education on offer is good enough," says Jobolingo. Measures must be taken to improve school infrastructure and the quality of teaching, as well as tackling financial constraints.
The IRC has used the survey information to launch a new project in Uganda called LEAP – Livelihoods, Education and Protection to End Child Labor. Running until 2011, the project will remove or prevent more than 11,000 children from engaging in child labor and instead support them to go to school. It will pay school fees, provide educational materials and provide livelihoods opportunities for parents.
Additionally, more than 14,000 students will benefit from renovations to school classrooms, teacher training and the formation of community groups designed to oversee the well-being of schools. The project is also working with government bodies to promote adherence to existing laws penalizing employers who hire child laborers.
Says Jobolingo: "Child labor is an issue of national importance. Reducing the number of children working and ensuring they get a meaningful education is essential to the future of Uganda as a nation."
Guardian, David Smith June 27th, 2009, Johannesburg
ZIMBABWE'S army is forcing hundreds of children to dig for diamonds to bankroll senior lieutenants of President Robert Mugabe, a Human Rights Watch investigation has found.
Researchers believe that revenue from illegal trading of the gems is being funneled to Mr Mugabe's senior lieutenants in his Zanu-PF party, as well as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which has underwritten some military operations. The money could prove a lifeline for Zanu-PF as it regroups before the next election, expected in two years.
The report, published yesterday, claims the army is torturing and beating villagers on the diamond fields of Marange district in eastern Zimbabwe.
The atrocities follow a massacre last year in which more than 200 people were killed when troops seized control of mining and trading. The army rapidly formed syndicates, often using forced labor, Human Rights Watch found. It is estimated that up to 300 children continue to work for soldiers in the diamond fields.
A girl, 13, said: "Every day I would carry ore and only rest for short periods. We always started work very early in the morning, before eight, and finished when it was dark, after six. All I want now is to go back to school."
The HRW report, Diamonds in the Rough, threatens to embarrass the unity government. The Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, of the Movement for Democratic Change, has spent the past fortnight trying to convince foreign leaders that its reforms now merit financial support. But the police and army remain under the control of Mugabe's Zanu-PF.
The report says: "While Zimbabwe's new government lobbies the world for development aid, millions of dollars in potential revenue are being siphoned off through illegal diamond mining, smuggling of gemstones outside the country and corruption."
It adds: "The Government could generate perhaps as much as $200 million per month, if Marange and other mining centers were managed in a transparent and accountable manner.
"This revenue could fund a significant portion of the new Government's economic recovery program, which would benefit ordinary villagers, like the residents of Marange."
HRW says that late last year military helicopters with mounted automatic rifles flew over Marange to drive out local miners. Soldiers on the ground indiscriminately fired live ammunition and tear gas into the diamond fields and surrounding villages. Over three weeks, more than 200 people were killed.
Bangladesh: Babu's Story: A Child Worker In The Shipyards Of Bangladesh
The Huffington Post, Sandy Tolan, June 18th, 2009
"Did anybody ever tell you," I asked the child worker sitting on the cement floor, "'You're only 13, you shouldn't have to work like this'?"
Ismael "Babu" Hussein paused to reflect on the question. All around him were other kids, sitting in the small airless room that was shared by several worker families who sleep there in shifts. Like Babu, these boys, some as young as 12, do the risky, often terrifying work of breaking down ships by hand on the beaches of Chittagong, Bangladesh. The boys are apprentices to older "masters" who operate the blowtorches that cut the steel walls into six-by-ten-foot plates, and thus turn useless old tankers and cargo ships into usable scrap.
When their masters get tired, Babu and his fellow child laborers often handle the blowtorches on their own, frequently without goggles, risking serious injury or blindness. Some are forced to climb tall rope ladders to the ships' highest points to retrieve items, risking death if they slip. And all the children are on constant lookout for falling metal plates and rods, which have killed many a worker before them. Lately, Babu has been having nightmares of falling steel, or of being thrown into melting iron by an angry boss.
"There was another foreign guy who came here years ago, "Babu answered after a pause. "He also said this. But nobody else ever told me this before, except the foreign guy."
Indeed, for many of the children here, the idea that they shouldn't work is an entirely foreign concept. Despite laws in Bangladesh restricting child labor, the reality is starkly different. A 2005 report from the International Labor Organization says in Bangladesh, a country of 65 million packed into a land mass the size of Wisconsin, there are nearly 5 million laborers under the age of 15.
The context, of course, is poverty. Babu's father, Atiqur, was 13 himself when he came to Chittagong looking for work. Today, 25 years later, he loads scrap metal onto waiting trucks, for which he is paid about three dollars a day. But the work is sporadic, and after paying the rent on the family's tiny bamboo shack, he has barely forty cents left to feed each of the family members: Atiqur and his wife Hosneara; Babu; daughter Bethi-Akhtar; and son Papi. With no other options, Atiqur and Hosneara recently sat their eldest son down and told him they needed his help. Babu, who never learned to read or write, would go to work. His job would add $2.20 to the family's daily budget.
"If it wasn't for my labor, my family would starve," Babu says. Still, he dreams of something else. "There is no fun in the work. I wish I could find something easier to do."
According to advocates for the shipyard workers, the work shouldn't be so hard - or so dangerous.
When decommissioned ships plow into Chittagong's beaches, armies of poor Bangladeshis walk along the tidal flats and begin the work of dismantling. More than 20,000 laborers work in the city's 36 shipyards. They unload every item - sinks, toilets, couches, crystal, flatware, microwaves, computers, mops, life preservers - and transport them to the dozens of shops lining the road north of Chittagong. Then begins the work of blowtorch and hammer. Teams of workers, hundreds strong, can dismantle a ship in four to six weeks. Many of the ships contain toxic materials, sometimes hidden in pipes that workers will cut open with their torches. These include asbestos, PCBs, arsenic-laced paint, and tons of oil and grease. Add to that the risk of falling steel from vessels that are literally coming apart, and it's easy to understand why Babu has nightmares.
According to a 2005 report by Greenpeace and the International Federation for Human Rights, between 1975 and 2005 an estimated 1,000 Bangladeshis died from accidents in the ship breaking yards - an average of about three deaths per month. Statistics cited by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) suggest the figure is much higher: 2,000 deaths since 1998. Unknown numbers of others are maimed or severely sickened by toxics. It's impossible to know how many become ill or eventually die, for example, from exposure to asbestos.
Environmental and human rights groups, led by BELA, have been fighting on national and international fronts for worker and environmental protection. In March 2009, BELA lawyers won a ruling from the country's highest court, ordering the shipyards to shut down for two weeks and requiring them to get government-issued environmental clearances. The shutdown angered many worker families like Babu's, for whom bad work is better than none. An estimated 10,000 ship breaking laborers and their families, concerned for their jobs, protested the High Court ruling.
The High Court also ruled that ships would no longer be able to enter Bangladesh's waters without first "pre-cleaning" their toxic wastes. This was a huge victory for ship breaking watchdogs, but given the country's history of strong laws and weak enforcement, advocates say it isn't enough.
"All the agencies - environment, labor, shipping - they have categorically failed to protect the laborers from this havoc," says BELA director Rizwana Hasan, who in April 2009 won the Goldman Environmental Prize, a prestigious international award recognizing "grassroots environmental heroes." Hasan and her colleagues are pushing for international measures requiring pre-cleaning of ships, and a ban on ship breaking on beaches.
A 64-nation accord signed in Hong Kong in May 2009 will require companies to produce toxic inventories, but will not fundamentally change the ship breaking workers' operations. "Yards that have been dormant for years are bouncing back to life," acknowledged Enam Ahmed, technical head of the Bangladesh Ship breakers Association, in an interview with Agence France Presse. "There's a sense a boom time is coming with more ships heading our way."
Not surprisingly, BELA and other advocates are highly critical of the accord for not going far enough. "I don't want the developed countries to take Bangladesh as a dumping site," Hasan told me, "and to take our laborers and our environment for granted."
For Hasan and her fellow activists, the goal is not to destroy the ship breaking industry, but to bring it under stricter labor and environmental controls. Crucial for Bangladesh - as well as other ship breaking nations like India, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, and Turkey - will be not only the agreements themselves, but also enforcement. This will become more pressing as single-hull oil tankers are phased out by 2010, sending more decommissioned ships to South Asian shores.
"A work should give people dignity," Hasan told me in her office in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital. "A work should provide you a better life. A work should be able to bring you out of your poverty circle. It is not doing any of these things. So it's not a solution to unemployment, it is just exploitation. And they're doing it because these people are poor, and no one is listening to what they have to say."
For Babu, who doesn't follow the national debate and in any case can't read any of the agreements, the issue is simple. If there are rules about safety, why doesn't anyone follow them?
"They usually don't provide us with protective equipment, but when any law enforcement agency comes into the yard to check, they immediately provide all this stuff for half an hour or so," he says with a frown. "Then they take it back when the inspectors leave. My question is 'Why?' Why do they only provide this stuff when the law enforcement people come? Why don't they give it to us all day, every day, so we can protect ourselves?"
(Special thanks to Mainul Islam Khan and Shah Mohammed Nurul Islam, for indispensable help; to producer Ki-Min Sung; to Ismael "Babu" Hussein and his parents, Atiqur and Hosneara; and to Kavan Prabhu of Nairobi, Kenya, who provides the English-language voice of Babu in the radio program).
Here is a unique opportunity to help rescue, rehabilitate and educate children engaged in the worst forms of child labor, this academic year. Please consider giving a one-time donation of $300 to make possible the raid and rescue of 10 children from forced labor in India! With a 'recurring donation' of $55/month, you can provide 1 child rescued from forced labor with food, shelter, education and vocational training in a rehabilitation center.
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Please share this letter with friends or family members who might be interested in donating to this very just cause.
Apart from representatives of the civil society, the ceremony was attended by Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Khuhro and Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Sharmila Farooqui.
