International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE)

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Child Laborers at UNDP, New York April 28. The former child laborers went to New York accompanied by GCE Chair Kailash Satyarthi and the Executive Director of ICCLE Dr. Sudhanshu Joshi. They were in Washington,D.C in connection with the activities related to the Global Action Week 2006 hosted by the International Center on Child Labor and Education. They called on Mr. Ad Melkert, Associate Administrator and Under Secretary General of UNDP at his office. Mr. Satyarthi shared the update on the Global Task Force on Child labor and Education and informed Mr. Melkert of the critical need for embedding child labor elimination into the PRSPs led by UNDP and looking at the cross-cutting issues of child labor, poverty alleviation, education, girls’ education and women's empowerment holistically in order to achieve the MDGs. Ignoring the linkages is a practical and fundamental flaw in the achievment of the MDGs. Mr. Satyarthi encouraged the UNDP to take the lead in this direction as a necessary imperative. Top Former child laborers from India share their stories with UNICEF Courtesy UNICEF By Sabine Dolan     © UNICEF/HQ06-0261Markisz   At UNICEF headquarters in New York (left to right): UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah, former child labourer Samsur Mohamad, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman and former child labourer Puran Banjara and Global March Against Child Labour Chair Kailash Satyarthi.         © UNICEF/HQ06-0262Markisz   Former child labourers Samsur Mohamad, 13 (left), and Puran Banjara, 14, at UNICEF headquarters in New York during a tour to raise awareness about child slavery. NEW YORK, USA, 2 May 2006 – Two former child laborers from India met and shared their life stories with UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman and Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah during a tour to help raise awareness about the plight of children in servitude worldwide. The boys – Puran Banjara, 14, and his friend Samsur Mohamad, 13 – came to the United States last week as part of a visit coordinated by the Global March Against Child Labor. “I was breaking stones with my brother,” said Puran. “When my grandfather died, my parents had no other choice but to borrow money. We became debt-bonded. The owner used to make me work the whole day, forcibly. I didn’t feel like working. I never saw any books during my childhood. Both of my parents are illiterate.” Samsur added that his family had illegally emigrated to India from Bangladesh and were thus deprived of any legal identity or status. “I used to collect garbage with my two brothers,” he said. “We used go through the garbage fields to look for glass, plastic and other recyclable materials. We collected about 10 rupees for each bag containing a kilo of this material.” Meetings in Washington, D.C Puran and Samsur were luckier than many of their peers. Both were rescued from their lot and given a chance to get an education with help from the Global March, a worldwide network that seeks to protect and promote child rights – especially the rights to receive a free quality education and to be free from economic exploitation. During their US visit, Puran and Samsur traveled to Washington, D.C. and New York with other former child laborers. In Washington, the children met with members of the House of Representatives and Senators, including Senator Hillary Clinton. They also met with American schoolchildren. “We met with Mr. Clinton’s wife,” Samsur explained excitedly. “We gave them the same message, that there are many children like me in the world, working as bondage laborers, so the developed countries should look at helping these kids to get a proper education.” Message to the world UNICEF has been working with the Global March in a worldwide task force on child labor that aims to develop programmes addressing the well-being and educational needs of exploited children. An estimated 246 million young people worldwide are engaged in child labor. UNICEF believes that the worst forms of child labor (as defined by International Labor Organization conventions) damage children’s health, threaten their education and lead to further exploitation and abuse. As Ms. Veneman and Ms. Salah listened carefully to Puran and Samsur last week, they heard the boys’ message to the world. “All children should get an education,” Puran said firmly. “If all children don’t get a proper education, they will remain poor people, resulting in more children being used as child laborers.” Top Rescued child laborers visit Blair April 25 Natasha Prados, Online Staff Writer, Silver Chips Online, Montgomery Blair High School Online Student Newspaper Speakers from India, Colombia and Mexico discuss experiences Five rescued child laborers from India, Colombia and Mexico spoke at Blair today during 6th period. The event was sponsored by the Blair Academy of International Studies in conjunction with the International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE). Kailash Satyarthi, the founder of the Global March Against Child Labor and the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS), and Dr. Sudhanshu Joshi from ICCLE also spoke. Joshi introduced Satyarthi as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize whose work has helped to emancipate over 69,000 children from slavery. The five children who spoke shared their stories and expressed how grateful they are to be getting an education after being rescued by various organizations in their native countries. All five are now actively working to bring an end to child labor and raise awareness about the issue. The first speaker, Puran Bangura from India, explained that when his father borrowed money he could not repay, the entire family was forced to work as slaves. Joshi, who translated for Bangura, described Bangura's job as stone mining, a trade which Joshi said is often illegal. Bangura said many children in India are forced to work twice as hard as adults for no wages. "They are bought and sold like animals," Bangura said. The other boy from India, 13 year-old Mohmad Samsur, was a "rag-picker." Joshi (who also translated for Samsur) explained that in India, there are huge amounts of trash, which rag-pickers — often very young children — go through to collect anything that can be potentially sold, such as metal scraps, plastic and batteries. One day when Samsur was taking his trash to a contractor to sell, an activist saw him and told him he should not be working. Samsur agreed that the work stunted his growth and prevented him from playing and getting an education, but at the time he had no other options. He is now receiving a full-time education and learning to paint at the rehabilitation center. Luz Karime Lemos Viveros, from Colombia, is also getting an education now. She began working at age three to help support her seven brothers and sisters, who are now all in school, said translator Belen Gutierrez. The other speaker from Colombia, Leidy Johanna Moreno Blandon, had two jobs: helping her mother in the domestic service industry and working as a vendor in the street. She lost her father at the age of 13 in a bomb explosion and had to help support her two brothers, said Gutierrez. Blandon said she is very grateful that her mother never let her quit school. Now the sixteen-year-old is almost finished with her secondary education. She hopes that her two month old baby will never have to work as a child. Last to speak was Aly Zayory Perez Hernandez, 16, from Mexico, who started working at age 13, taking care of a two-year-old in the evenings and working as a messenger in the afternoons, while attending school, translated Gutierrez. Hernandez said she could not concentrate in school because she got so little sleep, and was often up until 3 a.m. trying to finish her homework. Now Hernandez receives a scholarship so that she does not have to work and can go to school without constantly worrying about the welfare of her parents and her sister. After the children spoke, Satyarthi answered questions from an audience of approximately 200 Blazers. Satyarthi said that although the children's stories were all deeply troubling and depressing, he hoped they would encourage students to act against child labor. "The purpose of these children is not to shock you, not to upset you, it is to provide hope… each one of them [the children] symbolize courage — they have stood up against all odds," he said. Satyarthi urged students to be aware as consumers and to write letters to their politicians and large corporations advocating an end to child labor and slavery and ensuring that more of the world's children receive an education. "As a strong consumer, you can start questioning and demanding," he said, adding, "sensitize your neighborhood, your friends, your politicians." Blair social studies teacher Kevin Moose organized the event in order to raise awareness of child labor, slavery and bondage around the world, to encourage students to act and to prompt interest in the International Academy at Blair. http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/inside.php?sid=6447 Top Child laborers at mock hearing and address Congressional Progressive Caucus April 26 The Mock Hearing on April 26 was jointly organized by the Center for Universal Education led by Gene Sperling and the International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE), Washington, D.C, the North American advocacy office of the Global March Against Child labor. ICCLE also mobilized former child laborers turned activists from India, Mexico and Columbia. There were two children from India: Shamsur, 12-year-old former rag picker, and Puran, 14-year-old former bonded child laborer who used to work in stone mining. These children came through Save the Childhood Foundation, India. Another two children came through the national coordinator of the Global March Against Child labor from Columbia, Mundo Mejor Foundation led by Miriam Ines Gomez Gonzalez. These children were Carime, a 14-year-old girl who worked for many years as a child domestic worker, selling and lifting loads on the streets of Cali, Columbia, and Leidy, a 16-year-old girl who used to do domestic work and sell tortillas on the street. Aly, 16, from Mexico worked as baby sitter and messenger. The children testified at the mock hearing and shared their life, experiences, and aspirations and brought the messages from all the children globally out of school. Those present on the occasion were Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-NY), Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), and Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL). The mock hearing was sponsored by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NA), Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Representative Jim Kolbe (R-AR), Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY), and Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL). During the hearing 15 students from US High Schools all over United States mobilized by CARE, Global Kids and Net Aid made the case for Education for All. These children took the pledge with Senator Harkin (D-IA) to remain in the forefront of the fight for children’s rights in the years to come. Those present on the occasion included various policy institutions from Washington, D.C., and Kailash Satyarthi, Chair, GCE and President, Global March Against Child Labor and Gene Sperling, Coordinator, US Chapter of the GCE. Congressman Bachus (R-AL) shared his concern that the US, being the largest economy in the world, has not made increased commitments yet to EFA, though UK Secretary of Treasury has made a commitment of GBP 15 billion, averaging GBP 1.5 billion every year over the next ten years. Bachus said that he would do every thing possible to match this and that the irony is that UK economy is one-sixth the size of the US. Senator Harkin (D-IA) mentioned that more is required from the United States to ensure that all the children are in schools, and that we need to ensure that children are withdrawn from work in order to create the necessary pre-conditions for them to attend full-time school. He has been lone champion in the political domain globally who stands out in the fight against child labor. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY) promised that they would do everything possible to ensure that all children are in schools and that they would continue to work for the enhancement of education funding from the United States. They have been championing the consistent increase in education funding from the US over the past few years. Meeting with Congressional Progressive Caucus At the end of the mock hearing, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) took the children with her to Capitol Hill, accompanied by her staff officers for a meeting with the 67-member strong Congressional Progressive Caucus, which she co-chairs with the Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA). The child laborers addressed the members and legislative staff of the offices of the members of the Progressive Caucus. Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey committed to focus not only on women's issues, but also on ensuring that all the children are in school. Woolsey said candidly that she was focusing her efforts on the education of girls and thinks that it is important to work for ensuring that all the children are able to receive good quality education. She agreed that it is extremely important that United States Government lends its full support for Education for All by 2015 and substantially increase the aid for education within the framework of a global compact. The children were then taken for a view of Capitol Hill and also watched the House proceedings Top Child Laborers knock on the doors of members of the US House and Senate The children called on the legislative staff from the offices of Arlen Specter (R-PA), Chair, Judiciary Committee and Member of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL), member of Foreign Relations Committee, Chuck Hagel (R-NA), member of Foreign Relations Committee, and Edward Kennedy (D-MA). At the end of the visit to Washington, D.C., the children and Mr. Satyarthi addressed various staff members drawn from the offices of the Members of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP). This committee is chaired by Senator Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyoming) and the Ranking member is Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA). This meeting was sponsored by the office of Senator Edward Kennedy. Top Child Laborers with Executive Board Members of The World Bank April 27 The children were hosted by the German Executive Director Mr. Eckhard Deutsche and the Indian Executive Director Mr. Dheerandra Kumar, The World Bank, together with the Social Protection Unit and the Education Unit from the World Bank. The meeting was chaired by German Executive Director Eckhard Deutsche and co-chaired by the Indian Executive Director Mr. Dheerandra Kumar. This meeting was primarily an interface with the Bank Executive Directors and their advisors, and the staff officers drawn from Fast Track Initiative, Education and Social Protection units of the World Bank. The children also met the Senior Vice President of The World Bank Mr. Jamil Salmi. Puran was then interviewed by BBC World Service from their studios in Washington, D.C. Top Holton-Arms High School Students host child laborers as Ambassadors of children out of school April 24 As a kick off to Global Action Week on Education for All, five former child laborers from India, Mexico and Columbia spent the day with high school students at the prestigious Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, MD, to share the aspirations of children out of school from around the world. Holding the hands of their guests, the MD girls pledged to jointly fight for education to make this world a better place. None of them had ever met any child laborer in their lives. The children are visiting the United States to take part in a series of events hosted by the International Center on Child labor and Education, the international advocacy office of the Global March Against Child Labor. The children were able to talk with their counterparts and ask them to work closely with their elected leaders to ensure that all children are able to receive free and compulsory, quality education. Leidy Johanna, 16, from Columbia expressed to the girls at Holton-Arms the helplessness of girls involved in selling products on the streets. She also explained how the support she received from national coordinator of the Global March in Columbia changed her life and now she attends full-time school. Aly Hernandez, 16, from Mexico shared her intense struggle to take care of a two-year old boy, babysitting for long hours, and work as a messenger, and her inability to stay awake school. She was fortunate to be helped by the local partner organization to secure a scholarship to attend full-time school. She now aspires to be a journalist. Luz Carime, 13, from Columbia worked as a metal scrap picker on the streets. Now she wishes to become either an architect or a construction mechanic. Mohmad Samsur, 12, from India shared about the long years he spent as rag picker from the age of six. A former Indian child slave Puran, 15, told his story of being a stonebreaker. His father borrowed money to pay for the treatment of his grandfather and the entire family was taken as slaves for many years. He shared how he was rescued by activists from the Bal Ashram, a rehabilitation center run by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude) and his father was put in prison by the employer due to the loss of labor from Puran and his younger brothers. “What can you do to help the millions of children like me around the world and also in United States?,” Puran asked the girls. He asked them how they could fight against the crime of female feticide (destroying a fetus). This is possible only when all are able to receive education, Puran said. Only education can fight lack of knowledge and help open the minds of people who still live in the dark ages. The students and the faculty of the Holton-Arms School expressed their desire to continue working with the children in the future and to help fight for their rights. They presented gifts to all the children. The President of the Global Campaign for Education Mr. Kailash Satyarthi also accompanied the children. He called for the globalization of human compassion in order to counter increasing global terror. This must be expressed through a collective endeavor to ensure good quality education for all children. The youth remain the only hope to exercise their moral power to pressure the politicians to fulfill their promises to children. Top Book details horrors of child labor in Pakistan Joanne Ragsdale April 28, 2006 Imagine a child's world in which the day begins before dawn when the child is awakened for work. After a meager meal and the use of a filthy bathroom, the child is sat before a loom, squatting and breathing dust and lint, to weave carpets until sunset. Some children are chained to their looms where they sleep. There is no "free" time, no play, no school, no health care or decent clothing. Most of the children neither read nor know simple math. The work areas are unbearably hot in the summers and cold in the winters. The children have lost all contact with their families. One day is like the next and dreams of home now seem hollow. This is not a scene from centuries past, this is the present in Pakistan and other third world countries where children are bound to masters to repay family debts. Although outlawed in the 1990s in Pakistan, the practice continues, often ignored by authorities or fostered by bribes and corruption. The novel, "Iqbal" (Aladdin, 2003) by Francesco D'Adamo is a fictionalized account of one boy, Iqbal Masih, who bravely sought to free children from such bondage. The story is narrated by Fatima, a girl of about 10, who has been in bondage for three years. Her desperate parents borrowed money when their crops failed. When they could not pay, the money lender took Fatima to work at weaving to repay their debts. Fatima no longer dreams of her family or her village. In fact, she hardly can picture them anymore. The memory is like a well-worn carpet, faded and obscure. Her days of endless toil leave her weary and numb. Her only goal is to weave well enough to avoid beatings and being thrown in the "tomb," a suffocating cistern reserved for breaking the spirits of children for the slightest infraction. One day, Iqbal arrives at the carpet factory. A thin, quiet boy about two years older than Fatima, he is a gifted, extraordinary weaver who soon earns the trust and respect of the other children. As he talks quietly to them in the dark after work, the children begin to take more interest in their lives. They begin to notice things they did not see before. For one, the tally slates which records their debts rarely seem to shorten. A mark is to be erased after each day of successful work but they have to admit they have never seen a clean slate. They slowly begin to realize that Iqbal is right; they are never going to repay their debts and be free. But Iqbal also tells them things that give them hope. With him, Fatima and some others begin to make a daring plan to escape. After an extreme act of rebellion, Iqbal is thrown in the tomb for three days with no food or water in the hottest days of summer. He surely would have perished if it had not been for the courage and love of the other children. Risking their own safety, they bring him food and water each night. Little by little, their courage grows as they bond and discover other ways to rebel and unite against the master. When Iqbal does manage to escape, he is soon returned to the factory by easily bribed policemen. This time he was sentenced to six days in the tomb. Barely surviving his ordeal, he tells the children all he learned during his freedom. He now knows that there are laws to prevent holding the children in bondage, and there are people working to expose those who break the laws. Next time, he will find the right people to help them. Iqbal indeed does escape a second time and finds the Bonded Labor Liberation Front. Fatima and the others are released from their bondage and most are able to be returned to their families and villages. Some, like Fatima, remain with the organization until family can be found. As for Iqbal, he chooses to continue working tirelessly to emancipate others. He takes on the task of infiltrating factories which employ children and documents the facts with photographs. It is dangerous work which ends in his death at 13. But for Fatima and many other children, he has left a legacy that cannot be forgotten. Appropriate for ages 10 and older, this is a moving, eye-opening story of extreme abuse of our greatest resource, our children. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and an appropriate time to recognize that in this modern world there are 200 million children between 5-17 who are "economically active." About 3 million are younger than 10, and about 6 million children remain in forced and bonded labor. http://www.baxterbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060428/NEWS01/604280317/1002   Top Africa struggles with free primary education 15 April 2006 Crammed behind wooden desks, eager pupils crowd a classroom at the Ayani Elementary School in Kenya's largest slum, taking advantage of a trend sweeping Africa: free primary education. Touted as a ray of hope for the future of the world's most impoverished and least developed continent, millions of African children have been enrolled in schools as a result of such schemes. And yet, as youngsters await lessons in this ramshackle corner of Nairobi's infamous overcrowded Kibera shantytown, educators, development specialists and others see a well-intentioned system fraught with perils. For all its benefits, free primary education has not been the panacea that many hoped, as huge influxes of students have overwhelmed understaffed and ill-equipped facilities in many countries, they say. While relieving poor families of the burden of paying school fees and improving literacy rates, teacher-student ratios have been wildly upset and prospects for pupil advancement remain uncertain at best and dim at worst. When Kenya introduced free primary education in 2003, more than 1.5 million previously out-of-school children turned up for classes at the country's 18,000 schools, stretching resources and manpower across the east African nation. At Ayani, enrollment shot up by 729 to 2,022 but only one additional teacher was assigned to the school, bringing the total to 28, according to principal Elisheba Khayeri, who despite the difficulties is a fan of the system. "We are very happy with this new system," she told AFP, noting that parents are no longer forced to scrape for the 9,000 Kenyan-shilling (125-dollar, 105-euro) enrollment cost and 500-shilling term fees. "Enrollment is high and the drop-out rate is very low," Khayeri said. "But the classes are very large. We have around 70 kids per class. We have one classroom with 98 children. "It's not possible to follow the pupils individually ... performance is affected." Similar problems have been reported in Burundi, Mozambique, Malawi and other African nations that have moved to provide free basic education, according to academics and researchers who met in the Kenyan capital this month to discuss the issue. In Malawi, critics like Esme Kadzamira of the Center for Education and Research Training at the University of Malawi, say the government moved too quickly and without proper oversight when it implemented the program in 1994. "The whole system has failed," she said. "It is a total failure. "Everything was crisis management: the recruitment of teachers, their training in two weeks .... they did not have material, they refused to teach in rural and remote areas, some used some fake certificates," Kadzamira said. "We found some schools with 3,000 children and four teachers," she said, noting that some communities were forced to demand fees from parents to pay for supplies and salaries despite the scheme's intentions. "It takes more time for children to get literate because the quality (of teaching) has gone down," Kadzamira said. "We have wasted 12 years." In Burundi, which is emerging from 12 years of civil strife, the free primary education scheme launched last year faces numerous seemingly insurmountable obstacles. "Yes, we have problems, we lack teachers, schools and educational materials," said Catherine Mbengue of the UN children's agency UNICEF in Burundi. "We don't have enough money but we are moving in the right direction." "We have to send all our children to school if we want to stop poverty from being passed down from one generation to the next," she said. "If a country is to develop, education must be for everyone, that is the basis for everything." While such sentiments are widely shared, they are also met with skepticism by some convinced the programs introduced thus far don't go far enough. "The scrapping of enrollment fees is not a miracle solution because education is never free," said education consultant Marie Dorleans who attended the Nairobi conference. Others agree. "There are hidden costs," said Aster Haregot of UNICEF, pointing out that the need for school uniforms, transportation and lunch, have made free education inaccessible to some children. Despite the surge in students brought about by free education schemes an estimated 45 million children in sub-Saharan Africa are still not in schools, according to UNICEF. In Kenya, where 60 percent of the country's 32 million people live on less than one dollar a day, 22 percent of school-age children, about 1.7 million, are still not enrolled, officials said. Many are forced to stay home because the combined effect of poverty and HIV/AIDS on their families, according to Ruth Owuor, an education advisor to the Kenyan government. "Quite a number of children don't come to school ... kids take care of their parents who are HIV positive," she said. Such hurdles were faced by 14-year-old AIDS orphan and current Ayani student Maureen Akinyi who is now second in her class of 75 after missing a year. "I was away from school for one year," she says, a red ribbon, the symbol of the fight against AIDS prominently displayed on her beige sweater. "There was no money to go to school." Even now that she is back in classes, Akinyi's teachers fear for her future. "There is a lot of wastage," said instructor Leah Asego. "We can take care of her in primary school, but what next? She doesn't have the money to go to secondary school. There are so many like her." http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060415/lf_afp/africakenyaeducation_060415170621 Top Barriers to Education BBC 10 April 2006 UK Chancellor Gordon Brown has said the UK will give $15bn (£8.5bn) in overseas aid for education in Africa and Asia, in order to tackle the obstacles to education. So what are the obstacles to education? Sending one child to primary school can cost more than a month's wages in many poor countries, according to the United Nations educational organization, UNESCO. Enrolments doubled or tripled in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi after these countries abolished school fees, it says. That can bring its own problems, however. The director of basic education at Kenya's Ministry of Education, Mary Njoroge, said: "With the increase of enrolment, we have large and crowded classrooms. In some places we don't have sufficient infrastructure, including water and sanitation, which is a major factor in relation to girls' access to school." Fees are direct costs. But also, potentially a poor family loses a laborer by sending a child to school. There is reportedly more child labor in Africa than in other developing parts of the world. However, simple things can make an unexpected difference. The charity WaterAid says that in Tanzania there was a 12% increase in school attendance when water was 15 minutes carrying time away from people's homes rather than an hour. Problems are compounded by the blight of HIV/Aids – though, in turn, education helps in the fight against disease. According to the UN children's fund, UNICEF, a majority of the 115 million children around the world not getting any primary school education are girls. This is a common problem in Asia and in sub-Saharan, West and Southern Africa. UNICEF says outdated sexual stereotypes - the place of females is in the home - are a key factor. Britain's Department for International Development says one school in Kenya which it funded - via the Forum for African Women Educationalists - has shown what can be achieved through liaison with the community. It worked with local Maasai chiefs and local women to overcome resistance to the idea of girls being educated, identifying families not sending daughters to school. As a result, enrolment more than doubled and the proportion of girls in primary school who went on to secondary school rose from 67% to 85%, the department said. But the task is a complex one. Gordon Brown on Monday was visiting Mozambique, whose government sees education as one of the central pillars of its battle against poverty. A Danish study carried out in the Zambezia Province of Mozambique notes that school enrolment, even among girls, has risen sharply since the civil war ended in 1992, but the drop-out rate is high and there are still major challenges. Crucially, most of the parents are themselves illiterate. Their expectations for what their children might learn are limited to basic skills. "In the lives of the majority of the rural parents, school is, however, not a viable solution and a way of the sustaining of the family," says the report. On the other hand even if girls wanted to attend, the schools might be a long way from their homes - and there were concerns about sexual harassment and abuse by male teachers. And teachers are often working in appalling conditions, with large classes and minimal resources, uncertain wages and little esteem.   The United Nations recommends there should be at least one trained teacher for every 40 school-aged children. On that basis the world is said to be short of nearly two million teachers. The situation in poor countries is not helped if the developed world continues to import trained teachers to cover its own shortages. One of the reasons many people do not have access to education is that they are displaced by war or natural disasters. Help to overcome those problems results in a more stable environment. One of the first things that societies do as soon as they can is reestablish schools.   Charities, such as Sight Savers, also point out that disability presents a huge barrier to accessing education in countries where resources are limited. Another humanitarian organization, Plan International, said education was the key to alleviating poverty and bringing about sustainable development. But at an international level, governments needed to start making good on their pledges of increased funding, a spokesman said - Gordon Brown's message. "But we need to act now. On current trends, getting all African children into school will take until 2100, and not 2015 as set out in the Millennium Development Goals." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4896302.stm   Top Survey says 8 out of 10 Togolese Children Beaten in School Joe De Capua 10 April 2006 A new survey says children in West African schools suffer regular beatings and are learning first hand about sex, violence, humiliation and child labor. The survey, called Suffering to Succeed, was conducted by Plan International, a children’s charity. Amanda Barnes is a spokesperson for Plan International. From London, she spoke to English to Africa reporter Joe De Capua about the findings, which are based on student testimony in Togo. “We just did a survey in Togo, but we know that’s typical of many countries in West Africa. And there we found that eight out of 10 children reported having been beaten in school. Eighty percent of children being beaten at school is a very high rate and it’s certainly a cause for concern. Kids who are beaten up at school, they can’t study and it makes school a really frightening and terrifying place for them to be.” Barnes relates what some of the Togolese children said in the survey: “One child told us about being beaten on her back in front of the whole class until her back was bleeding and her clothes were soaking in blood. And she was crying, as you could imagine. Other children would tell us that the threat of being beaten, the threat of violence, was enough force them to be petrified of going to school and afraid of their teachers.” The Plan survey also contains reports of sexual assaults. Barnes says, ”We found that one in every 25 girls reported being approached by teachers asking for sex in return for marks or for other kind of favors in the classroom. Some of it was just teachers taking advantage of young girls in the classroom. And we did note that the vast majority of teachers in Togo have not had any training of any kind. And the vast majority of them are male teachers and they get very little supervision.” As for the regular beatings, the Plan spokesperson says, “It’s partly a culture of violence…but also teachers reported that they were teaching very large classrooms of children of various ages and they felt that that was the only way they could control unruly pupils.” Barnes explains that there are many other ways of dealing with unruly students that don’t involved beatings. The Plan report has been presented to the Togolese government and the organization says there’s been a good response. http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2006-04-10-voa42.cfm   Top Congo Child Sorcery Abuse on the Rise BBC 4 April 2006 A report has highlighted what it calls an alarming rise in the abuse of boys and girls accused of sorcery in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Such children are physically abused and end up on the streets of the capital, Kinshasa, Human Rights Watch says. The organization has been examining the plight of children in the country. Its report says that about 70% of the street children appear to be outcasts from their family having been accused of sorcery. The report cites many cases where boys and girls had been physically and emotionally abused at home, segregated from other children and forced out of school. Orphans or children with step-parents are said to be especially vulnerable to accusations - made by surviving relatives - that they are sorcerers responsible for the family's misfortunes. Children who are HIV positive are also susceptible, with some people believing that children can infect their parents with AIDS by using magic spells. Human Rights Watch says that self-styled pastors are employed to rid children of their alleged sorcery using torture, beatings and the denial of food. In the meantime, the authorities in Kinshasa are accused of periodically carrying out mass roundups of the street children, beating and abusing them, on the basis of a law dating back to colonial times that forbids children from begging. Human Rights Watch calls on the Congolese government to protect the children and enforce a provision of the new constitution that specifically forbids accusing them of sorcery. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4877722.stm   Top Board stymies CLEA request Darry Madden 4 April 2006 Fiery debate marked Monday's School Board meeting as a student organization asked for the board's approval to affiliate with a sweatshop reform group. The Child Labor Education and Action Project (CLEA) proposed that the Brattleboro Union High School Board formally affiliate with the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), a nonprofit which enforces manufacturing codes of conduct adopted by colleges and universities. So far, no high school is affiliated with the WRC. Brattleboro Union High School would have been the first. "We have come here to take our activism to the local level," said Sarah Maceda-Maciel, a senior and a member of CLEA. In order to affiliate with the WRC, a school must adopt a code of conduct to which it holds the factories which manufacture its apparel -- in the case of BUHS, this would mean athletic and band uniforms primarily. In addition, the school must provide the WRC with the names and locations of the factories which supply the apparel they are buying. This is research that CLEA would complete. There is an annual fee of $500 to the WRC for its services, according to CLEA member Katy Rivers. The idea behind the WRC is that, instead of seeking out alternative, nonsweatshop apparel, the schools put pressure on preexisting factories to rectify any human rights violations therein. A lengthy debate arose from Board member Lynn Corum's request that the board receive a full accounting of a $350,000 federal grant that CLEA received at its inception seven years ago. John Ungerleider, a teacher at BUHS and a founding organizer of CLEA, told Corum that he found the line of questioning about the funding "insulting." "Please, I really don't like where you're going. Read the book before the next meeting -- it gives a detailed account of how the grant was spent," said Ungerleider, referring to "Challenging Child Labor," a book which he edited and to which he contributed an essay about CLEA. Board member Mike Hebert objected to the board adopting a "political standpoint." "I really have to ask what political standpoint you're speaking of," said Maceda-Maciel. "This is a political agenda in the sense that it's a human rights issue. Hebert responded, "This is a very political issue. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but asking what we do as a board." Corum challenged the members of CLEA on the number of colleges and universities actually affiliated with WRC. Corum maintains that the Web site only lists nine. "When I went to the Web site only a few hours ago it listed 155, all around the country," said Maceda-Maciel. A search by the Reformer of the Web site found 152 affiliated colleges and universities. Corum also voiced an objection to the word "collective" found on the WRC Web site, which she said sounded "communistic." Many board members voiced support for the students' efforts. "I've been compelled by the kind of issues that they've been dealing with," said Principal Jim Day, citing pregnant workers' rights and childrens rights. "I was moved by their concerns about human beings in factories. Period." Ultimately the board voted to postpone further discussion until their May 15 meeting, which would allow board members to read the information that CLEA presented and for the school district's lawyer to review the contractual agreements. The same issue came before the board last May. Maceda-Maciel said that the board didn't choose to affiliate at that time because they said they didn't have enough information about the program. The summer vacation then pulled attention away from the issue. "That's the trouble with high school organizations," she said. "There is a lot of turnover and vacations." http://www.reformer.com/headlines/ci_3670203   Top Uganda rebel 'terror' appalls UN BBC 1 April 2006 The activities of rebels in northern Uganda are "terrorism of the worst kind anywhere in the world", UN humanitarian affairs chief Jan Egeland has said. Security must be improved in the region where Lord's Resistance Army rebels abduct children and carry out attacks, he said while visiting Pader district. Mr Egeland urged the Ugandan government and international community to do more to end the humanitarian crisis. Almost two million people have been displaced during 20 years of civil war. They live in camps, often in appalling conditions, in attempts to escape attacks by the LRA. In addition, many thousands abandon their homes in rural villages every night for the relative safety of big towns. In Pader district, the worst affected area of northern Uganda, Mr Egeland visited Patongo camp, a squalid home to about 40,000 people. The BBC's Will Ross in Uganda said Mr Egeland did not hold back when assessing the situation, and described the current humanitarian relief effort as plasters on the wound. "I don't think we really understand what it is when 90% of a population is terrorized into crammed camp conditions like this," Mr Egeland said. "I just met a women's group where all of the women had had their children abducted, Most of them had never heard back from them." Some of the camp's residents told Mr Egeland about the problems they face, which included inadequate healthcare and poor access to education. But the worst problem was insecurity. Mr Egeland said that although the rebels had become weaker, they remained strong enough to prevent people from returning to their villages. "Everybody has to do more," he said. "The government of Uganda has to do more, the army has to provide real security for the people, not only when they are inside cramped camps but when they go out of these camps. "We as aid organizations have to also improve conditions. Still too many are dying from lack of sanitation, lack of proper care." Former LRA child fighters needed to be reintegrated and the rebel leaders brought to justice, he added. As residents were telling Mr Egeland they did not feel it was safe enough to go home, the Ugandan military said it was clashing with pockets of rebels in the same district. Our correspondent says the problem is how to end the war. Negotiations with the senior commanders seem to be out of the question as they have been indicted by the International Criminal Court, he adds. Mr Egeland said ending the insecurity was his hope for 2006. But he said he did not think there was a purely military solution. He pointed to the insecurity caused by small groups of rebels and the fact the rebels were mainly abducted children. "We are not wanting all the LRA killed - these are children, abducted children of these women around us. "They should be able to demobilize and be reintegrated into society and I think it can happen," he told the BBC. After meeting Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Friday, Mr Egeland said it was positive news the government of Uganda was acknowledging the situation more than it had previously, and was promising action. On Sunday, the UN humanitarian affairs chief will visit southern Sudan, which is also blighted by Ugandan LRA attacks. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4868086.stm   Top Child laborers found in every 3 homes in the Philippines Carla P. Gomez 31 March 2006 Working children, aged between 5 and 17 years old, can be found in three out of 10 Philippine households, Luzviminda Padilla, labor undersecretary for workers' protection and welfare, said. This means that at least 3 million Philippine households have children who are working, Padilla said in a speech during yesterday's National Policy Conference for the Protection and Development of Child Laborers in the Sugar Industry. The meeting was sponsored by the Laura Vicuña Foundation Inc. of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. Of the country's 25 million children aged between 5 and 17, 16 percent, or at least 4 million are working, Padilla said. She cited key findings of the 2001 Philippine Survey on Children, the latest study on child labor in the country. Child labor is largely a rural and agricultural phenomenon, Padilla said. Almost 3 million, or 70 percent of the working children, are found in rural areas. About 2.1 million, or 53 percent of the rural child laborers, are in agriculture, hunting and forestry; and nearly 2 million, or 49.5 percent, worked in farms. Child work is usually family work, Padilla said. Nearly 60 percent, or 2.4 million, are unpaid workers in family-operated farms or businesses, she pointed out. At least 30,000 children work away from home, the survey said. A total of 2.4 million working children were exposed to biological hazards, such as viruses, bacteria and parasites; physical hazards, such as noise and extreme temperatures; and chemical hazards like dust, liquid, mist and fumes, Padilla said. A total of 1.08 million working children were reported to be engaged in heavy physical work; 830,000 said they found their work risky or dangerous; 940,000 had work-related injuries, and 750,000 said they had a work-related illness. Padilla said 1.3 million of the working children were not attending school. Among those in school, 600,000 had difficulty catching up with their lessons, she added. "Child labor in the Philippines is widespread, but it is more prevalent in agriculture, including in the sugar industry where the (DOLE) is keeping a tight watch," she said. The situation is contrary to the Minimum Age Convention of 1973, or International Labor Organization Convention No. 138, that the Philippines ratified in 1998 and which prescribed that only children beyond 15 years old should be allowed to work, she admitted. Children over 15 years old but under 18 may be allowed to work if the employment is not likely to endanger their health safety and morals, Padilla said. The national policy for minimum age only allows two exceptions: Work for a parent or a legal guardian, and work for the production of public entertainment or public information, in which case a work permit from the DOLE is needed. Children of any age, however, are strictly prohibited from performing for advertisements that promote alcoholic beverages, tobacco and violence, Padilla said. In the sugar industry, she said, to augment family income, children were either put to work by their parents or took farm jobs on their own. http://news.inq7.net/regions/index.php?index=1&story_id=71109   Top The Young Slaves of Mumbai Anupama Katakam 27 March 2006 Walking through the lanes of Govandi, past shanty-type structures, open sewers and garbage-filled passages is like going through any of Mumbai's sprawling slums. Unless you know what to look for, nothing would suggest that this slum, located in one of India's most progressive cities, harbors perhaps the worst form of human exploitation - bonded child labor. Bits of fabric, gold threads, glitter beads and tiny fake pearls are some signs that invariably guide you to the dens of misery called "zari factories". Steep staircases lead to a trapdoor, which open into hovel-like rooms that house the zari units. Until recently, boys between the ages of six and 14 were found kneeling at low work tables sewing beads and colored threads on to vast lengths of fabric. There are thousands of these factories in Mumbai spread across not just Govandi but other slums such as Dharavi and Madanpura. The boys work 20-hour days, seven days a week, in dingy 10” x 10” sized rooms. The rooms have hardly any ventilation and the floors are grimy. Each room has a small smelly bathroom located in one corner. Another corner serves as a basic cooking area. They sleep, bathe and eat in this same room. They are given two meals a day and, if lucky, two cups of tea. "It's a life of wretchedness," says Satish Kasbe, a social worker with Pratham, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works in rescue and rehabilitation of child labor. The boys are rarely allowed to leave the room. If they must, they do so with an older boy who is a karigar (craftsman). And if they are lucky, the owner takes them on an occasional Sunday outing. Sometimes the owner locks the trapdoor, to open it only the next morning. Some rooms have two trapdoors. So if there is a raid, the children are shunted down the other one, which is then covered with a workbench. Zari workers are split into shagirds (apprentices), karigars and owners. Most of the young boys are shagirds. In addition to doing some basic embroidery, a shagird does the cleaning and washing of clothes and some cooking for the unit. For this he is paid about Rs.50 a month. Eventually he becomes a karigar. Physical and sexual abuse is part of this sad existence. In April 2005, 12-year-old Afzal Ansari, who worked in a unit in Govandi, died after contracting hepatitis. When Ansari fell ill, his employer did not treat him. Instead he asked a relative to take the boy away. Ansari died on the way to hospital. A post-mortem revealed marks left by burning cigarettes all over the boy's body and several signs of sexual abuse. In June 2005, 11-year-old Ahmed Khan, another zari worker in Govandi, died after being beaten severely. According to his co-workers, the employer made the little boy massage his feet every evening. Khan did not do a very good job one day and the employer began thrashing him. Among other forms of torture, he pulled out the boy's fingernails. Data collected from the State Labour Department say 90 per cent of children in the zari units in Mumbai are migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They come from very poor districts such as Rampur and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh and Madhubani and Sitamarhi in Bihar. West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh are some of the other States from where children are brought. Kasbe, who has rescued and taken several children back to their families, says the areas they come from are extremely backward. There are no schools in the villages or even close by. Most families are landless and work for a daily wage - that is if they can find work. "It could be as little as Rs.10-20 a day," he says. Some have land but suffer through drought or other calamities and therefore have no resources to bring up children. In several cases, he says, one parent has died so the ablest child is sent to work to support the family. "When we return the kids, we ask the parents why they sent them," says Kasbe. Many say they cannot afford to look after them. Some believe that by sending the children they save them from a miserable life in the village. Those who live in border areas say sending children to Mumbai prevents them from joining terrorist groups. In Mumbai, they believe the child will get at least an education and the opportunity of a better existence. Zari owner Shankar Jha used to employ 15 children in his unit. "Their parents send them knowing full-well what the children will be doing. They are very poor and this fetches them some money and saves them from things such as bonded labor," he said. As to why they are kept like bonded labor, he says: "We try to do the best for the boys but our margins are so low that we can only spend a small amount on their well-being." Middlemen, says Kasbe, prey on these families. They go to vulnerable areas and convince families to send children to Mumbai by promising them an education. Some talk to children directly and lure them to big cities promising a better life. Others just kidnap them, he says. Twelve-year-old Umesh Paswan, rescued recently from a zari factory in Govandi, says he came to Mumbai from Sitamarhi after an uncle promised to send him to school. His mother had died and his father had abandoned him. Paswan had nowhere to go. Mumbai seemed a good option. "I used to work from 5 a.m. to midnight. My eyes would water and my back and legs would hurt all the time. If the work was not good, I would get beaten." Activists and social workers have been fighting a long battle to get the Maharashtra government to tackle the problem. "It seemed like the number of children working in these factories kept increasing," says Bhavana Kamble, a social worker in Govandi and Dharavi. "Either they are wearing blinkers or they do not think it's a big enough problem." It took the tragic deaths of Khan and Ansari, reported widely in the media, for the State government to initiate some action to rescue the thousands of children working in completely inhuman conditions. Immediately after the boys' deaths, 400 children were rescued in a dramatic raid in the Madanpura area, which has perhaps the highest number of zari factories in Mumbai. In the following months, about 16,000 children were rescued and sent back to their villages. Another 1,080 were rehabilitated in shelters. The Labour Department says there must be at least another 25,000 children working in this sector, whom it plans to rescue. Towards the end of 2005, the State government set up a Special Child Labour Task Force. In February 2006 Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil declared that Maharashtra would be "child labor free" by August 15 - an ambitious goal given the complexities of the problem but nonetheless a move in the right direction. Furthermore, Patil announced that employing children would be made a non-bailable offence in the State. While a task force may solve the immediate problem, the child labor situation in Mumbai is so grim that the greater issue that needs addressing is why these children come here and what happens to them once rescued, says Ashok Agarwal, lawyer and civil rights activist. With no long-term rehabilitation plan, many of the children "saved" return to these sweatshops. "This is nothing but recycling of child labor," says Agarwal. According to the Central Labour Department, Maharashtra comes eighth among the top 10 States that employ child labor on a large scale. Why the government has suddenly become proactive in an area that has been screaming for attention for so many years is unclear. Additional Labour Commissioner P.T. Jagtap came closest to answering, saying that child labor is a responsibility spread across many departments. Since there was little coordination between them the issue slipped through the cracks. "The task force has solved this problem. It makes us work together," he says. "Before the task force came we did not have the authority to arrest anyone who employed children. If a rescue operation had to be carried out we needed the cooperation of the police and the Municipal Corporation," says Jagtap. Chaired by the Labour Commissioner, the task force comprises representatives from the Finance, Education, Women and Child Welfare and Home Departments as well as from the police, the Municipal Corporation and NGOs. "Our aim is to conduct mass raids, which involve 50-60 officers who target an area and begin a "combing operation". If we raid one owner, the others get to know very fast and chase the children to hideaways. We need to go in there and attack as many factories as possible in one go," says Jagtap. The children that are rescued are taken to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), which takes them home. Those who have nowhere to go would be given shelter. Currently they are kept in an observation home. But they are not delinquents, so they should not stay there. The Chief Minister has promised to set up residential schools for these children, says Jagtap. "If there is political will, it is much easier to eradicate child labor," says Farida Lambay, Vice-Principal of the Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work. "It's not just about rescuing children, we need to tackle the problem at its shores." Compulsory education that is accessible to all is what we must work on, she says. Gaps in legislation are the prime cause for the increasing rate of child labor, says Ashok Agarwal. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, prohibits the engagement of children in certain employments (such as hazardous industries) and regulates the working conditions of children in certain other jobs. "The important thing is that the Act does not prohibit child labor in all its forms, nor does it lay down any provision for educational opportunities for rescued child labor." Agarwal has filed a public interest petition in the Supreme Court seeking the abolition of child labor in all forms and compulsory education for every child between six and 14 years, which is mandated by Article 21-A of the Constitution. Furthermore, the penalty for employing children is so low that it is hardly a deterrent. The law says those caught employing children will pay fines between Rs.10,000 and Rs.20,000 or serve imprisonment from two to five years. Additionally, says Agarwal, none of the other laws which protect children, such as the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, the Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment Act), 1966, and the Factories Act, 1948, provide for any form of rehabilitation for rescued children. In fact, laws are so skewed that the Apprentice Act, 1961, and the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, actually permit children to work. "If the lawmakers have decided to eradicate child labor, they must first make the laws cohesive," says Agarwal. There are two schools of thought when it comes to children working. One believes that as long as children are first educated, it is all right for them to work for the rest of the day. This would provide a poor family with some income. The other school seeks a blanket ban on children working. Unfortunately, activists and lawmakers seem stuck in this argument; as a result children continue to lose out on their childhood. If working at the age of six to earn Rs.50 a month is a better life, then clearly India has a long way to go before it can claim to be an emerging economy that has become a favorite in the global market. http://www.flonnet.com/fl2306/stories/20060407001708400.htm   Top Utah firm hit with fine of $10,395 for child labor Brooke Adams 22 March 2006 A construction company in Hildale, Utah has been fined $10,395 for using boys, including a 12-year-old, to do roofing work.           The firm, Paragon Contractors, also failed to pay the boys, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.           Paragon, owned by Brian Jessop, had two boys, ages 12 and 13, working on residential home construction jobs in 2005. Federal law prohibits youth under age 14 from working in nonagricultural jobs.           Those boys and a 15-year-old were found working on a roof, the department said, in violation of a law that sets the minimum age at 18 for such hazardous work. The older boy also was observed operating a table saw, another violation of youth employment regulations. Minors under 18 are not allowed to operate power-driven circular saws, band saws and guillotine shears, the department said in news release. The department ordered Paragon to pay the boys $3,296 in back wages, which it agreed to do. But the firm is appealing the penalty assessed by the Labor Department.     A man who answered the telephone at Paragon said Jessop was unavailable and no one else at the company would care to comment on the case.     Hildale and the adjoining community of Colorado City, Ariz., are home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamous sect that follows early teachings of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith. http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_3630011 Top

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