Child labour today

CHILD LABOUR TODAY: FACTS AND FIGURES
(World of work N. 6/96)

  AIthough the internationally recommended minimum age for work is 15 years (ILO Convention No. 138) and the number of child workers under the age of 10 is far from negligible, almost all the data available on child labour concerns the 10-to-14 age group. Combining various official sources, the ILO estimates that more than 73 million children in that age group alone were economically active in 1995, representing 13.2 per cent of all 10-to-14 year olds around the world.
  The greatest numbers were found in Asia - 44.6 million (13 per cent) followed by Africa - 23.6 million (by far the highest rate at 26.3 per cent) and Latin America - 5.1 million (9.8 per cent).
  Estimates by country showed the following rates of economic activity among children 10-to-14: Bangladesh (30.1 per cent), China ( I 1.6), India (14.4), Pakistan (17.7), Turkey (24); Cote d'lvoire (20.5), Egypt ( 11.2), Kenya (41.3), Nigeria (25.8), Senegal (31.4); Argentina (4.5), Brazil (16.1), Mexico (6.7); Italy (0.4), Portugal (1.8).
  "But this is only part of the picture," says Assefa Bequele, departmental Director and child labour specialist at the ILO. "No reliable figures on workers under 10 are available though their numbers, we know, are significant. The same is true of children between 14 and 15 on whom few reports exist. If all of these could be counted and if proper account were taken of the domestic work performed full-time by girls, the total number of child workers around the world today might well be in the hudreds of millions."
  Though mostly prevalent in the developing regions, child labour also exist in richer industrialized countries. "In southern Europe, there have always been relatively large numbers of children working for pay, in particular in seasonal activities, street trades, small workshops or in a home setting," notes an ILO report- prepared for a meeting to be held in conjunction with this year's session of the International Labour Conference (4-20 June 1996).
  In central and eastern Europe, the difficulties connected with the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy has led to a substantial increase in child labour. The ILO report points out that "the same is true of the United States, where the growth of the service sector, the rapid increase in the supply of part-time jobs and the search for more flexible workforce have contributed to the expansion of the child labour market."
  Traditionally, the proportion of working children has been much higher in rural than in urban areas - nine out of ten are engaged in agricultural or related activities. In the towns and cities of developing countries, where child labour has increased steadily as a result of the rapid urbanization of recent years working children are found mainly in trade and services and to a lesser extent in the manufacturing sector.
  Experimental statistical surveys carried out by the ILO in Ghana, India, Indonesia and Senegal have shown that the economic activity of over three quarters of children between the ages of and 14 takes place in a family enterprise setting. With the exception of Latin America where their numbers appear to be substantial, "children employed as wage-earners usually account for a relatively small percentage of total child labour," says the report.
  "At the international level," notes the report, "attention focuses mainly on children employed in Third World countries and predominantly export industries, such as textiles, clothing, carpets and footwear. In fact, though, children producing for export are substantially fewer than those employed in branches of activity geared essentially to meeting domestic consumption needs."
  Available statistics suggest that more boys than girls work. "It should be borne in mind, however, that the number of working girls is often underestimated by statistical surveys, as they usually do not take into account full-time housework performed by many children, the vast majority of whom are girls, in order to enable their parents to go to work."
  Girls, moreover, tend to work longer hours, on average, than do boys. "This is especially true for the many girls emplnyed as domestic workers, a type of employment in which hours of work are typically extremely long. This is also the case of girls employed in other types of jobs who, in addition to their professional activity, must help with the housework in their parents' home."
  One of the factors affecting the supply of child labour is the high cost, in real terms, of obtaining an education. Many children work to cover the costs of school expenses. But, "many schools serving the poor are of such abysmal quality, or chances of upward mobility for graduates are so slim, that the expected return is not equal to the sacrifice made...While it is true that many children drop out of school because they have to work, it in equally true that many become so discouraged by school that they prefer to work."

Refuting the "nimble fingers" argument

  In manufacturing industries, children are most likely to be employed, says the report, "when their labour is less expensive or less troublesome than that of adults, when other labour is scarce, and when they are considered irreplaceable by reason of their size or perceived dexterity."
  The ILO investigated this latter question in 1992 as it applied in the handwoven carpet and glass bracelet (bangles) industries in India, subsequently expanding its studies to include the diamond polishing, gem polishing, slate, limestone and mosaic chip quarryig industries.
  The findings of these studies, says the ILO, "clearly refute the 'nimble fingers' argument - the claim that only children can do certain jobs, or can do them better than adults." Very often, the studies found, "the jobs that only children perform consist of menial unskilled work that adults could do at least as quickly."
  "Some of the best carpets, those having the greatest density of small knots, are woven by adults," states the report. If child dexterity is not uniquely necessary to knot the finest carpets, it is difficult to imagine other trades for which the 'nimble fingers' argument could be valid.
  Many working children face significant threats to their health and safety. The majority are involved in farming and are routinely exposed to harsh climate, sharpened tools, heavy loads as well, increasingly, as to toxic chemicals and motorized equipment.
  Others, particularly girls working as domestic servants away from their homes, are frequent victims of physical, mental and sexual abuses which can have devastating consequences on their health.
  "Prostitution is another type of activity in which children, especially girls, are increasingly found," says the ILO report. "The AIDS epidemic is a contributing factor to this trend, as adults see the use of children for sexual purposes as the best means of preventing infection. The laissez-faire attitude of the authorities in charge of national and international tourism is also largely responsible for the current situation." Another "extremely serious problem," says the report, is child slavery.
  "Available information points to the existence of traditional forms of child slavery in South Asia and sub-Saharan East Africa. Instances have also been found in two Latin American countries." Contemporary forms of child slavery however, appear to be evolving "either by a link being established between an adult' s work contract and the availability of a child or by the exchange of a child for a sum of money that is often described as an advance on wages."
  "A large number of child slaves" who, according to reports cited in the ILO report, may number in the tens of millions, "are to be found in agriculture, domestic help, the sex industry, the carpet and textile industries, quarrying and brickmaking."
  "Child slavery predominates mainly where there are social systems based on the exploitation of poverty, such as debt bondage, when the motivation is the debt incurred by a family to meet a social or religious obligation or simply to acquire the means of survival," says the report, adding that wars are also conducive to child slavery.
  "A different approach is needed for each of these different forms of child slavery," warns the ILO. "In the first instance, any external, and particularly international, intervention is doomed to failure if it is not accompanied by a process of social transformation implemented by the communities concerned. In the second case, the enslavement of civil populations in the context of an armed conflict is a crime against humanity," which the international community has an obligation to stop and to punish. There is a growing body of opinion "that national and international efforts need to be more sharply focused on the most abusive and hazardous forms of child labour, granting them first concern and priority," underlines the report.
  "Perhaps the most telling social argument against child labour is that its effects are highly discriminatory, adding to the burden and disadvantage of in dividuals and groups already among the socially excluded while benefiting those who are privileged."
  "For that reason, child labour is inconsistent with democracy and social justice."

Estimated percentages of economically active children between 10 and 14 years of age,1995
(Selected countries and territories)

Africa

Algeria   1.63
Burkina Faso   51.05
Burundi   48.97
Cameroon   25.25
Cote d'lvoire   20.46
Egypt   11.23
Ethiopia   42.30
Ghana   13.27
Kenya   41.27
Mali   54.53
Morocco   5.61
Niger   45.17
Nigeria   25.75
Senegal   31.36
South Africa   0.00
Tunisia   0.00
Uganda   45.31
Zambia   16.27
Zimbabwe   29.44

Asia

Bangladesh   30.12
Bhutan   55.10
China   11.55
East Timor   45.39
Hong Kong   0.00
India   14.37
Indonesia   9.55
Iran   4.71
Iraq   2.95
Japan   0.00
Jordan   0.68
Malaysia   3.16
Nepal   45.18
Pakistan   17.65
Philippines   8.04
Saudia Arabia   0.00
Syrian Arab Rep   5.78
Turkey   24.00
Thailand   16.22
Viet Nam   9.12
Yemen   20.15

Europe

Albania   1.11
Hungary   0.17
Italy   0.38
Portugal   1.76
Romania   0.17

Latin America

Argentina   4.53
Bolivia   14.36
Brazil   16.09
Chile   0.00
Colombia   6.62
Costa Rica   5.48
Cuba   0.00
Dominican Rep   16.06
Guatemala   16.22
Haiti   25.30
Mexico   6.73
Nicaragua   14.05
Paraguay   7.87
Peru   2.48
Uruguay   2.08
Venezuela   0.9

Oceania

Papua New Guinea   19.31
Solomon Islands   28.89
Polynesia   3.67

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