The Challenge of Child Labour in Asia

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The Challenge of Child Labour in Asia

• Special Focus on the Philippines

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Child labour has become an important social issue
in the international development agenda
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This is due to

• Greater awareness of the nature, extent and
  consequences of early child work
• International adherence to the cause of human
  rights, including child rights
• Powerful movements by consumers and manufacturers
  linking trade issues with international labour
  standards

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Child work vs. child labour

• Not all work done by children is child labour.
  Running errands or helping parents help children
  develop. Such tasks prepare children for
  adulthood and is a way of acquiring skills from
  one generation to the next.

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Exploitative child work is ...

• Hazardous, dangerous, under socially unjust
  conditions
• Harmful to the childs health
• Impairs the physical, mental and emotional
  development
• Infringes the childs human rights
• Separates children from their families

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Causes of child labour supply factors

• Poverty is the main push factor. Other factors
  are
• Lack of educational facilities or poor quality of
  education
• Disrupted family patterns
• Entrenched social and cultural attitudes
• Demographic factors

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Causes of child labour demand factors

• Children are docile and compliant workers and in
  most cases cost less
• Children can be hired, dismissed and re-hired
  easily.
• Misplaced perception of the necessity of
  children in certain production tasks

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Global estimate of child labour

• A conservative estimate of the ILO concludes that
  there are about 250 million working children
  world-wide.
• Nearly half work full-time.

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Child labour by region
Asia has most of the child workers (61) while
Africa has the highest incidence at 40
Asia (61)
Africa (32)
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Child labour in Asia

• Asia has shown dramatic economic performance
  yet, child labour remains a serious problem
• Also, extreme forms of child labour (bonded child
  labour, child prostitution, and the traffic of
  children) exist in the region.

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Profile of the working children in Asia

• More likely to work in rural than urban areas
• Majority found in small production units, few are
  found in the modern sector
• About equal number of working boys and girls

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Economic growth by itself is not a cure-all ...

• Disparities across regions and sectors
  (rural-urban migration, widening of the income
  inequalities, increased demand in certain
  economic sectors..)
• Intensity of child labour untilization

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Structural changes in child labour seen in SEA

• Urbanization of child labour
• Structural shift from primary to secondary and
  tertiary sectors
• Proportion of wage child labour has increased,
  unpaid family work has declined

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The International Labour Organization

• ILO was formed in 1919 as part of the League of
  Nations. The organization precedes the United
  Nations by twenty five years.

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ILOs Objectives

• Promotion of social justice
• Improvement of living and working conditions

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ILOs Core Mandates

• International Standard Setting through
  Conventions and Recommendations
• Technical Advisory Services through
  multi-disciplinary teams
• Technical cooperation through assistance
  programmes for its tripartite partners

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The Structure

• ILO works through a Tri-partite Structure of
  government, workers and employers
  organizations.

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The International Programme on the Elimination of
Child Labour

• Started in 1992 with 6 participating countries,
  IPEC is now operational in 31 countries. It has
  become one of ILOs largest technical cooperation
  programmes

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IPEC A global movement

• 1992 Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Thailand,
  Turkey
• 1994 Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines,
  Tanzania
• 1996/97 Argentina, Benin, Bolivia, Cambodia,
  Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic,
  Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala,
  Honduras, Panama, Peru, Madagascar, Nicaragua,
  Venezuela, Senegal and Sri Lanka

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The aims of IPEC

• The progressive elimination of child labour by
• creating a world-wide movement
• strengthening national capacities

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IPECs priority target groups

• Children working under forced labour conditions
• Children in hazardous working conditions
• Very young children
• Working girls

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IPECs Principle

• Child labour is a national responsibility. It is
  therefore first and foremost the responsibility
  of national governments and civil society.

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IPEC in the Philippines

• ILO and the Philippine government signed a
  Memorandum of Understanding in June 1994. This
  agreement has been extended till Year 2001.

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The Working Children of the Philippines

• 3.6 million Filipino children between the ages of
  5-17 work. This is 15.9 of the child
  population, or put more simply, one out of six
  children are economically active.

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Age profile

• 216,000 between the ages of 5-9
• 1.6 million between the ages of 10-14
• 1.8 million are between the ages of 15-17

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Socio-demographic profile

• More rural than urban
• 11.5 of all urban children 20.7 of all rural
  children
• More boys than girls 11.7 of all girls work
  20.8 of the boys

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The regional profile

• Regions 4, 6, 11 have the highest numbers of
  working children
• Regions 2, 12 and 11 have the highest incidence.

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Workplaces

• 63.2 in farms
• 17.5 in own homes
• 9.8 in their employers or another persons
  household
• 7.7 in the market places and the streets
• 2.2 in mines and quarries

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Exposure to Hazards

• 2.2 million children or 60 are in hazardous work
  situations, consisting of physical difficulties
  and chemical exposures.
• 30 are in permanent work

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80 experience work related difficulties

• exhaustion (63.3)
• stress (55), physical burden (47)
• boredom (52)
• 8 have no day off
• 17 consider their work as risky dangerous.

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Suffer injuries and illnesses from work

• 24 or 869,199 working children have experienced
  at least one work-related injury or illness.
  These range from cuts and wounds, abrasions to
  illness requiring hospital care.

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Studying?

• 70 of working children combine school and work.
  600,000 no longer attend school.
• Those who continue school face many difficulties
• low grades (41.2)
• absenteeism (25.3), tardiness (26)
• Many tend to be chronic drop-outs.

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Live and work away from home

• Of 409,849 children are living away from home,
  75 work.
• The working children away from home are mostly
  girls, come from rural households and work in
  urban sectors a large number work in households.

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Philippine priority groups of children

• Four (4) primary target groups of children
• victims of trafficking
• children in mining/quarrying
• children in home-based work esp. under
  sub-contracting
• children in prostitution

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The secondary groups are

• Children in domestic service
• Children in the pyrotechnics industry
• Children in muro-ami/deep-sea fishing
• Children in vegetable and sugar production

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Areas of Action

• Situation analysis
• National policy
• Intl labour standards
• Advocacy
• Social mobilization
• Direct services preventive, protective,
  rehabilitative
• Capability building

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Situation Analysis

• National surveys
• Dedicated surveys
• Special investigative techniques
• Outreach services

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International standards

• UN Convention on the rights of the child
• ILO Convention 138
• ILO conventions on forced labour, night work,
  etc.
• Proposed convention on intolerable forms of work

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Law enforcement

• National law and regulations
• Operational guidelines regarding hazardous work
  
• Action against deceptive recruitment and
  trafficking
• Increased priority of labor inspection in
  informal work arrangements

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Priority-setting

• Formulation of the Indicative Framework for
  action giving greater emphasis on priority target
  groups of children

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Advocacy

• Challenging the myths
• Lobbying
• Strategic alliances and coalitions
• National media campaigns

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Social mobilization

• Directed for and with the child
• Family protection
• Employer responsibility
• Community Involvement
• Inter-sectoral action

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A Diverse Range of Partnerships

• Government
• Departments of Labor Employment, Justice,
  Social Welfare Devt., Interior Local
  Government Council for the Welfare of Children,
  Phil. Information Agency
• Employers
• Employers Confederation of the Phils.
• Bishop Businessmens Conference

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Partnerships

• Trade Unions
• Trade Union Congress of the Phils., Federation of
  Free Workers, International Textile Garment
  Leather
• NGOs
• Visayan Forum, Stop Trafficking of Pilipinos,
  Ateneo Human Rights Center, Childhope Asia,
  Philippine Childrens Television, etc.

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Focus on education

• Scholarships
• Alternative learning (NFE)
• Special classes and flexible schedules
• Vocational training

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Direct services to child workers

• Access to education
• Welfare and recreational services
• Health monitoring
• Psycho-social counseling, emotional support

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Direct services to child workers ...

• Legal assistance
• Alternative income and livelihood
• Organizing and empowerment initiatives

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Focus on employer action

• Awareness raising and advocacy
• Representation in tripartite bodies
• Company codes of conduct on hiring and
  procurement
• Corporate outreach programmes
• Sectoral initiatives

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Capacity Building

• Specialized training (psycho-social counseling,
  paralegal education)
• Networking and collaborative action
• International solidarity

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Strategic priorities for the future

• Early stage Laying the groundwork. The 100
  flowers bloom approach using a diverse
  innovative experiments.
• Second more mature stage comprehensive,
  self-sustaining programmes

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