Trading on children’s futures

Sivakasi, an industrial boom town in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is famous for supplying the bulk of India’s matches and fireworks. It is also infamous for employing up to 50,000 girls and boys under 14 years in its 8,000 or so small factories and workshops, making it one of the largest concentrations of child workers anywhere in the world. In these workshops children as young as five spend all day packing matches into boxes and threading together fireworks. Not only are they paid well below the minimum wage, but they are exposed to dangers of toxic and volatile chemicals and numbed by the repetitive work.

Dok is 12 years old and from one of the ethnic hill tribes in the border area between Burma and Thailand. Her parents were offered a ‘loan’ by someone they knew in exchange for sending Dok to work in Bangkok. Dok’s work consisted of ‘serving’ 10-15 customers a day in a brothel. She was told her parents had received a loan for her employment and they would be punished if she stopped working. Dok was not paid. She is HIV positive.

Invisible exploitation

These are just two examples of how children are exploited in the world today. Recent estimates by the International Labour Organisation suggest that 73 million 10 to 14 year olds are currently at work in conditions harmful to their development (13 per cent of all 10-14 year olds in the world); many other organisations such as Anti-Slavery International believe 200 million to be a more realistic figure when under 10’s and girls in domestic service are taken into account.

Such children are by no means merely confined to particular countries or sectors of industry: children all over the world work in a bewildering array of industrial and agricultural undertakings, from garment manufacture to brick-making and from plantation work to deep-sea fishing. Yet the majority of children work not in large-scale industrial and agricultural undertakings but in the less visible informal sector: on family farms; in prostitution; as domestic servants. Such activities, while less visible, clearly rank amongst the most exploitative of all work done by children.

Few can fail to be distressed by the harm done to any child through exploitation. That this happens day after day to millions of children around the world can only serve to compound our horror. We want to act, we want to do something to alleviate the suffering, but for many of us, far removed from the worst forms of child labour, a sense of powerlessness prevails - with our influence as consumers the only weapon.

A cheap workforce

Child labour is a world-wide problem. Many millions suffer as a result of working too young, for too many hours, and in hazardous conditions. By the time such children reach adulthood they are often damaged physically, emotionally, morally and intellectually; they have lost the opportunity for an education that would help to open up a better future. They are exploited because they are a cheap workforce for employers, they do not protest and they are largely unrepresented by trade unions. In the long-term, however, this exploitation of child labour not only damages the children concerned but also prevents the emergence of a skilled workforce, keeping the countries concerned in a cycle of impoverishment.

The causes of child labour are complex. Although rooted in poverty there are a number of other significant factors contributing to the economic exploitation of children: lack of alternatives for children and their families; lack of awareness by parents, employers and governments as to the detrimental effect of labour on children; the marginalisation and disenfranchisement of communities in society and the continuing demand for child workers in the labour market because they represent a cheap and compliant workforce.

The problem with sanctions

Anti-Slavery International (ASI) has been working on the issue of child labour for over 20 years. It can demonstrate a long-term desire to see an end to the exploitation of child labour. For many reasons however, the organisation has resisted recent calls for trade sanctions (such as boycotts) as a way of curbing this exploitation. Although there are some advantages in linking basic human rights standards to international trade agreements, such links cannot be seen as a cure-all for child labour.

Such a complex problem demands a range of solutions which need to be implemented sensitively and with a certain degree of flexibility. Unfortunately, measures such as trade sanctions on their own only really address the issue of the demand for child workers and even then only in the export sector. Using such measures to remove child labour from export industries is fraught with problems since the majority of child workers are not involved in producing goods for export and neither are they the most exploited of all child workers. In the absence of improved education facilities and better economic conditions evidence has shown that blunt consumer pressure such as the boycotting of a product or country has the effect of pushing children from the export sector of the economy into worse conditions, forcing them to look for work elsewhere.

Most countries have labour laws which specifically prohibit the use of child labour. However, such laws often remain unimplemented because of severe economic conditions and prevailing social attitudes. In some cases the laws are so unrealistic as to make them useless. In addition they often fail to address the informal sector such as small workshops, agriculture, domestic service, begging and prostitution where the worst forms of child labour are to be found. The argument that in poor countries children have to work to survive has been used by some governments to legitimise the sorts of abuse that occur in Sivakasi - but a new convention on child labour currently being proposed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which aims to target the worst forms of child labour and will gain international consensus on what constitutes ‘unacceptable’ child labour will help campaigners blow away the smoke screen.

Some positive proposals

Of course, consumers in ‘Northern’ markets have a right not to buy products made by exploiting children. However, ASI believes that banning exports made with all but the most exploitative forms of child labour is not the solution, since this could result in even greater exploitation. There are a number of more useful measures open to us which we believe would provide the basis for a more lasting solution that works with developing economies rather than against them:

• Product labelling, which identifies those items that are confirmed to be free of child labour, has proved reasonably successful. Hand-knotted carpets labelled under the Rugmark scheme carry the assurance that they have not been made by exploited child labour and help to provide for the rehabilitation of those children who lose their jobs as a result. Goods carrying the Fair Trade Foundation label carry similar assurances.
• Multinational companies should be encouraged to adopt and enforce codes of conduct, either directly or through their sub-contractors, and must take responsibility for those children laid off as a result of the implementation of such codes. Where it is practical, training, education and crèche facilities should be provided for workers. Companies can also be persuaded to actively engage in the labour rights debate in the countries where they operate.
• All importers and retailers should be persuaded to insist their suppliers adopt the minimum international standards on child labour and to ensure that they set up effective monitoring procedures.

Just do it!

Only last April sporting goods giants, Nike and Reebok, bowed to consumer pressure and drafted a charter of workers’ rights along with other leading US clothing manufacturers, the White House and human rights groups. The charter is aimed at improving the working conditions of people employed in overseas sweatshops. All companies concerned will be allowed to feature a special logo on their products.

Child labour will only be eliminated through concerted long-term, national programmes that involve the broad support of the populace and address all the causal factors. We can all play a part in the process by questioning companies, supermarket chains and shops about their purchasing policies and insisting that they act on the issue. We can also make sure that, wherever possible, we all buy goods which have not been made by child labour - and then tell companies why we have made this choice. It is in this way that all of us can play a part in ensuring that children will no longer have to labour at the expense of their future.

Dida:
1) Those who wish to know more about this problem can contact Anti-Slavery International: The Stableyard, Broomgrove Road, London SW9 9TL, UK: Fax: +44 (0)171 738 4110; E-mail: antislavery@gn.apc.org

2) In Vietnam, the average daily wage for a child is US$ 1.60, whereas 3 meals a day cost US$ 2.10; in Indonesia, the average wage is US$ 2.40, but the cost of living is US$ 4.50 per person per day