Friday, August 12, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Child Labour: Under Construction: Child Labour
Child Labour: Under Construction: Child Labour: "Once this is that place - Where we played together Where we jumped and laughed together Where we spoke together ..."
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Child Labour: UNICEF Criteria
Child labour is one of the social evils faced by the 21st century world. United Nations Children's Fund – which was originally formed as United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in World War II-affected countries – defines child labour on the basis of three criteria: age, nature of work and number of work-hours. Engaged in harmful work for long hours at early stages of life is considered as child labour by UNICEF, which championed their cause.
According to UNICEF dossiers, child labour has three broad categories covering the age from 5-17 years:
- Category-I covering Age Group 5-11: At least one hour of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week
- Category-II covering Ages Group 12-14: At least 14 hours of economic work or 28 hours of domestic work per week
- Category-III covering Ages Group 15-17: At least 43 hours of economic or domestic work per week
According to UNICEF, one out of six children across the globe in the age-group of 5-14 (representing 158 million) are engaged in hazardous work-environment (threatening their health and safety) such as handling heavy dangerous machines, chemicals, pesticides, mining, quarrying, carrying heavy loads, etc., labouring for long hours in the dark, behind closed-doors of workshops and factories while unseen behind high-raised plantations, apart from being domestic servants. According to the UNICEF’s annual report titled, “The State of World Children 2011 – Adolescence: An Age of Opportunity”, one in three children representing 69 million in Sub-Saharan Africa and 44 million in South Asia are engaged in child labour.
It is estimated that most of the clothes and household goods we use today are the products made and handled by very small and sensitive hands, which should play with toys, had been striving constantly for long hours without rest only to get low wages to help not only their survival only but also to support their poorest families. These are the hands of those children born and dwelling in the poorest localities and households both in urban and rural areas, burdened with household chores, losing their unreturned joyous-childhood. Losing their happiness and education, the poverty-stricken children, especially girls who toil as domestic servants are more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
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