The Worst Forms of Child Labor

Fourth Quarter 2000

by Gideon Strauss

Work is a good thing. Even small children benefit from helping out with household chores. Older children can learn much from work that earns them pocket money. But work can become an evil when children are forced to do work that is inappropriate for their age, when they are forced to do work that would damage even an adult, when they are forced to do work that denies their basic human dignity, and when they are dragged or pushed away from the shelter of their families to work.

Around the world today there are more than 250 million children between the ages of five and 14 who work. Most of them work because of the extreme poverty of their families. If they did not work, they would not eat. Most children who work miss the kind of basic education they need in order to be able to improve their lives in the long run.

Francisco from Mexico, now 17, decided to leave his family so they would not have to bear the bur-den of "an additional mouth to feed." Living on the streets, he started taking drugs and saw some of his friends work as prostitutes. After six years on the streets, he asked for help from the organization Caza Alianza. They helped him deal with his addiction and return to school.

To escape an abusive father, Ronald, from Indonesia, left home to live on the streets at the age of 10. He first worked in a car wash and now works as a street musician. He has moved into a group home run by a charitable foundation but must still work to buy food. He earns about a dollar a day.

Mary is a 14-year-old Filipino. To help provide for her family, she was forced to work as a docker, loading sacks of fertilizer onto freighters by hand, until she was 12. She now works with a movement of former child workers to improve the lives of children in the Philippines.

The worst forms of child labor are those that harm or risk safety, mental and physical health, and sometimes even the lives of children. Four forms of child labor stand out for the vicious effect they have on children:

1. Sexual exploitation. The sexual misuse of children is increasing around the world. The shrinking globe makes it easier to distribute pornography by electronic media; sex tourism is becoming more common; and prostitution networks are an ever larger part of organized crime.

2. Slavery. In many countries, with the Sudan being a significant case, children are subjected to some form of slavery. These children are bought and sold, work long hours, are deprived of a basic education, and are often physically, psychologically, and sexually mistreated. Children in many countries are also forcibly conscripted into militias to take part in armed conflicts. Debt bondage is a form of slavery in which children are made to work to repay the debts of their families. Some children end up spending their entire lives as unpaid domestic servants, farm workers, sweatshop workers, or prostitutes.

3. Hazardous work. Children who work with clay to make bricks are exposed to silicate, lead, and carbon monoxide, which may lead to muscle and bone deformation. Children who make carpets on looms are exposed to wool dust contaminated with mildew spores, which may lead to respiratory diseases and eye damage. Children who mix hot chemicals or make matches or firecrackers live with the constant threat of fire and explosions and are exposed to dangerous chemicals, which may lead to respiratory diseases, chemical intoxication, or burns.

The health, safety, and morals of children are harmed by work that exposes them to abuse; by work under-ground, under water, at dangerous heights, or in confined spaces; by work with dangerous machines, tools, or materials; by work with heavy loads; by work with hazardous substances and extreme temperatures and noise levels; and by work that implies the impossibility of a daily return home.

4. Illicit activities. Many children around the world are exploited in the illegal drug trade, either in trafficking or production.

In 1997, the World Confederation of Labor (WCL), of which the Christian Labor Association of Canada is a member, renewed its call for the immediate eradication of the worst forms of child labor practices. At its Congress in 1997 the WCL voted to support Convention 182 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which seeks to strengthen an earlier convention—138—that advocated a flexible mini-mum age for child labor. Convention 182 demands specific, effective, and immediate actions against the extreme forms of child labor. It has been adopted by the trade unions, the employers' organizations, and the 174 country members of the ILO. But many of those countries still need to ratify the convention and bring their laws into line with it. In keeping with the convention, public laws will have to treat the worst forms of child labor as crimes and require prosecution of the people who exploit children in the ways identified.

For the sake of children throughout the world, we must not stand by with our hands folded.

[Gideon Strauss is Research and Education Director for the Christian Labor Association of Canada (CLAC). This article first appeared in, The Guide the official magazine of the CLAC. For more information: 905-670-7383 or CLAC.]