2. The term child labor is used for employment
of children below a certain age, which is
considered illegal by law and custom.
The stipulated age varies from country to
country and government to government.
Child labor is a world phenomenon which is
considered exploitative and inhuman by
many international organizations.
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3. Exploitation of working children in developing countries
has been reported since the 1800s.
However, political awareness of the effects of working on
children’s physical and psychological well being has gained
substantial momentum in the international community only
since the start of the 1990s.
The International Labour Organization’s International
Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC),
founded in1992, aims to eliminate child labour. It operates
in 88 countries and is the largest program of its kind in the
world.
IPEC works with international and government agencies,
NGOs, the media, and children and their families to end
child labour and provide children with education and
assistance.
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4. A general benchmark of child labour would
include all children that are engaged in work that
could be harmful to them .
UNICEF defines child labour as work that exceeds
a minimum number of hours, depending on the
age of a child and on the type of work. such work
is considered harmful to the child and should
therefore be eliminated.
The ILO Convention No 182 defines the worst
forms of child labour as slavery and forced labour,
commercial sexual exploitation, illicit activities and
hazardous work.
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5. According to UNICEF, there are an estimated
158 million children aged 5 to 14 in child labour
worldwide.
Millions of children are engaged in hazardous
situations or conditions.
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6. The main factor ‘pushing’ children to work is
poverty.
This is often compounded by a lack of access
to, or poor quality, education, the effects of
HIV/AIDS and discrimination based on
gender or social grouping.
In addition, the demand for child workers is
high because they are usually cheaper, less
demanding and more easily intimidated.
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7. Children are protected by various regulations, such as those that forbid or
limit their employment if they are under a specific age, in particular
occupations.
International Covenants, adopted by the UN in 1966 contains a provision
on child labour in Article 10 which states, Children and young persons
should be protected from economic and social exploitation. Their
employment in work harmful to their morals or health or dangerous to
life or likely to hamper their normal development should be punishable
by law. States should also set age limits below which they paid
employment of child labour should be prohibited and punishable by law.
The Convention states that every human being below the age of 18years
is a child “unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is
attained earlier” (Article 1).
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8. In 1973 Convention 138 stipulates that the minimum age for employment should “not be
less than 15 years” but contains a number of special provisions, which allow developing
countries to opt for a minimum age of 14 on what is supposed to be a temporary basis.
In Article 3 for the purposes of this Convention, the term "the worst forms of child labour"
comprises:
(a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of
children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or
compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
(d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to
harm the health, safety or morals of children.
In Article 7(2) taking into account the importance of education in eliminating child
labour, take effective and time-bound measures.
The Recommendation 190 for the Elimination of the worst forms of Child Labour
calls on governments to identify and quantify the incidence of such child labour,
backed by national plans for its elimination.
The ILO aims to achieve this goal by 2016, backed by its ten-year Global Action
Plan drawn up in 2006.
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9. In India:
Government implemented a successful programme , the National Child
Labour Project (NCLP) since 1988 where in 7,328 special schools were
opened for the children withdrawn from work .
The National Child Labour Project scheme is implemented in 250 districts
of 20 states of the country. Under the Scheme, children withdrawn from
work are provided education, nutrition, vocational training, stipend and
health care etc. and are finally mainstreamed to regular education system
In Morocco Unicef and its partners are working to reduce the number of
children working in the handicraft sector in Fez.
In Senegal, a debt- cancellation agreement between the Italian and
Senegalese governments signed strategies, in particular towards the
elimination of child labour.
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10. At last we can say that the future of a community is in
the well being of its children.
It is urgently required by implementing the
international regulation for prohibition of child labour
to ensure that they are given opportunities for healthy
normal and happy growth of child’s mental physical ,
educational and spiritual development.
So if the governments of those countries where child
labour is a curse take necessary step to implement the
international regulation for prohibition of child labour
properly then we can hope that this regulation play a
successful part to demolish the child labour from the
world and from the humanity.
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