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Economic exploitation of children is one of the most striking global problems. The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines the term “child labor” as work that deprives children of their childhood and that is harmful to their physical and mental development. Child labor also refers to work that is dangerous and harmful for the child, interferes with education or prevents the child from school attendance. The tremendous harm of child labor is self-evident. Working children do not experience the joy of childhood, instead they have to spend long and tiring hours in dangerous environments: mines, factories, streets or agricultural fields. Most of the working children cannot attend school and that takes away their chances to have more prosperous future. Without education they will have to face poverty throughout the entire life. In general, child labor has a huge negative effect on the economic development, as it prevents children from getting enough skills to build the better future for themselves and for their country.
Elimination of child labor has been on the
international agenda for years, but the real progress is yet to be achieved in many regions of the
world. According to the ILO, there are around 215 millions child laborers worldwide. Nepal is among the countries where the percentage of child
laborers is the highest. ILO data shows
that 2.6 million children between the age of 5 and 14 are working in Nepal. This number
accounts for almost ¼ of children of the country. These children are employed
in industries, mines, plantations, construction sites and streets. Many of them are also told to work for
household requirements instead of going to school.
There are many causes behind child labor, but
poverty is the greatest of them all. Incomes from child labor become an additional
source of money for poor families. When
families are in difficult financial situation, they are likely to take back
children from school and send them to
work. Furthermore, children often become bonded laborers and work in order to pay off the debts of their relatives.
There are also cultural factors explaining child labor. For example, in traditional cultures there is a strong belief that girls
do not need formal education, therefore, parents prefer them
staying at home and providing domestic
services for the family. In Nepal only 48.3% of females over 15 years
can read and write, while the literacy
level among boys of the same age is 73%. Girls often are send to work first, if family face
hard times, because education of girls is less valued than education of boys.
Furthermore, sometimes children from the
early age are expected to help their families and perform work similar to
adults, especially if their parents followed the same path.
The Nepalese government has enacted a number of
laws aimed to combat child labor. According to
the Children’s Act 1992, a child
who has not attained the age of 14 shall not be employed in any work as a laborer.
The Labor Act 1992 and Labor Rules 1993 again prohibit the employment of children under 14 and
prohibit employment of youth below 18 years in mining industry. The Child Labor
Prohibition and Regulation Act regulates work hours of 14-16 years old children. Kamaiya Labor Prohibition Act, 2001 prohibits forced employment of children to pay
off the debt of their families. The
Nepalese government has also ratified
many international conventions aimed to
eliminate child labor, including ILO Forced Labor Convention and UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child. These are all positive steps towards combating
child labor in the country. However, the biggest problem is that these laws are often
not properly enforced and fragile economic situation still push parents to send their children to work
from the early age.
What
else is done to fight against child labor? There is also a network of
non-governmental organizations and international agencies such as UNICEF
working for the elimination of child labor in Nepal. For
example, one of the best known initiatives
is Rugmark Nepal. This organization
inspects factories in Kathmandu
to ensure that they do not employ children and issues certificates that no child was exploited during
production.
However,
for a real change, there needs to be a societal mobilization. Laws are not
enough to put the end on the exploitation of children. Combined efforts of civil society, international community and government
are needed to solve the problem of child
labor. Furthermore, there should be a common understanding in the society that
child labor has a long-term negative effects not only on lives
of children, but also on the development of the country.
Sources:
Santosh Vargese, “Child Labor in Nepal: Education
Combating Unjust Labor”, Youth Advocate Program International Resource Paper, www.yapi.org/rpchildlabornepal.pdf
Sam Taylor and Sarah Crowe, “One World Day
against Child Labor”,
Child labor and responses in South Asia,
Child labor,
CIA World Fact book, Nepal
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