Child slaves behind the chocolates we relish - EDITORIAL

11 June 2015 02:43 am - 0 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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We have been warned that anyone who abuses a child should be thrown into the deepest ocean with a millstone tied around his or her neck. The legendary Nelson Mandela has told us that there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.

In the mid 1990s, a bright young youth in Lahore made a global impact on child slavery. Iqbal Masih’s life was cut short just before he reached the age of 13 but his powerful and eloquent speeches encouraged thousands of bonded labourers and child slaves to follow his example. One of his most powerful sayings is that children should have pens in their hands not tools. During the past few years heroine Malala Yousufai, the youngest winner of the Nobel peace prize has been giving wonderful inspiration to the world by leading the battle against the denial of the right of education specially to girl children.

With such reflections and perceptions in mind we join the international community tomorrow in marking the world day against child labour—hoping again that it won’t be limited to slogans, rhetoric and broken promises but that we individually and collectively will take small but effective steps to curb this crime against humanity.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), more than 200 million children today are child labourers. An estimated 120 million are forced into hazardous work. Shockingly some 73 million of these children are below 10 years old.

The highest number of child labourers is in sub-Saharan Africa.The number of children in armed conflicts has risen to 300,000 over the past decade.Most children work on farms that produce consumer products such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, rubber and other crops. 20 million child workers are employed in factories that make garments, carpets, toys, matches and hand-rolled cigarettes, the ILO says.

It says that as the world became more aware of the horror of child labour, the number of child labourers worldwide dropped from 245 million to 168 million between 2000 and 2012. It is good news but not good enough, the ILO warns. Companies which employ child labourers need to stop, and we can force them to stop by not buying their products. Chocolate, for example, is a booming business worldwide. What is the need to resort to child labour if not for higher profit margins? It is barbaric and greedy. It is hard to raise the awareness of people regarding child labour, unless you see it for yourselves. The ILO encourages people to watch many internet videos which give staggering facts about a society whose heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.

What is the level of this crisis in Sri Lanka? Local institutions do not give much attention to the collection of facts and figures—though we hope the new Yahapalana Government would do so—the United States Labour Department’s International Bureau of Labour Affairs has given us some bitter chocolate for thought. It says by 2013, Sri Lanka had made a moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. The Government reactivated its National Steering Committee (NSC) on child labour; launched a project to create a child labour free district by 2016. This will serve as a model to be replicated in all 25 districts. The government also assisted in the formation of 755 Child Protection Committees in schools across the country in part to prevent trafficking of children. It also implemented an innovative, fully automated Labour Inspection System Application that supports on-site inspection processes.

However, children in Sri Lanka continue to be forced into child labour in agriculture and manufacturing. The Government’s enforcement efforts continued to be weak, particularly with regards to hazardous child labour. Let us look at some figures given by the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) last year: working children from five to 15 years 9.2 percent or 302,865; combining work and school 7-14 years 10.4 percent. In the agriculture sector child labour is used for agriculture farming and fishing including deep-water fishing. Industrial sector child labour is used for manufacturing,

mining including gem mining, construction, production of fireworks, services, domestic work, transportation, street vending and begging. Disgraceful is it not? Let us all do something about it from today.

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Child slaves behind the chocolates we relish - EDITORIAL

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