UNSEEN WORKERS - Child Labor in the Philippines

The ABK3 LEAP project aims to prevent child labor in the sugarcane industry.

Millions of children in the Philippines are forced to work at young ages. Child labor is one of the Philippines' most urgent problems and stems from a range of social factors. Unless something is done, the issue of child labor will continue to affect the lives of many families across the country.

Dangerous Work

Conditions that child laborers are forced to endure vary widely, but according to a 2011 report by the International Labor Organization, as many as 3 million children work in environments that are considered hazardous, and an additional 2.5 million children are forced to work in slightly better but still substandard conditions.

Some children have jobs that place them in immediate physical danger. These risks include exposure to potentially harmful chemicals or sharp tools, and other dangers that may be less obvious but no less risky. Children are often forced to work long hours with few breaks, which takes a toll on their physical development. Others are abused by their employers, both physically and psychologically. Although some companies make use of both boys and girls in their operations, boys remain at higher risk of becoming child laborers; almost 67 percent of child workers in the Philippines are boys. Hazardous work involving children is most prevalent in the Central Luzon, Bicol, Northern Mindanao and Western Visayan Island regions.

Children as young as 6 have been working in sugarcane fields in the Philippines, and gold mines also employ children.

Root Causes

As with many threats to children's development and well-being, poverty is a root cause of child labor. Families struggle to make ends meet and face hard decisions when it comes to sending their children to work. Without immediate action, the problem will continue to grow.

"We have to get to the root of child labor which is linked with poverty and lack of decent and productive work," said Lawrence Jeff Johnson, director of the International Labour Organization's country office for the Philippines. "While we strive to keep children in school and away from child labor, we need to ensure decent and productive work for parents and basic social protection for families."

Although regional financial struggles are a major cause of child labor in the Philippines, the global economy is another factor. According to the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the escalating price of gold has driven mining operations in the Philippines to new levels, and many mining companies make use of children. As many as 18,000 children are involved in regional gold mining operations across the Philippines, and currently the country ranks 18th in terms of gold production. As the demand for gold increases, along with its price, so too will the number of children forced to work.

Gold production in the Philippines is highly dangerous. Young boys and teenagers are often forced to descend into watery pits in a process known as compression mining. With only a tube to allow them to breathe underwater, they fill bags with ore before returning to the surface. Aside from the obvious physical dangers of this type of work, children and teenagers face other risks when working in the mining industry, such as exposure to mercury, which is used to leech gold from rock.

Stopping Child Labor

ChildFund has operated in the Philippines since 1954 to address the problems that lead to child labor. ChildFund Philippines is one of six implementing agencies of ABK3 LEAP: Livelihoods, Education, Advocacy and Protection to Reduce Child Labor in Sugarcane. Through this partnership, ChildFund aims to reduce the number of children forced to work by improving access to education. Other projects are currently under way to raise awareness of the dangers of child labor and the industries that support it, such as sugarcane farming and deep-sea fishing.

To help us put a stop to child exploitation in the Philippines, please consider making a donation to our Children's Greatest Needs program or sponsor a child. Your support makes the difference in the fight against child labor.

Source: https://www.childfund.org/child-labor-in-the-philippines/

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD - Child Labor in Asia

Child Labor in Asia: A Review

Edelweiss F. Silan

ILO estimates that there are about 250 million economically active children (individuals below 18 years old) worldwide. Sixty one percent or roughly 153 million of these workers are in Asia. Around half of the economically active children are working full time and 20-30%, or about 30 to 46 million are in exploitative conditions or worst forms of child labor.

In Asia, many of these child laborers, some as young as seven years old, are hidden. They work as household help, workers in farming and fishing industries, providers of sex services, workers in quarries, mines, brick kilns, construction sites, and increasingly in drug trade. A lot more in many Asian societies live in full public view as scavengers, street beggars, vendors, and workers in small scale or home-based industries. Since these types of work are considered "informal," regulation of the industries does not exist and monitoring the presence of children in the workplace is not commonly done.

The Worst Forms of Child Labor in Asia

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Exploitation of children in commercial sex trade remains the worst form of child labor in our region. UNICEF estimates that about one million children are lured or forced into the sex trade in Asia every year. More alarming is the fact that many of these children were introduced into the work by people known to them. For example, the 1995 Situation Analysis on Trafficking and Prostitution in Cambodia reveals that half of the surveyed sex workers eighteen years old and below reported that they were forced into the trade. Half of them were sold or deceived by someone they knew, forty percent were sold by parents, and fifteen percent were sold by relatives.

Trafficking of Children

The exploitation of children in the commercial sex trade is supported by increased trafficking activity in the region by organized syndicates. Trafficking for other jobs has also increased.

Trafficking of both children and adults feeds largely on the desire of poor families and many young people for economic and personal advancement through migration for work. Trafficking routes are found within countries, from rural to urban centers or to areas with large demand for unskilled labor, and across borders, usually from less developed to developing countries.

In Southeast Asia, Thailand is believed to be the receiver of a large number of children trafficked from Laos, Cambodia, Burma, and China, with the majority coming from Burma. The children are made to work as prostitutes, household help, workers in factories, farms, and fishing vessels, or couriers of drug traffickers. It is estimated that the number of children working as prostitutes in Thailand is somewhere between 27,400 and 44,900, including foreign and ethnic Thai children.

Chinese and Vietnamese children are trafficked to Cambodia mostly for prostitution. In the Philippines, there are reports of girls as young as 14 years old encouraged by parents to go to Japan to work as entertainers. They are brought to Japan with tampered passports, changing their date of birth to meet the age criterion. There are reports of Indonesian children being brought to Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan for domestic and farm work, or even for work in small factories.

In-country trafficking is rampant in Vietnam and the Philippines for domestic and factory work, and again for prostitution.

In South Asia, Bangladeshi children are trafficked for prostitution, forced and bonded labor, camel jockeying, marriage, and even sale of organs. Bangladeshi children can be found in the main cities of India, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Middle East countries. Maiti Nepal, an NGO based in Kathmandu, estimates that between 5,000 to 7,000 girls are trafficked to India annually for prostitution. Boys are trafficked too, for work in the construction industry, brick kilns, tea plantations, and manufacturing industry. Pakistan is seen as a receiving country for Indian and Nepali children to work in farming, fishing, and sex industries.

"Trafficking refers to the recruitment, transportation, purchase, sale, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons: by threat, use of violence, abduction, use of force, fraud, deception, or coercion (including abuse of authority), or debt bondage, for the purpose of placing or holding such person, whether for pay or not, in forced labour or slavery-like practices, in a community other than the one in which such person lived at the time of the original act described. " UNCHR, February 2000

Bonded Child Labor

Also referred to as child servitude and child debt bondage, bonded child labor exists in Asia. It is closely linked to trafficking of children, and more extensively rooted in socio-cultural and political structures in parts of South Asia. In many cases, bonded children are delivered in repayment of a loan or other favors given in advance, real or imaginary, usually to the parents or the guardians of the child. Children work like slaves in the process, never knowing when their debt will finally be considered paid. Where the caste system still prevails (India, Nepal, and Pakistan), there are still families and children of the dalits, or kamaiyas, or peshgis from the lowest castes in debt bondage to landowners and upper class caste in spite of existing laws that prohibit slavery. Bonded child labor in South Asia is found in domestic work and in agricultural, brick making, glass, leather tanning, gem polishing, and many other manufacturing and marketing industries.

Awareness of the child labor issue in the carpet and sports goods industries generated largely by activists since late 1980s helped cause marked decrease in the incidence of child labor in these industries. But it is still probable that child labor exists in new places where subcontractors have moved in.

Bonded child labourers are children working against debt taken by themselves or their family members, or working against any social obligation (e. g. , caste factor, ethnic or religious practices, etc. ) without the children's consent, under conditions that restrain their freedom, making them vulnerable to physical and other forms of abuse, and depriving them of their basic rights. - CWA Task Force on Bonded Child Labour, May 2000

Child Domestic Work

Having a household help is an historically embedded practice of middle and upper class families in almost all Asian countries. Many children from poor families are engaged in this work, some as young as eight years old. While there are cases of domestic child laborers who are actually poorer relatives of the employers and provided opportunities to go to school while working, majority of them are in exploited conditions. Many are victims of trafficking, and are bonded by debt to their employers. They have long working hours, with very little opportunity for rest. They are exposed to hazards while doing heavy household work. And most of them are victims of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. Domestic child laborers are among the most difficult to see and reach as they are of course hidden in the privacy of our homes.

Use of children as soldiers

Internal armed conflicts in several Asian countries expose more children to armed groups and increase the probability of their forced recruitment as combatants. Children are not only sent to the front lines, they are also used as spies, porters, helpers in camps, and are often subjected to abusive treatment. Direct involvement of children in the armed forces are documented in Burma, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Philippines, and Nepal.

Scavenger children

Children and their families work and even live in the dumpsites in many of our countries - the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Nepal, India, and Vietnam.

Gains and Challenges in Actions on Child Labor in the Region

Harnessing political will for social policy and social attitudinal change

There are some remarkable successes in certain countries in the region in creating changes in policies and in influencing people's attitude towards child laborers in general or towards groups of child laborers, such as domestic child laborers, in particular.

In the Philippines, a law entitled "Magna Carta for Household Helpers" was passed to "institutionalize and uplift the minimum working parameters and standards of the household helper industry. " The law limits the minimum age of employment to 15 years of age, increases minimum wage, provides for social security coverage, days off from work, and other protective measures for both children and adult domestic workers. The campaign to enact this law was coupled with active national education campaigns to gain respect for household help. While there is still a lot to do to attain significant attitudinal change, several initiatives from people influenced by the campaign are already felt. For example, some schools begun to allow members of the organized domestic child labor groups (such as SUMAPI) to orient students on child and workers' rights, and set-up exhibits to conscientize parents and students.

In India, the government issued an order restraining government officers from employing children as domestic workers. NGOs and civil society members are now actively monitoring the implementation of this order.

As a result of NGO and social welfare sector advocacy in Thailand, the government recognized its responsibility to provide protection not only for Thai children but also for trafficked child laborers from other countries. A Memorandum of Understanding among various government ministries requires coordination of their actions. Thus, trafficked migrant children are no longer brought by the police to the immigration detention center. They are instead housed in a social welfare center where they learn various skills while the Thai government, their own government, and international NGOs work on their return to their families.

These successes however do not mitigate the fact that many countries in our region do not put children as a priority concern. A number of these countries do not recognize child labor as a problem. For those who do, what could critically make the difference for the children are not the ratification of international agreements and the subsequent enactment of legislative measures alone but the development and implementation of effective national action programs that address the real needs of the children. There must be corresponding budgetary allocations, social reforms including changes in educational systems and practices in schools, poverty alleviation programs, and trade and employment policies. There is also a need for serious changes in our attitudes and cultural practices if we truly aim for the eradication of child labor especially the worst forms.

Child labor and regional development policies

National legislations and regional policies must be reviewed in order to protect children from adverse effects of globalization. The contractualization of labor that many companies now use as a policy makes it difficult for working class parents to ensure continuing education for their children, nor regularly afford basic needs in the family. Children out of school, belonging to families hardly able to make ends meet, are more prone to enter the job market especially the informal sector. Children of displaced small farmers and fisherfolk are in the same situation. Moreover, small industries that need to remain afloat with very small capital and almost no support from governments tend to utilize child labor in order to reduce labor costs.

The best interest of the child as the basis of actions against child labor

Increased awareness among the corporate and industrial sectors on child labor standards along with vigilant campaigns against child labor in workplaces have their downside. They may push children into worse conditions after losing their jobs. A few months back, a Hongkong newspaper reported about child labor in a toy factory in mainland China supplying promotional toys to a well-known multinational fast food corporation. Over three thousand families and children lost their jobs when the corporation immediately severed the contracts with the factory on the premise that the factory violated the code of ethics of the corporation. Where did the children go? No one knows at present but surely they are now among the easy prey for traffickers and other unscrupulous employers. Whose interest was served by the action of the media and by the response of the corporation?

Participation of the children and their families in defining the problem and their solutions

After quitting school, I started to help my parents financially. I collect garbage that can be sold from early morning till afternoon. I give the money I earn to my parents to buy food so we can survive and send my brother to school.
When I see my friends go to school, I feel I want to cry. Sometimes, I daydream, imagining myself in school. I used to go to school, now, no more. I work among the garbage.

One day, I collected trash till the sun went down. When I finally came home, my parents told me that my younger brother does not want to go to school anymore. I was confused. I could't do anything but pray that hopefully my little brother would again go back to school like he used to.
-- a scavenger girl from Pancur Batu, Medan, Indonesia

Child labor interventions are not often designed with clear child rights and people's development perspectives. Children participation as a key element in development programs is not clearly defined and practiced. Many programs being implemented in the region at the moment seldom consider listening to the child laborers themselves. Thus, the children are often not participating in defining what actions will serve their interest best. The report on the toy factory above is one illustration.

A second case is about the large donor-driven programs existing in our region. They are designed by technocrats with hardly any input from the families and the children who live with the problem of child labor. Participation of children and communities demands process, resources, and time. Consequently, adopting such idea can mean that program target outputs are not always immediately met. Thus, donor programs that seek impact in two to three years could hardly afford participatory processes.

A participatory approach demands that we look at child laborers from a perspective of strength. Child laborers are not unthinking, passive victims of fate. They are individuals, young as they are, responding to what life offers them, according to their understanding of life. The scavenger child from Indonesia represents typical child laborers. They are persons with a strong sense of responsibility and fine human qualities. Given the opportunity, they could teach us a lot on how to better plan, implement, and monitor our programs that aim to help them.

A number of children's organizations have become effective change agents in their communities and countries across the region. In India, the Bhima Sangha (an organization of young workers) has been actively promoting child rights, defining types of work that are appropriate for children according to their level of development, and identifying key issues and proposed solutions in the communities (through participatory research). It has child leaders now sitting in village councils making policies and programs for their communities together with the adults. In Donkoi Village in Laos, a small group of former child laborers, including former migrant child laborers in Bangkok, is implementing simple child rights campaigns in their village and has succeeded in generating support for their small multi-purpose center from their families and village leaders. In North Sumatra, Indonesia, a group of streetchildren are actively promoting information about themselves through a publication. They have had dialogues with the police, bus drivers, NGO staff, government officials, and other people significantly affecting their lives in the streets.

In May 2000, former sexually exploited children and their peer advocates from twenty-nine countries all over the world gathered in Manila to express the youth's voice in the fight against commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). They said:

We do not believe that this problem can be eradicated without our full involvement.

We implore that all measures be taken to guarantee the rights of children and youth everywhere to participate on local, national, and international levels to end CSEC.

We demand that young people be empowered to take an active role in decision-making, development, and implementation of strategies against CSEC.

If we begin our understanding of the situation of child labor in our region from what these young people are saying and doing, we would be in a better position to define what we adults have to do to completely address the situation. The solution lies in a genuine partnership between the young and the adults.

Edelweiss F. Silan is the Coordinator of the Child Workers in Asia (CWA).

For more information contact: Child Workers in Asia (CWA), PO Box 29, Chandrakasem Post Office, Bangkok 10904 Thailand, ph (662) 9300855, fax (662) 9300856

e-mail: "Edelweiss F. Silan" coord@cwa. tnet. co. th, website: http://www. cwa. tnet. co. th

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD - Child Labor in India

Out of school children comprise the workers and non workers. In our view they together signify a measure of deprivation among children and can be considered as a potential labour pool always being at the risk of entering the labour force" - NCEUS, 2007

India is sadly the home to the largest number of child labourers in the world. The census found an increase in the number of child labourers from 11.28 million in 1991 to 12.59 million in 2001. M.V. Foundation in Andhra Pradesh found nearly 400,000 children, mostly girls between seven and 14 years of age, toiling for 14-16 hours a day in cottonseed production across the country of which 90% are employed in Andhra Pradesh. 40% of the labour in a precious stone cutting sector is children. NGOs have discovered the use of child labourers in mining industry in Bellary District in Karnataka in spite of a harsh ban on the same. In urban areas there is a high employment of children in the zari and embroidery industry.

Poverty and lack of social security are the main causes of child labour. The increasing gap between the rich and the poor, privatization of basic services and the neo-liberal economic policies are causes major sections of the population out of employment and without basic needs. This adversely affects children more than any other group. Entry of multi-national corporations into industry without proper mechanisms to hold them accountable has lead to the use of child labour. Lack of quality universal education has also contributed to children dropping out of school and entering the labour force. A major concern is that the actual number of child labourers goes un-detected. Laws that are meant to protect children from hazardous labour are ineffective and not implemented correctly.

A growing phenomenon is using children as domestic workers in urban areas. The conditions in which children work is completely unregulated and they are often made to work without food, and very low wages, resembling situations of slavery. There are cases of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of child domestic workers. The argument for domestic work is often that families have placed their children in these homes for care and employment. There has been a recent notification by the Ministry of Labour making child domestic work as well as employment of children in dhabas, tea stalls and restaurants "hazardous" occupations.

According to HAQ: Centre for child rights, child labour is highest among schedules tribes, Muslims, schedule castes and OBC children. The persistence of child labour is due to the inefficiency of the law, administrative system and because it benefits employers who can reduce general wage levels. HAQ argues that distinguishing between hazardous and non hazardous employment is counter-productive to the elimination of child labour. Various growing concerns have pushed children out of school and into employment such as forced displacement due to development projects, Special Economic Zones; loss of jobs of parents in a slowdown, farmers' suicide; armed conflict and high costs of health care. Girl children are often used in domestic labour within their own homes. There is a lack of political will to actually see to the complete ban of child labour.

Bonded child labour is a hidden phenomenon as a majority of them are found in the informal sector. Bonded labour means the employment of a person against a loan or debt or social obligation by the family of the child or the family as a whole. It is a form of slavery. Children who are bonded with their family or inherit a debt from their parents are often found in agricultural sector or assisting their families in brick kilns, and stone quarries. Individual pledging of children is a growing occurrence that usually leads to trafficking of children to urban areas for employment and have children working in small production houses versus factories. Bonded labourers in India are mostly migrant workers, which opens them up to more exploitation. Also they mostly come from low caste groups such as dalits or marginalised tribal groups. Bonded child labourers are at very high risk for physical and sexual abuse and neglect sometimes leading to death. They often are psychologically and mentally disturbed and have not learnt many social skills or survival skills.

In 2000 the ILO estimated 5.5 million children had been forced in labour in Asia, while the Bonded Labour Liberation Front placed 10 million bonded children in India alone. In 1998 the government of India labelled bonded child labour as a marginal problem with only 3000 or so cases. A survey in Tamil Nadu in 1995 found 125,000 bonded child labourers in the state alone. Child bonded labour in India is mostly in the agricultural sector but has in recent times been moving into other sectors as well such as beedi-rolling, brick kilns, carpet weaving, commercial sexual exploitation, construction, fireworks and matches factories, hotels, hybrid cottonseed production, leather, mines, quarries, silk, synthetic gems, etc. 

Child labour in India is addressed by the Child Labour Act, 1986 and National Child Labour Project.

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD - Child labour in Cambodia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Child labour refers to the full-time employment of children under a minimum legal age. In Cambodia, the state had ratified both the Minimum Age Convention (C138) in 1999 andWorst Forms of Child Labour Convention (C182) in 2006, which are adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO). For the former convention, Cambodia had specified the minimum age to work to be at age 14.

Yet, significant levels of child labour appear to be found in Cambodia. In 1998, ILO estimated that 24.1% of children in Cambodia aged between 10 and 14 were economically active. Many of these children work long hours and Cambodia Human Development Report 2000 reported that approximately 65,000 children between the ages of 5 to 13 worked 25 hours a week and did not attend school.

There is a need to eliminate child labour in Cambodia as a report by UNICEF states that child labourers could be missing out on education. When children do not attend school, they are denied the knowledge and skills needed for national development. Without education and vital life skills, they are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, which may exacerbate the existing cycle of poverty in their families. Consequently, this lack in productivity due to lack of education will hold back economic growth in Cambodia.

Situation of Child Labour in Cambodia 

It is believed that Cambodia’s economic growth and progress is a contributing factor to the increasing number of child labourers. The huge demands of the construction industry is one example where it has pushed children to work in factories or brick kilns, foreclosing the option of school education for most of them.

In 2003, an ILO survey reported that one in every ten children in the capital above the age of seven was engaged in child domestic labour. Children who are too young to work in the fields work as scavengers. They spend their days rummaging in dumps looking for items that can be sold for money.

Others spend their days in the streets peddling. Tourists play a key role in this form of child labour as many are willing to buy from these children, out of good intentions, escalating demands. This reinforces the notion that children are more valuable in the streets than at school. However, there are also arguments that it might be better to buy from child sellers or they might be forced to work in even more hazardous activities.

A common ramification of child labour is denied access to basic services, namely education and healthcare. The Children’s Rights Department of the Cambodian League for Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (LICADHO) survey showed that out of 400 children aged 5 to 17 who worked as garbage dump scavengers only 35% went to school.

Child labourers also suffer from health problems. For instance, carrying excessive loads may cause stunt development. There is the possibility of child scavengers made injured by sharp, contaminated objects or moving traffic. Other problems include long hours of work, respiratory and skin diseases, life-threatening tetanus, joint and bone deformities.

The economic and societal impacts are far reaching, hence raising awareness and efforts to prohibit child labour are important.

Efforts to reduce child labour 

The Cambodian government is working together with NGOs and UN agencies to tackle the problem of child labour. One of the major donors is the U.S Department of Labour. Since 2001, the department has funded ILO’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour to provide education and other services to children engaged, or are at risk of engaging in exploitive labour.^[6]

There has been some progress in Cambodia. In 2008 there were 2000 children working in the salt industry in the Kampot province. By 2010 it has decreased to around 250 children.

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD - Myanmar forced child labor

By Amariyah  |  Posted September 27, 2012 


Myanmar forced child labor Myanmar better known as Burma is resource-rich country; however the Burmese economy is one of the least developed in the world. It is so poor it has children in the work force of the military even prostitution. Burma is one of the leading countries of child labor in the world. Forced child labor in Myanmar is everything from factories to human trafficking. The police in Myanmar force children into the military by saying that if they do not have an ID they will either have to go to jail or work in the military. Children who are forced to work in the military usually are too young to even have ID’s and are usually walking home or just getting onto a bus. “Children are forced to serve as porters in areas, in which beatings and other mistreatment occur”, (Burma UN Service Office-New York & Human Rights Documentation Unit National Conviction Government of the Union of Burma). The Burma military has no care for its soldiers-child soldiers. On the website ibiblio.org it states “Children have been used as human minesweepers and human shields during military operations”, (Burma UN Service Office New York & Human Rights Documentation Unit National Conviction Government of the Union of Burma). This shows that the Burma military doesn’t have a lot of supplies for its soldiers and are careless of the child soldiers. Child soldiers have little to no contact with families, are underpaid, and are not given adequate food or medicine. Trainees die during their training period due to disease, malnourishment, and poor medical treatment. Burma press gangs are grabbing men and women aged between 14 and 15 across the country to work as front-line porters. The army is conscripting one porter for every soldier fighting the Karen National Union. People who are kidnapped are beaten on a regular basis. Karen refugees arriving in Thailand tell of raping and other atrocities by Burmese military had no care for the front-line porters because they were treated like animals. According to a 23-year old man who risked being shot to escape “They beat us like dogs and cats”, (Murdoch). This shows that the Burmese military had no care for the front-line porters because they were treated like animals. The international community has repeatedly condemned Burma’s military regime for employing a brutal system of forced labor. Responding to the pro-democracy movement inside Burma, numerous companies, governments and unions have cut ties with Burma. Myanmar will soon allow unions to be formed. The president Thein Sein signed the bill into law last week. The labor organization bill cancels a nearly 60-year old anti-labor union decree, the 1962 Trade Unions Act, which banned trade unions. Parts of the 2002 Winter Olympic torchbearer were made in Burma. The Norwegian Olympic team recently refused to wear clothing made in Burma. According to AASG’s David Moore “Every purchase of a made-in-Burma product supports this regime”, (PR Newswire). Moore’s point is that mostly all of Burma’s productivity comes from forced labor, and getting goods from Burma is giving them money, which makes them want to keep forcing people to do work. In the International Labor Organization view the system of forced labor in Burma is “a saga of untold misery and suffering”, (PR Newswire). The Organization believes that force labor in Burma keeps going on and on with nothing being done to stop it and people in the country are in misery and suffering. DC Director Jeremy Woodrum complicates matters further when he declares “Purchasing goods from Burma undermines the Olympic charters call for the preservation of “human dignity”, (PR Newswire). Woodrum implies that if the Olympic purchase goods from Burma then they are going against their own standard-“human dignity”. “Human dignity” seems to have no found place in Burma, as other places around the world. A young girl as just age 6 was sent to a brothel in Somali. An article on her story said that “Srey Pov’s family sold her to a brothel when she was 6 year old. She was unaware of sex but soon found out: A western pedophile purchased her virginity…the brothel tied her naked and spread-eagled on a bed so that he could rape her”, (New York Times, Nicholas). From this evidence the brothel will do anything to keep the prisoners from getting away. Srey Pov and so many other girls in Burma have the same sad story. Girls in Burma are sent to Thailand to supply their vast sex trade. Girls are often tricked into working at these jobs-brothels. Girls are sent to Vientiane, Laos; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Beijing, China. Girls are forced to work at brothels but are under-paid or a lot of times not even paid at all. An important fact on the website seatletimes.newsource is “An amazing 98 percent said they wanted prostitution to exist as a profession, and 4.5 percent of the young women surveyed admitted they expected to end up as sex workers” (Win). Most of the people surveyed were from 12 to 14. “Recently, Thailand for the first time revealed the shocking spread of the AIDS virus. A Thai health ministry official estimated that at least 350,000 of his countrymen are HIV-positive, that 10,000 will die over the next 24 months and at least 3,000 babies were born with the virus among the 90,000 births over the last 12 months”(Win). A lot of people are dying because of the high sex industry in Thailand most come from Burma. A young girl fled to escape military government prostitution; she got away from them, however she instead was forced into prostitution. Medical authorities in Burma fear that AID’s will spread throughout the country by infected prostitutes who return home. There should be something done to stop these issues; even though there has been organizations and groups to stop this it still continues to be a widespread problem, not just in Burma but all over the world.

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD - Child labour in Vietnam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Like most other developing countries in the world, Vietnam is plagued by the problem of child labor.

Though there has been a dramatic decline in child labor since early 1990s, children, some as young as five years old, begging or selling lottery tickets on the streets are easily found in major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. It is a hard truth that many children in Vietnam are withdrawn from school to be bread-winners for their families.

The Labor newspaper reported that 30 percent of Vietnamese children between the age of six to seventeen join the labor force. Most children stay close to home to help their family business. However, a report released by the Ministry of Labor – Invalid and Social Affairs in 2008 showed that there are 26,027 children that are in hard labor conditions in hazardous environment such as gold mines, timber operations or cargo transport. The actual number could be much larger as children employed as domestic servants, restaurant assistants or children working on the streets as beggars, shoes shiners or newspaper and lottery sellers were not covered in the report. The report also revealed that up to 62 out of 173 manufacturing factories in Ho Chi Minh City employed child laborers, 50 percent of whom are below 15 years old. The working environment of the employed generally includes long hours of work, low wages, poor facilities and even physical and mental abuse.

Although Vietnamese law prohibits the employment of children under the age of 15, the system has too many loopholes to provide children with the level of protection that they really need. These laws are not aggressively enforced, allowing employers to continue employing child labor without any ramifications. In addition, child labor remains a controversial issue in Vietnam as many people believe that children should share the workload and household responsibilities with their family. These are just a few reasons why child labor is still a serious problem in Vietnam. However, attitudes towards child labor are shifting. The Vietnamese government has been putting in more effort to tackle the problem. For example, Vietnam has been teaming up with the International Labor Organization to raise public awareness on children protection, bringing children back to school and helping rescued children.

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD - Donate To Where The Need Is Greatest

UNICEF's vision is to build a world where the basic rights of every child are realised.

Often, this means that our work is greatly varied depending on the situation at hand. The kind of work and support we provide can range anywhere from child health and nutrition, clean water and sanitation, quality basic education and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and HIV/AIDS.

What can you do?

UNICEF urgently needs your help to realise the basic rights of children for all children around the world. Even the smallest donation will make a huge difference.

$ 117


Can buy a HIV test kit to help ensure 100 mums-to-be are tested before the birth of their child for HIV/AIDS



$ 54


$54 could provide enough measles vaccine to protect 200 children from this disease



$ 97


Is enough to buy a bike helping health workers to reach vulnerable children in remote communities, delivering vaccines and nutrition supplies

http://www.unicef.org.au/Donate/One-off-Donation/Donate-to-where-the-need-is-greatest.aspx#sthash.RkDudTE3.dpuf

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD - Child Labor Public Education Project

What is Child Labor?

Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school. Around the world and in the U. S., growing gaps between rich and poor in recent decades have forced millions of young children out of school and into work. The International Labor Organization estimates that 215 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 currently work under conditions that are considered illegal, hazardous, or extremely exploitative. Underage children work at all sorts of jobs around the world, usually because they and their families are extremely poor. Large numbers of children work in commercial agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining, and domestic service. Some children work in illicit activities like the drug trade and prostitution or other traumatic activities such as serving as soldiers.

Child labor involves at least one of the following characteristics:

• Violates a nation’s minimum age laws
• Threatens children’s physical, mental, or emotional well-being
• Involves intolerable abuse, such as child slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, or illicit activities
• Prevents children from going to school
• Uses children to undermine labor standards

Where does most child labor occur?

Of an estimated 215 child laborers around the globe: approximately 114 million (53%) are in Asia and the Pacific; 14 million (7%) live in Latin America; and 65 million (30%) live in sub-Saharan Africa.

Child labor can be found in nearly every industry

Agriculture

An estimated 60% of child labor occurs in agriculture, fishing, hunting, and forestry. Children have been found harvesting:

• bananas in Ecuador
• cotton in Egypt and Benin
• cut flowers in Colombia
• oranges in Brazil
• cocoa in the Ivory Coast
• tea in Argentina and Bangladesh
• fruits and vegetables in the U.S.

Children in commercial agriculture can face long hours in extreme temperatures, health risks from pesticides, little or no pay, and inadequate food, water, and sanitation.

Manufacturing

Electroplate Worker

Photo: David Parker

About 14 million children are estimated to be directly involved in manufacturing goods, including:

• Carpets from India, Pakistan, Egypt
• Clothing sewn in Bangladesh; footwear made in India and the Philippines
• Soccer balls sewn in Pakistan
• Glass and bricks made in India
• Fireworks made in China, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, and Peru
• Surgical instruments made in Pakistan

Mining and Quarrying

Photo: David Parker

Child laborers suffer extremely high illness and injury rates in underground mines, opencast mines, and quarries. Children as young as 6 or 7 years old break up rocks, and wash, sieve, and carry ore. Nine-year-olds work underground setting explosives and carrying loads. Children work in a range of mining operations, including:

• Gold in Colombia
• Charcoal in Brazil and El Salvador
• Chrome in Zimbabwe
• Diamonds in Cote d’Ivoire
• Emeralds in Colombia
• Coal in Mongolia

Domestic Service

Many children, especially girls, work in domestic service, sometimes starting as young as 5 or 6. This type of child labor is linked to child trafficking. Domestic child laborers can be victims of physical, emotional, and sometimes sexual abuse.

Hotels, Restaurants, and Retail

Photo: David Parker

Some of the work of young people in this sector is considered legitimate, but there are indications of considerable abuse. Low pay is the norm, and in some tourist areas, children’s work in hotels and restaurants is linked to prostitution. In at least one example, child hotel workers received such low pay that they had to take out loans from their employers; the terms of the interest and repayment often led to debt bondage.

“Unconditional Worst Forms” of Child Labor

Child Prostitute

Photo: David Parker

Millions of children are involved in work that, under any circumstance, is considered unacceptable for children, including the sale and trafficking of children into debt bondage, serfdom, and forced labor. It includes the forced recruitment of children for armed conflict, commercial sexual exploitation, and illicit activities, such as producing and trafficking drugs. In 2005, an estimated 5.7 million children were in forced and bonded labor.

Educational materials containing introductory information on Child Labor, including Workshop Materials—Core Workshop on Child Labor and K-12 Teachers’ Materials, are available through this web site. These materials include Power Point presentations, instructors’ manuals, activities, and handouts. You may adapt these materials to your group’s needs.