We must all ensure child labour is eliminated

Child labour is a historical problem globally, mainly affecting poor and developing countries, as kids as young as eight years old are forced to abandon school and the playground to join the working class in farms, mines and other operations to bolster their families’ income. 

Available data on the cases state that the work is ordinarily performed under dangerous conditions in 12-hour shifts. With the improvement in access to education and the setting of labour laws, child labour has decreased. 

However, it remains a widespread challenge in many parts of the world. The main causes of child labour are poverty and lack of education.

The issue was placed in the spotlight in the beginning of the 20th century principally as a national concern. 

The protection of children was a high priority for the International Labour Organisation (ILO), an agency of the UN. The ILO set a “labour clause” with nine methods and principles for the regulation of labour conditions and the abolition of child labour was one of these principles. 

To this day, the entity remains committed to the elimination of child labour through its participation in the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), which was established in 1992.

Despite extensive anti-child labour programmes, child labour continues unabated. According to Unicef’s child labour global estimates (2020) report, 160-million children were engaged in child labour from the beginning of that year.

This means one out of 10 children worldwide was in child labour. Nearly half of them were engaged in hazardous work that has the potential to endanger their health, safety and childhood development. It is most common in rural areas – three times the rate observed in urban settings.

One of the most difficult aspects of these abuses is the fact that child labour takes place mostly in a family setting, where children work on the family farm or the family’s micro-enterprise. It is taken for granted that the family setting would provide a safe environment for child labour, however, in practice child labour even in a family setting is hazardous. 

Of equal concern is the school dropout rate associated with child labour. 

Unicef estimates show that these children are excluded from schooling despite the fact that they fall under the mandatory schooling age. Children often struggle to balance the demands of schoolwork and child labour and as a result, opt to drop out of school. This has the potential to limit youth and adult work prospects and creates a vicious cycle of poverty in households.

At the core of the solution to eliminate child labour is the need for political will and resources to embark on the necessary reforms required to eradicate child labour locally and internationally.

These include: extending social protections to children and caregivers to protect children from poverty and keep children in school; increase access to good quality education to afford students a chance at a better future; promotion of decent work for youth and adults and extend protection to the informal sector; and strengthening laws that will protect children from child labour and secondly, the necessary labour inspection to enforce those laws.

The upcoming 5th global conference on combating child labour that will be convened in Durban will discuss these issues and the strategies needed to achieve the goal of the elimination of child labour by 2023. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has had major effects on economic performance, health and education outcomes. The  pandemic could also delay progress towards the elimination of child labour, making this conference critical for the evaluation of progress and solutions development.

The elimination of child labour is a task too big for just one party to resolve. This will require countries and different stakeholders to work together and devise strategies for interventions that address child labour and collaboratively strive toward the elimination of the worst forms of child labour.    

• Ntshalintshali is Cosatu general secretary