246 Million Children Working During World Days For Children
19 November 2002 - Almost a
quarter of a billion children are working as child labourers today during
the World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse, and will continue toiling
tomorrow on Universal Children's Day. Despite the world's promise to care
for every child, the scourge of child labour still leaves countless children
deprived of their most basic rights.
These World Days should be
marked with a renewed determination to protect the lives of all children.
Governments must be called upon to meet the commitments in the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child and in the ILO Conventions on child labour. The
international community must make the protection and development of children
the first priority in aid programs. Businesses must stop using children to
turn a quick profit. And above all, ordinary people, adults and children
alike, must make it clear that the abuse of children as child labourers has
no place in this world.
The commercial exploitation of
children in both developing and developed countries has come to be
recognised as the most common form of child abuse today. Subjected to
physical, psychological and emotional abuse, child labourers are often
trapped with no other options. Too often society simply accepts their labour
as a harsh reality and turns a blind eye as the children suffer horrendous
abuse.
"Do we consider ourselves
civilised? Do we deserve to be called humanity when we take the youngest
children and abuse them for profit and power?" asked Kailash Satyarthi,
Chairperson of the Global March Against Child Labour. "Ending child labour
must be the very top priority of the international community."
The tens of millions of young
girls working as servants in wealthy and middle class families are among the
most exploited. Working from before dawn until late into the night, these
girls are hidden behind closed doors and have no protection from the cruelty
and lust of their absolute masters. And again society has accepted this
practice as simply a way of life.
When the UN adopted the
Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 November 1989, there was great
hope for a better future for all the world's children. Despite a number of
improvements for some, a great number of children have simply been left to
fend for themselves.
Many wander the streets
selling petty goods at all hours of the day, or work in unhealthy and
hazardous factory environments providing cheap and easily manipulated labour
in the manufacture of goods. Others are indentured servants - little more
than slaves - in back breaking labour on farms. Still others are forced into
prostitution or to fight wars for guerrilla or even government forces. Many
are not free to leave. Almost all are deprived of their right to receive a
quality education.
For these children, their life
prospects are bleak. They will not have the chance to develop their
potential and in later life will be unable to find decent work. They will be
confined to the most degrading and exploitative work, in conditions so
hazardous that they will likely not live long lives. This fate they may pass
on to their own children - perpetuating a cycle of poverty and misery that
afflicts so many today.
- ENDS -
For more information, please
contact:
Global March Against Child Labour
L-6 Kalkaji, New Delhi-19, INDIA
Phone: (91 11) 622 4899, 647 5481
Fax: (91 11) 623 6818
E-mail: yatra@del2.vsnl.net.in,
childhood@globalmarch.org
Website: www.globalmarch.org
