2016 World Day Against Child Labour

WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOUR: NIGERIAN CHILD ON MY MIND

     

     June 12 annually, the global community commemorates the World Day Against Child Labour. This implies that tomorrow being Sunday 12^th of June, Nigeria is expected to join the rest of the world to mark the 2016 edition of the remarkable event. This year’s theme is ‘Child labour and supply chains’. Supply chains are the sequence of activities or processes involved in the production and distribution of a certain commodity.

     The aforesaid day was launched in 2002 by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action needed to eliminate it. Each year on 12^th day of June, the World Day Against Child Labour brings together governments, employers, NGOs and civil society as well as millions of well-meaning individuals from around the world to highlight the plight of child labourers and what can be done to help them.

    Child labour refers to the employment or engagement of children in any work or activity that deprives them of their childhood rights, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to them. It can also be described as a fulltime employment of children who are under a minimum legal age.

     Child labour is globally considered as an exploitative practice. Many international bodies describe it as an inhumane act. Legislations across the world prohibit it with extreme passion, that, it is widely regarded as a societal monster. Though, these laws do not consider all work by children as ‘child labour’; exceptions include, work by child artists, supervised training, and certain categories of work such as those common among indigenous American children, among other countries that are technologically inclined.

     Prior to 1940, several children aged 5-14 worked in Europe, the United States of America and various colonies of European Powers. These children worked in areas including agriculture, factories, home-based operations, and mining. Some worked night shifts lasting twelve hours. Subsequently, with the rise of household income, availability of schools as well as passage of Child Labour laws, the rate of the incidence dropped tremendously.

     In developing countries with high poverty and poor schooling opportunities like Nigeria, child labour is still prevalent that it requires a keen effort of the concerned authorities towards its holistic eradication. For instance, in 2010, Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest incidence rates of child labour with several African nations including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and many others witnessing over fifty percent (50%) of children aged 5-14 involved in one or two uncalled activities.

     Survey shows that agriculture is the largest employer of child labour worldwide. More so, vast majority of child labour cases is found in rural settings as well as informal urban economies; in this area, children are predominantly employed by their parents or guardians, rather than factories. Suffice it to say that child labour is fundamentally attributable to poverty and lack of education or illiteracy.

     According to the World Bank, the incidence of child labour in the world decreased from twenty-five percent (25%) to ten percent (10%) between the years 1960 and 2003. Nevertheless, with the acknowledgement of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), recently by the year 2013, the total number of child labourers remained high involving about 168 million children worldwide.

     During the Industrial Revolution, children as young as four were employed in production factories with dangerous, and often fatal, working conditions. In view of the recent understanding of the dangers attached to the use of children as labourers, presently it is considered by wealthy countries such as Germany, Japan, France, the U.S.A, et al, as a human rights violation, thereby outlawing its practice. Whilst, some poorer countries still condone child labour.

     The last time I checked, an average Nigerian child was immensely crying for rescue, particularly in the areas of education, health and social welfare, just as a baby cries for a breastfeed. Child labour has succeeded in depriving a Nigerian child his/her rights or the basic needs of life like the aforementioned ones, just to say the least. It isn’t anymore news that the said menace is currently the order of the day in various parts of the country. 

     It is noteworthy that, child labour has in recent times deteriorated appallingly in Nigeria. The one that has degenerated into a fathomless eyesore is the ongoing alarming incidence of hawking witnessed on several major streets and roads across the federation. The most devastating aspect of this scenario is a situation where the children in question would be seen hawking their wares when they are meant to be in their classrooms. It is usually noticed that most of these child hawkers are under the care of their so-called guardians or relatives, unknowingly to their biological parents that their children are being subjected to such torture or life-threatening activity.

     The type observed in the area of prostitution cannot be swept under the carpet whenever child labour is being discussed. In most occasions, female children are cajoled into prostitution by some pimps. The less-privileged parents would be told by the pimp, albeit deceitfully, that their children would be taken abroad for some lucrative jobs; they would also be informed that the children would be privileged to attend one of the best schools in the world.

     Though in the contemporary Nigerian society it appears slavery has gone or is a thing of the past, when you take a painstakingly study of what most house-helps do in various homes in the country, you would observe that they are not unlike mere slaves. Some of them, aside being deprived of basic education or healthcare, end up functioning like camels in their respective places of assignments.    

     As Nigeria is prepared to join the global community, tomorrow, in commemorating the 2016 World Day Against Child Labour, we are requested to do everything within our reach and humanly possible to ensure that poverty and illiteracy, which are the basic attributes of child labour, are drastically and thoroughly alleviated in our respective societies; we can achieve this by acknowledging that our voice and effort count, regardless of the circumstance. The less-privileged parents, on their part, must always be conscious of the social status and occupation of who they lease their child to. They ought to use every means to ascertain the actual background as well as place of residence of the prospective benefactor.

     I can’t conclude this critique without calling on the federal government to set up a formidable and reliable agency that would ensure a holistic enforcement of the Nigerian Child Rights Act; the Act needs to also be reviewed toward making amends where necessary. Similarly, there’s an urgent need for the governments at all levels to make the various existing Children Parliaments more proactive with a view to giving our children a thorough sense of belonging in the ongoing democratic setting.

     If the above measure is taken into consideration by the apt quarters, I’m of the view that passage of the bill on Child Abuse, currently lying on the floor of the National Assembly, into law, may no longer be considered consequential. Think about it!

Comr Fred Doc Nwaozor

(TheMediaAmbassador)

-Public Affairs analyst & Civil Rights activist-

Chief Executive Director, Centre for Counselling, Research

& Career Development - Owerri

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frednwaozor@gmail.com

+2348028608056

Twitter: @mediambassador