Over the coming months, the different facets/dilemmas surrounding child labour especially the hazardous type will be a frequent feature. One of the initial drivers of child labour as evidenced by research is absolute poverty. Parents won’t subject their children to hazardous, hostile or even degrading conditions under which they work. On the continent, there is the prevailing view that there is a demand for child labourers and that the work is the only way for the families to get out of the cycle of deprivation and poverty. This argument is a double-edged sword.
In her Economic Impact of Child Labour Report, Rosanna Galli states and I quote: “In the short-run, child labour increases households’ income and probability of survival. The evidence on children’s contribution to household income is relatively large pointing roughly at 20% of family income. In the long-run however, child labour perpetuates household poverty through lower human capital accumulation.”
Children who work full-time and don’t get the opportunity to go to school don’t get the necessary skills that are required to improve their job prospects and so the poverty is carried on from one generation to the next.
Your views on that aside though, the real question is: do the children of the poor really matter? Do they possess the same rights as the children of the well-off? To ask that question of a Western audience would evoke outrage and indignation as they hold view that every child matters regardless of their socio-economic status and therefore their human rights are inalienable. However in SSA, the concept isn’t a shocking one. In fact the average African will tell you that in reality the poor don’t really matter to the government – nothing they do show that that they truly care about the welfare of poor children. For the children trapped in child labour themselves, the issue of rights and dignity that is their due as human beings is a moot point – after all from cradle to grave they don’t see anything different amongst those of their socio-economic status.
Before child labour can be properly addressed in SSA, there has to be a recognition that the current estimates just won’t do. There are so many children whose births and deaths are not registered. The fact that there aren’t reliable statistics of this drives the point home. That there are children who the State doesn’t even know about the existence of means that it isn’t inconceivable that no provisions are made for them. These children though are not anonymous entities; they are some people’s children, the future of their families. In this regard, very simple solutions that won’t cost a lot of money can actually upscale birth registration. Whilst there are schemes being put in place to improve access to birthing facilities or train midwives, the training can incorporate the registration of birth at the time of delivery and this can be fed into existing records. In a lot of African communities where children names are not given straight away, follow-up checks by health practitioners within a fortnight of a baby’s birth will ensure that no child falls through the cracks and ‘disappears’. In local health centres or at people’s homes as well, local health practitioners can also ensure that death records are made by stressing the point that every child matters. Getting this point across to the poor not just in words but by small acts of humanity and kindness supported by governments will go a long way.
The African society needs a re-orientation of mindset that is beyond legislation and recommendations that are frankly of no use on the ground. With a broken down judiciary, it is obvious that the law in itself cannot be relied upon to ensure the protection of every child regardless of their economic background.
In a future post, one of the questions that will be answered will be: why should this be of any interest to anyone outside the affected groups?
Until the next time…………….
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