What we do for girl child labor

World Day 2009: Give girls a chance: End child labour

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World Day 2009 - News and events

Resources for the 2009 World Day

Let children bloom
World Day Against Child Labour 2009 -
Celebrating 10th Anniversary of
Convention No. 182

Give Girls a Chance: Tackling child labour, a key to the future
This report provides an overview on the involvement of girls in child labour, and the policy responses required to tackle the problem.

The World Day Against Child Labour will be celebrated on 12 June 2009. The World Day this year marks the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the landmark ILO Convention No. 182, which addresses the need for action to tackle the worst forms of child labour. Whilst celebrating progress made during the past ten years, the World Day will highlight the continuing challenges, with a focus on exploitation of girls in child labour.
Around the world, an estimated 100 million girls are involved in child labour. Many of these girls undertake similar types of work as boys, but often also endure additional hardships and face extra risks. Moreover, girls are all too often exposed to some of the worst forms of child labour, often in hidden work situations.
On this World Day we call for:

Policy responses to address the causes of child labour, paying particular attention to the situation of girls.
Urgent action to tackle the worst forms of child labour.
Greater attention to the education and skills training needs of adolescent girls - a key action point in tackling child labour and providing a pathway for girls to gain Decent Work as adults.

Girls and child labour

ILO standards require that countries establish a minimum age of employment (generally 15 though developing countries can set the age at 14). They also require that children (including adolescents aged 15-17) are not involved in work designated as a worst form of child labour.
However in many countries of the world, girls below the minimum age of employment can be found working in a wide range of occupational sectors and services and often in the worst forms of child labour.
Large numbers of young girls labour in agriculture and in the manufacturing sector, frequently working in dangerous conditions. A major sector of employment for young girls is domestic work in third party households. Oftentimes this work is hidden from the public eye, leading to particular dangers and risks. The extreme exploitation of girls in the worst forms of child labour includes slavery, bonded labour, prostitution and pornography.

Girls face multiple disadvantages

Most child labour is rooted in poverty, often associated with multiple disadvantage. Socio-economic inequalities based on language, race, disability and rural-urban differences remain deeply entrenched. Girls can face particular disadvantages due to discrimination and practices which allocate certain forms of work to girls. Many girls take on unpaid household work for their families, usually more so than boys. This work may include childcare, cooking, cleaning, and fetching water and fuel. Girls often also have to combine long hours of household chores with some form of economic activity outside the household presenting girls with a “double burden”. This can have a negative impact on any opportunity for school attendance and can present a physical danger to girls.

Girls still disadvantaged in education

Millennium Development Goal 2 calls for all children to complete a full course of primary education by 2015. Millennium Development Goal 3 has a target of eliminating gender disparity both in primary and secondary education. However globally some 75 million children are still not enrolled in primary school. For every 100 boys in school, there are only 94 girls and girls in rural areas are particularly disadvantaged. Gross enrolment at secondary level in developing countries is 61% for boys and 57% for girls. In least developed countries the figures are 32% for boys and 26% for girls. It is clear that in much of the developing world huge numbers of girls are failing to access education at post primary level.
Girls may often be the last to be enrolled and the first to be withdrawn from schools if a family has to make a choice between sending a boy or girl to school. Girls’ access to education may also be limited by other factors, for example the safety of the journey to school or lack of adequate water and sanitation facilities.
Without access to quality education, girls drift into the labour force at an early age well below the minimum age of employment. It is therefore vital to extend secondary education and skills training for girls and to ensure that children from poor and rural households can access this provision.

Decent Work and development by educating girls

Education for a child is the first steps towards obtaining Decent Work and a decent livelihood as an adult. Research has proven that educating girls is one of the most effective ways of tackling poverty. Educated girls are more likely to have better income as adults, marry later, have fewer and healthier children, and to have decision making power within the household. They are also more likely to ensure that their own children are educated, helping to avoid future child labour. Tackling child labour among girls and promoting their right to education, is therefore an important element of broader strategies to promote development and Decent Work.

The World Day Against Child Labour

The World Day Against Child Labour aims to promote awareness and action to tackle child labour. Support for the World Day has been growing each year. In 2009 we look forward to a World Day that is widely supported by governments, employers and workers organisations, UN agencies and all those concerned with tackling child labour and promoting the rights of girls.

We would like you and your organisation to be part of the 2009 World Day.
Join us and add your voice to the worldwide movement against child labour.
For more information contact ipec@ilo.org.

Domestic labour

In this section

GLOBAL FACTS AND FIGURES IN BRIEF

Throughout the world, thousands of children are working as domestic helpers, performing tasks such as cleaning, ironing, cooking, minding children and gardening. In many countries this phenomenon is not only socially and culturally accepted but might be regarded positively as a protected and non-stigmatised type of work, and therefore preferable to other forms of work, especially for the girl-child. The perpetuation of traditional female roles and responsibilities within and outside the household, and the perception of domestic service as part of a woman’s apprenticeship for adulthood and marriage, also contribute to the low recognition of domestic work as a form of economic activity, and of child domestic labour as a form of child labour.
Ignorance of, or disregard for the risks children might be exposed to in this kind of work is an alarming reality in many parts of the world. It is also one of the reasons for the widespread institutional reluctance to address the issue with specific policies and laws and why the issue has only recently come to the forefront of the international debate as potentially one of the most widespread “worst forms of child labour”.
Given its hidden nature, it is impossible to have reliable figures on how many children are globally exploited as domestic workers. According to the ILO, though, more girl-children under 16 are in domestic service than in any other category of child labour. Available statistics mostly based on local research and surveys, and certainly only the tip of the iceberg, provide for an alarming indication of the extent of the phenomenon worldwide. Recent IPEC rapid assessments conducted in Asia, Africa and Latin America confirm the overwhelming extent and gravity of this problem.
According to recent reports, for example, some 175,000 children under 18 are employed in domestic service in Central America, more than 688,000 in Indonesia alone, 53,942 under-15 in South Africa and 38,000 children between 5 and 7 in Guatemala.
The root causes of child domestic labour are multiple and multi-faceted. Poverty and its feminisation, social exclusion, lack of education, gender and ethnic discrimination, domestic violence, displacement, rural-urban migration and loss of parents due to conflicts and diseases, are just some of the multiple “push factors” for child domestic workers worldwide. Increasing social and economic disparities, debt bondage, the perception that the employer is simply an extended “family” and protected environment for the child, the increasing need for the women of the household to have a “replacement” at home that will enable more and more of them to enter the labour market, and the illusion that domestic service gives the child worker an opportunity for education, are some of its “pull factors”.
The hazards linked to this practice are a matter of serious concern. The ILO has identified a number of hazards to which domestic workers are particularly vulnerable and the reason it may be considered to be one of the worst forms of child labour. Some of the most common risks children face in domestic service are:

long and tiring working days;
use of toxic chemicals;
carrying heavy loads;
handling dangerous items, such as knives, axes and hot pans;
insufficient or inadequate food and accommodation, and
humiliating or degrading treatment, including physical and verbal violence, and sexual abuse.

These hazards need to be seen in association with the denial of fundamental rights of the children such as, for example, access to education and health care, the right to rest, leisure, play and recreation and the right to be cared for and to have regular contact with their parents and peers (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child). These factors can have an irreversible physical, psychological and moral impact on the development, health and well-being of the child.
Given the complexity of its root causes and impact, any effort to adequately and efficiently address child domestic labour must therefore be of a multidisciplinary, multi-faceted and integrated nature, and linked to the broader context of poverty reduction, elimination and prevention of the worst forms of child labour and promotion and enforcement of fundamental labour and human rights.

THE ILO RESPONSE: KEY INSTRUMENTS AND MAIN ACTIONS

From an international law perspective, children who have reached the minimum working age in their country but are below 18 and are “legitimately” involved in domestic service are entitled to the rights guaranteed both by labour laws and standards, and by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. When they are working under exploitative conditions or are under the legal minimum working age they are recognised as child domestic workers, and in some cases they are considered to be in one of the worst forms of child labour, against which specific instruments and provisions have been adopted. As noted above, given its hidden nature and the characteristics of the employment relationship it is very difficult to draw the line between “legitimate domestic work” and its exploitative forms. In fact, evidence shows that in most countries children involved in domestic service are largely involved in what has been previously defined as “child domestic labour”.
Since the early 1930s, the ILO has been able to address the situation of child domestic labour in its most severe forms through its Forced Labour Convention (No.29) that addressed forced and compulsory labour for both children and adults.
With the adoption of the Minimum Age Convention (No.138) in 1973 and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No.182) in 1999, the Organisation has two fundamental international instruments to frame its policy and action response. The implementation of these Conventions is a key starting point to target child domestic labour and eradicate its worst forms. Under these Conventions governments are called on to commit to action and implement specific measures to eliminate child labour. Monitoring and follow up mechanisms are also in place to evaluate a country’s compliance to its international obligations as enumerated in the Conventions. Such mechanisms include periodic reports by Governments, reports to the Committee of Experts by workers and employer’s organisations, and the revision of individual cases by the annual International Labour Conference.
Convention No.138 requires the adoption of national policies for the effective abolition of child labour and a specific minimum age for the admission to employment. The enforcement of this Convention, particularly as far as domestic labour is concerned, is the main challenge since this sector is often excluded from the coverage of the Convention and from national labour laws.
Although it does not explicitly define child domestic labour as a worst form of child labour, Convention No.182, ratified by 163 countries as of 2006, includes a number of important provisions that are applicable to it. It calls on governments to implement effective time-bound measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, undertake action programmes to prevent it, promote and support reintegration of child workers into their communities and families, provide access to free education, identify children at special risk with a view to protecting them and, particularly relevant for child domestic labour, it gives special attention to the vulnerabilities of the girl-child.
Both Conventions encourage countries to compile a list of hazardous child labour and many countries have included domestic labour in the list.
The ILO, through its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), works in support of government efforts to fulfil international commitments under these Conventions. It encourages countries to adopt a set of strategies at the national level that aim at creating an enabling environment to eliminate child labour and at withdrawing and preventing children from being engaged in it. The Time-Bound Programme (TBP) approach is one means of implementing this. It comprises a set of integrated and coordinated policies and interventions with clear goals, specific targets and a defined time frame, aimed at preventing and eliminating a country’s worst forms of child labour.
Many Time-Bound Programmes specifically include among their priorities the eradication of child domestic labour. Their prevention, protection and rehabilitation components include: developing and sharing knowledge, filling identified gaps, ensuring law enforcement; mainstreaming child labour concerns in national development agendas and policy documents, such as national plans of action and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), and raising public awareness through advocacy campaigns.
Recognising the complexity of the issue and the long-term nature of policy interventions at national level, IPEC has been also working at local level on targeted direct action aimed at progressively preventing and eliminating child domestic labour. Since 2001, it has implemented a number of technical cooperation projects on child domestic labour. These projects have been carried out all over the world (From 2001 to 2006, IPEC has implemented project in: Asia (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka); Africa (Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia); and the Americas (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama; Paraguay and Peru); and have made significant contributions to addressing the problem. The intervention strategies and objectives of these projects vary according to the age of the children: if the child is below the legal minimum working age, the objective is immediate removal from this exploitative situation and reintegration into the family, educational system and community. If the child is above the legal minimum working age, the objective is to ensure his or her protection by ensuring that s/he is not working under hazardous conditions and that s/he enjoys her/his rights as a worker and a child.
Direct action projects have included a wide range of interventions, such as: expanding the knowledge-base on the subject; awareness-raising and capacity building of social partners to improve their response; technical assistance to develop and adopt national legislation and enforcement mechanisms; support to the educational system to offer more and better educational opportunities to children and youth involved in domestic service, and assistance to such children in the form of reintegration and rehabilitation services.

Child domestic labour information resources

The information resources in this section aims at facilitating access to the materials on child domestic labour produced by IPEC in various parts of the world as part of its global efforts to prevent and eliminate child labour and its worst forms. Far from exhaustive, the list of publications and audiovisual material has been divided into 6 broad categories:

Key documents;
Rapid assessments, national and regional reports;
Reviews of international and national legislation;
Good practices and lessons learned;
Awareness-raising materials, and
Training materials

Under each category, materials have been organised by country or region, or by theme, and are briefly described to guide the reader.

girl child labour

गुरुवार, 14 अक्तूबर 2010