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Working for a brighter future for child labourers
Defining the problem of child labour, and how education
strategies and an inter-national conference are
seeking to tackle it
Kicking the child labour problem in Pakistan
How an initiative to deal with child labour in the football industry
could spearhead solutions to the child
labour problem in other industries.
Kenyan girls find hope at Sinaga
Children working as domestics face harsh conditions - and the
problem that their work is largely
invisible - what one Kenyan organisation is doing to help them.
Exploding the myths of child labour
The key facts that have to be understood if solutions are to be
found.
Breaking the bonds
Angela Neustatter and David Meiklejohn
A look at bonded labour in India and an interview with one man
who has commited his life to rescuing
the children who have been forced into it.
A harsh harvest
Few people would think of agriculture when asked to picture child
labourers, but estimates show that
the sowers, hoers and harvesters of the developing world are
often children.
A chance to dream again
Madeline Eisner reports from Cambodia on one of the most
insidious forms of child labour -
prostitution.
From Washington to Dhaka
Children's Express
Young people from the USA and Bangladesh find their ideas
challenged when they visit each others'
countries to look at child labour.
Britain - where children still work
A look at child labour - past and present - in Britain
Surviving on the streets
Children working on the streets are the most visible sign of child
labour, we report on how tough it is to
survive and how the children cope with their difficult situations.
Moving from the streets to the corridors of power
Angela Neustatter
Working children surprised officials at the Amsterdam conference
on child labour with their eloquent
defence of their lives - but it came as no surprise to one man...
Editorial
"OUR families' survival depends on our working. The day should
come when children need not work. Till then, they should have
access to dignifled work and good-quality but appropriate
education, as well as time for leisure."
Lakshmi Basrur was speaking at an international conference on
child labour earlier this year, and she eloquently sums up some of
the complexities of the issue. Now a teenager, she began work
as a very young child making cheap cigarettes before becoming a
domestic worker.
The issue of child labour is high on the international agenda this
year, as governments, trade unions and voluntary organisations
prepare to meet in Oslo in October at a conference organised by
UNICEF with the International Labour Organisation and the
Norwegian Government.
In this issue of "Children First" we have tried to tackle some of
the myths surrounding child labour - including the misconception
that most child labourers are working in export industries. We
give a voice to the working children the Oslo conference will try to
help - from fourteen year old Lipian who works in a Bangladesh
garment factory to eleven year old Christine who is a domestic
worker in Kenya. And we should not imagine that child labour is a
problem confined to the developing world- as the articles on New
York and London show.
We have also taken a step back in time, looking at how child
labour was tackled in Britain and finding obvious parallels with
the situation in many countries today, and possible solutions that
may be as relevant in 1997 as they were in 1897.
One of these solutions is compulsory quality education. Although
UNICEF believes that there is no single solution to the problem of
child labour, we believe that education has to be a main plank in
the strategy to tackle it.
This issue includes a look at the "Joyful Learning" programme
running in two states in India, which is tackling the poor quality
schooling that is contributing to the child labour problem. To
reflect the importance that the UK Committee places on
supporting programmes to eliminate hazardous child labour, we
have pledged £1.3 million over three years to this important pilot
programme. The enclosed flyer shows how you can support this
programme, and gives you the opportunity to sign up tc receive
more information on the Committee's forthcoming campaign on
child labour
Donors, teachers, the media, school children, trade union leaders,
companies -here and abroad - can all help to end child labour. We
hope this issue will provide you with food for thought about the
role that you could play...