CHILD LABOR IN ASIAN NATIONS

[Anonymous]

Child Labor Decreases in Asian Nations
BUSAN,
South Korea (Aug. 06) – The good news is that child labor in Asia is
decreasing. The bad news? It’s not declining fast enough.Despite
a drop of about 5 million since 2000, working children number an
estimated 122 million in Asia, or 64 percent of the worldwide total,
according to the International Labor Organization.That’s just slightly
less than the entire population of Japan.Though the causes of child
labor are complex, the U.N. agency says a key problem is that there are
too many people who, despite wanting their children in school, either
can’t afford fees or related costs like transportation and uniforms or
would find it hard to get by without the extra income.In such an
environment, many families send their kids to work – in the fields, in
factories, selling trinkets on the street or even in dangerous
worksites, like mines.”The problem is the reduction in Asia is not as
rapid as it should be,” Panudda Boonpala, senior child labor specialist
at the ILO, said in an interview. “A large number of working poor means
that we have a large number of people who are unable to support
children to go to school.”

Child labor is one of the topics under discussion at the U.N. body’s first Asian conference in five years.Under
the theme of “Realizing Decent Work,” government representatives from
close to 40 countries and territories as well as workers’ and
employers’ organizations have been meeting this week to discuss issues
such as youth employment, migration, globalization, competitiveness and
productivity.Participants in a session on youth employment Thursday
watched a short video on child labor, in which children were shown
working at a gold mine in Mongolia.In a report Tuesday on labor and
social trends in the region, the ILO said that the number of child
workers, defined as being between the ages of 5 to 14, in Asia fell to
122.3 million in 2004 from 127.3 million four years earlier.South Asia,
which includes Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,
remains a child labor hotspot, according to World Bank statistics
contained in the ILO report.Perhaps nowhere is the problem more acute
than in Nepal, where as of 2004, according to the ILO, nearly 40
percent of children aged 10-14 were working, sometimes for long hours
and in jobs requiring strenuous physical labor such as in mines,
quarries and carpet factories.But even there, the statistics show
improvement, with the percentage of children on the job declining from
near 50 percent in 1990.The Philippines, which has a national action
plan crafted under ILO guidance, has also shown improvement, though
problems remain in areas such as fireworks production, deep-sea fishing
and mining.”The laws are all there,” said Undersecretary of Labor and
Employment Manuel G. Imson. He added that the government is working to
enforce them by cooperating with NGOs and national organizations like
the police.

But child labor has also emerged where it was unknown until relatively recently.“Prior
to 1990, child labor was nonexistent in Mongolia,” said Kh. Ganbaatar,
executive director of the Mongolian Employers’ Federation, which is
working with the government, civil society groups and the ILO to
address the problem.He said up to 10,000 children are estimated to work
in unregulated gold, coal and mineral mines in the peak summer
season.The problem, Ganbaatar said, is a social consequence of the
country’s change from communism to capitalism as well as devastation
wrought on traditional herding lifestyles after winter storms killed
millions of head of livestock earlier this decade.On the positive side,
perceptions in the region regarding the scope of the problem have
improved.”I think 10 years ago there was lots of denial,” the ILO’s
Panudda said. Further progress, however, depends on how much effort and
resources Asian countries put into the fight, she added.The ILO is
committed to ending what it calls the worst forms of child labor and
abuse, which include slavery, using children in armed conflicts,
trafficking in sex and drugs and hazardous labor, over the next 10
years. 

[Author]

August 31, 2006 at 10:59 AM