Child labor and economic woes
Child labor and economic woes
By Nafsiah Mboi
This is the second of two articles on a likely increase in
child labor amid the economic crisis.
JAKARTA (JP): Vast numbers of children and young workers will
be entering the workforce in the next few years if Indonesia does
not act promptly and decisively.
Working conditions can damage the children; the potential
damage to children can be clustered in three broad categories.
* Problems related to time: Children can become so
overcommitted to work that there is nothing left for the "normal"
activities of childhood -- schooling, socializing, even, in many
cases, time for adequate rest, play and recreation.
* Problems related to physical development: The normal
processes of physical development can be interrupted or damage
can occur with extensive or lifelong impact. Damage can take
place to muscles, bone structure, the respiratory system, etc.,
from working too long, in hazardous environments or with
equipment designed for adults.
* Problems related to values, self-respect and relations with
others: Children, through their own experience of injustice,
exploitation, abuse and violence, learn to see themselves as
"throwaway kids", little valued by those they meet. They learn to
exploit and abuse; learn not to trust others and to manipulate.
Joining in the lifestyles of the adults who "use them" in illegal
activities (sex work, gambling, drug-related activities, etc.),
children come to accept the values of the people they live and
work with, thus becoming further isolated from the constructive
relationships and experiences which should, by right, be part of
their growing-up years.
In extreme cases they die as the result of lack of protection
-- abused by employers, involved in gang fights, infected by
Human Immunodeficiency (HIV) which quickly becomes AIDS, crushed
by equipment they use but cannot control.
It seems that no segment of the community is free of
responsibility to take part in the effort to see to it that this
does not happen to children. Communities need to be aware of
children in need and children at work in their immediate
neighborhoods -- how, where and why they are working. What
alternatives exist to protect the children as they work or to
remove them from the work.
The private sector has some good experience of work with the
Ministry of Education and Culture, where the government provides
materials, while factories provide a stipend for tutors and
meeting places for "off-hour" training to make it possible for
young people to complete interrupted education.
Community organizations, as well as national and international
donors, all need to be aware of the unintended but very real
threat to children, particularly young children, from credit
programs directed to women for home industry. If design and
supervision do not address the problem, the expansion of home
industry often leads to rises in indoor pollution (particularly
in the small living spaces of the urban poor), damaging the
health of women and children who spend more time in the home than
other family members.
In addition, there is an irresistible tendency for children to
be sucked into work with their mothers, often at the expense of
education and healthy physical and social development. Small
credits for women (particularly women who are heading households)
have an important role to play in a comprehensive approach to
poverty alleviation, but they should not cause unintended
negative side effects.
The government, the House of Representatives (DPR), legal
activists and child advocates all need to work to review and
propose revision of the much flawed articles (articles. 1, 95,
96, 97 and 178) related to child labor in Law No. 25/1997.
Indonesia needs a law which is clear, unambiguous and
comprehensive in protecting children and in sanctioning
individuals and institutions -- regardless of whether they are
private sector companies, state enterprises, government
officials, parents or common criminals -- exploiting children for
economic purposes or hiring them for harmful/hazardous labor.
The law needs to assure the protection of children against too
early entrance into the workplace. The fair enforcement of a
labor law will require adequate attention to the strengthening of
inspection to child labor, mobilization of communities to help
monitor the situations of their own children, particularly
children working in the informal sector, and the training of
children to be more aware of their own rights and to protect
themselves against violations.
Thus, the law has a vital role to play in protecting the
rights of working children, while education is important for
protection against exploitative, hazardous and harmful child
labor. The implementation of the government's program of nine-
year obligatory education for all children could go a long way
toward limiting their premature entrance into the workforce and
tolerance of exploitation in the workplace. At the same time, it
will facilitate the development of young people with the basic
education to be productive and self-supporting in the years to
come.
A policy commitment to such an education system and full
enrollment requires action on many fronts -- attention to the
quality of education, scholarships and community education to
encourage full enrollment, availability and appropriateness of
teaching materials. Simply urging parents to keep their children
in school will not be enough and give parents, particularly poor
parents, an unfair burden. It is for the benefit of the whole
community to have children stay in school.
It can be concluded that the rights and the future of millions
of Indonesian children are at risk of being lost by involvement
in hazardous, harmful labor as a direct result of the combined
economic, political and weather crises. The country, therefore,
must respond to this threat, for the sake of its children.
As poverty is a fundamental problem, it is not the only issue
to be addressed to resolve the problems of children with
hazardous, harmful work. Indonesia must formulate appropriate
social policy and programs and look for new ways to energize and
put legal and education systems to work on the same task.
In short, for the sake of the children and the nation,
Indonesia must acknowledge and challenge the threat to ever
growing numbers of children from involvement in hazardous,
exploitative work wherever it is found -- in the family setting,
at factories, in the fields and in the sex industry.
Who should be responsible for this? All Indonesians must take
part -- employers, government agencies, community groups and non-
governmental organizations, legal activists, child welfare
workers and teachers, parents and religion leaders. The task is
too important and the danger too widespread to have anyone "turn
a blind eye".
The writer is a member of the United Nations Committee on the
Rights of the Child.