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.