Keep kids in school

The issue of child labor is on the surface a very simple one. Children should not be working. If you consider the case of, say, a five-year-old literally chained to a loom in a dark and dusty room, knotting carpets till his fingers bleed, there is no doubt that immediate action is needed to rescue that child.

But many cases are not so clear cut. What of a 10-year-old garland seller in the night market in Chiang Mai, making 200 or 300 baht a night, probably more than her mother, still attending school in the day, even if she often falls asleep at her desk, and making a vital contribution to the family income?

It was children like these, and some of the non-government workers supporting them, who raised dissenting voices at the child labor conference in Oslo.

Most workers in the field are keen to introduce and enforce laws on minimum working ages, to ensure children receive a reasonable level of schooling and are not exposed to the dangers and pressures of work until they are sufficiently mature to cope with them. But many of the children fight this tooth and nail. They define themselves as working children, and they want to be working children.

So should there be a legal minimum age for work? The answer to that is, despite the quite understandable protests of the children themselves, yes. Societies and families have a responsibility to educate and support the development of their new members, to allow them to gain the knowledge, skills and experience necessary for survival and at least modest prosperity.

Thailand has -- almost -- taken the decision to set a new minimum working age.

That is the time period we might expect a 13-year-old starting out in the workforce today to be working. Six years or so of basic education cannot put them in any position to deal with all those changes, all that technology, all the challenges. We can admire a 10-year-old, or a 13-year-old, who wants to shoulder the burden of supporting his or her family.

But in this case, we must say, adults know best. These children should be in school, not working. Parents, and if they cannot, Thai society, must support those children, at least until the age of 15, to give them an opportunity for full development, and the chance to make a real contribution to their own, and the nations, future.

-- Bangkok Post