our slogan on child labour

                                         there is no reason
                                         there is no excuse
                                 child labour is child abuse

child labour in developing countries

The problem of child labour is immense and has been growing. Wherever poverty exists, child labour there prevails and it is one of the most striking issues in the developing countries. Hence, there is a need to identify the vulnerable children and point out the problems in relation to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), particularly poverty eradication, education for all, gender equality, combating HIV/AIDS and creation of a global partnership for development. To understand household labour supply decisions, considering relations to the labour market and to public interventions is critical in designing programmes in order to achieve the MDG. The research on child labour represent in this respect a largely untapped resource of knowledge for policymakers in the fields of education programme and poverty reduction programmes. An attempt is made in this article to demonstrate how increased education opportunities and increased welfare reduces child labour.

child labour in homes

IN June, ILO adopted Convention (189) on Decent Work for Domestic Workers that is something historic since it enters the informal sector setting out standards to improve the condition of those working in a household or caring for families.

In Pakistan most of such workers are women, unskilled, illiterate and oppressed, hence open to exploitation. But what about the children who work in homes? Their number is not accurately known and since the practice of employing little children is socially accepted there is no societal sanction against it. ILO believes that every fourth household in Pakistan employs a child for domestic work.

The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) describes domestic child workers as “victims of exploitation behind closed doors”.

Sparc’s report The State of Pakistan’s Children 2010 has horrifying stories to tell. It says that last year, 10 children doing domestic work in homes were subjected to violence and killed by their employers. Another eight were brutally tortured.

history of labour day

Labor Day: What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
 

Labor Day Legislation

Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From these, a movement developed to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
 

A Nationwide Holiday

The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.

child labour cinsequences

Consequences of child labour

Children are exposed to accidental and other injuries at work. They should thus be protected to prevent social, economic and physical harm, which persist to affect them during their lifetime. Such injuries include1 :

• General child injuries and abuses like cuts, burns and lacerations, fractures, tiredness and dizziness, excessive fears and nightmares.
• Physical abuse that involve corporal punishment, emotional maltreatment such as blaming, belittling, verbal attacks, rejection, humiliation and bad remarks.
• Emotional neglect such as deprivation of family love and affection, resulting in loneliness, and hopelessness.
• Physical neglect like lack of adequate provision of food, clothing, shelter and medical treatment.
• Lack of schooling results in missing educational qualifications and higher skills thus perpetuating their life in poverty.
• Competition of children with adult workers leads to depressing wages and salaries.

Apart from the above, lack of opportunity for higher education for older children deprives the nation of developing higher skills and technological capabilities that are required for economic development/transformation to attain higher income and better standards of living.

forms of child labour

FORMS OF CHILD LABOR

Children are employed in both formal and informal sectors. Among the occupations wherein children are engaged in work are construction work, domestic work and small-scale industries. Incidentally, agriculture is not only the oldest but also the most common child occupation worldwide. Some of the industries that depend on child labor are bangle-making, beedi-making, power looms and manufacturing processes. These industries use toxic metals and substances such as lead, mercury, manganese, chromium, cadmium, benzene, pesticides and asbestos. Child labor is very harmful and wholehearted efforts to eliminate this should be done.

law and child labour

LAW AND CHILD LABOR

The policy curbing child labor exists but lack of enforcement of labor restrictions perpetuates child labor. This is manifested in variation in minimum age restriction in different types of employment. The International Labor Office reports that children work the longest hours and are the worst paid of all laborers. In India, the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 and Rules state that no child shall be employed or permitted to work in any of the occupations set forth in Part A of the Schedule or in any workshop wherein any of the processes set forth in Part B of the Schedule is carried on. For this purpose, “child” means a person who has not completed his 14th year of age. The Act prohibits employment of children in certain specified hazardous occupations and processes and regulates the working conditions in others. The list of hazardous occupations and processes is progressively being expanded on the recommendation of the Child Labor Technical Advisory Committee constituted under the Act