| From the comfort of their plush offices and five | | | | You can't just say they can't work, you have to |
| to six figure salaries, self-appointed NGO's often | | | | provide alternatives."Regrettably, the debate is so |
| denounce child labor as their employees rush from | | | | laden with emotions and self-serving arguments |
| one five star hotel to another, $3000 | | | | that the facts are often overlooked.The outcry |
| subnotebooks and PDA's in hand. The hairsplitting | | | | against soccer balls stitched by children in Pakistan |
| distinction made by the ILO between "child work" | | | | led to the relocation of workshops ran by Nike |
| and "child labor" conveniently targets impoverished | | | | and Reebok. Thousands lost their jobs, including |
| countries while letting its budget contributors - the | | | | countless women and 7000 of their progeny. The |
| developed ones - off-the-hook.Reports regarding | | | | average family income - anyhow meager - fell by |
| child labor surface periodically. Children crawling in | | | | 20 percent. Economists Drusilla Brown, Alan |
| mines, faces ashen, body deformed. The agile | | | | Deardorif, and Robert Stern observe wryly:"While |
| fingers of famished infants weaving soccer balls | | | | Baden Sports can quite credibly claim that their |
| for their more privileged counterparts in the USA. | | | | soccer balls are not sewn by children, the |
| Tiny figures huddled in sweatshops, toiling in | | | | relocation of their production facility undoubtedly |
| unspeakable conditions. It is all heart-rending and it | | | | did nothing for their former child workers and |
| gave rise to a veritable not-so-cottage industry of | | | | their families."Such examples abound. |
| activists, commentators, legal eagles, scholars, and | | | | Manufacturers - fearing legal reprisals and |
| opportunistically sympathetic politicians.Ask the | | | | "reputation risks" (naming-and-shaming by |
| denizens of Thailand, sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, or | | | | overzealous NGO's) - engage in preemptive |
| Morocco and they will tell you how they regard | | | | sacking. German garment workshops fired 50,000 |
| this altruistic hyperactivity - with suspicion and | | | | children in Bangladesh in 1993 in anticipation of the |
| resentment. Underneath the compelling arguments | | | | American never-legislated Child Labor Deterrence |
| lurks an agenda of trade protectionism, they | | | | Act.Quoted by Wasserstein, former Secretary of |
| wholeheartedly believe. Stringent - and expensive | | | | Labor, Robert Reich, notes:"Stopping child labor |
| - labor and environmental provisions in international | | | | without doing anything else could leave children |
| treaties may well be a ploy to fend off imports | | | | worse off. If they are working out of necessity, |
| based on cheap labor and the competition they | | | | as most are, stopping them could force them into |
| wreak on well-ensconced domestic industries and | | | | prostitution or other employment with greater |
| their political stooges.This is especially galling since | | | | personal dangers. The most important thing is |
| the sanctimonious West has amassed its wealth | | | | that they be in school and receive the education |
| on the broken backs of slaves and kids. The 1900 | | | | to help them leave poverty."Contrary to hype, |
| census in the USA found that 18 percent of all | | | | three quarters of all children work in agriculture |
| children - almost two million in all - were gainfully | | | | and with their families. Less than 1 percent work |
| employed. The Supreme Court ruled | | | | in mining and another 2 percent in construction. |
| unconstitutional laws banning child labor as late as | | | | Most of the rest work in retail outlets and |
| 1916. This decision was overturned only in | | | | services, including "personal services" - a |
| 1941.The GAO published a report last week in | | | | euphemism for prostitution. UNICEF and the ILO |
| which it criticized the Labor Department for | | | | are in the throes of establishing school networks |
| paying insufficient attention to working conditions | | | | for child laborers and providing their parents with |
| in manufacturing and mining in the USA, where | | | | alternative employment.But this is a drop in the |
| many children are still employed. The Bureau of | | | | sea of neglect. Poor countries rarely proffer |
| Labor Statistics pegs the number of working | | | | education on a regular basis to more than two |
| children between the ages of 15-17 in the USA at | | | | thirds of their eligible school-age children. This is |
| 3.7 million. One in 16 of these worked in factories | | | | especially true in rural areas where child labor is a |
| and construction. More than 600 teens died of | | | | widespread blight. Education - especially for |
| work-related accidents in the last ten years.Child | | | | women - is considered an unaffordable luxury by |
| labor - let alone child prostitution, child soldiers, and | | | | many hard-pressed parents. In many cultures, |
| child slavery - are phenomena best avoided. But | | | | work is still considered to be indispensable in |
| they cannot and should not be tackled in isolation. | | | | shaping the child's morality and strength of |
| Nor should underage labor be subjected to blanket | | | | character and in teaching him or her a trade."The |
| castigation. Working in the gold mines or fisheries | | | | Economist" elaborates:"In Africa children are |
| of the Philippines is hardly comparable to waiting | | | | generally treated as mini-adults; from an early age |
| on tables in a Nigerian or, for that matter, | | | | every child will have tasks to perform in the |
| American restaurant.There are gradations and | | | | home, such as sweeping or fetching water. It is |
| hues of child labor. That children should not be | | | | also common to see children working in shops or |
| exposed to hazardous conditions, long working | | | | on the streets. Poor families will often send a child |
| hours, used as means of payment, physically | | | | to a richer relation as a housemaid or houseboy, |
| punished, or serve as sex slaves is commonly | | | | in the hope that he will get an education."A |
| agreed. That they should not help their parents | | | | solution recently gaining steam is to provide |
| plant and harvest may be more debatable.As | | | | families in poor countries with access to loans |
| Miriam Wasserman observes in "Eliminating Child | | | | secured by the future earnings of their educated |
| Labor", published in the Federal Bank of Boston's | | | | offspring. The idea - first proposed by Jean-Marie |
| "Regional Review", second quarter of 2000, it | | | | Baland of the University of Namur and James A. |
| depends on "family income, education policy, | | | | Robinson of the University of California at |
| production technologies, and cultural norms." About | | | | Berkeley - has now permeated the |
| a quarter of children under-14 throughout the | | | | mainstream.Even the World Bank has contributed |
| world are regular workers. This statistic masks | | | | a few studies, notably, in June, "Child Labor: The |
| vast disparities between regions like Africa (42 | | | | Role of Income Variability and Access to Credit |
| percent) and Latin America (17 percent).In many | | | | Across Countries" authored by Rajeev Dehejia of |
| impoverished locales, child labor is all that stands | | | | the NBER and Roberta Gatti of the Bank's |
| between the family unit and all-pervasive, life | | | | Development Research Group.Abusive child labor |
| threatening, destitution. Child labor declines | | | | is abhorrent and should be banned and eradicated. |
| markedly as income per capita grows. To deprive | | | | All other forms should be phased out gradually. |
| these bread-earners of the opportunity to lift | | | | Developing countries already produce millions of |
| themselves and their families incrementally above | | | | unemployable graduates a year - 100,000 in |
| malnutrition, disease, and famine - is an apex of | | | | Morocco alone. Unemployment is rife and reaches, |
| immoral hypocrisy.Quoted by "The Economist", a | | | | in certain countries - such as Macedonia - more |
| representative of the much decried Ecuador | | | | than one third of the workforce. Children at work |
| Banana Growers Association and Ecuador's Labor | | | | may be harshly treated by their supervisors but |
| Minister, summed up the dilemma neatly: "Just | | | | at least they are kept off the far more menacing |
| because they are under age doesn't mean we | | | | streets. Some kids even end up with a skill and |
| should reject them, they have a right to survive. | | | | are rendered employable. |