Child Labour

Shortly after Iqbal Masih was born in a small village in rural Pakistan, his father abandoned the family. Iqbal's mother struggled to support her children as a housecleaner, but could not. When he was four years old, Iqbal was sold for $16 into bonded labour at a carpet factory. He worked 12 hours a day and was severely malnourished and mistreated.

When Iqbal was ten years old, a local labour rights organization helped him escape the factory. He was given a place at a school for freed child labourers in Lahore where he'd be safe. Iqbal began telling other child labourers about the law in Pakistan that made bonded labour illegal; they had never heard about this law. When children started to follow Iqbal's example and escaped the factories, the owners threatened Iqbal and his family. But he didn't back down. At age 12, he travelled to Sweden and the U.S. to speak out against child labour. When he returned to Pakistan in April, 1995, Iqbal was shot and killed.

Iqbal's story reflects the lives of over 200 million children around the world who have been forced to give up school, sports, play and sometimes even their families and homes to work under dangerous, harmful and abusive conditions. After reading about Iqbal's life and death, Craig Kielburger started Free The Children to continue what Iqbal had started: children helping children be free to live better lives.

A Closer Look

Many children all over the world do some kind of work. You might have an after-school job, or maybe you help out with chores around the house. This kind of work can be great: you build skills and earn extra cash. It's not child labour. Only work that's harmful to a child's physical and mental development is considered to be child labour. One in seven children is exposed to this kind of labour, kept from school and the chance to improve the situation they were born into. They are often put in danger too. Every year, 22,000 children die from accidents related to their work. And that doesn't say anything about the mental and emotional harm of being forced to work long, hard hours or experiencing things that no person should.

Child labour is defined as:

• Work performed by children under the age of 18 (depending on the country)
• Long hours of work on a regular or full-time basis
• Abusive treatment by the employer
• No access, or poor access, to education

Child labour includes selling things in the street or working in someone's house as a domestic servant. In these cases, it's not so much the work itself that's bad, but how the child is treated, how many hours a day they work and whether the work prevents school attendance. In the worst cases, children are trapped in these situations by debts or outright slavery.

Then there are extreme kinds of child labour. One type of what are called the "worst forms" of child labour is "hazardous work," work that is very difficult and harmful to the child's physical development. This includes anything from carrying heavy loads and using dangerous machinery to spraying pesticides and working in unclean environments.

The other worst type of child labour is called "unconditional worst forms." That means that no matter what the circumstances are, no matter how much is paid or how little the child does, it is illegal—even for adults. Every effort must be made to end this form of labour. This includes slavery, the buying and selling of a human being (called "human trafficking"), forced or bonded labour, using children in armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and involvement in drugs or any other illegal activity.

Each child has his or her own story. In some cases, such as Iqbal's, poverty causes parents to sell their child to a factory or mine. Many street children in Vietnam, for example, sell gifts in the street, bringing all the money they earn to an unemployed parent or guardian. Unfortunately, because of high unemployment and labour laws, it can be easier for an adult to make a child work informally than for them to find a wage-paying job. Illness may also be a cause of child labour. A parent may be too sick to work, or worse. In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS has orphaned 12 million children, taking the kids out of school to care for their siblings, run the household and earn an income any way they can.

Every child in the world has the right not to work. Every child deserves a fair chance to learn and be healthy. Unfortunately, many kids fall into the cracks and can't get out by themselves. A global effort to fight child labour is incredibly important, and at its heart are the children who stand up and speak out for one another. One child's voice can be drowned out, especially when it has been weakened by oppressive conditions and stronger adults. But even just a small group of brave kids can make a difference. Don't let your voice go unheard. Speak up and speak out, stand beside kids around the world to fight for a fair chance to grow up healthily and happily.

LEARNmore

UNICEF, "Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse." http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_childlabour.html

UNICEF, "Africa's orphans at higher risk of HIV, says report." http://www.unicef.org/aids/index_35330.html

The World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child 2000: Iqbal. http://childrensworld.org/globalclassroom/page.html?pid=53

UNICEF, "Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse." http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_childlabour.html

International Labour Organization (ILO), International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), "About child labour." http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/lang-en/index/html

International Labour Organization (ILO), Child Labour: A textbook for university students, 2004.

International Labour Organization (ILO), Facts on child labour, 2006.

International Labour Conference, The end of child labour: Within Reach, 2006. http://www.ilo.org/declaration/

Frank Hagemann, Yacouba Diallo, Alex Etienne, Farhad Mehran, Global child labour trends 2000 to 2004, ILO-IPEC, 2006.