I. Theme
: Child labour : a threat
to human rights and development.
An in depth study proposal concerning the European countries, Spain and Portugal, in compared to the Asian
country, Bangladesh.
II.
Introduction :
Child labour is a complex problem in
our society; it’s rooted in our culture, socio- economic structure, customs and
traditions. Children around the world suffer from various forms
of abuse: forced labour, work
under extremely difficult conditions,
bonded labour or in forced prostitution.
The overwhelming majority of working children are found in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Child labour and child exploitation also exists in Eastern Europe and some of the European countries where the society is now in transition to democracy and free market economy. Bangladesh, having child population of 60 million is believe to be a home of some 6.6 million child labourers, among the 250 million child labour population in the world. 125 million children of the world are with out education. Children’s rights to education is violated every day, leaving them trapped in poverty. Education, is a right as expressed in UN and Trade declaration on human rights, paragraph 26, The International Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 13, and Convention of Rights of Children Article 28. Besides this, 150 million children have no shelter and about 100 million are parentless. Two million children are also suffering from aids .
According to UNICEF’s The State of World Children 2001 report, launched recently, 11 million children under the age of 5 died last year, most of them from preventable causes. It stated that in 1998 the top five child killers were, prenatal conditions (20%), respiratory infections (18%), diarrhoeal diseases (17%), vaccine preventable diseases (15%) and malaria (7%). More than 10 million Children under 15 have lost their mother or both parents to AIDS. About 177 million children have stunted growth mainly due to malnutrition in pregnant women. Close to 15 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth every year.
Child labour and abuse of child rights is now a global phenomenon. Policy, practice and strategy for children in Spain, Portugal and with in the European community, living conditions of children and full implementation of United Nations Convention on the Child Rights is to be studied and documented with comparison an Asian Country notably Bangladesh.
Earlier, the research project was
initiated in the University of Education, Freiburg, Germany, under the
supervision of Dr. Guido Schmitt, Chief
Executive of the Institute for
Intercultural Formation and European
Studies.
III. Situation
of Children in Bangladesh:
Bangladesh is an under-developed,
poor country with a population of 128 million in an area of 147,570 sq. km, the
density of the population is 868 per
sq. km, and the population growth rate
is 1.67%,with a sex ratio of 106 males
per 100 females. Infant mortality rate per 1000 live births is 89. According to
the statistics of the Govt., the
civilian labour force in Bangladesh (1995-96) was 56 million.
Child labour as understood by
international convents and national legislation is a violation of human rights.
The constitution of Bangladesh
prohibits forced or
compulsory labour,
including child labour, however, the
Govt. is not able to enforce this prohibition. The Factories Act and Shops and Establishments Act, both
passed in 1965, set up inspection mechanisms to enforce laws against
forced labour. Because of social
tradition, structure and problems of resources, such laws are not rigorously enforced. The country’s existing laws are not uniform
nor consistent . Some laws prohibit
labour by children in certain sectors.
-The
Factories Act 1965 bars children under the age of 14 from working in factories.
-The Shops
and Establishments Act of 1965 prohibits the employment of children younger
than 12 in the commercial work place.
-The
employment of children Act of 1938
prohibits the employment of children under 15 in the railways, or good handling
in ports.
THE
WORST FORMS OF CHILD DISCREMINATION IN BANGLADESH:
* Total
child labour : 6.6 million.
* Child
Slavery : 496,000 ( According to the
report on National Sample Survey
of Child Labour in
Bangladesh, 1995-96)
* Child
trafficking :15,000 children and women smuggled out every year (CATW-1999)
· 27,000 Bangladeshi women and children engaged in prostitution in India.
(CATW-1999)
· 200,000 Women and 6,000 children trafficked
from 1990-97 ( Centre for Women and
Children Study )
· 113,660 Child prostitutes in Bangladesh (Child
Labour situation in Bangladesh,1997-ILO)
* Domestic
Servants: 300,000 ( The little maids of
Dhaka, 1999)
A UNICEF
and ILO survey indicates, among the children from 6-17 years of age, 21 %
of boys and 4 % of girls are working in
paid employment. In collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Manpower, UNICEF has conducted a
study on “ Hazardous Child Labour in
Bangladesh” and identified 27 hazardous
economic activities of children.
1. Child prostitution
2. Construction
3. Rickshaw/rickshaw puller
4. Tanner
5. Welding
6. Electric mechanic
7. Brick/stone crushing
8. Automobile workshop
9. Dying workshop
10. Car painting/metal furniture painting/spray painting
11. Battery re-charging shop
12. Bedding manufacturing
13. Blacksmith,
14. Engineering workshop
15. Goldsmiths assistant
16. Hotel/mess cook
17. Porter
18. Laundry boy
19. Printing press
20. Saw Mill
21. Small
soap factory
22. Sweeper
23. Scavenger (waste pickers)
24. Tempo/Truck/Bus helper/unlicensed
tempo driver
25. Shrimp processing factory
26. Vulcanising workshop assistant
27. Vangari (splinter/waste collectors and
processors ).
Children drive rickshaws, break bricks at the
construction sites, carry vegetables, fruits and dry goods for shoppers at markets, work at hotels and tea stalls
and work as beachcombers in the Shrimp industry. Children routinely perform
domestic work. Cases of children being physically abused and occasionally killed by heads of households where they work are reported in the press. Some children are trafficked
domestically or overseas, often for prostitution which is a serious problem in
Bangladesh.
To eliminate child labour in Garment Factories UNICEF, ILO and
Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and
Exporters Association (BGMEA),
signed in negotiation in July of 1995 to make the child labour
sector free by Oct. 1996. In UNICEF
sponsored schools for former child
labourers, as inspection of factories continues by ILO-managed inspection teams, currently children
are receiving a small amount of money
as stipend. The number of children working in non-export, or non-factory garment
production, is unknown. As the women and children in Bangladesh appear to be the
most vulnerable the frequent report of torture, physical assault and acid
throwing incidents raises and even murders testify to their abject condition.
IV. The
objectives of the study:
a)The study will now describe and analyse the
life situation (rights & privileges of the European children in Spain and
Portugal compared Bangladesh. The
research is to address the issues of
child labour from a Asian to a European perspective bearing in mind the
identification and denouncement of the
worst forms of child labour.
Convention on the rights of children was
implemented by the UN General Assembly on Nov. 20, 1989 to up hold the rights
of the children.
Following
are stipulations of fundamental children rights :
-Protection in armed conflict
-Protection from discrimination
-Protection
from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
-Protection within the justice system
-Protection
from economic exploitation etc.
Although
the convention is a widely ratified treaty through out the world, children are
still denied their basic rights and
privileges in the under developed countries and even developed
industrialized countries in different ways and
children living in exceptionally difficult condition, and that such
children are in need of special care and attention for the necessary protection
and harmonious development.
As
pertaining to children in every country, this study will address the legal,
political, social and developmental
aspects of child rights.
Child labour is defined as the employment of children under the age of physical maturity for long hours. Child labour is then a denial of child rights and an obstacle to their physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, psychological and social competency as is any work which is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.
b) The
Strategy : The operational strategy of the project consists of the following
measures:
i) To investigate and analyse children’s rights
situation and events in Spain, Portugal and Bangladesh.
ii) To coordinate information on child abuse , torture and deprivation , Govt. policy and practice and strategy for development of the children.
iii) To show solidarity in supporting campaigns
against children’s rights violations.
iv) To promote the role of human rights
in poverty alleviation and harmonization of economic growth with social
justice.
V. I) Child labour is caused by :
a) Industrialization,
b) Urbanization,
c) Emigration /Immigration
d) Tourism( sexual exploitation)
e) Broken
families from divorce/new partner
f) Homelessness,
g) Expelling of children from the
family/school etc.
II) Results
and consequences :
- Street children
- Street labour
- Orphanage,
- Murder of street children,
- Street school and social competition,
III) Child
labour is also the result of poverty in a society with high unemployment .
Children work to take care of
themselves or to take care of the
family. The major factors which push the children to works were mentioned here
in the convention.
d) The new
Convention produced a legally binding agreement between countries to prohibit
the worst forms of child labour and to take necessary action to eliminate them.
The types of work covered by the final category, Article 3(d) should include:
· work that exposes children to physical, psychological or sexual abuse.
· work underground, underwater, at dangerous heights, or in confined
spaces.
· work with dangerous machines or equipment
· work involving heavy loads.
· work in unhealthy environments, such as those with hazardous substances
and extreme temperatures or noise levels.
· work for long hours or during the night.
· work involving unreasonable
confinement on the employer’s
premises.
e) Supply
Factors: Bangladesh happens to be a land of natural calamities, cyclones, floods
and river bank erosion. Such renders many people homeless and helpless. About
55 million people live below the poverty level in Bangladesh. In disaster and
distressed situation especially women and children especially became the worst
victims.
f) Demand
Factors: Children are efficient in many unskilled and semi-skilled jobs. They
are quick learners, unprotected, work
long hours and have a docile nature ,thus making it easy for adults to exploit
and mistreat them.
VI) Possibilities for intervention:
a)The worst
forms of child labour Convention held in1997 of ILO(Convention 182) recommends that : Article 6 of the
convention should be designed and implemented as a matter of urgency, in
consultation with Govt. institutions and the employers and workers
organizations, taking into consideration
the affects of child labour, their families, and as appropriate, other concerned groups.
The other
essential points of the Convention for interventions are as follows
b)Fields of
intervention:
*Education for parents
*Medical counselling
*School Education for girls, boys and women
*Occupational schools or street schools
*Social care for gangs of street children
*Street children congress
*Legislation and implementation of law
(national and international )
c)UNICEF
stresses the allocation of resources
necessary to adequately fund early childhood care and quality education and
have made 5 specific recommendations:
· national campaign to register
all children at birth,
· dismissive attitudes of “ they are only children” within families
must be discarded,
· laws and policies must address their possible effects on children before
they are passed,
· women must be empowered in the communities and at home,
· weak leadership and lack of accountability must not be accepted and
distance from poor rural communities and urban slums to the seats of power must
be shortened,
VII. Work
plan:
Begin : 10
December, 2000.
10/12/2000-
31/12/2001: Material collection, publication ,taking state statistic, official
documentation, report of the international organizations, information exchange
etc.
01/01/2002-15/06/2002:
To visit the study fields in Europe, consultation with officials and
organizations concerned, join and organize meetings, held conferences, gather
information, observe national law of policies and politics .
16/06/2002-15/12/2002
: Field study in Bangladesh, Spain and Portugal for necessary data collection .
16/12/2002-15/03/2003
: Analysis of total information identify laws, gazettes , culture and statistics for concrete result of the study.
16/03/2003-09/12/2003:
Preparation and writing of dissertation .
10/12/2003
: Presentation of the Thesis.
VIII. a)
Research Supervision and Advisory Council:
Prof. Antonio Fernandez Aluarez
Vice
Rector, The University of Vigo, Spain
Ms. Luisa Alonso Escontrela
Director,
The Faculty of Educational Science, Pontevedra, University of Vigo, Spain.
and
Dr. Guido
Schmitt, Chief Executive of The Institute for Intercultural Formation and
European Studies,
University
of Education,
Freiburg,
Germany.
b) Researcher:
Shan-e-Jahan
DELWAR JAHID, M.A(Master of Arts).
Former
Chief Executive of Bangladesh Foundation of Human Rights and former
Researcher of The University of
Education, Freiburg, Germany.
c) BUDGET:
Monthly honorarium (including tax, social security etc.)
Pts.200.000.
Yearly ( 200,000 X 12= 2.400.000 ) Pts.2.400.000.
In 3 Years Pts. 7.200.000.
Field study
in Spain and Portugal Pts. 150.000
Field study
in Bangladesh Pts. 300.000
Seminar
cost ( yearly 1, in 3 years- total 3 for each
Pts. 50.000
)
Pts. 150.000
To attend 3
national and 3 international seminars
Pts . 250.000
Administrative expense
Pts. 75.000
==================================================
Total
Pts 8.125.000
1st year-
Pts. 2.575.000
2nd
year- Pts. 2.925.000
3rd year- Pts 2.625.000
==================
Total
: Pts. 8.125.000
b)The money
would be used according to the availability of the project fund , supervised
and audited by the University authority .Funding will be petitioned and required from the respective Govt.
non-governmental organisations and International organisations, foundations,
corporations, companies and individuals for
their invaluable support to the project.
Name of the
account :
Name of the
Bank :
Account No.
Sponsoring
Institute:
University of
Vigo,
Faculty of
Educational Science, Pontevedra
Avda. de Buenos Aires,
s/n. 36002
Pontevedra,
Spain.
Tel :
0034.(986)801.731
0034-657.63.82.40 (pvt)
Fax:
0034(986)80.17.01.
E-mail: [email protected]
Director Researcher
Faculty of
Educational Science, Pontevedra
University
of Vigo.