[child-rights] Child labour robs children of childhood, impedes development

***Learn more about the World Day against Child Labour 2006, 12 June 2006:
http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/day-against-childlabour.php

 
Many child labourers deprived of school, healthcare and protection from
violence

NEW YORK, 12 June 2006 – Hundreds of millions of children are forced to
work when they should be learning and playing, which deprives them, their
families and nations the opportunity to develop and thrive, UNICEF said
today.

“Children who are compelled to work are robbed of childhood itself,”
UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman said today on the International
Day Against Child Labour. “The majority of child labourers are hidden from
view and beyond the reach of the law. Many of them are denied basic health
care, education, adequate nutrition, and the protection and security of
their communities and families.

Worldwide, there are an estimated 246 million children engaged in child
labour. Some 180 million children aged 5–17 (or 73 per cent of all child
labourers) are believed to be en¬gaged in the worst forms of child labour,
including working in hazardous conditions such as in mines and with
dangerous machinery. Of these children, 5.7 million are forced into debt
bondage or other forms of slavery, 1.8 million are forced into
prostitution or pornography and 600,000 are engaged in other illicit
activities.
 
Veneman said that education, which is a critical component of the
protective environment that is needed to shield children from
exploitation, is a powerful means of preventing child labour.

Removing barriers to school enrollment is the focus of the School Fee
Abolition Initiative launched in 2005 by UNICEF and the World Bank. UNICEF
also works with the International Labor Organization and other partners to
promote policies, raise resources and put in place practical measures to
combat child labour.

One such programme is the UNICEF-supported Basic Education for Hard to
Reach Urban Children (BEHTRUC) project in Bangladesh, which has provided
non-formal education to 346,500 working children, half of whom are girls,
since 1997. The children, as young as eight and as old as 14, were
primarily doing domestic work or toiling in factories. The government
supports the programme with a network of 151 non-governmental
organizations and provides stipends to the children’s families to
compensate them for the lost income.

In addition to being denied education, children who work are frequent
victims of maltreatment, physical and psychological violence or abuse by
supervisors, co-workers and outsiders. Violence against children in the
workplace is one of five key areas to be addressed in UN Secretary
General’s Study on Violence Against Children, a global report to be issued
in October.

UNICEF’s efforts to protect children from child labour and other forms of
exploitation focus on creating a protective environment for children. In a
protective environment, people at all levels of society work individually
and together to enforce protective laws, develop the necessary services,
equip children and those who work with children with the information and
skills they need to prevent and respond to abuse, and challenge all forms
of discrimination.

“Combating child labour requires political leadership and broad-based
partnerships,” Veneman said. “Parents, community leaders, the private
sector and governments – must all take responsibility to ensure that
children are not exploited in the workplace.

UNICEF Press rele