By Nethmi Dissanayake
Childhood, for most of us, was the best part of our lives. It was full of innocence, hope, and joy. We had no responsibilities, no worries. The only concerns we had were the “monsters” under our bed, finishing our homework, and making sure not to break a window while playing cricket.
However, not all childhoods are idyllic. Some children are burdened with the responsibility of their families and earning money from a very young age. They have no other option but to abandon their education and dreams and take up some form of work, somewhere, often being abused in the process.
Child labour is a term often heard and discussed today. It is where children are forced to work from an early age. It is one of the worst social problems our world faces. The age of eight to 16 should be the age where children learn, grow, and find opportunities to help them excel in their lives. Those children who are forced to work at this crucial point in their lives do not receive a proper education, something that not only deprives them of their childhood, but also sets them at a disadvantage later in life.
Children are often subjected to sexual, physical, and psychological abuse as a result of their engagement in different forms of labour activities: Ranjan Weththasinghe
Save the Children Sri Lanka Policy, Advocacy, and Research Director Ranjan Weththasinghe spoke to Brunch about the causes and effects of child labour and the steps they have taken as an organisation to find solutions for these issues.
“As a result of the recently passed Employment of Women, Young Persons, and Children (Amendment) Act, No. 2 of 2021, no child under the age of 16 should be employed in any form of labour. This is in line with the previous decision to raise the compulsory education age from 14 years to 16 years. In recent reports, the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) announced that domestic child labour will also be included in the worst form child labour list in Sri Lanka.”
Weththasinghe shared that in 2016, the Department of Census and Statistics conducted a national survey to identify children’s engagement in the labour force and economic activities; this study revealed that there are 103,704 children engaged in economic activities in Sri Lanka which amount to 2.3% of the total child population. These children are engaging in economic activities primarily in three sectors, namely service sector activities (37.2%), agriculture (33.8%), and the industry sector (29.1%).
Addressing the impact of Covid-19 on child labour, Weththasinghe explained that Sri Lanka has made significant progress over the last three decades reducing the worst forms of child labour. However, considering the evidence available globally and indications in Sri Lanka, it shows that the current context of the Covid-19 impact and severe economic downfall has pushed and pulled children into economic activities from most marginalised and vulnerable families. “This trend may further increase with long-term impact of children being out of education and severe issues of poverty. Only less than 1% of Sri Lankan children engage in the worst forms/hazards work. However, the worst forms of child labour issues such as child commercial sexual exploitation still remain untouched by the government mechanisms. There are collective efforts taken by the Government and child rights focus organisations including the United Nations (UN) and international and local NGOs to improve the mechanisms that prevent and respond to issues of all forms of exploitation and abuse.”
Weththasinghe also shared that children are often subjected to sexual abuse, physical abuse, and psychological abuse as a result of their engagement in different forms of labour activities and that therefore, it is critical that the general public understand their role in terms of reporting, preventing, and protecting children from all forms of violence, abuse, and exploitation.
Everyone has to play their role in protecting children within the family, school, and community and largely in society. The long-term psychological impact of these experiences are severe as children and as adults later in their lives. Unfortunately, mental health and psycho-social support services for victims of such crimes are very limited in Sri Lanka.
“Save the Children’s work on child protection has focused on specific issues of child labour within major industries in Sri Lanka – the tea industry and the tourism industry. Our work and research within these industries have uncovered some worrying findings regarding the prevalence of some of the worst forms of child labour,” Weththasinghe said.
“We have been working with the tea industry to promote the concept of ‘mother and child-friendly’ tea plantations since 2014. This work centred around establishing health and nutrition, early childhood care and education (ECCD), and child protection measures within the estates in collaboration with the industry. One of the child protection standards that the policies included was ‘that no child below the age of 16 years engages in paid or unpaid labour and no child between ages of 16 and 18 years engages in hazardous occupations’, in accordance with Sri Lanka’s laws and regulations.”
Save the Children also conducted a child rights risk assessment aiming to understand the situation of children of families who own their own tea estates (smallholdings) and who are employed in mid-sized estates focusing on their education, health, and protection. The research was conducted in estates in the Southern Province, with 519 children and 519 parents of the children who participated.
Explaining child sex trafficking in the tourism sector, Weththasinghe shared what recent research conducted by Save the Children on child sex trafficking in the tourism sector in Sri Lanka uncovered. “Research on this issue has been rather limited, and this research clearly identifies the incidence of child sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children within the tourism sector, across six districts in Sri Lanka. The research findings clearly indicate the incidence of trafficking of children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, and use of children for prostitution or other forms of commercial sexual exploitation, both of which are among the worst forms of child labour.”
We have to address poverty, lack of education and nutrition, and find solutions: Vraie Balthazaar
Feminist researcher and activist Vraie Balthazaar also shared her views on child labour, saying: “The unfortunate event of the death of a young girl has opened our eyes to many issues that were swept under the rug for a while. One of the issues is the massive problems related to child labour. There are a lot of young girls who are sent into more affluent homes around the island to be domestic workers. Domestic labour itself is a bit problematic because in the informal sector, it’s unregulated within general labour law. There are approximately 80,000 domestic workers, of whom about 60,000 are women, including young girls. The issue is that the environment they work in is unsafe – no rules and regulations are implied and no security is guaranteed.”
Balthazaar said: “What we have to look into is why these young girls, as young as 10-12 years old, were sent to these homes. I think this has a lot to do with the structural inequalities of the places that they come from. Most of these young girls come from estate areas. In the estate sector, there’s a huge case of poverty and wages are abysmally low. Both parents have to work to earn and feed their families. As a result of this, the children are often left home alone and the older siblings tend to the younger kids of the family. Young girls have no security. Another issue that these children face is malnutrition; at the moment it’s 33%.”
She shared that the children are often forced to come to work at houses miles and miles away from their homes with the mindset of whether they will be able to feed their families and support their siblings and can they be less of a burden to the family.
Balthazaar concluded by saying: “If we don’t understand that the sickness is poverty, what we are always going to do is put a plaster on what we think the wound is, which, for an instance, is the death of a child, which is very unfortunate indeed but we have to look at the bigger picture here. The root cause of child labour is poverty. Therefore, we have to address poverty, address lack of education, address lack of nutrition, and find solutions to prevent these problems in order to come out of this rut.”
Child employment is a severe matter in most developing nations. The reality that children are the future and hope of the nation is ignored, with many already disadvantaged children lacking primary education and being deprived of their childhoods instead of being given a proper chance to evolve and grow within the secure atmosphere of family and school.
Since it’s the parents who send the children to work to make ends meet, employment opportunities need to be present in abundance, so the parents can earn their livelihood instead of putting their children to work.
