Children as labourers

CHILD LABOUR

Here many videos on child labor, students can explore:  http://goo.gl/6nZ9P

Children as labourers

Child labour in East Asia

The International Labour Organization (ILO, 2008) estimates 165 million children between ages of 5 and 14 are in child labour worldwide, with a total of some 215 million children and teenage youth engaged in illegal labor, “with half being in the worst forms of slave labor. This includes, but is of course not limited to, the sex trade, child soldiering, bonded labor and the illegal drug trade. The Conspiracy of Hope ( http://aconspiracyofhope.blogspot.com ) is a compelling, moving site for learners to explore. As they remind us: “Right now, a population of children, the size of the USA, are walking around without shoes. This year one million of them will die from illnesses contracted from being barefoot. As they say, imagine the world to be 100 people in a room, 40 would have no shoes, almost half of those would be kids.” The number of working children in the Asia-Pacific region is by far the largest in the world and represents 18.8 per cent of the 650 million 5-14 year-olds in the area, almost one if five. Some of these child workers are in extremely low-paid domestic employment, largely invisible to the outside world, toiling as maids, cleaning boys, household helpers. The latest report of A Conspiracy of Hope, “Children in Hazardous Work” (June 2011) is also an eye-opener: http://tinyurl.com/64uu2ur   Many work long hours, often in dangerous conditions. The ‘Conspiracy’ also reminds us: “Each year 1.2 million people are trafficked. Half of them are children, average age 13. Every 2 minutes a child is sexually exploited.”

In Uganda in June 2011, filmmaker Irene Kulabako launched her feature film “Stone Cold,” dealing with children working in Ugandan stone quarries, often sent there by their desperate parents. Irene notes that 1.8 million children in Uganda are working in exploitative labour. A trailer for the film contains a powerful scene  www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_OjdkEn3UU