AGRICULTURE: 70 Percent of Worst Forms of Child Labour

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jun 13 2007 (IPS) - The global campaign for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour by 2016 is focusing this year on agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of such jobs, said Kari Tapiola, executive director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

More than 132 million children between the ages of five and 14 "often work from sun up to sun down on farms and plantations, planting and harvesting crops, spraying pesticides, and tending livestock," says the ILO&#39s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).

ILO statistics show that agriculture, along with mining and construction, is the most dangerous occupation in terms of deaths, injuries and illnesses, especially among children.

For that reason, the international agency has promoted the creation of a global alliance to fight child labour in agriculture.

The alliance includes the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund on Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

Also taking part in the campaign are the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), which represents more than 600,000 family farms, and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers&#39 Associations (IUF), whose member organisations represent more than 12 million workers in 128 countries.

The commitment was signed Tuesday, on the World Day Against Child Labour and the anniversary of the 1999 adoption of the ILO&#39s Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention.

The treaty, "which pledges to work against the worst forms of child labour, is one of the most ratified conventions of the ILO," Tapiola told IPS.

Every year, the commitment to eradicate child labour is recalled on Jun. 12 with a specific theme, and this year&#39s is cooperation in the area of agriculture, said the ILO executive director.

But although this year&#39s theme is combating child labour in agriculture, the aim of the ILO and the international community is the total elimination of such labour, said Tapiola, who added that "the end of child labour is within reach."

That mission is in the hands of IPEC, whose studies have shown that when the conditions allow it, parents and families are actually inclined to keep their children from working.

Given that natural tendency, ILO/IPEC strategies put an emphasis on poverty reduction and the expansion and improvement of institutional mechanisms like education and enforcement of existing rules and regulations.

IPEC&#39s work is also related to development initiatives like the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and the Education for All movement.

The ILO has stressed the importance of the role played by child workers in raising crops and livestock. With their work, they help provide foodstuffs as well as raw materials used to make other products.

Child labour is especially prevalent in the production of cacao and chocolate, coffee, tea, sugar, fruits and vegetables, as well as tobacco and cotton.

However, the ILO says that "Tasks appropriate to a child&#39s age and that do not interfere with a child&#39s schooling and leisure time can be a normal part of growing up in a rural environment."

"Indeed, many types of work experience for children can be positive, providing them with practical and social skills for work as adults," it adds. "Improved self-confidence, self-esteem and work skills are attributes often found in young people engaged in some aspects of farm work."

Nevertheless, the international agency underlines that whether children work the land with their parents, as employees on farms or plantations, or accompanying their parents as migrant workers, they always face greater risks than adults, because their bodies and minds are still developing and they lack the experience accumulated by grown-ups.

The ILO points out that some children begin working as young as five years old, and IPEC has found that in some rural areas, 20 percent of child workers are under the age of 10.

Welcoming the emergence of the new global partnership, ILO Director General Juan Somavía said "It is only by mainstreaming child labour issues into mandates and policies and by working together that we can strengthen the worldwide movement to eliminate child labour."

"Through a concerted effort we can reach the target of ending the worst forms of child labour by 2016," he added.