Child Labour in the Developed Countries

Concerns about the use of child labor in West African cocoa production became widespread in the early 2000s in many high-income countries. In 2015 in Ghana, 91.8% (or a total of 878,595) of the children working in the cocoa sector were involved in a form of hazardous work. Child labor in cocoa production is not just a symptom of poverty but also a contributing factor, as children often forgo a formal education to work in cocoa orchards. Current Ghanaian law prohibits child labor, but, with many cocoa households living in poverty, child labor becomes a necessity for survival, and as such, current child labor laws are rarely enforced. Therefore, an effective policy that eliminates child labor could compensate farmers by providing an economic incentive. In this paper, we develop and calibrate a farm household model to estimate the cocoa price premium necessary to eliminate child labor from cocoa production while leaving the farm household welfare unchanged. This welfare-neutral price premium removes the negative effects of eliminating child labor for the farm household. Varying degrees of child labor exists, with certain forms posing a greater risk to children’s wellbeing. The results show that eliminating the worst forms of child labor would require a cocoa price premium of 2.81% and eliminating regular work (non-hazardous work but over the maximum hours allowed for a child) and the worst forms would require an 11.81% premium, which could be paid for by the well-established Ghanaian Cocoa Marketing Board. An incentive for the Cocoa Marketing Board to pay the price premium and monitor and enforce this policy would be the ability to differentiate their cocoa as child-labor free and not lose market share to countries who cannot currently certify this practice.

Technical assistance is recognized in International Labor Organization (ILO) C 182 (Article 8) and ILO R 190 (Articles 11 and 16). Regulation of child labor outside the context of international treaty implementation has developed as well, in the context of the growing field of corporate social responsibility. Early reports from International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) emphasize that not all child work counts as child labor and focus on harmful forms of work. These reports helped to lay the groundwork for the development of ILO C 182 on the worst forms of child labor. One recent development in corporate social responsibility is the emergence of commodity-based agreements between companies. Rather than one company addressing child labor, or other core labor rights issues, a number of companies within a commodity sector have come together to establish common codes, with some remedial measures.Keywords: child labor; corporate social responsibility; International Labor Organization (ILO); International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC); technical assistance programs

The International Labour Organisation (the ILO) has regulated child labour through the Minimum Age Convention and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention. Such conventions aim at the reduction and eventual elimination of harmful labour practices. After the ratification of such conventions, many countries have adopted domestic laws prohibiting harmful labour. Despite such regulations, statistics prove that children still participate in harmful work. The main purpose of this article is to assess the ILO child labour conventions critically, so as to provide further understanding of the provisions of the text of such instruments. While the aim of the Minimum Age Convention was the progressive eradication of child labour, the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention recognises the existence of tolerable forms of child labour, and it seeks to eliminate the worst forms of child labour.Keywords: Child labour, Worst forms of child labour, Child work, Hazardous work; Minimum age, International Labour Organisation, ILO

The world has accomplished progress in human right and child education under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the goal that comprises end modern slavery and human trafficking and secures the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labor in all its forms, nevertheless, child labor issues are continuing to spread to many countries in the world. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to address the issue of child labor and factor that help to eliminate child labor issues in Malaysia. Data were collected through an online survey; the participants included twenty-nine (29) Malaysian civil services. The finding of this research indicated that, although the cost for hiring the children is low compare to the adult as highlighted in supply and demand side, few factors preventing community to use the child as a laborer like religion, awareness/knowledge, humanity, ethic, and culture, therefore, there must be a child labor policy that eliminates all forms of child labor in Malaysia. This research is carried values to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in enhancing the policy to end child labor, reduce poverty and hunger, and improves the quality of education; thus, this research carries values to the minister of labor and social affairs in enhancing the policy on human resources development.

While the worst forms of child labour (WFCL) is not only an urban phenomenon, evidence suggests that WFCL emerges in cities in unique ways due to the complex structures and dynamics of urban systems. This report, therefore, develops a conceptual framework for WFCL in cities that integrates key understandings of urban systems and evidence about urban WFCL. This report reviews current literature on the complex systemic nature of cities – drawing on literature on the urban land nexus, urban complexity, informality, and inclusive urbanisation. It also reviews studies of child labour (focusing on the worst forms, where possible) in urban contexts. In this way, the report offers an innovative way of understanding the challenge of WFCL, and outlines the premises of a research agenda for responding to WFCL in cities. These contributions are made with the specific cities and neighbourhoods in mind where the CLARISSA programme is being implemented; however, they should be useful more generally.

Child labor may be linked to criminal activities. This is particularly the case with child pornography, prostitution and the use of children in the drug trade. The use of child labor in these activities involves the type of abuse that understandably led to the inclusion of sexual and criminal exploitation of children as one of the worst forms of child labor. In examining sexual and criminal exploitation and trafficking of children, one can see both the rationale for connecting child labor with the broader human rights agenda and the controversial nature of such a link. The inclusion of sexual and criminal exploitation in C 182 has been criticized on the grounds that these are not child labor issues, but rather issues of international criminal law. International standards on trafficking are an essential part of eliminating the sexual and criminal exploitation of children.Keywords: child labor; criminal exploitation; international criminal law; sexual exploitation; trafficking

BackgroundBangladesh has the second highest burden of child labour in South Asia. The informal sector employs most of the children however, data on health including injuries and place of work for children are limited. As the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals to end child labour is upon us, it is paramount to document the impact of child labour on health. This study aims to contribute to this knowledge gap by presenting medical data from occupational health clinics (OHCs) set up by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a peri-urban area of Dhaka, Bangladesh.MethodsWe did a retrospective analysis of health care records of children attending MSF OHCs between February 2014 and December 2023. We stratified the analysis by sex and age (< 14 years and ≥ 14- < 18 years). We looked at morbidities according to type of factory, whether children reported working with machinery, and examined nutritional and mental health (2018–2023) status.ResultsOver the study period, there were 10,200 occupational health consultations among children < 18 years, of which 4945 were new/first time consultations. The average age of children attending their first consultation was 14.7 years, of which 61% were male. Fifteen percent reported living inside the factory. Children worked in all prohibited categories of the informal sector. Almost all children reported operating machinery. Musculoskeletal (26%) and dermatological (20%) were the most identified conditions, and 7.5% of consultations were for work-related injuries. A higher proportion of male children had injuries (11% vs 2.5% in girls). Children working in metal factories accounted for most injuries (65%). Mood-related disorders accounted for 86% of the 51 mental health consultations. Half of all children were malnourished with higher levels in boys and those < 14 years.ConclusionsFindings suggest that children face hazardous realities; engaged in the worst form of labour, bearing important morbidity and injury burden, with vulnerabilities varying by sex and age. Despite their economic contributions to the informal sector, they remain largely invisible and exploited. This study highlights the urgent need for child rights-based research and cross-sectoral approaches that actively involve children to develop sustainable, targeted solutions to eliminate child labour.

As one of the country’s biggest employers and its second largest exporter, the leather sector is big business in Bangladesh. But it is also in crisis. A dramatic decrease in the global demand for leather since COVID-19 has led to the collapse of the supply chain with workers, especially children, bearing the worst of the brunt. As cracks in the industry’s surface widen, new research from the Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA) programme shines a light into its hidden corners, revealing examples of the worst forms of child labour (WFCL) at almost every turn.

Child labor is a complex problem that violates the fundamental rights of children and affects their psychophysical development. Child labor affects 215 million children in the world and 115 million perform activities defined as the "worst forms of child labor". Most child labor is in agriculture (60%), where the majority are unpaid family workers, compared to 26% in services and 7% in industry. Argentina has adopted the abolitionist position, promoting prevention and eradication within an inclusive public policy aimed to all children can exercise their rights. The Sociedad Argentina de Pediatría endorses this approach and proposes a course of action: the health team training, and dissemination of the risks of child labor and occupational teenager safety standards. As pediatricians we must be involved in defending children rights, and be able to detect any situation of child labor, and protect the health of children and adolescents. The joint interaction with family, community and other sectors of society will strengthen the network needed to implement child labor eradication policies.

A hard knock life

Halima is an 11-year-old girl who clips loose threads off of Hanes underwear in a Bangladeshi factory. She works about eight hours a day, six days per week. She has to process 150 pairs of underwear an hour. At work she feels “very tired and exhausted,” and sometimes falls asleep standing up. She makes 53 cents a day for her efforts. Make no mistake, it is a rough life.Any decent person’s heart would go out to Halima and other child employees like her. Unfortunately, all too often, people’s emotional reaction lead them to advocate policies that will harm the very children they intend to help. Provisions against child labor are part of the International Labor Organization’s core labor standards. Anti-sweatshop groups almost universally condemn child labor and call for laws prohibiting child employment or boycotting products made with child labor.In my recent book, Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy, I argue that much of what the anti-sweatshop movement agitates for would harm workers and that the process of economic development, in which sweatshops play an important role, is the best way to raise wages and improve working conditions. Child labor, although the most emotionally charged aspect of sweatshops, is not an exception to this analysis.We should desire to see an end to child labor, but it has to come through a process that generates better opportunities for the children — not from legislative mandates that prevent children and their families from taking the best option available to them. Children work because their families are desperately poor, and the meager addition to the family income they can contribute is often necessary for survival. Banning child labor through trade regulations or governmental prohibitions often simply forces the children into less-desirable alternatives. When U.S. activists started pressuring Bangladesh into eliminating child labor, the results were disastrous.

This research explain to know how the implementation of elimination of the worst forms of child labour especially for Child Domestic Labour in Semarang. There is child labour in domestic, this job classified to be abolished job by the government incorporated in the Action Committee for the Establishment of Districts / Municipalities based in Semarang Mayor Decree No. 560.05/256 on the establishment of the Committee Action for the Elimination Worst Forms of Child. In research method, the author used policy implementation theory by Meriiee S. Grindle consist of two variable they are content of policies (content) and environmental policy (contex). The data collection conducted from Manpower and Transmigration Department, Empowerment Entities, Women and Family Planning, Merdeka Domestic Union Semarang and Child Labour. There are many findings actual Policy Implementation Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child in Semarang, constrained by limited human resource capacity as stakeholders, lack of coordination, there is still weak sanctions for those who violate it provides, offers and take advantage of children for the exploitation.

The Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA) programme uses Action Research (AR) to understand the dynamics which drive the worst forms of child labour (WFCL), and to generate participatory innovations which help to shift these underlying dynamics and mitigate their worst effects. Through 13 Action Research Groups (ARGs) in Bangladesh and 12 groups in Nepal, the programme is generating a rich understanding – particularly through children’s lived experiences – of the complex underlying drivers of harmful work and working children and their employers are themselves defining, piloting and evaluating their own innovative actions that aim to increase children’s options to avoid WFCL.

Child labor seems to be a fact of life in many parts of the world. As such, millions of girls and boys around the world are being exploited every day. They are an estimated 250 million in total, 50% of them working full-time and not attending school, while 50 million children at least are involved in the worst forms of child labor (ILO-IPEC, 2001). These children are those under 18 years of age.

This paper describes the research design for investigating and evaluating the Child Labour: Action-Research-Innovation in South and South-Eastern Asia (CLARISSA) social protection cash-plus intervention in a slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh. After an introductory section, the second section elaborates on contribution analysis – the methodological approach underpinning the research design. The third section provides an overview of the intervention, and the fourth explores the overall design of the evaluation, its guiding framework, and the timeline of the intervention rollout and data collection. The fifth and sixth sections address the project’s suite of quantitative and qualitative methods, and the approach to data analysis. Using four panel surveys, bi-monthly monitoring, in-depth interviews, group discussions and direct observations, the research will zoom in on specific behaviours. First, at the individual level, we want to learn how people adopt alternative livelihoods in response to the intervention. Second, at the household level, we consider how community mobilisation and cash transfers help households to resolve intra‑household problems. Third, at the group level, we consider how groups manage collective action in response to community mobilisation. For each of these behaviour change outcomes, we want to understand the realist evaluation question, ‘Why does the intervention work, for whom, and under what conditions?’ We also want to assess whether these new behaviours change the propensity for children to be involved in the worst forms of child labour.