BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of children in southwest China have been sold into slavery like "cabbages", to work as labourers in more prosperous areas such as the booming southern province of Guangdong, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

China announced a nationwide crackdown on slavery and child labour last year after reports that hundreds of poor farmers, children and mentally disabled were forced to work in kilns and mines in Shanxi province and neighbouring Henan.

"The bustling child labour market (in Sichuan province) was set up by the local chief foreman and his gang of 18 minor foremen, who each manage 50 to 100 child labourers," the Southern Metropolis Newspaper said.

"The children generally fall between the ages of 13 and 15, but many look under 10," it added.

The newspaper said 76 children from the same county, Liangshan, had been missing since the Chinese Lunar Year festival in February, 42 of whom had already left the region to work.

"The youngest kids found in the child labour market were only seven and nine years old," it said.

According to a contract exposed by an undercover reporter, a child labourer is paid 3.5 yuan ($0.50) an hour and must work at least 300 hours a month.

"These kids are robust and can do the toughest work," a foreman was quoted as saying, as he pulled a scrawny girl to stand beside him, the paper said.

Xinhua news agency said the county government had sent officials to rescue the children, but some were unwilling to leave, having been sold into slavery by their parents or volunteering to work themselves.

In 2000, the leaders of 189 governments promised that by 2015 all the world's children would be able to stay in school long enough to finish their primary education. We're halfway there. In years, that is. In terms of actually achieving that ambition, many say we're not working fast enough.

About 72 million of the world's primary school-aged children are still missing out on an education, the latest statistics show. That's 24 million fewer than in 1999, but still an estimated one in nine children across the globe.

The number of primary pupils who have enrolled in schools across the world rose to 688 million from 647 million between 1999 and 2005. But in parts of Chad, Madagascar, Mozambique and Nepal, there are more than 100 students to every teacher. The world needs to find and fund an extra 18 million teachers by 2015 to cope with its burgeoning pupil population.

Despite this, world aid for basic education fell from $4.4bn (£2.2bn) in 2004 to below $3bn, according to the latest figures, which date from 2005. The Global Campaign for Education - an international coalition of teachers' unions and charities - says that to keep the promise made in 2000, world leaders must find an extra $10bn each year.

If they don't, 58 countries have no or a low chance of ensuring that by 2015 all their primary-aged pupils will be able to complete a primary education.

But the UK has accelerated its efforts and is doing more than most. World charities and statisticians say we are on course to overtake the US as the biggest international aid donor by 2010. Last month, Gordon Brown promised that each year, from 2010, $1bn would go to education in Africa alone. It's a steep increase and more than UK's pro-rata share. In 2006-07, the Department for International Development (DfID) gave £372m in international aid for education.

Last month's announcement is part of the UK government's pledge in 2006 to spend £8.5bn on education aid between 2006 and 2015. A spokesman for DfID says the UK is also on track to give 0.7% of gross national income in aid by 2013, as the United Nations recommended.

We must be wary of praising ourselves too much, though, says Philippa Lei, chair of the Global Campaign for Education's policy group. "On paper it looks good," she says. "The UK has become the global leader and is doing well in focusing on quality of, as well as access to, education. We are doing pretty well at putting international development high on the agenda too. But we've got to look beneath the skin. We, too, in the UK are not moving fast enough to reach the goal of universal primary education for all."

Lei says the UK isn't trying enough to help the hardest-to-reach children. Of the 72 million children still without access to a primary education, a third are disabled, 57% are girls and at least a half are living in countries of conflict, or belong to a linguistic minority. Others have HIV/Aids, are refugees or are victims of child labour.

"The UK government is not engaging as much as it can with developing countries' governments to make sure their plans involve all children," says Lei.

The UK government is cutting back on the number of its education specialists in developing countries too. About three posts have been lost out of 35 across the world, DfID told Education Guardian.

The department spokesman says it is "redeploying expertise to the most fragile countries". "We have reduced our capacity in Uganda and Tanzania, for example, and put advisers into Nepal, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Pakistan," he says.

The international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, says the UK "recognises the scale of the task".

What about the rest of the world?

Lei says a number of donors aren't giving their fair share and cites the US, Japan and Italy. The spokesman from DfID agrees: "The US is a long way from giving 0.7% of its gross national income to international aid." Last year, Unesco's Global Monitoring Report revealed 34 countries had decreased the share of their gross national product that went to education since 1999. This will only make an already tough target to hit, even tougher.

There was no doubt where the children in Mali, Africa were disappearing to.

The police stand silently, looking at the empty train station thinking about how on this hot, humid day, the children were persuaded into leaving their homes for Ivory Coast.

Ivory Coast is the leading supplier of cocoa, according approximately 50 per cent of global production. The low price of cocoa and lower labour costs force farmers to use children on their farms. Ivory Coast in West Africa has children working as slaves under "the worst forms of child labour" on cocoa farms.

More than 200,000 children are slaves in West and Central Africa. More than 109,000 children are slaves to Ivory Coast's cocoa industry. The neighbouring countries of Ivory Coast have people luring children to come with them where they promise them they'll have a shelter, food, good pay, and even advantages like a bicycle.

Children go with them, but never get anything they were promised. Instead, they suffer frequent beatings, long intense hours in the melting sun and are forced to work with dangerous tools and poisonous pesticides. When they fall down carrying sacks of cocoa beans, they are whipped until they start working again. What lottery did we win, that we aren't slaves?

Ivory Coast is the major cocoa supplier for Nestlé. When Nestlé sells their chocolate, it doesn't cross the customers' mind that their treat was made by slaves.

The United States spends about $13 billion per year on chocolate, with an average of 12 pounds per person per year. That's a lot of chocolate, which means there is an exceeding number of slaves working to give everyone their delicious treat.

Nestlé signed the "Cocoa Protocol" in 2001, to ensure that cocoa was being grown responsibly. By 2005, the company had failed to fulfill it's promise. The chance of freeing these slaves had disappeared.

Many people think of slaves and child labour as something of the past. What they don't realize is that reports show slavery in the 21st century is the highest it has ever been. Two of five children in Africa are working under 15 years old. Ivory Coast is no exception.

People use the excuse, "it's so far away" to try to justify the guilt in their minds that they can't do anything about this problem.

When Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was being filmed, extra chocolate bars were needing to be produced. They were challenged to make slave free chocolate, but Nestlé didn't like the idea.

Child labour is not a fad given any importance in the media, which everyone cares about for a few days, and then is totally forgotten. It's an ongoing problem of children suffering until we stand up and do something about it.

This hidden problem is a secret well kept by Nestlé, but is the first step we can all take to stopping this child labour. Next time someone is seen eating Smarties, ask them if they know how their chocolate is made or what they'd think if Nestlé's chocolate had a label reading "made by slaves."

Should this be treated as a problem one day, but forgotten the next because we don't want to admit we can do something about child labour on the Ivory Coast?

New Delhi, April 16 (IANS) The Delhi High court has asked the central government to frame a rehabilitation policy within three months for rescued child labourers. A division bench comprising Justices Manmohan Sarin and Manmohan granted the government three months to draw up a comprehensive policy for children who worked as labour in small-scale industries.

The government counsel informed the bench last week that the draft for the policy was ready and had been sent to states for suggestions and asked for more time to frame the same.

In January, the court allowed 14 children who were rescued by Delhi Police to be handed over to their parents, and asked the government to bring out a policy for their rehabilitation.

“There is an urgent need for bringing a policy which should include an educational and economical rehabilitation plan,” the bench had said.

According to a recently released report by UNICEF on child labour and school attendance, 78% of children between the ages of 7 and 14 in Sierra Leone are engaged in child labour. The study, which covered one quarter of the world's population, ranked Sierra Leone last among nations surveyed.

The survey used data from two types of household surveys: the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) to provide data for the tracking of the Millennium Development Goals.

The achievement of universal primary education is one of the Millennium Development Goals. Child labour, which can exclude primary school aged children from accessing an education, is a major obstacle to reaching this goal The UNICEF report found that "children from poor households and from households without a formally educated household head are more likely to be engaged in child labour and less likely to attend school", a situation that shows that "poverty is the root cause of child labour." The survey considered both economic activity and household chores and tried to distinguish between acceptable work and child labour. Child labour is work done by children that should be eliminated because it violates international labour standards, harms the child, or interferes with school attendance.

Child labour is defined by UNICEF according to the number of hours worked and the type of activity a child engages in, depending on their age. A child between 5 and 11 years old is engaging in child labour if he or she is performing any economic activity or more than 28 hours of household chores per week. Boys and girls 12-14 that are working more than 14 hrs per week of light work, or 28 hours or more household chores per week, are engaging in child labour. Those who are between 15-17 are child labourers if they engage in any hazardous work.

According to UNICEF, an estimated 158 million children aged 5-14 are engaged in child labour world-wide.

This means that one in six children on the planet is engaged in child labour.

These children are often found working in hazardous situations or conditions, such as working underground in mines, working with chemicals and pesticides or dangerous machinery in agriculture, or at sea for fishing.

In Sub-Saharan Africa alone around one in three children are engaged in child labour, representing 69 million children.

Spotlight on Freetown Chief of Rokupre-Portee Wharf on the eastern edge of Freetown, Pa Almimy Serry Thoklah, said that the situation in his community is "deplorable", adding that there is no primary school for the children to attend, or even toilet facilities.
Parents lack education, so often don't appreciate the value of an education. They would rather send their children to sea to work in order to help support the family. This means that those children who can access primary education are often forced to work to support their family instead.

These children serve as pillars of support for their parent's survival. The benefits of education are totally hidden from some parents as they did not go to school themselves. Parents expect that their children will follow in their footsteps. This cycle of illiteracy keeps people in the community impoverished and means that the history of the parent is doomed to repeat itself in the future of the child.

Abu Kamara, 14, started going to sea two years ago because he could not refuse his parent's wishes. He is the only breadwinner for his family, and is expected to bring in Le25,000 to 30,000 everyday. He wants to continue working as a fisherman, as it is the fastest way to make money at Rokupre-Portee Warf.

Memunatu Koroma, a business woman in the Rokupre-Portee Wharf community, said more than 75% of the children in the area work. "The children go to sea tonight and bring back fish and firewood for sale and some for their home consumption. Through having a little money from these odd jobs they can cater for their parents when they fall ill."
Although primary school is free to attend, many must go to work to meet their basic needs and to help their families. School fees for secondary schools act as another impediment for these young people in accessing an education.

Musa Sama, 11, stopped going to school in class 5 because his parents could no longer afford to have him continue at school. He has now spent two years doing this work. "We get out basic money from this. I am very good at doing such a business as this." The entire community lives in poverty, forcing all residents, including children, to contribute to basic survival. Many children in the area are orphans who have no choice but to take care of themselves.

Philip Sesay, 17, is one such orphaned child. He began going to sea when he was 14. He joins other young people going to work each day, fishing along the coast of Freetown. The youth are responsible for casting the fishing net into the sea at around 2AM, the appropriate time for success in fishing. They must keep the nets from tangling and must be very good swimmers or risk drowning during the course of their work.

Chief Pa Almimy Serry Thoklah is looking for NGO programs to support the Rokupre-Portee Wharf community, as government has failed to provide basic services to the area. The chief is aware that many of the children who go to work are directly responsible for the welfare of their parents so he cannot force them to go school.

AN EASTERN Cape farmer was fined by the Peddie Magistrate’s Court last week for employing 19 under-age children in his fields.

The farmer, Mlungisi Mantana, who owns Siyazama Cotton Project in Prudhoe Administrative Area, was arrested in March after a raid by national Labour Department inspectors.

Montana was found guilty of employing minors in breach of child labour law.
Department spokesperson Zolisa Sigabi said the children were not wearing protective clothing while picking cotton.

“These children worked in unsafe conditions. They did not have gloves or masks ... This is the first time we have had a case of child labour in the Eastern Cape. We hope that the case of this farmer will serve as a deterrent to others.”

Sigabi urged parents not to take their children out of school, even with rampant unemployment in rural areas.

The farmer was fined R5000 or nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for three years, on condition he was not found guilty of contravening the Basic Conditions of Employment Act during that period.

AgriSA’s director of labour relations, Kobus Kleynhans, said their organisation’s policy was clear that farmers should not employ children under the age of 18 years.

“We have been working hard to eradicate child labour for more than 20 years. The farmer should be punished, because he did not only trespass with the law, but also caused a bad image for farmers.”

Kleynhans urged employers to ask children to bring their birth certificates or identity documents as proof of their age before employing them.

Sigabi said Mantana had been paying the children R25 a day while the sector prescribed that farm workers be paid R30.42 a day.

Mantana could not be reached.

Patna, April 12 : Thirteen-year-old Rakesh Kumar from Bihar, who spent six years in forced labour and was rescued by an NGO, has been selected as a jury member for World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child (WCPRC) in Sweden.
"He left for Sweden Thursday to participate as a child jury member for selection of prize winners," said Ajay Kumar Singh of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), an NGO here.

An international jury, consisting of children who are experts on child rights through their own experiences as child soldiers, refugees, street children or slaves, choose the recipient of the award.

Rakesh, a resident of a village in Saharsa district, about 200 km from here, was kidnapped and forced into child labour until rescued by the BBA in Punjab's Amritsar district in 2006.

"When I was about six years old, I was taking my parents' cattle out to graze with my friends when a man offered us sweets. I ended up being kidnapped and forced to work as a slave for six years," says Rakesh in a statement on the WCPRC website.

According to a BBA official, Rakesh was treated like a slave, forced to work for 16 hours a day under inhuman conditions.

He used to share bed with animals and spend cold nights without a blanket or adequate food. "He told his challenging story, full of misery, after he was rescued," the official said.

Impressed by Rakesh's story of courage and struggle, he was selected as a jury member for the prize for a five-year term last year.

At present Rakesh is a class IV student in Viratnagar near Nepal border and lives in child care home run by BBA.

"Rakesh has become a voice against child labour in rural Bihar, which is a fertile ground for traffickers," the BBA official said.

The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child was started in 1999 by the Swedish Children's World Association to recognise outstanding contributions of those who defend child rights. It is a Swedish National Millennium Project.

Its patrons include Queen Silvia of Sweden, Nobel Laureates Nelson Mandela and Joseph Stiglitz and former executive director of Unicef Carol Bellamy.

The Office of the Children's Advocate has embarked on a new public awareness programme with the aim of significantly reducing the level of child abuse.

Appealing to parents and guardians in particular to be responsible and careful in protecting their children, the programme comprises a series of public service announcements (PSA) on local radio and television.

Children's Advocate, Mary Clarke, told JIS News that the campaign is intended to sensitize the Jamaican people about the rights of children, while at the same time encouraging adults to make a difference. "Report cases of child abuse and incidences in which the rights of children are being infringed upon," the Children's Advocate implored.

Through the PSAs, which are voiced by media personalities, Jamaicans are reminded that under the Child Care and Protection Act, children have the right to protection from all types of violence and sexual abuse, neglect, trafficking and child labour. "We must ensure the growth and development of our children. Protect their rights, ensure their survival," Mrs. Clarke said.

A PSA began airing on TVJ and CVM television in the second week of April, which depicts a child being abused by his mother in a supermarket. It shows the reactions of parents and children to abuse in a home setting, and the effect of this abuse on children at a school.

In another PSA, which hit the airwaves in March, parents and guardians are urged to spend quality time with their children by talking with them and listening to their concerns because "if you don't talk with them.someone else will."

New laws to protect children from exploitation by employers are ready for implementation according to a senior official in the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources Development.

Permanent Secretary Mark Bor said that the new laws have been reviewed to conform to the International Labour Standards and will protect children from child labour while also focusing on new maternity and paternity leave regulations among other working conditions.

He however said the speed of implementing the new laws would depend on the resolution of the Cabinet crisis facing the Government.

“The new rules will protect children from child labour according to the laws of Kenya. We are warning hoteliers to desist from using children as a bait to attract tourists into their hotels,”said the PS adding that Ministry officials would soon conduct a crackdown on hotels.

Mr Bor said the newly reviewed and enacted laws will resolve emerging issues between employers and the workers in the sector.

He further said that the revised laws will also impact positively on labour relations and business development through increased productivity.

“We are keen on addressing the implementation issues agreed on by investors and government officials. There is need to bring the new laws in line with the challenges of globalisation thereby making Kenya a competitive economic destination,” said Mr Bor.

He was speaking in Mombasa last week during the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) Annual General Meeting where he warned employers against hiring children.

Remove barriers
Mr Bor said that the five laws are due for implementation at a time when the capacity of  the government and its partners is strained due to the post-election violence.

The PS said that the Ministry has started offering training to employers and other players to ensure that they are briefed about the new laws to be implemented.

FKE executive director Ms Jacquelin Mugo said that there is need to rationalise all business licenses and levies so as to reduce transaction costs that go with such regulations.

“As the country prepares to achieve Vision 2030, the government should review the taxation system to ease registration and administration of business,” she said, adding that removing barriers to external trade would also go a long way in expanding Kenya’s global market share.

A new plan aimed at addressing child labour in Swaziland was endorsed by the country's Programme Advisory Committee on child labour Tuesday.

The plan, known as the Strategy and Action on the Elimination of Child Labour, took about four years to develop and contains about 50 outlined steps to follow. The move received strong support from both the Ministers of Enterprise and Employment, Matiti Fakudze and Njabulo Mabuza of Health and Social Welfare.

"It is within our capacity to make Swaziland a country without the worst forms of child labour, but government cannot do it alone, all social partners and other stakeholders have a crucial role to play," said Mr Fakudze. He noted that limited resources might present an obstacle, but he reiterated government's commitment to end child labour. Minister Mabuza described the plan as an instrument that could help the country meet its international commitments as a member to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

He said these commitments include eradicating all forms of child labour by 2015. Mr Mabuza said his country had "accepted the responsibility of complying with the provisions" of the conventions it had ratified. "Swaziland's commitment is also a matter of necessity if we fail our children in their time of need, our future as a nation will be compromised," he said. The minister urged government officials, business, labour and civil representatives to commit themselves to put the plan into effect. According to recent studies which found the worst forms of commercial sexual exploitation of children, child trafficking and children being used by adults to commit crime occurred in Swaziland. Swaziland is reported to be the fifth country in the Southern Africa region to endorse a national plan to combat child labour. It follows the footsteps of South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Botswana.

All the governments in these countries have entered into agreement with the ILO to set up a technical support facility aimed at eliminating worst forms of child labour. South Africa was the first country in the region to develop a national plan to combat child labour. Known as the Child Labour Programme of Action (CLPA), it was adopted in 2003. Its implementation rests with multiple government departments, with organised business and labour and with relevant NGOs. The Ministry of Labour heads up the programme and this plan has recently been updated for the second five-year period of implementation.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where child labour is increasing rather than decreasing, according to a global ILO study completed in 2006. The HIV and AIDS pandemic has played a significant role in fuelling child labour.

SHANTI LAMA lifts a basket full of rocks on to her back. Dressed in pink, she wipes sweat from her brow, then slowly starts to climb a wooden ladder wedged unrelenting sun blazes an and into a pit dug into the hill. It's midday down from a perfect blue sky. Shanti reaches the top rung then carries the load to a woman sitting under an umbrella. After tipping out the stones, Shanti sits and picks up a small rock hammer to break them up. She is 12 years old.

This is child labour in a stone quarry in Nepal. We are in Adinath in the Swoyambhu area on the outskirts of the nation's capital city, Kathmandu. Shanti, who has been here since 6am working alongside her mother and father, became a quarry worker at the age of 10. She doesn't usually mind her job but when it's stiflingly hot like today the work can be very tiring.

Shanti's daily routine will be similar to that of millions of other children in countries such as Nepal, China and India, where child labour is widely accepted. In Nepal, an estimated three million children aged between five and 14 years old are employed. The children work in quarries, brick kilns, factories, laundries, coal mines and restaurants, to name just a few of the 80 or so areas of industry that break the law. Despite the ratification of 18 international conventions by the Nepalese government to help protect the rights of the child - including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, numerous International Labour Organisation directives and a Children's Act enacted in 1992 - the violations continue.

It's a Dickensian scenario, but the fact is that British consumers may be unwittingly complicit in many of these illegal practices with their appetite for cheap imported goods. And as the gardening season gets underway, it's worth noting that the latest issue of concern surrounding child labour is stone imports to Britain which - according to Customs and Excise figures - have increased 10-fold over the past decade. Escalating consumer demand is thought to be driven by the proliferation of gardening makeover programmes. Shortly before Christmas one of the UK's leading stone importers warned that children as young as five are routinely being used to quarry stone for the booming British patio and landscaping market. Falkirk and is one of Britain's in factory a has which PLC, Marshalls biggest building materials companies, said that large sections of the gardening and construction industry were turning a blind eye to the use of child labour in quarries in order to maximise profits. "We want the industry to face facts and we want consumers to start asking questions. If you want to re-do the patio, then stop and ask yourself where that stone is coming from," said Marshalls' director Chris Harrop.

Nestling at the foot of the Himalayas, Nepal is among the world's poorest and least-developed countries with almost one-third of its population living below the poverty line. According to the United Nations' development index, the nation ranks 138th out of 177 countries. Life expectancy in this landlocked nation is 59.8 years for males and 59.5 for females. Nearly half of the population - 44% - are children, and in Nepalese culture child labour is the norm. Indeed, many children feel a level of responsibility in helping their families financially and are proud to earn an income. Child labour is fundamental to the economy, particularly as Nepal is trying to recover from a draining 10-year civil war that ended in 2006.

About 32,000 children work in Nepal's stone quarries, some as young as five years old. Dawn to dusk can be a typical working day and according to the charity Concern-Nepal, nearly 70% of children work 10-hour days or more. Most are paid by the quantity of gravel crushed into a doko (basket). The figure varies but the children earn on average about 25p per day, about one quarter of an adult wage.

At Concern-Nepal's Kathmandu office the charity's director Bijaya Sainju explains that children's duties include excavating stone, loading trucks for transport and crushing boulders into gravel. "They inhale dust with every breath and repetitive muscles. Bonded labour is common so and bones to jarring is hammering some children don't even get paid as they are employed to pay off family debts," he says. Related medical problems including serious respiratory complaints, backache, visual defects and joint and muscle pain.

Most are not even afforded minimal protective gear and there is a high risk of accidents that can cause permanent injuries or even death. Sainju says that children have been swept away quarrying beside rivers while others have died falling from cliffs.

Out of 600 quarry children interviewed by Concern-Nepal, 94% had witnessed workplace accidents. More than half had injured their hands with hammers, while 18% had hurt themselves falling while carrying loads of stones. First aid treatment, says Sainju, is non-existent, likewise the provision of medical insurance. Not one single child interviewee had received medical attention from a doctor, nor do most seek hospital treatment when injuries occur because of the high costs involved. For Dalit children, the "lowest of the low" in Nepal's caste system and people referred to as the "Untouchables", life is even harder as they suffer harassment from both employers and fellow workers. Many are also sexually abused. "Some 34% of quarry children are Dalits and because of the social stigma many will not report abuse in fear of retribution," Sainju explains.

The following day we meet 15-year-old Parban Rai at a quarry in the Chobar area near Kathmandu.

Parban started working in the quarry when he was seven. A year later he lost his right eye in an accident. He was breaking stones with a rock hammer when a fragment flew up and hit him. It's a common problem for quarry children. "It was very painful and I had to go to hospital for an operation. I lost my sight and now have a glass eye," he says. Parban has no idea how much his treatment cost.

I'm later told by our translator, Jiyam, that the family took out a loan from the employer to cover Parban's medical costs. "This happens a lot. The brokers who run the quarries will lend money to workers when accidents happen. The family then have no choice but to work to pay off the debt. If debts are not cleared they are passed down generations to the children. It is bondage and similar to child slavery," he says.

Similar types of labour abuse were uncovered during an audit by Marshalls. The company, which in 2006 imported two million square metres of decorative paving from India, now buys from only one supplier inspections and regular to ubmit in Rajasthan, a firm it has forced to spend £350,000 on mechanising some areas of production. According to Marshalls, only about one-third of the 200,000 tons of patio stone coming into the UK from India each year was sourced ethically, with the rest often being produced in atrocious conditions. "We were appalled by the child labour problem in Rajasthan. You could see people on site without hard hats, no boots. Suppliers didn't keep employment records.

There were no first aid facilities. It was an utter mess," says Rory Kendrick, the director in charge of Marshalls' stone importing operation. The move to mechanisation has increased costs considerably for the firm but Kendrick says the company can now operate with a clear conscience and he hopes others will follow their example. However, with ethically certified stone typically costing 20% more than the cheapest material available, and with competition between landscapers intense, price often triumphs over ethics.

Another issue is the global warming effect of shipping sandstone to the UK. Research shows that British reconstituted concrete has just half the carbon footprint of imported natural stone from India. India's quarry industry employs up to 100,000 children and supplies almost three-quarters of the imported stone used in British patios and garden features. Indian sandstone from Rajasthan is among the most popular, since it most closely matches the yellow York stone that was traditionally mined in England's Pennines, but has now been all but exhausted through demand.

As in Nepal, international treaties and domestic laws prohibit child labour but are rarely enforced. problem? Save the Children says endemic an such resolve you do How foreign pressure on governments is vital, as does Julie Hawkins, of Ethical Trade, who adds that consumer concern has already helped reduce child labour in some areas. "People should be pests and pose questions to companies. Do you have a code of conduct? Do you check up on suppliers?" she says, urging businesses to adopt the Ethical Trade Initiative Base Code that promotes international standards in respect to labour practices.

However, many British companies say eradicating child labour is not a simple matter. The British Association of Landscaping Industries (Bali) says that up until recently it had an "implied" policy on ethics and sustainability, but this was being reviewed with regards to written policy that was likely to be amended in the very near future.

But Denise Eubanks, head of Bali's press department, says that members have concerns over how far it should go in terms of tackling child labour. "Ethics and sustainability within the industry is an increasingly pressing topic but the instant abolition of such practices could replace one evil with a potentially worse evil where children are forced into prostitution and other criminal activity to help support their families."

Bali, Eubanks adds, must remain mindful of the risks posed to the survival of families working in these quarries if they were to lose custom from the UK and be forced to close because they did not meet standards laid down in this country. "It is because of this that Bali prefers a holistic approach working alongside the appropriate agencies," Eubanks says. Concern-Nepal agrees that it will take years of sustained political will in India and Nepal to make inroads into eradicating child labour. "There is little financial help from the state for these people," Sainju says.

Whether that political energy exists is another matter. In Kathmandu I put the question to Chairman Prachanda, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), and the man who led a decade-long insurgency in an attempt to overthrow the monarchy. He blames Nepal's extreme poverty on the king. "Child labour is a direct result of the gross inequalities created in society by the former ruling elite," he says. But then this is a man who recruited thousands of child soldiers for his People's Liberation Army during the civil war, although he denies that any such policy ever existed, despite strong evidence to the contrary, presented last February by Human Rights Watch.

For Concern-Nepal, education is one solution to improving working children's lives. In Nepal, education is not free or compulsory. It's expensive and many parents, often illiterate themselves and unaware of the advantages of learning, do not send their children to school. For the past five years Concern-Nepal has run flexible projects whereby children can continue to work in the quarries and attend school in the afternoon or evenings. "A lot of parents depend on their children's income so we have to have alternative solutions. We pay for the teachers and volunteers. Some children have even stopped working with their parents' consent," Sainju says.

It means that both Parban and Shanti have access to education. Parban, who speaks Nepalese and Hindi, explains that he learned to speak English by watching television and that he hopes to attend college to study history.

"Last year I visited Italy for a world meeting of working children. I met people from Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka, Paraguay, Chile, and Colombia. Many of them do jobs like mine. But one day I'll be a teacher," he says.

About 2500 quarry children now attend classes and the charity has set a target of 10,000. Meanwhile its campaign for children's rights continues. But Sainju says the issue of child labour is problematic legally because many industries are conducted on an informal basis.

In a recent report he proposed a number of recommendations for the Nepalese government, including enforcing existing child labour laws, introducing new health and safety legislation and generally improving working conditions and pay. "It would be impossible to eradicate child labour overnight and that is not a feasible solution for Nepal. It will take a long time to change the culture but we must ensure children are given the right to education," Sainju says.
Work is finished for the morning so we follow Parban and his fellow quarry worker Sunya to her nearby home nearby and then on to a local school they both attend. Six-year-old Sunya lives with her mother, father and three sisters. She rises at 5am and works at the quarry until 9am. School is from 10am to 4pm, then Sunya returns to the quarry and works until 8pm. "I am very tired when I go to sleep," Sunya says.

LAM TU NGWAR, A FORMER Sudanese child soldier who is now a musician, has been appointed the UN Habitat Ambassador of Truth.

The musician, who is riding high with a number of gospel and secular songs, says his appointment is a sign that South Sudanese artistes are not only being recognised in Africa but around the world.

“A number of musicians from South Sudan are rocking the world with their songs, which are usually full of messages ranging from peace to social issues,” said the musician, popularly known simply as Lam.

Lam’s main mission is to address issues affecting the youth in East Africa, such as child abuse and disarming youth who have guns in the region.

“I will be doing this by organising shows in different parts of the region, particularly Southern Sudan, Kenya and Uganda, ” said Lam.

Even before his appointment late last year, Lam, who until recently was based in Nairobi, has been spearheading a campaign to enlighten the youth on the importance of surrendering illegal guns.

“The campaign, which has been done through music shows, has proved to be successful because a number of young people, including child soldiers, have surrendered their weapons,” said the musician, who heads the South Sudanese Artistes Association. The association comprises more than 2,000 Sudanese entertainers in and outside the country.

The first concerts that Lam will stage after the UN appointment will be in Juba from April 8 to 12 and will bring together artistes from Uganda, Kenyan and Southern Sudan. 

Dubbed the Youth Empowerment Summit, the show is being organised by UN Habitat in collaboration with the South Sudanese Artistes Association.

During the recent violence in Kenya, Lam, with the support of the UN, managed to bring together youth leaders from various parts of the country to discuss their role in maintaining peace.

THE MUSICIAN SAYS THAT the meeting, which was held at the UN Headquarters in Nairobi, was a great achievement since a number of youths who turned up agreed to mobilise their colleagues to shun violence.

“In short, my office has two purposes — to educate the youth on how they can empower themselves in any and to focus on projects that are helpful to them,” said Lam, who believes that music can bring change to his country.

Lam’s story is an inspiring one. He was born in Southern Sudan 25 years ago and grew up herding his father’s cattle.
“One day,” he said, “a group of men who were passing by asked me if I was interested in going to school. Even before I could answer, they took me with them.” 

Instead of being taken to a school, though, he was taken to a camp belonging to the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army in Ethiopia. 

He and other children, all below 11 years, received military training to fight the Sudanese government soldiers.
BESIDES MUSIC, LAM HAS written a book based on his first album – The Child Soldier — which talks of his tribulations during that time. The book, which was published in Nairobi three years ago, was co-authored with Evans Maendeh, a Sudanese journalist based in Nairobi.

Currently, the musician is working on his third album, The President, which will be launched in both Nairobi and Juba.
Will he quit music following the recent UN appointment? 

“No way,” he said. “I was born a musician and it is through music that I have got my new mandate. I will continue singing until my last breath.”

Lam is following in the footsteps of his cousin, Jal, who is based in the UK. Jal has not only excelled in music but also acted in a movie titled War Child, which is to be released in the US soon. It was shot in various countries, including Sudan and Kenya.

I BELIEVE I AND JAL HAVE LEFT a mark on the entertainment scene in Southern Sudan,” said Lam.

The musician has a two-hour radio programme that is broadcast throughout the country. 

This is another platform he uses to preach peace through music and to encourage young people to embrace music.

SINGAPORE: The fight against child labor and other kinds of exploitation cannot be won without more international cooperation and help from the business world, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

Julie Myers, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wants her agency's representatives to work with foreign governments and the international trade community to fight child labor, human trafficking and child sex tourism.
"It's a humanitarian crisis that crosses international borders and transcends any nation's politics," Myers said at a closed-door conference in Singapore, according to prepared remarks e-mailed to the Associated Press.

In an earlier interview, Myers also urged companies to play a greater role in fighting child labor.

"We encourage companies to come to the table, to actively police their manufacturing plants and inspect them and make sure that they are not producing goods or causing goods to be produced that have involved forced child labor," she said.
There are more than 200 million child laborers in the world, according to International Labor Organization estimates published in 2006. Globally, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for the largest number of child workers with 122 million, followed by sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Myers said she believed that Asian countries have made some progress in fighting these crimes, but that more needed to be done.

"We're finding some countries in the region pass laws that make sure they can take appropriate action," she said. "Once you get the laws passed, you have to make sure that there is a very vigorous enforcement

The Knesset approved a law Wednesday stipulating the establishment of seven centers for protecting child victims of sexual violence.

The new centers will provide a plethora of services including psychological and health care, social services, representatives from the youth department of the police, investigators specializing in children, subsidized legal services and volunteers from the various children's rights groups, among others.

These centers will provide all the services at one place, allowing children and teens to receive the precise care they require.

Trafficking in person, also known as human trafficking is the modern practice of slavery which is the largest criminal industry in the world today.

In the past, Nigerians have been used to the term drug trafficking, but in recent times human trafficking has replaced the common prostitution.

Human trafficking has been portrayed as dehumanising. The rising incidence of this phenomenon is based on the fact that Nigerians have become too materialistic to the extent that much homage is being paid to the rich without asking how they accumulated their wealth.

Trafficking in children for economic reason is seen as one of the worst forms of child labour.

Indeed, victims of trafficking are not only forced into labour and sexual exploitation, but are also being tortured and humilitated.

Despite the effort of Government the world over and NGO’s to stop trafficking in persons the trend has continued unabated.

In most countries, traffickers operate with total impunity even in the most severe cases.

However, here in Nigeria, the number of victims of human trafficking is growing rapidly and this obviously, is affecting the socio-economic and cultural development of the country.

For instance, in the south east report indicate that there is the growing rate of kidnapping of girls who are later sold for between N15,000 to N20,000 to ready buyers as house helps.

There are also quite a number of rape cases reported as well.

Police authorities September last year disclosed the arrest of two people who offered to buy a six-year old girl for N600,000 in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.

The disclosure followed the arrest of six people including a medical doctor alleged to be involved in the sale of children.
The doctor was also handed over to the Police for allegedly masterminding the birth of babies with the connivance of women who had unwanted pregnancies to NAPTIP.

It is a sad commentary to note that unregistered and illegal hospitals and maternity homes are springing up in the neighborehoods. These establishments go for young girls who are pregnant and helpless.

Such institutions reports, says, they shelter and take good care of them until delivery time and are made to sign out their babies before delivery.

These unfortunate girls are given a little token of about twenty to twenty-five thousand naira depending on the sex of the baby, for job well done.

In Nigeria, the major factor aiding and fueling the business of human trafficking could be explained in terms of lack of economic opportunities for youth.

When there is no job for these vibrant youths, they become vulnerable to unacceptable forms of behaviors. The danger that stare these victims in the face is the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

According to the head of national agency for the prohibition and trafficking in person and other related matter (NAPTIP) Kano State zone, Ahmed M. Bello at a recent workshop disclosed that over 60 percent of victims of trafficking repatriated to the country tested HIV positive.

The latest development is that the traffickers now engage in human organs trafficking, forecefully taking their victims organ like kidney for diabolical purposes.

This is an indication that victims are faced with many dangers across the globe. Human trafficking, no doubt has become the current social issue of the time and the startling revelation is frightening.

These crimes extend beyond the bounds of law and are an affront to human dignity and unless there is proper implementation of human trafficking and child labour laws, the effort to end the ugly trend would remain futile.

Irrespective of the fact that trafficking in persons has a direct consequence on the victim; it must also be viewed holistically from the standpoint of what the nation loses as an entity.

Therefore, the naton’s law should be built on the belief that every human life is precious. There is a special evil in the abuse and exploitation of the most innocent and vulnerable, as the victim see little of life before they see the very worst side of life.

Therefore, let all hands be on deck in the fight against the monster of human trafficking.

WASHINGTON-Shared Hope International has identified a startling trend: American children are victims of the sex trade and they are being trafficked within the United States. SHI research reveals that Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, or DMST, is a critical problem in many locations across the U.S.

Human rights investigations by SHI have verified that disturbing numbers of American children are lured and forced into prostitution. These innocent victims are supplying a demand for paid sex, a human commodity that SHI investigators find horrifyingly easy to buy.

"If you pay the price you can get what you want, and I can get it for you. Now if you want something really young, that $200, it’s just going to cost you a little bit more than that," a trafficker says to an undercover SHI investigator.

American children are prostituted by pimps on the streets, sold over the Internet, and exploited through pornography and strip dancing. The federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act provides that any minor exploited in the commercial sex market is a trafficking victim... yet SHI has identified trafficked children incarcerated across the country for prostitution and related charges.

"I always felt like a criminal. I never felt like a victim at all," says "Tonya," a teenage trafficking victim who was lured into prostitution by a pimp at age 12. "Victims don’t do time in jail, they work on the healing process. I was a criminal because I spent time in jail."

SHI has found that these children are often labeled as "child prostitutes." In the few instances they are properly identified as victims there are no protective shelter options and they are often placed in detention facilities with children who have committed serious offenses.

"At an average age of 12 these children are lured and snatched by traffickers. It is a severe injustice when American girls are held in physical and mental slavery and then punished for the crime that is committed against them," said SHI president and founder Linda Smith.

SHI was awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance to conduct field assessments in 10 U.S. locations examining two critical issues: the identification of DMST victims and the service delivery to these victims. The assessments will be released starting the last week of March.

The locations include: Las Vegas, NV; Clearwater, FL; New Orleans/Baton Rouge, LA; Dallas, TX; Independence, MO; Ft Worth, TX; the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; San Antonio, TX; Salt Lake City, UT; and Buffalo, NY.

Shared Hope International rescues and restores women and children in crisis. For almost a decade, SHI has worked around the world in partnership with local groups to prevent trafficking and to rescue and restore the victims of sexual slavery, bringing hope to women and children everywhere. For more information visit http://www.sharedhope.org.

Children’s charities and the government urge schools to keep closer eye on vulnerable pupils

Schools need to become more accountable for pupils who go missing without trace every year, children’s groups warned this week.

Fears are growing that children vanishing from school rolls in Wales could be forced into prostitution, arranged marriages, domestic labour or begging.

Campaigners say teachers need to keep better records and be more vigilant of “at risk” pupils with high rates of absenteeism.

The warning comes as an Assembly committee investigating the trafficking of women and children in Wales meets for the first time.

Chair Joyce Watson, Labour AM for Mid and West Wales, said schools had a duty to monitor pupils more closely. “The extent of child trafficking in Wales is unknown,” she said. “But some children end up in care for 48 or 72 hours before disappearing.

“We need a system for monitoring children missing from school.”

The group’s work will help bring Wales into line with the Council of Europe’s Convention of Action against Trafficking of Human Beings which the Westminster government is set to ratify in December.

Jane Hutt, Wales’s education minister, is to work with the committee