New Delhi, June 28: Describing bonded and child labour as a ''stigma and a shame on national life'', NHRC chairperson Justice S Rajendra Babu has said the existence of this menace is a challenge to the civilisation and a betrayal of constitutional culture.

''Bonded labour is a violation of human rights and contravention of international obligations... We have assured equality of status and opportunity for the dignity of the individual in our constitution yet much needs to be done,'' Justice Rajendra Babu said in his inaugural address at the 'National workshop on Bonded and Child Labour'.

He said by interpreting correctly the provisions of the Constitution the menace can be rooted out.

Stressing upon the need to psychologically rehabilitate the bonded labourers, he said physical and economical rehabilitation is also required to ensure that they do not fall prey again.

The Chairperson asked all representatives to carry out surveys in their respective states to ascertain the presence of bonded labour.

The day-long deliberations dealt with issues related to bonded and child labour, including constitutional provisions, bonded Labour System (Abolition Act) and disowning by states the existence of bonded/child labour.

The participants at the workshop said there is a need for a Nodal Agency, which could release funds for the rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers while stressing that panchayats should be made responsible for rehabilitation and the District Magistrates should be involved.

They also said that specific provisions should be made for traffickers or the labour suppliers who basically uproot the labourers from their native place.

The other topics included centrally sponsored Schemes, convergence of schemes for meaningful, permanent and effective rehabilitation, special problems on identification, release and rehabilitation of migrant bonded labourers (adults and children), child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, National Child Labour Project, State Level Monitoring Committee, district and sub divisional level Vigilance Committees and orientation and Training of Members of Vigilance Committees and Magistrates.

Addressing the workshop, Union Labour Secretary Suddha Pillai called upon state officials to initiate projects so as to converge development schemes for the benefit of bonded labourers.

''Prosecution is an essential tool to do away with this problem.

Panchayati Raj institution can play an active role in identifying bonded labour,'' she observed.

Mr Pallai asked state authorities to organize workshops on bonded labour at district levels to sensitize the people.

Representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Employment and several states including, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Delhi participated in the workshop.

The Talensi-Nabdam District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Sebastian Tibil Bisnab has entreated chiefs and the people of the District to support the Assembly and its collaborating agencies to eliminate all forms of child labour in the District.

He indicated that the efforts of the Assembly and partner organizations to manage, control and prevent the occurrence of child labour in the District would be fruitless without the co-operation and support of all.

The DCE made the appeal at a durbar in commemoration of the World Day Against Child Labour and the launch of Afrikids-Ghana's and the International Labour Organization (ILO) collaborated project on Worst Forms of Child Labour in the District, christened 'Operation Fresh Start'.

Mr. Bisnab said the theme, "Harvesting for the Future,Agriculture without Child Labour" drew the nation's attention to the abuses meted out to the children who were expected to lead this nation in future, reiterating that about seventy percent of children of school going age were engaged in agriculture at the expense of their education.

Mr. Bisnab said government had put in place friendly and pragmatic measures such as the capitation grant and school feeding programme to ease the financial burden of parents and guardians to enable them enroll and retain their children in school.

He said what the parents, guardians and chiefs could do to complement government's efforts was ensuring that all children at school going age were enrolled and retained in school, stating that it was therefore not justifiable to deny the children their right to education under the pretence of poverty.

"Let us resist the temptation of selling out or giving out our children for menial jobs in the cities.

Investing in the education of the children is a sure guarantee for their future and we owe it a duty as a signatory to the ILO Child Labour Convention to uphold the rights of our children", he urged the people.

The Country Director of Afrikids-Ghana, Mr. Nicholas Kumah explained that 'Operation Fresh Start' was aimed at withdrawing at least 150 of child labour with emphasis on children in mining by providing them with an alternative livelihood and to prevent 450 children from entering into worst forms of child labour by educating them on the dangers involved in such work.

The project according to him, would also empower parents of such children to enable them to provide for their needs and that of their children so that they would not suffer the absence of support their children offered to them as a result of working at the mines.
He announced that the project which has two-year lifespan would cost 1,232, 164,000 cedis, which the ILO was contributing 529,274,000 while the deficit of 710,290,000 cedis would be borne by Afrikids and its partners.

Given the short lifespan of the project, Mr. Kumah proposed that the District Assembly should include worse forms of child labour elimination in its development plans while it promulgate bye-laws to deter and check children from entering into galamsey.

He suggested that the micro-finance component of the project should be seriously supported by the Assembly to enable parents of beneficiary children to continue the up keep of the children as well as encouraging vigorous education by all stakeholders for the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) programme to take its roots.

In recognizing that sustainability always had a social and economic dimension, the activities designed in 'Operation Sunlight' involved working with collaborators such as the district and community child labour committees, parents, teachers, religious leaders and child labour clubs to create a sense of ownership and responsibility for the programme, Mr. Kumah noted, indicating, "Here sustainability is generated through the provision of knowledge and guidance to the relevant communities to provide for an anticipated long-term change in communities attitude towards children, children's rights and child labour."

The pupils held a procession through the streets of Tongo, the capital of Talensi-Nabdam District with placards. Among some of the inscriptions on the placards were 'child labour is a crime, arrest them all', 'children have the right to education', 'send all children to school' and 'stop child labour now!'

Government and other social partners should come up with measures that eliminate and fight the worst forms of child labour, a senior official has said.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare permanent secretary Mr Lance Museka said this yesterday when he officially opened a workshop on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in Zimbabwe.

"Government and other stakeholders should draft a methodology which makes it possible for us to achieve our goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labour and, ultimately, all forms of child labour," Mr Museka said.

"May we, therefore, find strength and vigour in executing our vitally important mandate to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in Zimbabwe, knowing that there is no other endeavour as pertinent as this one for the sustainable development of our country."

Mr Museka said the fight against child labour, particularly in the agricultural sector, was not the concern of the International Labour Organisation only but that of governments, employers and other social partners, including the Food and Agricultural Organisation and the International Fund for Agriculture.

He said Zimbabwe had come up with legislation that seeks to eliminate all forms of child labour.

"As you would be aware, following the National Child Labour Survey of 1999 and the subsequent ratification of Conventions 138 and 182 by Zimbabwe, our labour legislation has been reviewed to strengthen initiatives against child labour," he said.

Zimbabwe has also come up with an action plan that protects and ensures orphans and other children in difficult circumstances have access to amenities such as education, food and health services, he said.

"In the main, the action plan seeks to protect children from abuse and exploitation," he said.

The action plan was operationalised through co-ordinated efforts by the Government, United Nations agencies and civil society organisations.

Mr Museka, however, noted that legislation alone was not adequate to address child labour but there was need to come up with other measures to protect children.

He said penalties against the practice were also not deterrent enough.

"It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to find other viable means of complementing the measures as expressed in our legislation and the various instruments on the rights of the child," he said.

Zimbabwe, like any other developing nation, continues to be afflicted by child labour and the issues have also been compounded by the HIV and Aids scourge and the increasing number of child headed families.

At least 132 million children in the world are working in the agricultural sector, operating heavy and dangerous machinery and work the longest hours.

This constitutes about 70 percent of all children engaged in child labour.

The Founder of the Global March against Child Labour, Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, will arrive in Ghana on Friday to learn about the progress being made to eradicate forced labour and child labour on cocoa farms.

As part of his visit, Mr Satyarthi would hold meetings with government officials and other international organizations operating in Ghana including the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and local non-governmental organizations that advocate the elimination of child labour in Ghana

A statement signed by Mr Andrews Addoquaye Tagoe, Head of Programmes, Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development of the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), said Mr. Satyarthi’s visit would also be a platform to strengthen the Global March Movement, particularly the partnership between trade unions, NGOs and other civil society groups in the fight against child labour and decent work for adults.

Mr. Satyarthi, who is also the President of the Global Campaign for Education, will also appoint a Ghanaian as the Anglophone Africa Coordinator for the Global March against Child Labour while in Ghana.

Also on his agenda is a meeting to introduce and share the “Quadrangular Paradigm” which establishes a necessity in their linkage on the issues of child labour, illiteracy, poverty and violence against children while strengthening the movement against child labour for free and good quality education for all children.

Mr. Satyarthi, born in 1954 in Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, India, gave up a lucrative career as an electrical engineer to dedicate his life for the cause of child bonded labourers.

He founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) (Save the Childhood Movement) in 1980, which is currently used to symbolize the struggle against child labour and child servitude.

Mr Satyarthi spearheaded the rescue of over 75,000 bonded child labourers from brick kilns, carpet looms and stone quarries and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation through the three rehabilitation centres that he and his organization had established.

His achievements as an international child labour activist are numerous. Among them was the lead role he played in bringing together over 20,000 NGOs around the world to participate in the 80,000-kilometre long Global March against Child Labour.

Spanning 103 countries, including Ghana, over 7.2 million people globally participated in it and this led to the ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in 1999.

GOVERNMENT and other social partners should come up with measures that eliminate and fight the worst forms of child labour, a senior official has said.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare permanent secretary Mr Lance Museka said this yesterday when he officially opened a workshop on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in Zimbabwe.

"Government and other stakeholders should draft a methodology which makes it possible for us to achieve our goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labour and, ultimately, all forms of child labour," Mr Museka said.

"May we, therefore, find strength and vigour in executing our vitally important mandate to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in Zimbabwe, knowing that there is no other endeavour as pertinent as this one for the sustainable development of our country."

Mr Museka said the fight against child labour, particularly in the agricultural sector, was not the concern of the International Labour Organisation only but that of governments, employers and other social partners, including the Food and Agricultural Organisation and the International Fund for Agriculture.
He said Zimbabwe had come up with legislation that seeks to eliminate all forms of child labour.
"As you would be aware, following the National Child Labour Survey of 1999 and the subsequent ratification of Conventions 138 and 182 by Zimbabwe, our labour legislation has been reviewed to strengthen initiatives against child labour," he said.

Zimbabwe has also come up with an action plan that protects and ensures orphans and other children in difficult circumstances have access to amenities such as education, food and health services, he said.
"In the main, the action plan seeks to protect children from abuse and exploitation," he said.
The action plan was operationalised through co-ordinated efforts by the Government, United Nations agencies and civil society organisations.

Mr Museka, however, noted that legislation alone was not adequate to address child labour but there was need to come up with other measures to protect children.

He said penalties against the practice were also not deterrent enough.

"It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to find other viable means of complementing the measures as expressed in our legislation and the various instruments on the rights of the child," he said.
Zimbabwe, like any other developing nation, continues to be afflicted by child labour and the issues have also been compounded by the HIV and Aids scourge and the increasing number of child headed families.

At least 132 million children in the world are working in the agricultural sector, operating heavy and dangerous machinery and work the longest hours.

This constitutes about 70 percent of all children engaged in child labour.

CHILDREN under 14 will not be legally allowed to work under tough new child labour laws approved by the SA Industrial Relations Commission today.

SA Unions emerged victorious from a lengthy legal battle it had fought with Business SA over controversial laws it had drafted last year.

As reported by The Advertiser last July, the call for a shake-up of child labour laws was first made in a draft submission from SA Unions to the Industrial Relations Commission review of legislation covering youth employment.

The SA Unions proposal, modelled on Queensland's Child Employment Act 2006, is designed to protect children under 16 from performing work that may be harmful to their health and safety.

SA Unions secretary Janet Giles said winning the case brought by Business SA was a "major breakthrough" for young workers and unions.

She said the decision meant SA Unions was able to proceed to make an award to protect children regardless of the industry in which they worked.

"We will now assess the best way to proceed through discussions with employers and the Industrial Relations Minister," she said.

"We believe that the IRC's decision to reject Business SA's opposition to our proposal is a victory for workers and their unions and a victory for common sense."

She said legal advice obtained by SA Unions was that the proposed Child Labour Award 2006 would override the Federal Government's IR laws.

Key elements include:
ESTABLISHING 14 as the minimum age for employment.

CHILDREN under 16 banned from unsupervised deliveries to private residence.

LIMITING hours of employment for children in formal education or training.

CHILDREN under 15 banned from working between 6pm and 6am.

CHILD workers must be supervised by an adult, who has responsibility for no more than three children at the same time.

However, the draft award does not apply to children working in a family business.

Business SA chief executive Peter Vaughan said the blanket award proposed by SA Unions was "inappropriate and unnecessary".

He said the award would limit availability and flexibility for junior workers.

"Laws already exist to protect children against issues such as harassment, bullying and discrimination," he said.

"We will examine the decision and decide which path to proceed with from here."

Industrial Relations Minister Michael Wright said the government supports moves to improve safety and working conditions for young people.

'However further consultation needs to take place on a suitable approach,' he said.