President wants more commitment for child issues

Thursday, 30 September 2004

by Ranil Wijayapala

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga yesterday appealed to leaders and officials of South Asian countries to work with more commitment to solve issues relating to children in the region specially child abuse, child trafficking and child labour.

Addressing the inaugural session of the South Asia Regional Mid-Term Review of the "Yokohama Global Commitment 2001", at the Taj Samudra hotel in Colombo the President said the Ministers and officers should undertake Action Plans adopted at international conferences giving serious thought to it.

The President said as one of the much populous regions in the world, South Asia has much to do in order to build the world more fit for the children. She said the developing nations cannot go forward unless they take children's issues seriously.

The Regional Mid-Term Review of 'The Yokohama Global Commitment 2001, hosted by the Sri Lankan Government was organised by the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia in partnership with the South Asia Coordinating Group Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Children and Women.

Representatives from eight South Asian countries including Afghanistan are participating in this three day conference.

Addressing the inauguration of the conference, President Kumaratunga said education was the best way to solve the issues relating to children.

"We in Sri Lanka have already embarked on education reforms", the President added. "We are targeting the modernisation of education to make a complete man or a woman who can face the challenges of globalisation," the President added.

She said the deep rooted violence is due to the two decades long ethnic conflict. Children have been affected immensely during the last two decades.

"We are preparing the children of this country to face global challenges effectively in a peaceful manner, through discussion and negotiation rather than resorting to bombs and bullets."President Kumaratunga said Sri Lanka Government has adopted a National Plan of Action from 2004 to 2008 and just began to implement it in accordance with the internationally accepted methods.

President Kumaratunga said the Government has started to appoint school level committees to look into matters related to child abuse.

Women's Empowerment and Social Welfare Minister Sumedha G. Jayasena, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia Dr. Sadig Rasheed and UNICEF Country Director Ted Chaiban also spoke.

Delegates from Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and representatives form United Nations agencies participated at this inaugural ceremony.

Source: http://www.dailynews.lk/2004/09/30/pol01.html

Media As Weapon Against Child Trafficking

This Day (Lagos)
ANALYSIS
September 29, 2004
Posted to the web September 29, 2004

By Andrew Ahiante
Lagos

Several efforts have been made by different groups to stem the current wave of child trafficking in Nigeria. Andrew Ahiante writes on the latest collaborative effort between the media and the International Labour Organisation (ILO)

"Federal Government Returns 116 Kids to Benin Republic", "150 Deported Nigeria Girls Arrive from Italy", "50 Nigerian Prostitutes Deported from Guinea, Gambia"; "Police Nab Six Migrant Prostitutes"; "Women Held over Child Trafficking"; "Guinean Police Arrest 35 Nigerian Girls Enroute Sex Slavery".... These are some of the highlight of recent media reports on the issue of child trafficking in Nigeria and across the continent. Most celebrated being the historic handing over of 116 trafficked kids to Benin Republic by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Nigeria is both a receiving and sending country. Thus, apart from receiving trafficked children from the Republics of Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d' Ivoire, among others, it also send to these countries and beyond. For some years now, child trafficking has been an issue of concern to the international community as well as attract public opinion.

In Africa, the movement of children goes back to ancient days, values and practices. No doubt, therefore in some of the local dialects they are known omo'odor in Yoruba, odibo in Igbo, while in Hausa the names are numerous including yarigida (female) dangida (male) or ma temakiya and ma'temaki respectively. Even in Benin Republic, it is known in their local parlance as vidomegon and enfant place (placed children) in French language. The names suggest, "child displacement". That is, movement of child from his/her biological parents to another which could be distant relations.

However, it has been known that this movement and its aims have progressively been mistaken and used to provide cheap or even free labour. Thus, through family placement the continent have witnessed more and more, the development of an "informal servitude agreement" through which the parents, believing that their children would be better off with wealthier families, give them up to a third party who ensures their sustenance in exchange for their labour.

For instance, during the forum of discussions and exchanges at the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Sub-regional workshop on the trafficking of children in domestic service in Cotonou, Benin, in 1998, which had as participants governmental and non-governmental organisations representating about 17 countries from the West and Central African regions, these two concepts came to the front burner.

It was a similar situation in the workshop that followed in Gabon where the Common Platform for Action (CPA) was launched. It was the Sub-regional Consultation on the Development of Strategies to Fight Child Trafficking for Exploitative Labour Purposes in West and Central Africa held between February 22 to 24 2000, in Libreville. Known as the Libreville Appeal, the present collaborative effort between NAN and ILO, could better be appreciated upon this appeal.

Among the component of the appeal include the involvement of media practitioners in the effort to put child trafficking oncheck. Though, launched since 2000, not many media practitioners reporting the issue know much about it. It is not surprising that the ILO, a major stakeholder in the menace and partner to the appeal, is supporting NAN in this regard. Consequently, for the media to effectively carry out this crusade and task of creating awareness about the menace among the people, it needed to be empowered.

It is not surprising that NAN has decided to take the bull by the horn through a collaborative effort with the ILO, an arm of the UN agency mainly saddled with such responsibilities.

At the formal flagoff of the programme recently, NAN's Managing Director, Mr. Akin Osuntokun, described the project as a fallout of NAN genuine concern for the holistic welfare of the Nigerian child who has in the past been subjected to various forms of 'excruciating' abuse and neglect. He said such a collaboration was not a novel idea to the agency.

"Four years ago, the agency, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), began a project to increase and sustain awareness in the media about population and development issues, as our modest contributions to enhanced living standards of our people. So, we are not new in collaborative activities with the UN agencies as well as with other establishments to set the agenda and improve the living standards of our people", he said, stressing that the project is the first of its kind since the ILO signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Nigerian government in 2000.

According to him, though Nigerians care for their children whose welfare have also been the responsibility of the extended family, the economic recession, increasing unemployment, grinding poverty, rapid urbanisation, weak institutional framework, breakdown of the extended family system and perverted value system have forced millions of children into new types of labour, which are exploitative, hazardous and prejudicial to their welfare and to development.

"Women's and children's vulnerability and the low status of females, corruption and global markets for sex are also contributory, as well as high demand for cheap and submissive child labour, youths' desire for emancipation through migration and the age-long tradition", he said, were some of the key factors that are fertilising ground for the menace to flourish.

"As the collective responsibility is being eroded, the family is left in the struggle for survival, resulting in the gross violation of the rights of the child. Hence, the emergence of child trafficking, one of the worst forms of child labour. It has now assumed a global phenomenon and attracted deep concern", he further said.

Quoting a UNICEF report, Osuntokun put the estimate of children population in Nigeria who are victims of the menace at 64 million, while the average age of trafficked children, especially girls, is 15 years.

"Out of Nigerian girls in sex trade in Europe, 60 per cent are in Italy, while Belgium and the Netherlands are experiencing an upsurge in the number of such girls.

"The report also says that about eight million Nigenan girls are engaged in exploitative labour, putting them at a great risk of human trafficking, as 43 per cent of them are based in the southern border towns of Calabar, Uyo, Port Harcourt and Owerri. On the average, 10 children daily pass through Nigeria's borders especially at Seme, Maiduguri, Sokoto and Calabar", he noted.

Urging the media for action, he said, recent research study on media perception of child labour in its worst forms showed that although many media establishments in Nigeria have development pages and programmes, children issues attract less significance compared to other facets of development in terms of frequency, prominence and depth of reportage.

Reasons for the perception, according to him, include preferred interests in other issues such as economy, politics and sports, clash of interests between the publisher and the journalist, pervasive commecialism in the media industry, socio-cultural constraints, inadequate working tools, knowledge of the subject matter, access to information, funding and commitment.

"We have observed that the media see the reportage of child labour and child trafficking as a series of events, rather than emerging social, historical and cultural processes connected to development. The reportage is also opportunistic and perfunctory, while the perception is low. Because the issues are not immediate money-spinners like economy, politics and sports, not enough significance is accorded to them, except when such issues are to be sensationalised", he declared.

He ennumerated the objectives of the NAN/ILO partnership to include building a strong media capacity and raise media perception on child labour in its worst forms to enable journalists accord more significance to child-related issues.

"In the next one year or so, we shall embark on measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound strategies activities which would first begin with empowering the media with information to enable them make informed reporting. This media encounter will be on a monthly basis while workshops would be organised not only for the journalists but also for some stakeholders.

"It now behoves on our journalists to make the project an enduring success, for our collective benefits as a nation. Let us turn the media environment to a more child-friendly one. Let our newsrooms always glow with development issues on children as well as the welfare of people. The exposure of the evil of child trafficking is a vital contribution the media can make towards the protection of children.

The ILO National Programme Manager, Mr. MacJohn Nwaobiala, emphasised that ILO has the mandate to ensure that countries progressively initiate policies that promote child rights, espcially with regards to worst forms of labour. Tracing the activities of the body in Nigeria to 1992, he said, the project on the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) began in the year 2000, while further explaining on the partnership with NAN.

"This programme is known as capacity building programme. It is to build the media capacity to respond to child trafficking and child labour", he explained. Accordingly, he said, the programme will run for 18 months. Other component of the MoU signed with the Federal Government of Nigeria, he said, include the development of a national policy on child labour and the withdraw of minors from the streets.

On the whole, he said, a total of 2,000 children would be rehabilitated under the scheme. This, he further said, would be carried out in collaboration with three organisations: Human Development Initiative (HDI), Human Development Fundation of Nigeria (HDFN) and the Women Consurtium of Nigeria (WOCON). He called for concerted efforts among Nigerians to make the programme worthwhile. Though, the media has been doing its best in the prompt reporting of issues of child labour and child trafficking, the current partnership between NAN and ILO is expected to give the media the desired impetus, he added.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200409290466.html

MCD mobile schools for underprivileged

VIVIDHA KAUL

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2004 02:31:01 AM]

NEW DELHI: This is school chale hum with a twist. For those who are unable to go to school, the MCD's primary education department now plans to start mobile schools.

Ragpickers along with children of construction workers and sex workers are the ones whom the MCD plans to target as part of this project.

The number of children unable to attend primary school in Delhi is estimated to be 50,000-60,000.

On the cards are brightly coloured and decorated buses with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan tune playing so as to attract these children.

Besides giving these children a bridge course, the MCD plans to conduct health check-ups and give nutritional inputs too. In the long run, these children will be integrated with MCD schools.

A half-day consultation with leading NGOs and government officers will be held on Friday with regard to the plan. The MCD soon plans to bring out a policy document on the same.

"Government of India schemes like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) do not have any nutritional or health components. By providing these components, we will help make the schemes more ‘rounded', ‘' said an official.

The teaching component will be taken care of by NGOs. As far as the funds for the programme are concerned, the MCD hopes to generate some from the SSA and the National Child Labour Projects (NCLP).

"We conducted a survey in areas near landfill sites and realised that many of these children who are ragpickers are supporting their families. So the solution is not to simply ask them to stop coming there and go to school instead. That is where the concept of mobile schools comes in," said the official.

Arrangements for creches will also be made in these mobile schools.

This will help attract those children, specially girls, who have to stay home to look after their siblings.

"We will also try and get self-help groups to rehabilitate these children's parents," said the official.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=867194

1.5 million children engaged in child labour

Tuesday, 28 September 2004

Kumasi, Sept. 28, GNA - A household survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service in 2003 has revealed that about 1.5 million children under the age of 15 were estimated to be working in Ghana, even though the Children's Act stipulates 15 years as the minimum age for employment.

The survey said 1.031 million children under the age of 13 were in child labour in violation of the minimum age of 13 for light work, Superintendent Elizabeth Dassah, National Director of the Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) of the Ghana Police Service, said in Kumasi. Speaking at the opening of a two-day sensitisation workshop on child issues on Monday, she said, the most poignant observation of the survey was the fact that even though the minimum age of employment in hazardous labour was 18 years, children as young as five to 17 years were engaged in this nature of work.

The sensitisation workshop, the first in a series was being organised by the Police Administration under the sponsorship of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Police Chief Inspectors, Inspectors and Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) from Ashanti, Eastern and Brong-Ahafo regions are attending. Superintendent Dassah asked the police to wake up to the reality that, Ghana was a source of transit and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced domestic and commercial labour. She said in spite of efforts to stem the problem, a lot more needed to be done as the menace of child labour was not abating and was endangering the lives of the children, who formed the human resource base of the country. Supt. Dassah said, however that, there was no specific law on trafficking and laws under which traffickers were prosecuted were inadequate.

Moreover, she said, the Children's Act does not empower the police to directly take action on offences on child labour, they are only, she said to react to complaints from Labour Officers, members of social services, committees of district assemblies and the Department of Social Welfare.

Above all, the nature of child labour is such that it does not lend itself to easy prosecution. Unlike other offences where the victim willingly report to the police, the victim of child labour feels he or she is benefiting howbeit temporarily from the work and would therefore not co-operate during investigations.

Superintendent Dassah told the police personnel that investigations of this nature demanded painstaking efforts and that, since the services of WAJU were not replicated in every nook and cranny of the country, the regular police and everybody must therefore help in eradicating this social menace.

Mr Ofosu-Mensah Gyeabour, Ashanti Regional Police Commander, who opened the workshop, said the plight of numerous Ghanaian children in hazardous forms of labour was a cause of grave concern to all. He said a demand had therefore been placed on the law enforcement agencies like the police to wake up to the clarion call of enforcing relevant existing laws.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Gyeabour said it was against this backdrop that the Police Administration initiated the training programme to enhance the capacity of police personnel handling the increasing complex nature of child labour.

To ensure a holistic approach, he said, the Police Administration would liaise with relevant agencies to form more child panels and family tribunals in order to speed up the backlog of cases involving child welfare and family related issues, adding that, the activities of these tribunals will go a long way to create congenial environments for children.

Mr Emmanuel Otoo, Programme Manager of ILO said the sponsorship of the workshop by ILO and UNICEF was to aid the police to be able to eradicate child labour and other children related issues.

He noted that after the enactment of laws, the chunk of the responsibility to enforce them, then rested with the police but wondered whether the police were adequately informed about child labour.

The workshop, he said, was therefore to strengthen the skills and sharpen the knowledge of the police in the area of child labour and also called for suggestions and proposals from the police on how to combat the problem completely from society.

Source: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=66792

Poverty drives young kids to stone crushing

[India News] Siliguri, Sept 28

West Bengal's Siliguri District, it seems, continues to openly flout a central government ban on child labour.

This is starkly apparent at stone quarries in the area, where hundreds of children, driven by hunger and poverty, are forced to engage in stone crushing activity.
Under the Constitution, the employment of children under 14 years of age was first prohibited in 1948, and then in 1986, child labour was banned in 17 industries considered hazardous. These strictures notwithstanding, there are still close to 11 million children working instead of going to school.

In Siliguri, children aged below 10 spend eight hours a day by the riverside fishing out stones and breaking them into gravel with hand tools twice the size of their tiny hands. Most of these kids have either been abandoned or are orphaned, and some, are the crucial breadwinners for their even younger sibling.

The constant hammering ends up blistered hands and feet and the prolonged exposure to fine limestone dust leaves many with serious and possibly life-threatening respiratory disorders.
Scared and shy, they are fearful about speaking to strangers, lest they lose their jobs and source of livelihood.

"We break stones because there is no money at home. I am illiterate," Santosh, a young boy said.

Kavita, a girl labourer, said: "I do this for money. There is nothing to eat at home. My name was struck off the school list a few years back."

Employed through contract companies, they lose a sizable chunk of their money to middlemen, ultimately earning only Rs.50 a day, which is not enough to buy them even one complete meal.
Poor law enforcement has meant that their employers, who make huge profits from them, have gone unchecked.

Helpless parents say they have neither the courage nor the resources to rebel, and have accepted their sorry state as fate.

"What to do? We are helpless, there is no money to eat so we all have to work. I have no money to send my children to school. We have to work," Rekha, a labourer, said. (ANI)

Source:http://www.newkerala.com/newsdaily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=33693

19 Beninois Kids Repatriated

Tue, 28 Sep 2004

By Eugene Agha

The Comptroller of Immigra-tion in charge of Seme Area Command, Mr. Mike Dike, at the weekend handed over about 19 children , over to Beninois Security operatives.

The children were apparently been trafficked into the country for child labour.

The children whose aged were put between four and 17, according to an Immigration source, were arrested along the Badagry-Seme expressway.

Before the children and their traffickers were handed over to the gendarmes, the Comptroller stated that it became necessary to return the children to their mother land following the continues use of children for child labour by some group of people for financial gains.

"These Beninoise were arrested by the Nigeria Immigration Human Trafficking Unit stationed at the Joint Check Point at Gbaji after they have successfully gained entry into the country through the porous routes at the Border" he said.

He said further that the children and their traffickers were intercepted by the officers and men at about 1.35 am and that at the time of the arrest none of the Beninoise has any travel document nor any document to identify them.

According to him, their number, mode of entry and time, raised some security questions.

Source: http://www.thisdayonline.com/news/20040928news22.html

Respect Children's Rights, Urges Ng'uni

The Post (Lusaka)
NEWS
September 26, 2004
Posted to the web September 27, 2004

By Noel Sichalwe
Lusaka

CHILDREN'S rights need to be respected, labour deputy minister Chile Ng'uni has said.

Officiating at the Jesus Cares Ministries caregivers graduation ceremony on Friday, Ng'uni said parents and guardians had a unique role to play in protecting children's rights because they were responsible for ensuring that children were protected from child labour.

Ng'uni said child labour was growing because of the social problems that had affected a lot of families in the country.

He said government was fighting the child labour scourge to allow everyone to afford a decent life.

Ng'uni said government supported the initiatives of withdrawing, rehabilitating and providing alternatives to the child labourers and their families.

"Child labour threatens the future of the nation," Nguni said. "It is a crime against humanity because children's rights are human rights which must be protected at all costs. Quality children and quality families mean a quality future for Zambia. Child labour is a social evil and an affront to the development prospects of the nation."

Ng'uni said those who opposed efforts aimed at combating child labour should be made accountable because they were the ones that contributed to poverty that resulted in children engaging themselves in dangerous trades like stone crushing, prostitution and general streetism.

He said the efforts by Jesus Cares Ministries to combat child labour demonstrated the resolve to serve humanity and complement government efforts.

Ng'uni urged the graduating students to commit themselves and improve the lives of children, especially those crushing stones.

Speaking at the same function, Jesus Cares Ministries director Godfrida Sumaili said she was grateful to her donors that had made the project successful since they started in September last year.

Sumaili, who is also a Human Rights Commissioner, said Jesus Cares Ministries had since withdrawn 1,950 children from the streets out of whom 1,225 have been integrated into formal schools.

She further said under the same programme, 220 cargivers and youths had undergone skills training in various life survival skills.

Sumaili said out of the 120 care givers that graduated on Friday, five young men were withdrawn from stone crushing and had now undergone a one year carpentry course. She said all of them were now in productive employment.

Sumaili also commended the role the community played in implementing the programme.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200409270632.html

Child labourers rescued in Vellore

Monday, 27 Sep 2004

Vellore, Sep 24 - Officials of the Revenue department and employees of the Child Labour Abolition Support Scheme (CLASS), with the help of women's Self-Help Group members raided automobile workshops, tea stalls and shops and business establishments here yesterday to detect and rescue child workers.

A total of 34 children were rescued. While a large number of child workers in the beedi and match industry have been rescued in the last 8 years and enrolled in regular schools, child labour in automobile workshops, hotels and tea stalls remained to be tacked.

Yesterday's raids were carried out to rescue child workers in automobile workshops on the Municipal Bye-Pass Road and tea stalls and other business establishments at Long Bazaar and Chunnambukkara Street.

The Collector, S. Gopalakrishnan, led the raids at the National Theatre junction, while the District Revenue Officer, C. Gopalakrishnan, led it at Chunnamkubbara Street.

Members of the women's SHGs went to houses and caught hold of children engaged as domestic help. Some child workers, on seeing the officials, escaped. But the SHG members chased and rescued them.

Source: http://www.sunnetwork.org/news/regional/tamilnadu/tamilnadu.asp?id=12566

Man gets 17-year sentence for child prostitution

Sat September 25, 2004

An Oklahoma City man was sentenced Friday to more than 17 years in federal prison after admitting to trafficking child prostitutes.

Michael Wayne Thomas, 43, received his sentence of 17½ years in Oklahoma City federal court after pleading guilty in June to three counts.

"Thomas operated an extensive prostitution enterprise which included transporting juveniles to Dallas, Houston, Denver and Harrisburg (Pa.) for purposes of prostitution," U.S. Attorney Robert G. McCampbell said.

"This sentence is harsh, but appropriate," McCampbell said.

Testimony at the sentencing hearing showed that Thomas prostituted three juveniles and had recruited a fourth, McCampbell said.

Thomas is among 19 people that prosecutors allege shipped for prostitution more than a dozen girls, ages 13 to 18, from the Oklahoma City area to cities in Colorado, Texas, Florida, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio.

Eight federal defendants have pleaded guilty to charges related to the FBI investigation that began in January 2002. Thomas is the first to be sentenced.

Source: http://newsok.com/article/1324901/?template=news/main

Niger Delta Tops List of Child Traffickers - WOTCLEF

From Okon Bassey in Port Harcourt

26 Sep 2004

Wife of the Vice President, Chief Amina Titi Atiku Abubakar, has expressed worry at the rate child trafficking business is booming in the Niger Delta, saying the region has the highest number of human trafficking in the country.

The Vice President's wife expressed her concern, when she paid a courtesy call on the Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, weekend at the NDDC Corporate office in Port Harcourt.

Mrs. Atiku, who is also the founder of a non-governmental organisation, "Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation? (WOTCLEF)," said her visit to NDDC office was therefore to solicit support from the commission to jointly look for ways to eradicate child trafficking activities in the region.

"I felt the need to visit NDDC in the course of my awareness campaign against trafficking in persons for two reasons. First, it is observed that majority of the trafficked victims in Nigeria, especially the children in their teens, are sourced mostly from the region. And in the course of our counseling and rehabilitation programmes, many children have been rescued from this part of the federation."

Source: http://www.thisdayonline.com/news/20040926news22.html

Social change through children

Monday, Sep 20, 2004

Realising the importance of children in bringing about social change and accepting them as equal and important members of society is a new book, "Bal Panchayat: Celebrating Children's Participation'', which was released at India Habitat Centre in the Capital this past week by the Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, Sunil Dutt, in the presence actress and social activist Nandita Das.

The book shares the stories and experiences of many underprivileged children, their families and communities as they underwent a metamorphosis while bringing about children's participation and ensuring child rights.

It reflects the concerns, joys, aspirations and tribulations of children as they move from a position of victim to a position of empowerment.

In fact, Mr. Dutt was not originally supposed to release the book. On coming to know that he was attending another function at the same venue, the children approached him.

"I couldn't say no to them and that is why I am here,'' Mr. Dutt said, lauding the work of the Bal Panchayat and ensuring more support to children through sports so that they are able to empower themselves.

Recalling her association with the Bal Panchayat, Nandita said the positive thing about children was that they were honest to the core and like adults are not yet tuned in to the world of make-believe.

There is a sincerity of purpose in whatever they do and that is evident in the work of the Bal Panchayat,'' she said.

Talking about the book, the Executive Director of CASP, Bhagyashree Dengle, said it was a tribute to the children's capacity to overcome their circumstances and grow and develop. It recognises children as agents of social change and reflects how given the right opportunities and guidance, even the seemingly most underprivileged children can be our nation's strongest asset.''

Added Bruno Oudmayer, the Country Director of Plan India, which has supported the Bal Panchayat experiment : "Children have both the capacity and the commitment to contribute to decisions affecting their future. The whole community would be better off incorporating the views of all, men and women, as well as children.''

The book traces the story of Bal Panchayat, a children's organisation that has grown from being an informal forum for development to a full-fledged children's group with its own governing committee (made up of children) and programmes and agenda.

Bal Panchayat began as a small activity to educate children and help them break out of their shells. Over the years, it has impacted the lives of over 800 children.

Today, Bal Panchayat is a group of young child rights activists who undertake various social activities like funding children's education, media scanning on child rights, imparting training to NGOs on enabling children's participation and running libraries.

By K. Kannan

Source: http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/09/20/stories/2004092002170200.htm

UNICEF reveals abuse of millions

Margaret Wenham
21sep04

AN estimated 1.2 million children worldwide are trafficked each year, two million work in the commercial sex trade, more than 13 million are estimated to be AIDS orphans and 250 million are involved in child labour.

These are just some of the sobering statistics that UNICEF deputy chief Kul Gautam will reveal today to the more than 1000 delegates from 58 countries who are attending the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect conference on child protection at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

In his keynote paper, Mr Gautam said 40 million children under 15 in the world suffered from abuse and neglect and required health and social care.

As well, an estimated 30,000 children were being used as child soldiers in conflicts in more than 30 countries.

In the past 15 years, he said, more than two million children died as a result of war.

Mr Gautam said child-protection objectives linked with poverty eradication and economic development goals, which had been agreed by world leaders, would not be met while children were still being beaten, trafficked into sexual slavery and being forced to work instead of going to school.

"Poverty is the main cause of child labour," he said.

"Children are engaged in labour largely to help their families and themselves survive.

"The paradox is that child labour actually contributes to poverty (as it) impedes the future potential of a child to contribute to the economic growth or her or his community."

Mr Gautam said HIV/AIDS posed a large threat to children in the world.

He said two-thirds of newly infected 15 to 19-year-olds in sub-Saharan Africa were female, a phenomenon attributed to the sexual exploitation of young girls by infected older men and sexual violence where rape was used as a weapon of war.

"In one hospital in the Eastern Congo, more than 30 per cent of rape survivors tested positive for the HIV virus," he said.

Mr Gautam said governments and communities could do much to build a protective environment for children including legislating against child abuse in its many forms, effectively budgeting for child protection, advocating, monitoring the incidence and nature of abuse to facilitate informed responses and providing recovery services.

He said headway could even be made against entrenched exploitative and abusive attitudes, customs and practices as had occurred in hundreds of Senegalese villages which had abandoned the practice of female genital mutilation.

A key protection measure was the skilling up of all people who came into contact with children – parents, health workers, teachers, police, social workers – so they could recognise and respond to child abuse.

Mr Gautam said the Secretary-General of the United Nations was due to report in 2007 on the progress of the goals set by UN members for the A World Fit for Children program.

By its close tomorrow, about 330 papers will have been delivered at the four-day ISPCAN conference by experts from a range of countries, including Canada, Japan, Norway, Britain, America, Italy, Malaysia, Brazil and India.

Source: http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,
10824265%255E953,00.html

Gov't, CCF join hands to protect Filipino children

Sunday, September 19, 2004

THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has entered into a partnership with the Christian Children's Fund Inc. (CCF), an international non-government organization, in the promotion of the rights and welfare of Filipino children in the local level.

DILG Secretary Angelo Reyes said the DILG and the CCF formalized the agreement at the launching of the Child Friendly LGUs (local government units) project recently.

The Christian Children's Fund (CCF) has been the government partner for years in the promotion of child's rights and welfare in the country.

It had been operating for the last 50 years in provinces like the Mt. Province, Ifugao, Quezon, Laguna, Batangas, Sorsogon, Capiz, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Iloilo, Cebu, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Jolo, as well as the cities of Baguio, San Pablo, Dipolog, Pagadian and Zamboanga.

Reyes said the department through the National Barangay Operations Office (NBOO) has been encouraging local government units to strengthen their Local Council to the Protection of Children (LCPC) in promoting Child Friendly LGUs.

Under the Local Government Code, all LGUs are mandated to organize their own LCPCs.

However, according to NBOO records, only 69.62 percent or provinces, 71.30 percent of cities, 77.49 percent of municipalities and 78.87 percent of barangays nationwide have organized their respective LCPCs.

Under the agreement, the CCF shall collaborate with the DILG in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programs to promote Child Friendly LGUs in the Cordillera South Luzon and other identified areas.

It shall also provide funds for carrying out the approved plans in the said areas and assist in strengthening the LCPC to make them effective in overseeing the implementation of children's programs.

The DILG, on the other hand, shall coordinate with the CCF in the implementation of the Area Strategic Plan in the identified areas.

It shall conduct capability-building projects to enhance the skills of LGUs, provide assistance in planning and implementing community programs in project areas to promote Child Friendly LGUs.

The CCF programs include health and sanitation, nutrition, early children development, micro enterprise development, emergency relief and education, community health and family planning. (Jonathan F. Fernandez)

Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/man/2004/09/19/news/gov.t.
ccf.join.hands.to.protect.filipino.children.html

Children Welfare Team Commissioned

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
September 20, 2004
Posted to the web September 20, 2004

By Michael J. Ssali
Masaka

The World Vision has passed out a team of 20 volunteers to work as Community Orphans and Vulnerable Children care Takers (COCT).

The District Chairman, Mr Vincent Ssempijja, commissioned the team on September 17 at Butale Primary School in Kabonera sub-County, Masaka District.

The team had spent week undergoing training on how to uplift children's welfare, protect children from violence, neglect, child labour and early marriages. The volunteers are to work in ten parishes in Kabonera sub-county.

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200409200917.html

Pakistani children being trained for war

Monday, September 20, 2004

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Children in Pakistan are being trained and used in armed conflicts according to a report by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC)

The SPARC report expressed disappointment over the fact that Pakistan has not yet ratified the optional protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on the involvement of children in armed conflicts. Article 38 of the UNCRC states that, “no child below the age of 15 shall have any part in hostilities or shall be recruited in the armed forces. States shall also ensure the protection and care of children who are affected by armed conflicts as described in international laws”.

The report observed that Pakistani children had suffered worst form of violence after US invaded Afghanistan in 2001. “Recruitment of children continued despite the government's attempts to curb the use of madrassas (seminaries) as breeding grounds for jihadis. Factors including poverty, unemployment, adventure, physical punishment, religious glory and feeling of being powerful at a young age prompt children to join the jihadi outfits that manage many of the madrassa networks,” the report said. It claimed that there were over 70,000 madrassas in Pakistan and some were still involved in recruiting thousands of children to fight in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

The report appreciated government's madrassas Reforms plan that would spend millions of dollars on modernising some 8,000 seminaries despite the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal's (MMA) disapproval.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), over 40 million children around the world are displaced. The UNICEF estimates that more than two million children have died in conflicts, six million have been maimed and more than a million orphaned over the past ten years.

The SPARC report said: “Children are also recruited by political factions, various sects and nationalist movements to wage an internecine war inside the country. Boys as young as 14 have been victims of such conflicts in Pakistan. In sectarian conflicts, young boys are recruited to kill members of opposing groups.”

A survey from the Pakistan Paediatric Association in NWFP suggests that 203 children had been victims of landmines in Bajaur Agency. The survey found that landmines were the main cause of child deaths in the tribal belt along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border as they caused 56 percent of the deaths. The SPARC report noted with disappointment that landmine victims in the tribal areas had little access to medical or rehabilitative facilities. “The people in the tribal belt are little informed about the laws regarding the use, sale and trade of landmines. Reports suggest that landmines continue to be used to settle personal enmities,” it said.

About 1.2 million children between the ages of three and 18 are living in the streets of major cities in Pakistan, according to a survey conducted by the Centre of Research and Social Development. These children are the most defenceless and victims of brutal violence and sexual exploitation, abject neglect, chemical addiction and human rights violations, according to the survey.

The SPARC report alleged that 1.2 million poor and marginalised children were trafficked for various forms of child labour ranging from forced labour in hazardous conditions to sex exploitation. Trafficked children, both male and female, were used for prostitution, camel races, organ transplants, drug smuggling, begging, forced child marriages and other purposes, the report claimed.

Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_20-9-2004_pg7_24

NGOs: gladiators of freedom

Deprived of a childhood

20 September 2004

Working on the ground and in international campaigns, NGOs have managed to shed a glimmer of hope on the lives of hundreds of thousands of child slaves - Louise Corradini and Asbel López

At five in the morning, well before most children get up to go to school, 12-year-old Abula sets out on a six-kilometre barefoot trek along a road made of mud and stone to work on a coffee plantation in Bouafle, Côte d'Ivoire.

When he gets there, wet and tired, the foreman tells him where he is to plant that day. “You have to work fast because they threaten to punish and starve us if we don't do the set amount of work,” he says. “If we can't work because we're ill, we risk being physically tortured. One day I saw them torture two friends of mine who wanted to escape. Both of them ended up dead.”

Abula was rescued by Anti-Slavery International, which was founded in London in 1839 and proclaims itself the world's oldest NGO.

Along with other international organizations, such as the ILO, UNICEF and the European Union, NGOs have grown much more effective in their fight against child slavery and gone beyond simply trying to make governments and international bodies aware of its most extreme expression. Their most valuable work lies in rescuing and rehabilitating dozens of children suffering the cruellest forms of exploitation.

These NGOs work though close coordination between North and South. Those in the South gather evidence and testimonies, while those in the North publicize the issue and help organize international campaigns, the most striking of which was the Global March Against Child Labour in 1998, when groups set out from Asia, Latin America and Africa to assemble outside the ILO's headquarters in Geneva and denounce all exploitation of the world's children.

Anti-Slavery International is now pressing governments and political leaders to make the fight against child workers part of their political programmes. It maintains permanent contact with NGOs in the South and funds projects there to investigate the situation of child workers.

One such NGO is the Bangkok-based Child Workers in Asia (CWA), which recently highlighted the case of a child who was being atrociously exploited. Like Abula in Africa, 14-year-old Devi Lina Sari also rose before dawn to go to her job on a sugar plantation in Medan, Indonesia. “I set out at 6 a.m. every day except Sunday,” she says. “I start work at seven and finish at four in the afternoon, with an hour's break at midday.”

Like all children of her age, she'd like to play with her friends, but after cutting sugar-cane for eight hours she is too exhausted to do anything but rest. “If I cut myself with the machete, the boss pays for medicine but I have to reimburse him. If I'm ill and can't work, I don't get paid.”

When CWA identifies a child worker being exploited, one of its officials goes with a policeman and a social worker to rescue the child and return him or her to the parents (if the child has been taken away by force), or else hand him or her over to a rehabilitation centre or volunteer family if the youth has been sold as a slave. Children who have had the traumatic experience of slavery are rehabilitated over a period of three to six months.

The worst kind of child exploitation is sexual. Maria, a 12-year-old Honduran girl, was kidnapped in her country, sold in Guatemala and taken from there to Mexico, where she was bought by the owner of a bar who forced her to become a prostitute, servicing 20 men a day.

This tragic case was discovered by Casa Alianza, founded in Guatemala in 1981 and now the Latin American branch of Covenant House, a New York-based NGO. Casa Alianza started out by rehabilitating street children in Central America, but for the past four years it has focused on exposing the sexual and commercial trafficking and exploitation of children, which includes pornography, sexual tourism and child prostitution.

This is a massive task, but it has already proved effective: Costa Rica's special judge dealing with sex crimes acknowledges that two-thirds of the cases coming before him have been raised by Casa Alianza.

The journalists Louise Corradini from Argentina, and Asbel López , from Colombia, are with the Spanish-language broadcasting service of Radio France Internationale. Mr López has written many articles on information and communication technology topics.

The UNESCO Courier: June 2001

Source: http://www.mondialogo.org/mo/site/?key=-1.10.30.07

“Dear Labour Commissioner ...''

Do you see the children working on the road?

Friday , September 17, 2004

G.R. Vora

Mumbai, September 16:: This is to bring to the notice of the authorities concerned with the employment of five to 15-year-old children by various shopkeepers and others to hawk their goods or beg at traffic junctions. This is a serious matter as several issues are raised that affect the well-being of the child and society.

Often, it is found that children are made to beg or sell articles such as newspapers, drinking water bottles, flowers, foodstuff, car-cleaning cloth and brushes to motorists. This is encouragement to child labour. Children are used as they come cheap and don't demand much. Doesn't this violate the rules of the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act, 1986?

In addition to being a traffic hazard, it is observed that women go about begging at signals with a child in their arms to arouse sympathy and seek some loose change in the bargain.

This is an encouragement to poor couples to ‘rent' their infants for begging purposes. It is also an encouragement to child traffickers, as reported in the media some time ago. Children are kidnapped and maimed solely for the purpose of making them beg.

Thirdly, the brisk business these urchins do is an incentive for more and more kids to drop out from school. Thus, our support to these urchins and lack of penal action against them leads to a rise in their numbers.

It also creates more and more hawkers on our streets. Slumdwellers push their kids into hawking as they find it more profitable than spending on their education.

On one hand, we find the municipal corporation floundering over the issue of removal of unauthorised slums which have come up after 1995.

On the other, this begging and hawking by urchins encourages formation of more slums and hawkers on roadsides, highways and major junctions.

Keeping in view the rise in child labour and violation of the basic tenets of the Child Labour Act and the chain of detrimental effects the tolerance of begging and hawking at traffic junctions has on society, we urge the Labour Commissioner and other concerned authorities like the BMC and the police to take strict penal action against shopkeepers and others who employ streetkids to hawk at signals so that child labour and its consequences are curbed.

G R Vora Sion(East), Mumbai

Source: http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=99850

The Fizz Of Child Labour

Web Sep 16, 2004

In the guise of celebrating team spirit, the latest Pepsi advertisement on TV romanticises child labour and offers it celebrity endorsement. Perhaps the Advertising Standards Council of India needs to step in?

S. ANAND

In recent times, we have seen the Indian cricket team get into a huddle each time a bowler takes a wicket. This was interpreted to convey that a hitherto-unseen team spirit was suffusing the team; that the team had shed its brahminical aversion to physical contact between players (The Retreat of the Brahmin). But it may well be that this apparent display of team spirit has been entirely sponsored by an MNC that has signed on a majority of the team members.

Once the Indian huddle became a regularity, Pepsi was quick to issue an advertisement, where the second fall of the wicket, even before the real playing team huddles, a Pepsi-recorded image of a cluster of blue shirts is shown celebrating for a few seconds. It was almost like saying: this wicket was sponsored by Pepsi! And now, beginning with the Natwest series and carrying into the ICC Champions Trophy, we have this new advertisement.

A young boy carries eleven bottles of fizz in one hand and an old transistor-radio with another listening to the commentary. On the field, Irfan Pathan has taken a wicket, the huddle is on, as the muffled background commentary (in Hindi) talks of how this is the world-famous huddle, India's newfound team spirit. Cut to the boy, probably 9 or 10 years old, abandoning his radio, and making a dash through a secret tunnel…

It is not clear whether he is running through a sewer--with exhaust fans and pipes in the quick, underground shots--but he might well be. On the field, the huddled team begins to move in unison towards a point on the field as a woman spectator from the stadium points to the strange movement. From the middle of the huddle, as Sachin signals with a sly, shrill whistle, the boy emerges with eleven bottles of Pepsi to quench the team's thirst. The eleven players sip through extra-long straws.

At this point, Saurav asks the child, ‘Hey Hero, aur ek Pepsi milega?' (Remember, the punch-line is ‘Yeh pyaas hai badi'.) And the child, who always sports an expression of perpetual delight, shoots back: ‘Ek aur wicket milega?' The huddle crumbles and the players get back to the game, hopefully to get another Pepsi-driven wicket. The boy is sucked back into the manhole from which he emerged and is seen with his radio awaiting the fall of the next wicket.

This entire scenario, played out in about a minute, has several stories wrapped in it. If you are really generous, and immoral, you could say that it depicts the reality of child labour in India. The advertisement simply portrays a lived reality and there need not be any pointless moral indignation over it. Several model players like Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar are such good philanthropists anyway. Sachin has posed for photographs with CRY (Child Relief and You), which deals with issues of child labour. Most players make time to visit spastic children homes, HIV+ children, children with cancer, orphanages etc. The media promptly covers these moments. So the Indian team does have a conscience and indulges in occasional displays of social responsibility.

Given this, the Indian team and Pepsi, it may appear, do not directly contribute to the problem of child labour in India, which has an estimated 120 million working children. For that matter, how many times do journalists like yours truly refuse to drink a glass of tea served by a child labourer? In how many Chennai restaurants have I not eaten where the tables are cleaned by 9- and 10-year-olds? Have I picked quarrels each time, and have I been able to resolve the problem? If no, do I have the moral ground to point a finger at the Indian team and Pepsi? Since I have no easy answers, should I just sit back, ignore the offensive advertisement, and carry on with life? Will writing this piece make a difference?

The culpability of the Indian team in justifying and accepting child labour as a service has far greater implications than the action or inaction of an individual in everyday life. Pepsi, as an MNC brand, seems to acknowledge that part of its profits are made by young child workers who are robbed of school, play (perhaps cricket) and innocence in the process. By beaming this image onto the televisions of millions of middle-class and upper middle-class households, both Pepsi and members of the Indian cricket team are conveying the message that it's okay to be serviced by child labour.

That thousands of middle-class Indian homes employ child domestics and treat them inhumanely is a dirty little secret we all love to keep (A Few Blind Spots). This Pepsi advertisement assures these middle class families they are not doing anything wrong. It conveys the same message to privileged children in these families: it is alright for some children to sweat while others study. Most families get away with abuse because India has no law that makes employing child labour a punishable offence. The Child Labour (Regulation and Prohibition) Act, 1986, merely bans work by children below 14 in hazardous processes and industries like match factories, bidi-making units, carpet-making or cinder picking. According to Indian law, the labour that the nameless ‘Hero' of the Pepsi ad performs is non-hazardous and hence not illegal. This is similar to child labour in the hotel industry that has the sanction of law.

The Pepsi advertisement romanticises child labour and offers it celebrity endorsement. It justifies and encourages the use of child labour. Perhaps the Advertising Standards Council of India will see reason and urge the PepsiCo India to immediately withdraw the advertisement. Colas not only seem to have permitted levels of pesticides that could harm your body; their ads have permitted levels of irresponsibility that can harm the moral fabric of society.

Source: http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=
20040916&fname=anand&sid=1

Exploitation of tribal children continues

AJAZ AHMED

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2004 06:28:57 PM ]

DUMKA: The thirty-year-old infamous Chirudih massacre case, which recently got the media attention following the arrest of JMM supremo Shibu Soren, is said to be an outburst of the tribal community against Dikus (non-tribals), who had cheated them. Much has changed since then. Many movements were launched to protest exploitation by Dikus and many leaders emerged and rose to prominence at the national level also. However, tribal people, particularly in rural areas are still being exploited.

Recently, two tribal girls, Vimal Pujhar (13), daughter of Bhushan Pujhar, and Panu Besra (12), daughter of Perme Besra, both belonging to Jhajhapara village under Ranibahal panchayat were allegedly sold in Kanpur (UP).

These girls were missing since September 3. According to sources, they were on their way to school situated in Dumka. On the way, they were trapped by Pratima Pal, who sold them.

After being nabbed by the natives, Pal, who sells murhi in villages only to find soft targets, accepted that she along with her husband had sold both the girls for Rs 8,000 each, to a person who took them to Kanpur.

Four months earlier, one more girl, Nirashi Pujhar (16), daughter of Bhusan Pujhar, had also disappeared from the village. Police have arrested Pratima, but the missing girls are yet to be recovered and another accused Laxmi Kant is also absconding.

In another incident, on September 5, four tribal boys fled away from the institution where they came with the hope of getting free education, fooding and lodging. After being intercepted by natives of adjoining village, they alleged that instead of educating them, the organisation had engaged them as labourers in building construction.

On the basis of their complaint, the labour department has registered a case under Child Labour Prohibition Act 1986. Though the concerned organisation, 'The Peace Foundation' has denied the allegation of child abuse, the role of such organisations has now come under clout.

Many tribal children are being exploited sexually or physically. But neither the tribal leaders nor the government has ever taken the matter seriously. Two years ago, when an NGO claimed that hundreds of tribal children are working in the district as bonded labourers much hue and cry were raised.

"Though the figure given by the organisation may be exaggerated, the existence of bonded labour in the district could not be negated," clarified Nalini Kant, a social worker.

Zanzibaris cautioned of mushrooming child labour

16 Sep 2004

By Issa Yussuf, Zanzibar

Zanzibar has been cautioned to stand firm against child labour, or risk its pessimistic impact including commercial sex.

According to the ‘rapid assessment report', presented by the Zanzibar labour commissioner, Iddi Ramadhani Mapuri, at the two-day workshop last Monday, child labour in Zanzibar is becoming rampant, and that all institutions must work together in fighting the ill treatment of children.

Mapuri told workshop participants here including Journalists, district and regional executive officers from Pemba and Unguja regions, that the situation must be checked with immediate effect.

Giving their views, participants questioned the role of courts and police in the country, in taking action against people and more specifically parents who are involved in the open and secret child labour in the Isles.

The identified areas where child labour was deafening in the archipelago island include fishing, clove peaking, petty business, such as selling cakes, business at the port, house care and commercial sex in the tourism attractions areas.

It was said in the workshop that some children had left school because of their parent's laxity and some of them in Pemba and the mainland, under the age 18, were being locked up secretly in a number of Unguja Island homes to work for their masters for inefficient payment or “nil payment.”

Kiwengwa and Nungwi in the north of Zanzibar were cited to be leading tourists destinations practising widely commercial sex involving children under 18 years of age, most of them are alleged to be from the Mainland.

In his opening remarks, the Zanzibar principal secretary, ministry of Youths, Labour, Children and women development, Omar Dadi Shajaki, highlighted what he saw as deformity in the war against child labour. Saying people think Zanzibar is clean from child labour. Which was a wrong conception.

Shajak said: “Child labour exists in Zanzibar. People should be aware of that, and take all the necessary means to wipe out the unacceptable employment of children. Parents, journalists, government and NGOs should work hard to stop the malpractice. ”

It was time, he noted, that those charged with child labour re-assessed their move to ensure it was at unity with the society's need to burry the inhumanity against children.

However, the participants noted that lack of awareness, poverty, and delay in salary payments contributed to the increase of child labour.

“The international donors organizations and the Zanzibar government should find ways of reducing poverty as many children are forced to work to subsidise for their daily basic needs”, several participants observed.

In his closing remarks, Mapuri told the participants that his department would undertake a survey, to find out the “current” statistics and nature of child labour, in the less than one million population of Zanzibar.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) under the International Programme for Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) is struggling to put to an end child labour around the globe.

It is also pressing governments and NGOs in different countries to set laws and policies that fight child labour.

Source: http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2004/09/16/21407.html

Unicef, ILO call for ending worst forms of child labour

Thu. September 16, 2004

The Unicef and ILO have called on the government and the civil society to take effective action to end worst forms of child labour, says a press release.

The call came from a meeting to review the project 'Addressing Child Labour in the Bangladesh Garment Industry'. The meeting ended in Dhaka yesterday.

It looked at interventions and practices linked with the industry over a nine-year period from 1995.

Participants called for continued efforts to ensure that children are not engaged in hazardous employment, while at the same time not being thrown into a life that deprives them of their right to education and economic well-being.

"Getting children out of work is necessary but not sufficient to end worst forms of child labour. Alternatives must be put in place as they are removed from employment," said Louis-Georges Arsenault, deputy programme director of Unicef.

Eliminating the worst forms of child labour is a global priority under ILO's Convention 182, said Frans Roselaers, director, International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, ILO.

A synthesis paper based on assessments of programmes conducted over the nine years was presented at the symposium.

The meeting recommended that getting under-age children out of work and into school is the right strategy but safety nets should be in place prior to removing children from work to mitigate the negative welfare effects and ensure that children do not end up in even worse conditions.

It also called for a monitoring and verification system to keep workplaces free from child labour.

It also suggested introducing an effective birth registration system for proper targeting of underage children.

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/09/16/d40916060358.htm

Active participation of children in Rs. 14b UNICEF Action Plan - President

Thursday, 16 September 2004

by E. Weerapperuma

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga said her Government was comitted to do its utmost to create a world for children that would be fit to produce good and successful citizens of Sri Lanka.

Addressing Ministers, officials of the UNICEF, Save the Children, Sarvodaya and children present from all districts including the North and the East at the launching ceremony of the" National Action Plan for Children" at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, the President observed that children were committed and talented and would perform well if given the responsibility in implementing the National Plan of Action for the Children of Sri Lanka since they were consulted in preparing the NPA document.

"Going further we hope that we would be able to get the active participation of children "Our Future" in the implementation of the Plan, President Kumaratunga said.

In her address the President pointed out that the cost of the Four Year Action Plan beginning from 2004 to 2008 would cost around Rs.14 billion and said that her Government was able to contribute only 20 per cent of this sum for the moment adding that this would be raised with donor assistance.

She said children had no agendas and is of little ambition. "We hope the relevant Ministries, Provincial Councils and other donor agencies will make arrangements to bring children to act with us".

She recalled the May 2002 Special Session on Children in the United Nations and said that she was invited to address this session organised by the UNICEF where the heads of government present, committed themselves to prepare and implement "An Action Plan" to create a better world for children following the process outlined in the "World Fit For Children" document." My Government and I remain committed doing our best in Sri Lanka to create a world for children that will be fit to produce good and successful citizen for Sri Lanka", she added.

President Kumaratunga observed that Sri Lanka has a special problem concerning children. She said children suffered during the past 35 years and were the victims of the terrible violence. Children in different districts suffered differently and the violence witnessed today was perpetrated by youth against adults and it is committed against themselves as well. They have also become victims of drug and alcohol." We have no human resources sufficient to handle the situation.

These problems could reach crisis level unless we manage them. We are fully aware of this and we cannot solve it by ourselves. We need the continued support of our friends", the President said.

She also noted that the majority of our youth were below the age level of 35. " At one point our young population was 65 per cent but due to various reasons including birth control we have a lower level of the young population today and there is an increse in the number of the aged ".

Additional Director General/Department of National Budget B. Abeygunawardena giving the background to the preparation of the NAP for Children of Sri Lanka, said that the Government policy statement had given the highest priority for serving the children and the illiterate among the poorest of the poor.

He said that special attention would be given in the areas of education, health, nutrition, child labour, juvenile justice, water and sanitation and protecting the disadvantaged child.

UNICEF Representative in Sri Lanka Ted Chaiban said that Sri Lanka was one of the first countries to have spoken about the children at the UN special session 2000, and said that over 400 children took part in that session.

Three children on behalf of the child population of Sri Lanka spoke in appreciation of the opportunity they got to express their views in the preparation of the Action Plan.

Source: http://www.dailynews.lk/2004/09/16/pol01.html

President to launch National Plan of Action for Children

Wednesday, 15 September 2004

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga will launch the Government's National Plan of Action for Children today, states a press release from the Presidential Media Unit.

A National Plan of Action (NPA) was developed by the Planning Department of the Ministry of Finance with UNICEF assistance and will enhance its programs and services for Sri Lankan children over the next five years.

The NPA is designed to help meet goals for children set by Governments from around the world at the UN Special Session for Children.

In May 2002 at the UN's Special Session for Children in New York, President Kumaratunga and other World Leaders, made a commitment to create a world fit for children and to develop a National Plan of Action. Sri Lanka is one of the first countries to develop its NPA, highlighting the Government's concern and commitment to children's rights.

In her address at the UN's special session for Children, President Kumaratunga said: "Children are Sri Lanka's greatest asset, and as such it is up to all of us to invest in our children to ensure a brighter future for our country."

The Sri Lankan Government has concentrated its efforts for children in areas such as health, nutrition, education, child protection, water and sanitation, child labour and juvenile justice.

The NPA will form the key policy and operational document for fulfilling these goals for children in Sri Lanka.

As a strategy benefiting children, the Sri Lankan Government worked with UNICEF and other partners to ensure that children had an opportunity to help formulate priorities, review the NPA, and provide feedback to make sure the Plan was truly designed to meet the needs of the country's children.

Children will also be involved in monitoring the progress of NPA activities.

The Government plans to invest Rs. 14.2 billion in children's programs and services over the next five years with support from international partners.

Source: http://www.dailynews.lk/2004/09/15/new02.html

‘Govt failing to control child labour'

11 th September 2004

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The government has been unable to remove child labourers from hazardous and exploitative situations, according to a research report compiled by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), a non-government organisation.

“Four years have already passed and not a single step has been taken so far to get children withdrawn from the worst forms of child labour,” says the report titled the ‘State of children in Pakistan'.

On May 10, 2000, the federal cabinet approved the National Policy and Action Plan to combat child labour in all economic sectors of Pakistan. The draft of the action plan was submitted to the cabinet on January 24, 2000. When approving the plan, the government set a deadline of five years to withdraw children from hazardous and exploitative situations, but the report said the government had failed to make any progress in this respect. “This is despite Pakistan's signing and ratifying the ILO (International Labour Organisation) Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (No 182) on August 17, 2001,” the report added.

It quoted an ILO-sponsored survey of 1996, according to which there were 3.3 million child labourers in Pakistan between the ages of 5 and 14. “The fact that they are not going to school is alarming. Whether or not they are working, Pakistan cannot progress unless all its children of school-going age are attending school,” it said. “With a gross enrolment of 74 percent at the primary school level and a steep decline thereafter, the majority of Pakistan's 46 million children between the ages of 5 and 18 are not attending schools, making them potential child labourers,” it added.

It observed that the widespread societal acceptance of child labour has obscured the fact that it is exploitative and that many forms place the child's health and development in jeopardy.

Child labour survives in Pakistan in innumerable occupations and patterns. Children work primarily in the informal sector in small workshops, home-based operations and casual mining. The report stated that almost all child labour prevention activities in the country are being funded by foreign donors, with the ILO supporting the majority of them. “The only significant government initiative relating to child labour is the establishment of 33 schools throughout the country for the rehabilitation of child labourers and supported by the Pakistan Baitul Maal,” it said.

Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-9-2004_pg7_