Child Labour, unsolvable?
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines “Child Labour” as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development”. It refers to work that is physically, morally and mentally dangerous for a child to engage in while also often depriving them of some of their basic human rights such as a right to an education. The types of work children are engaging in varies, from children working on a family farm or in the home to situations involving children working in hazardous environments such as manufacturing plants in Asia or mining and quarrying operations in Brazil and Colombia. However there is also a darker side to the child labour problem where many children are forced to engage in activities such as armed conflict, drug trafficking, prostitution and even slavery.
It is important to note that child labour is not a thing of the past. It is still a huge problem worldwide. The ILO estimated that in the year 2000 there were as many as 246 million children worldwide engaged in some form of child labour with almost three quarters of these children engaged in the worst forms of child labour such as trafficking and prostitution. As of the year 2012 the worldwide figure has since fallen to approximately 168 million, a huge decrease in the number of children engaged in child labour. Most of these children live within the South East Asia and Pacific region where many children still work on family farms or in manufacturing plants. While a lot has been done to combat the problem of child labour, there is still much more to do with the ILO and various other worldwide organisations such as UNICEF doing everything that they can to eradicate child labour once and for all.
This brings us to the main point of this essay, is child labour solvable? To fully understand the problem we must first look at the causes of child labour worldwide. If it were simply as case of banning the use of child labour then it would have disappeared a long time ago. There are various causes of child labour including limited access to education, repression of workers’ rights and more significantly, poverty.
Poverty has often been seen as the main driving force behind child labour and we can see this in many developing countries. Parents see children as a safety net for when they get too old to look after themselves. They have many children with the hope that at least one of their children will be able to look after them in their old age. This in turn causes a greater household need for essential items such as food, clothing and clean water. Many families in these countries rely on the income generated by their children for survival, so child labour is often highly valued. Additionally, employers in these countries often prefer to employ children because they are cheaper and considered to be more compliant and obedient than adults. This situation is not helped when certain countries make poor governmental decisions such as leaving exemptions in their national laws which legally allow children to be engaged in full time work. For example in Nepal the minimum age is 14 for most forms of work however plantations and brick kilns are exempt from this requirement. Due to this exemption most people could be forgiven for thinking that plantations and brick kilns are generally safe places for children to work. However in a 2008 study by Kathmandu University it was found that brick kilns produce a significant amount of air pollution, especially in the areas immediately surrounding the kiln. The study found that many adults and children exposed to this air pollution had developed respiratory problems like tonsillitis and acute pharyngitis. Similar situations have also been seen in countries like Bangladesh where, until the Labour Act was introduced in 2006, the law only specified a minimum age for work but set no regulations on domestic work or agricultural work. This allowed young children to legally work full time on the family farm or in the home in so called “cottage industries”.
To combat the problem of child labour many international organisations, particularly the ILO have taken steps to eliminate the problem. An example of such a step is the ILO Convention No.138 on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and Work. At the time of its conception this convention was seen as being one of the most effective measures of ensuring that young children do not start working until they come of an acceptable age. As of January 2014, 185 of the 193 Member States of the United Nations are members of the ILO. Members are encouraged to ratify these conventions or else bring their national laws up to a standard similar to that set out in the convention.
Convention No.138 sets the age at which children can legally be employed or otherwise work. It sets the minimum age of basic work at 15 in developed countries and 14 in developing countries, generally seen as the age the child finishes their compulsory education. It also set the minimum age of engagement in hazardous work to 18, regardless of geographical location. It is important to note that an exception of a year or two is made for basic work in developing countries as the ILO recognises the need in these countries for children to start supporting their families at an earlier age. Unfortunately however many reports have criticised the usefulness of this convention after a study by the academic Bernhard Boockmann in which it was shown that there has been little or no change in the rate of child labour between the year of the conventions enactment in 1976 and the year 1990. Boockmann realised that he would not get a full picture of the problem by only looking at one set of data as aggregate data may be too irregular to reflect the true impact of ratification, so he uses individual-level data to obtain an alternative view of the conventions impact. He found, using both types of data, that the convention had little to no effect in most countries. A significant effect was found in only one of them ,Nepal. In this country, however, other policies had been in place that may have influenced school attendance in the age groups covered. At this point in time, it looked as if the problem of child labour may very well have been unsolvable.
The ILO saw that it was necessary to strengthen the existing conventions on child labour and in 1999 they introduced ILO Convention No.182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. This convention’s aim was to focus on the urgency of action to eliminate the worst forms of child labour as the worldwide priority, while also keeping the original goal of the effective elimination of all child labour. It was after this convention that the world started to see a rapid decline in the use of child labour as the aforementioned figures showing a drop of one third in the number of children engaged in forms of child labour between the years 2000 and 2012. It is likely that many factors were instrumental in the decline of child labour but it is generally regarded that the ILO’s conventions and accompanying recommendations largely contributed to the decrease in the numbers of children engaged in child labour during these years.
The ILO has also set up various bodies to combat the problem of child labour, the most famous of these is the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) which was created in 1992 with the goal of the progressive elimination of child labour, which was to be achieved through strengthening the capacity of countries to deal with the problem and promoting a worldwide movement to combat child labour. IPEC currently has operations in 88 countries and it is the largest programme of its kind globally and the biggest single operational programme of the ILO. The programme uses various methods to combat child labour including child labour monitoring, time bound programmes and even promoting the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to large companies. IPEC’s promotion of CSR has had such a large impact that huge multinational companies like Coca-Cola now inspect their entire supply chain to ensure that there is no child labour involved at any point in the chain. The most effective way to ending this trend is to name and shame these companies and force them to eradicate child labour from their supply chains. This method has been proven to work in the past when concerning factory working conditions for Apple. While this case did not involve child labour, it serves as the perfect example of how the media and the public can force companies to act in a fair and ethical manner. Methods like these have proven to be an effective way of combating child labour and show us that it is possible to solve this problem.
As we can see from past efforts, child labour can be hugely impacted by the efforts of worldwide organisations, we have already managed to cut it by a third in a twelve year period. We must now look to the future and think of ways to eliminate the remaining instances of child labour worldwide. One proposed action would be for countries to raise the minimum wage of adult workers, the theory being that if the adult is able to make a reasonable living from their own wages then they will not need to rely on their children to put food on the table. This is the theory put forward by the academic Kaushik Basu and he notes that in some circumstances this may cause a drop in the incidence of child labour. But the analysis can get complicated if the increase in wage causes adult unemployment to increase. This is because in most developing countries unemployment benefits are non-existent, so it is likely that adults who are unemployed will send their children to work. Employers may not be able to comply with an increase in the minimum wage for adults and so may turn even more towards utilising cheap child labour. So an increase in the minimum wage could possibly result in a higher supply of child labour and even greater levels of adult unemployment. This theory shows just how challenging it will be to solve the problem of child labour when some theoretical benefits could actually further intensify the problem.
Another interesting theory is to use trade as a weapon against child labour. This theory was put forward by the academic Vitit Muntarbhorn in 1998. His theory is that the importing countries can put a stop to child labour by imposing conditions on exporting countries to fulfil their criteria regarding their labour situation. If the labour situation in the exporting country is found to be of sub-standard quality then the importing countries can apply leverage, through the use of sanctions, perhaps restricting market access to the exporting countries until they comply with the importers criteria. If this approach was taken, it could help to significantly reduce child labour by forcing the exporting countries to actively tackle the problem themselves as well as adding more credibility to the export market.
This approach of using trade as a weapon is also favoured by the Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA). APHEDA promote the idea of countries pushing for a set of rules stipulating the minimum labour standards to be included in the rules of world trade as enforced by the World Trade Organisation. Including core labour standards would reinforce several key ILO Conventions such as the right for workers to join a trade union and bargain collectively, and the banning of child labour. This approach would not only ban child labour but would also increase adult worker’s rights in the affected countries, perhaps allowing them to improve their working conditions and earn a better wage, thereby reducing the need for child labour to support families. This approach, if successful, would help to dramatically reduce child labour by combating the problem on two significant fronts.
Another approach put forward by organisations such as APHEDA and Concern is to improve the education systems in countries affected by child labour. Pressure must be put on these governments to make primary education free, compulsory, well-resourced and relevant. It is much easier to monitor school attendance that to inspect factories and workshops. Not only would this give children a good grounding in life but if would also make it easier to prevent them from engaging in child labour as attendance would be monitored. Such a measure would cost a substantial amount of money but this could be acquired with the help of such organisations as Jubilee Australia. They put forward the idea that third world debts should be redirected into spending on local health and education rather than to Western bankers. While this approach would need the compliance of many developed countries it could effectively reduce the amount of children engaged in child labour by making universal primary education a reality.
In conclusion I believe that child labour is not unsolvable, it can be solved. This belief is also shared with many organisations worldwide and even by looking at the figures between the years 2000–2012 we can see a huge decrease. This decrease is hopefully the beginning of a trend which will continue and lead to the overall elimination of child labour. It will be very hard, but it can be done. As we can see from the several aforementioned examples, we have several promising approaches to choose from. However for this to become a reality it is obvious that many developed countries will need to work together and support the many initiatives seeking to end the problem once and for all.

Bibliography 1. “What is child labour?” (2013) http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/lang--en/index.htm Accessed at: 7/1/2014 2. “Child Labour – Facts and Figures” (2013) http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/child-labour/lang--en/index.htm#a1 Accessed at: 7/1/2014 3. “Child Labour Public Education Project” (2014) http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/causes.html Accessed at: 7/1/2014 4. Joshi SK, “Environmental Health Effects of Brick Kilns in Kathmandu Valley” (2008) http://www.academia.edu/183945/Environmental_health_effects_of_brick_kilns_in_Kathmandu_valley Accessed at: 10/1/2014 5. The Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 6. C138 Minimum Age Convention , 1973 7. “Alphabetical List of ILO Member Countries” (2014) http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/country.htm Accessed at: 12/1/2014 8. Boockmann B, “The Effect of ILO Minimum Age Conventions on Child Labour and School Attendance” (2004) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=570543 Accessed at: 12/1/2014 9. C182 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 10. “About the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour” (2014) http://www.ilo.org/ipec/programme/lang--en/index.htm Accessed at: 20/1/2014 11. Garside J, “Worker’s rights flouted at Apple iPhone factory in China” (2013) http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/05/workers-rights-flouted-apple-iphone-plant Accessed at: 20/1/2014 12. Basu K, “The Intriguing Relation Between Adult Minimum Wage And Child Labour” (2000) http://www.jstor.org/stable/2565722 Accessed at: 20/1/2014 13. Mutarbhorn V, “Child rights and social clauses : Child Labour elimination as a social cause” (1998) http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?page=255&handle=hein.journals%2Fintjchrb6&collection=journals#267 Accessed at: 10/2/2014 14. “What can be done about child labour?” (2013) http://www.apheda.org.au/campaigns/child_labour/resources/1071218961_8072.html Accessed at: 16/2/2014 15. “What We Do” (2013) http://www.jubileeaustralia.org/page/work Accessed at: 18/2/2014

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[ 1 ]. “What is child labour?” (2013) http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/lang--en/index.htm Accessed at: 7/1/2014
[ 2 ]. “Child Labour – Facts and Figures” (2013) http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/child-labour/lang--en/index.htm#a1 Accessed at: 7/1/2014
[ 3 ]. “Child Labour Public Education Project” (2014) http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/causes.html Accessed at: 7/1/2014
[ 4 ]. Dr. Sunil Kumar Joshi, “Environmental Health Effects of Brick Kilns in Kathmandu Valley” (2008) http://www.academia.edu/183945/Environmental_health_effects_of_brick_kilns_in_Kathmandu_valley Accessed at: 10/1/2014
[ 5 ]. The Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006
[ 6 ]. C138 Minimum Age Convention , 1973
[ 7 ]. “Alphabetical List of ILO Member Countries” (2014) http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/country.htm Accessed at: 12/1/2014
[ 8 ]. Bernard Boockmann, “The Effect of ILO Minimum Age Conventions on Child Labour and School Attendance” (2004) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=570543 Accessed at: 12/1/2014
[ 9 ]. C182 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999
[ 10 ]. “About the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour” (2014) http://www.ilo.org/ipec/programme/lang--en/index.htm Accessed at: 20/1/2014
[ 11 ]. Jane Garside, “Worker’s rights flouted at Apple iPhone factory in China” (2013) http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/05/workers-rights-flouted-apple-iphone-plant Accessed at: 20/1/2014
[ 12 ]. Kaushik Basu, “The Intriguing Relation Between Adult Minimum Wage And Child Labour” (2000) http://www.jstor.org/stable/2565722 Accessed at: 20/1/2014
[ 13 ]. Vitit Mutarbhorn, “Child rights and social clauses : Child Labour elimination as a social cause” (1998) http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?page=255&handle=hein.journals%2Fintjchrb6&collection=journals#267 Accessed at: 10/2/2014
[ 14 ]. “What can be done about child labour?” (2013) http://www.apheda.org.au/campaigns/child_labour/resources/1071218961_8072.html Accessed at: 16/2/2014
[ 15 ]. “What We Do” (2013) http://www.jubileeaustralia.org/page/work Accessed at: 18/2/2014