Jana Suckow, Daniela Klaus VALUE OF CHILDREN IN SIX CULTURES Pp. 244-245 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SYMPOZIUM ORGANISED BY FACULTY OF SOCIAL STUDIES MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO (19-21 SEPT. 2002) 1) Psychological-emotional value of children 2) Economic-utilitarian value of children 3) Social-normative value of children. Psychological-emotional reasons for getting children are for instance; 'to have someone to love and care for', 'because of the pleasure you get from watching children grow' and 'because it's fun to have young children around the house'. Statements such as 'because a child helps around the house', 'to have one more person to help the family economically' or 'children can help when you're old' illustrate the economic-utilitarian dimension. The dimension of social-normative value of children is expressed by items such as 'to carry on the family name' or 'because parenthood improves your standing and betters your reputation among your kin'.

The decision for or against children is embedded in different context levels. Certain institutional conditions, the structures of opportunity, the relational and social network and the individual characteristics of the (potential) parents determine the value of children for the parents. For instance in countries with institutional alternatives for covering the risks of life like illness and unemployment, such as Germany and Israel, regarding this intergenerational relations are not that important. So the economic dimension of value of children is not the most important there.

Journal of Social Development in Africa (1999) 14, 2,109-118 Child Abuse and Child Labour Across Culture: Implications for Research, Prevention and Policy Implementation
CHRIS A IKE & KWAKU lWUMASI-ANKRAH

It is argued that for the definition of child abuse and child labour to be meaningful, the definition should be culturally relevant.

It has many deleterious consequences for most of the children. Recommendations for the prevention of child labour syndrome are summarised in terms of action research, education and public enlightenment, legislative measures, structural adjustment, and adjustment in value orientations that generate poverty and promote merchandisation and exploitation of.children.

In the African traditional value system, a child is the most treasured object and constitutes the focal point in life. Some people view life without a child as meaningless, and to this effect somehow something must be done to have a child, even ifit means increasing the number of wives one has or consulting traditional healers to facilitate the process of getting a child.

This remark credited to Onyango was made at the time of her appointment as the Interim Chair of the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN); (Diaz, 1986). In the same token, a previous Deputy Direttor of the World Health Organisation, Lambo (1982), at a meeting of mental health practitioners, described the African child as the child who finds himself or herselfheing born in a very welcoming and accepting culture. Everybody is ready for his or her arrival and his or her basic needs are even met before it happens.

The above observations translate into a paradox, especially to non-Africans and proponents of the movement against child abuse, to the effect that the same child whose arrival is often celebrated with passion eventually becomes an object of abuse and neglect, exploitation, war, and poverty, in the very hands of the same culture that gave birth to it It seems highly probable that children in many parts of the world are experiencing similar social problems. However, the problems may vary according to geographic regions and the nature of society in which the child resides. The world's attention is now being directed toward the identification and elimination of all kinds of child abuse.

A particular reference is made to the landmark study credited to Kemp and his colleagues. In 1962 the late Professor C Henry Kemp, a paediatrician, and his colleagues published a paper entitled 'The Battered Child Syndrome" - a term "...tocharacterisea clinical condition inyoung children who havereceived serious physical abuse. generally from a parent orfoster parent" (Kemp, et aI, 1962).
This paper by Kemp and his associates was revolutionary because physicians had great difficulty in believing that parents could have attacked their children and they attempted to obliterate such beliefs from their minds, even in the face of obvious circumstantial evidence.

Nigeria appears to have acquired a reputation for human abuse problems, involving unethical and exploitative attitudes toward working children. Evidence from recent studies shows that the abuse on children by way of child labour has reached an astronomi- cal proportion since the last two decades (Amatu, 1981; Ekwe, 1986; Obikeze, 1986; Onwuzuirke, 1986; Akanne, 1986).

Child abuse There are obvious issues regarding the definitions of both child abuse and child labour which deserve to be discussed. The varying expectations and goals of childrearing, which different cultures have for their children, underscore the observation that the definition of child abuse can be a complicated exercise. Complications in definition tend to arise when one approaches the definition from one-dimensional or one cultural viewpoint, without giving much consideration to the multicultural or multiracial realities in the meanings attached to the various approaches to child upbringing. As posed by Onwuzurike (1986), "Is child abuse a cultural norm or misapplied term?" If it is a norm, one would expect that the definitional standards applicable to the concepts should reflect the standards and values applicable to a given culture. Otherwise, the definer should strive to avoid a global or non-culture relevant definition.

The implication is that different cultures interpret child abuse in different ways. Thus, lack of appreciation of the cultural differences in the meaning, incidence, and character of child abuse reinforces the lingering contro- versy regarding the definition of the construct.

Child- hood is the period of personality formation. The physical and emotional stress of work, combined with the denial of opportunities to play or interact fully socially with peers and to explore the world, could doom a child to a personality and behavioural maladjustment. Furthermore, emotional abuse and neglect, separation from family, monotony, and the burdens of premature responsibility, will most likely have some permanent adverse impact on the working child.

Recommendations
Recommendations for policy implementation are suggested in the following important areas: research, public enlightenment campaign, professional organisa- tions, compulsory free primary education, change in social structures, children advocacy centre, legislative measures and law enforcement.

Compulsory Free Primary Education
To eradicate the widespread forms of child labour would require a strong govern- ment measure involving a compulsory, free primary education for all children. Of particular importance is the education of rural mothers and girls which, as reported by Ike & Twumasi-Ankrah (1996), is in a very deplorable state. Of no less importance, is the need for vocational training for the youth. It is expected that formal education and vocational training will not only equip individuals with the necessary skills for personal growth and group survival, but will also eliminate maternal dependence on children for economic survival of the family.

Conclusion
In articulating the issues regarding child abuse and the related exploitative child labour, experts must fight shy of the obsession of global definition of the issue. The definition of child labour or child abuse should be operationalised to reflect the cultural diversity and cultural meanings of the concepts. Child labour is practised in many countries in different ways. It appears to be even practised in greater frequency in Africa and many developing societies. Its impact takes a toll on the mental and physical hcalth of all children involved. The socioeconomic structure of society that creates poverty, coupled with ignorance and lack of education on the part of parents, appears to be the factor that causes the greatest harm on children. The Government is called upon for quick response to the problem of child labour by promulgating laws that define the kind of work children should be expected to perform that would not conflict with school time. Any such policy should specify the maximum duration of child work, and the means of direct reward to the child. Finally, if child labour should prevail, its primary purpose should be for the physical, psychological, social and economic enhancement of the child's w~ll- being, ratherthan for the sel fish interest of the exploiters and perpetrators of child labour.

Children work for a variety of reasons, the most important being poverty and the induced pressure upon them to escape from this plight.

Africa Region Human Development Working Paper Series

Issues in Child Labor in Africa

Jens Chr. Andvig
Sudharshan Canagarajah
Anne Kielland

© September 2001
Human Development Sector
Africa Region
The World Bank

Child labor issue wis pivotal in the fight against poverty and destitution. While it is obvious that going to school may make many children unhappier than most normal work ex- periences might, it is equally obvious that attending school is a precondition for preparing children for working and living in a modern, market economy.
—a transformation that is desirable or at least unavoidable. Most Africans, and their governments, accept and desire the transformation. As Basu (1999) states it, sending their chil- dren into the labor force is the family’s last income- earning resort. As soon as income increases, the chil- dren are withdrawn from the labor force.

It is argued that Child labour in Africa is not mostly as a result of poverty, considering the fact that most African child labor is not wage labor, but labor performed in the household.

Compared with other continents, African countries are more rural, and still dominated by household pro- duction, not large land holdings combined with labor markets. All factors cause high child participation rates.

The high birth rate is another influencing factor at the macro level. It is well documented in micro-oriented studies of single communities that older children, pri- marily girls, do a large share of infant and toddler childcare. Reynolds (1991) observed in her village that, while women spent 20 percent of their waking hours caring for infants and small children, girls in the 4–8 age group spent 56 percent of their time this way.

Slow changes in norms, in the educational system, and in technology, together with changes in the economic structure, will influence both the nature of the work performed and the par- ticipation rates.

Child labor defined and classified
Most child labor in Africa takes place at home. Some labor might be harmful, while other kinds of labor are either harmless or develop skills. Furthermore, the health and the nutritional status of the individual child greatly affect to what degree the same labor is harm- ful or helpful.
We cannot expect to find an easy, operational way to divide child labor into “good” and “bad.”

The following gives a general economic definition of child labor: By child labor we mean labor performed by chil- dren believed to be too young, meaning that by doing so they unduly reduce their present eco- nomic welfare or their future income earning ca- pabilities, either by shrinking their future exter- nal choice sets or by reducing their own future, individual productive capabilities.
By child work, we mean work performed by children under fifteen years of age. Child work is simply a descriptive term in which we assume nothing about welfare consequences.
Necessary question to be considered concerning child labour
To keep the child welfare perspective within a house- hold setting, we believe it more productive to describe child labor in terms of questions raised by the decision-making structure: Who decides if the children are going to work? Who organizes and monitors the labor? What is the motivation of the children and guard- ians? Which type of information about the labor and its consequences do the decision-makers possess?

When a child decides to work, three possibilities exist: (i) The parents have forced the child to become a decision-maker through expulsion or harassment; (ii) the child has run away of his own accord; or (iii) the child has started to work as a child laborer by mutual consent.

By housework we mean labor performed in the children´s residence, either in the parents home or in the home of close relatives.

One of the important characteristics of a family as an economic system is that emotions and economic activities interact. For any given child involved in housework, the family atmosphere will be important, particularly for the long-term psychological effects of the child’s work for the family.

Children, as a workforce, have few op- portunities to move out of exploitative households.

Compared with a nuclear family, most traditional African family systems seem to give children a larger scope for leaving their original households if dissatisfied, and there is greater social acceptance of the guardians sending their children away for practical or disciplinary reasons.

Rural school children tend to combine schoolwork and work, but the patterns vary.

Among urban children, there is a much stronger division between those who work and those who study. School children work much less than other children. Children who work in the urban households are often poor, rural relatives who have been placed there to cover the domestic child labor demand left when the urban family sends their own children to school.

It is unknown how many children are overworked in their guardians’ homes and farmlands.

To date, no statistical studies highlight the distribu- tion of the children’s labor burden inside the villages and families.

The Lloyd and Brandon (1994: 303) study of fertility and schooling in Ghana shows that each additional younger sibling sig- nificantly increases the probability that an elder girl will drop out of school; this is not the case for boys.

The children may, in one sense or another, work too much or too hard at too early an age in their guardians’ households. Their labor might be performed in an atmosphere detrimental to their fur- ther development. While it is wrong to interpret this situation through Western eyes, it is indicative that corporal punishment performed by the women is often used to make the children work in this environment. From the point of view of traditional welfare eco- nomics, it is difficult to see that child labor of this kind implies any serious welfare issue. When children work more in Africa than elsewhere, it is likely to reflect the decisions of altruistic household heads. Children are within the guardians’ control for a limited period of their economic life, while the eventual negative effects on the children’s future productivity of non-schooling will become the burden of the chil- dren themselves. The guardians may not be fully informed about the negative consequences of children’s work on schooling. They may also underestimate the future advantages of education. Children’s work in the household sector, whether harmful or not, is not always caused by poverty alone, even at the individual level. Sometimes it is as a result of the recklessness of the guardian – either through alchoholism or misappropriation of resources, or through disorganization and mismanagement. The land size of the household also contribute to child labour especially in the absence of mechanized farming materials. Child migration data from Igbo land indicate that the relative welfare level of the household may be less important than the general wealth of the village.

The welfare economics of children’s exit from home
For various reasons, many children are sent away from their parents or guardians and have to survive on their own.

In Nigeria, a classic case is the phenomenon of Almajiri. “Almajiri” is a word borrowed from Arabic for someone who leaves his home in search of knowledge in Islamic religion. In the ideal situation, the communities should support these children as they leave their families to become a servant of Allah.
Unfortunately this has not been the case as many young boys leave their homes only to end up in the streets begging. The phenomenon itself has become a veritable avenue for the mass productions of miscreants, thugs and vagabonds.

Given the resource constraints, are there reasons to believe that children leave their homes earlier than what would be the socially optimal situation, and does this result in a socially excessive supply of child labor directed at non-home environments?

When the job prospects for children are good, the children’s incentives for leaving are stronger than the guardians’ incentives for pushing.

The traditional outlet for such children was the extended family—but the ex- tended family’s willingness to absorb children is de- clining in many areas of Africa.

If the guardians believe that working conditions, including the prospects for school- ing, are better than they are, or the harmful effects on health less, they may send the child away prematurely.

The child himself may underestimate the negative ef- fects of reduced schooling and overestimate the em- ployment prospects or the joys of moving away from home.

Decisions of sending a child to work are often made based on false assumptions and expectations of higher than realistic economic efficiency.

Some children do not have a choice. Among chil- dren who have been made orphans, for example by AIDS, a large group of children have to shoulder the responsibility for their own economic survival.
Traditionally, the African extended family systems have been able to absorb such children.

In the areas where this system is weakened, the traditional excess demand for children has been changed into excess supply, caus- ing an increase in the children’s own supply of labor. The level of demand determines whether this situa- tion, in fact, causes more child labor.

--------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. Drs Ike & Twumasi-Ankrah, Psychology Program, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Fayetteville State University, 1200 Murchison Road, Newbold Station, Fayetteville, North Carolina 28301-4298, Fax: (910) 486-1378;Emai1: Ike@ch1.uncfsu.edu
[ 2 ]. J. Chr. Andvig, S. Canagarajah, A. Kielland, Issues in Child Labor in Africa, p. 1
[ 3 ]. Kielland (2000, unpublished). Background paper for World Bank social sector report on Benin, analysis based on UNDP data from the Enquête Emploi du Temps au Benin 1998.