Dear friends Twelfth June was No Child Labor Day. ILO mentions that work that does not interfere with education (light work) is permitted from the age of 12 years under the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 138. Child Labor is more narrowly defined and refers to children working in contravention of the above standards. This means all children below 12 years of age working in any economic activities, those aged 12 to 14 years engaged in harmful work, and all children engaged in the worst forms of child labor. Worst forms of child labor include those children being enslaved, forcibly recruited, prostituted, trafficked, forced into illegal activities and exposed to hazardous work (http://www.un.org/works/goingon/labor/lessonplan_labor.html). It is time to ask why economic growth and development is going hand in hand with child labor (estimated at 215 million children by ILO-http://www.un.org/en/events/childlabourday/) and worst forms listed above. I received this communication on 12th, and did not open
Perhaps adopting the Pedagogy of Oppressed (Paulo Freire) it would be good to ask children above 12 years and their parents engaged in worst forms what should be done by developed countries, growing middle income countries (including transition ones from communism to market based ones) and low income countries to set right this reality for this generation and coming ones. Specifically what should be done at inter-state level, national level, market level (local to MNCs), community level, religious institution level and household and marriage level. Justice, peace and sustainable living and development is the need of the hour. It is sad that this is elusive for 215 million children as per official records, and perhaps more unofficially. Returning from Sri Lanka photos shown haunt me. I have found a platform for doing this in India, but would like to explore at south asia/Asian level. Any takers? Ranjani -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
