Mine
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http://mail.jmcc.org/media/reportonline/report.html
Palestine Report
Children of a lesser God Published September 27, Vol. 7, No. 15
CHILD LABOR by Alessandra
Antonelli
TWO CHILDREN stand at Al Ram Junction, north of Jerusalem, chatting loudly to one another. About what - their homework? The next soccer match? Their favorite cartoon? What do eight to10-year-old children talk about while waiting for a traffic light to turn red?
The cars stop and both children move forward with alacrity. But they are not rushing to school. They quickly weave amongst the cars pushing tissue boxes and chewing gum packets beneath drivers' noses. "How much is it?" I ask in broken Arabic. "Two shekels" answers the child.
I am glad he understands me. "What's your name?" I ask while pretending to search for change in my purse. "Two shekels," the kid repeats. "What's your name?" I ask again. "Two shekels," insists the child who is persistently looking elsewhere. I'm not sure if he doesn't want to talk to me or if he simply is not interested in any conversation besides the price of the merchandise he is offering.
But there is no time for further questions. The traffic light has turned green and the cars continue along to their morning destinations, while the two children go back to the sidewalk and resume their discussion from the point they left off.
I neither succeeded in learning their names nor in knowing the reason why they were selling merchandise on a busy main road instead of being at school.
This is just one story of the 34,000 Palestinian children who prepare for work every morning instead of preparing for school. These alarming figures provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics' Annual Report (1999) on the welfare Palestinian children, dealt with children from five to 17 years of age.
The report sets the percentage of working children at 6.3 percent, though the survey acknowledges its own shortcomings as it is unable to monitor children who work in family businesses or in informal activities such as taking care of younger siblings or helping about the house. For similar reasons, the profile of specifically female child labor statistics is difficult to determine.
The map of child labor drawn by the Palestinian section of Defense for Children International ([DCI], a non governmental organization active in documenting and advocating children's rights), shows that the primary reason which forces children into the labor market at an early age is the precarious economic condition of the Palestinian Territories.
A 1997 DCI study found that 90.4 percent of child laborers come from families which total seven or more members. 45.2 of parents of these families have education levels between one and six years. Furthermore in the majority of the cases, the house where they live is overcrowded and rented. Eighty-seven percent of working children did not end up finishing the 9th grade.
A UNICEF study on "Child Labor in the West Bank and Gaza" reveled that 52 percent of working children enter the market under direct demand of their families and that in 35 percent of the cases, the fathers choose the jobs for their children.
Working children are not generally perceived as something unusual in Palestinian society. Harsh economic conditions, poor education levels and strong cultural traditions transform the child who leaves school to go to work to help his family, into a little hero -- a mature little man that knows how to contribute to the well-being of his siblings.
"For many families there is no other choice. The father is either dead, an invalid or jailed and the family's survival is necessary to send children to work," explained Riad Harar, social programs coordinator at DCI.
It is however a pittance of economic support. According to PCBS the average daily wage for these children is US$8. Paid sick leaves and holidays is a luxury granted to 15 percent of working children while merely one percent are requested any medical check up.
Children are a good business for employers. "Employers have many advantages in employing a child: lower wages and in most cases, a lack of awareness of their basic rights," explains George Abu Zuluf, executive director of DCI.
Particular cases of indigence, age and ignorance of existing human and labor rights make children extremely vulnerable and easily exploitable. Old and inadequate labor laws do not help either.
"We base our inspections on 35-year-old laws," says Buthaina Salem who is a lawyer employed at the Minister of Labor inspection. "They date back to 1965 for the West Bank which adopted the Jordanian legislation framework, and to 1964 for Gaza which adopted the Egyptian one. The Israeli occupation in 1967 has made it impossible for these laws to develop and change according to the changing needs."
A new labor law was drafted after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. President Yasser Arafat signed it on May 1 of this year, but several days later, due to 'inaccuracies', did not allow its publication making the law, de facto invalid.
The new law would clearly define working children's rights. It establishes the legal age to work at 16, the working hours at six (plus half an hour lunch break), does not allow evening shifts, enforces annual health checks, and prevents children from being employed in dangerous environments. What exactly is considered hazardous is not specified by the law. This is left to the Ministry of Labor to define.
That obsolete and outdated laws continue to be implemented helps to explain how accidents such as the fire in a lighter factory in Hebron took place. In October 1999, a blaze caused by a 12-year-old child killed 15 Palestinian women. Five of them were under 18. News reports following the blaze revealed that in that same factory, children as young as nine years old were being employed.
The ministerial committee formed to investigate the matter failed to find anyone responsible for the tragedy.
The dramatic Hebron accident illustrates the poor conditions beneath which most children work. Too often minimum age, shift-times, numbers of working hours per day and safety norms are not respected.
"I went in a factory that for security reasons should be banned for the entrance of children. I found a number of them working there instead," says Atef Sa'ad media officer at the General Federation of Trade Unions in Palestine. "I personally heard the owner whisper to some employees to get the boys out of the place."
Despite the fact that the present laws state that the minimum age of employment is 14, a large number of children below this age are in fact regularly employed in factories and other working places.
According to the International Labor Organization's 1997 report on child labor in the West Bank and Gaza, children as young as eight years old work daily up to 12 hours. Besides working in places lacking the minimum safety and health prerequisite, these children are easily subject to physical and psychological abuse.
"Labor, even in good conditions, has four main effects on children: psychological, social, educational and physical", says Harar.
"To begin with, the child's self image is affected, often modifying the child's value system. Money becomes the center of life because the child's activities are focused on earning money."
"If the working environment is not violence-free, then the child learns to return violence in response to violence, with serious consequences on his behavioral system. He will imitate the gestures and language of his environment which is often abusive" Harar goes on.
"If the child is working during the post-school hours, tiredness affects his ability to concentrate on his homework. These children suffer from educational disorders that prevent them from achieving a proper education and high grades."
"Finally, their body can be dangerously exposed to hazardous materials ranging from various chemical to glass. They can also be asked to carry heady loads or to move boxes with potentially dangerous material," Harar concludes.
The Minister of Labor's reply to these issues is that it can "only proceed according to the law." "During inspections, we are not allowed to talk with children under 14 years of age," says Salem. "When we notice younger children [working] all we can do is warn the owner of the possible action we can take against him."
The action that could be taken against a deceitful employer is minimal: no jail sentence with the maximum fine amounting to 50 Jordanian Dinars - barely US $70.
Tradition and culture also play an important role in "safeguarding" employers. In most cases once evidence of mistreatment or abuse is shown, families prefer to settle the question directly between them and the employers. Over a cup of coffee, the two parties get to an economic agreement to compensate the child.
No substantial deterrent exists to stop exploitative employers from hiring children.
"If questioned why they have hired young children, employers are quick to assure that the tasks the kids are assigned to are very easy and not dangerous. But it is impossible to ascertain if this is true. There is not enough monitoring to verify if, at any moment, children are asked to do other kinds of jobs," says Abu Zuluf.
Both DCI and the General Federation of Trade Unions call on the Ministry of Labor to enforce its monitoring efforts.
"This year child labor was one of our priorities," says Salem. "But we only have 28 inspectors in 11 district for a total of 14,501 businesses. These employees are requested to inspect no less than 40 working places per month."
"Budget problems" at the Ministry of Labor causes it not to be able to afford to employ and train more personnel. In fact, according to its inspection plan, businesses up to five laborers are not even subject to inspection.
Atef Sa'ad does not like to define child labor as merely a phenomenon. According to him it is a problem, and as such, needs to be addressed.
"There is not a short or long-term solution to the child labor problem until the Palestinian economic situation improves," he says.
And the Palestinians' economic situation is strictly tied to the Israeli occupation. Prior to the occupation, child labor was an existent reality in the Palestinian Territories. However, following 1967, the situation worsened and, according to one study carried out by UNICEF, a correlation was drawn between the closure of borders between Israel and the Palestinian Territories and the increase in child labor.
The problem does not just exist however when there are closures. Even when Israel opens its borders to Palestinian workers, it opens them up to children as well. A coordinated effort of DCI's Palestine and Israel branches, along with trade unions of both countries, revealed that the Israeli labor market actually employs 20,000 Palestinian children. One third of them work in settlements.
Child labor easily becomes an exploitative chain. "The first level of exploitation is the lower wages, which in Israel range between 30 and 50 shekels per day. It is so low because part of the money that the Israeli employers pay, goes to the broker who provides the laborers. Plus the actual agreement between the trade unions concerns legal Palestinian workers in Israel. Children, unfortunately belong to the 'illegal' category, so they cannot be protected."
According to DCI officers, a coordinated effort of human rights associations, trade unions and the ministries of labor, education and social affairs is the only viable path that could lead to solving the issue of regularization of child labor, if (as most of these bodies admit), the outlawing of child labor is not an option,
PCBS's year 2000 annual report suggests the introduction of a system that ensures economic support to families with limited incomes. This financial help would lessen the need for the children from dropping out of school to go to work.
The official publication of the new labor law could also dramatically improve the situation and give a better future to the over 7,200 children still seeking a job.
Published 27/9/00 ©Palestine Report
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Mine Aysen Doyran
PhD Student
Department of Political Science
SUNY at Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College
135 Western Ave.; Milne 102
Albany, NY 12222
