The discourse about child labour in South Sudan
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By Ngor Arol Garang
June 11, 2013 - Today, at the national parliament while at the
gallery, I run into friendly discussion with someone from the office
of the president. It was civilised and educative exchange of views and
ideas. He is a gentleman I know as a friend having lived together in
Yambio, Western Equatoria State and Rumbek, Lakes State in 2003 and
again in 2004 until 2005 when the comprehensive Peace Agreement which
ended the over two decade conflict with Sudan from which we seceded in
July 2011, was eventually signed. We, however, parted from Rumbek as
we got different assignments in different locations. He was deployed
to Khartoum in the office of the 1st vice president during which he
remained in Khartoum with limited visit to the South during the
interim period where I remained and got engaged in the private.
Meeting again after such a long time was not only joyous and
refreshing but was a confirmation that people who had the opportunity
to live together can have a possibility of meeting again after
separation. While meeting again was interested me, I was moved when he
said he has long been looking for me and that it was fortunate meeting
at last.
According to him, he said he was seeking opinions on child labour from
civil right activists and informed citizens and that he would be glad
contributing my opinion. I saw this as an obligation as an informed
citizen. And I did not hesitate as we immediately started exchanging
views while waiting for the session for which I showed up to follow
deliberations as it was about the oil row with the government of
neigbouring Sudan. He was smart, eloquent and had his own
understanding about child labour and whether it was right for children
to work. For him, the issue of child labour seems to be grossly
misunderstood to mean no work at all for a child. I told the friend
what I now want to share with the general public as this was what he
proposed that he was completely right, because he was entitled to his
own thinking and interpretations. And I must state clearly that here
this article is not in any way meant to oppose understanding of the
child labour and child rights. This piece of article is to contribute
to discourse about child labour in the country.
My understanding and the interpretation could be different and someone
else is equally entitled to disagree with me. I have no objection to
that because I believe in the world where I engage people with
different opinions. Holding different opinions in fact encourages
health debate because it allows communications between the two sides
whose engagement will be assessed by their audience to figure out who
of the two has made a point worth support. It is with understanding
that I believe there are things children can do. For instance, we can
have children helping mothers sweep compounds, cleaning of the cooking
pots, utensils, toilets, washing their own clothes, rear calves in the
cattle keeping communities, go fishing, assist in farming activities
etc. These are things which are not harmful. Things which are not
heavy, which are not exploitative but those they can do to learn.
Children learn from what they see their parents do. This is why they
are sent to school to learn and enhance their understanding.
This understanding does not violate child right instead it is one way
of teaching them how some works are done. Understanding that sees this
as a child abuse should go beyond this thinking to explore more
opportunities, and I believe this is one of the reasons why we have
children who are growing up totally spoilt. They can’t clean their own
mess; they can’t make their own beds; they can’t clean the plates on
which they are fed. Everything has to be done for them. As a result of
this, we have children who are growing up not knowing anything, not
being able to do anything for themselves. Some of them can’t even boil
water and make a cup of tea for themselves. We have teenagers who
would want everything to be done to them. They would want their
parents or those who live with them to clean their bottoms and flush
the toilets for them. This may seem an exaggeration but this is how
bad things have become, especially with children from well to do
families. Everything is associated with child right and abuse which is
misleading indeed. Our constitution is very clear. Article 17 (1)
clearly states that every child has the right: (a) to life, survival
and development; (b) to a name and nationality; (c) to know and be
cared for by his or her parents or legal guardian; (d) not to be
subjected to exploitative practices or abuse, nor to be required to
serve in the army nor permitted to perform work which may be hazardous
or harmful to his or her education, health or well-being; (e) to be
free from any form of discrimination; 6 (f) to be free from corporal
punishment and cruel and inhuman treatment by any person including
parents, school administrations and other institutions; (g) not to be
subjected to negative and harmful cultural practices which affect his
or her health, welfare or dignity; and (h) to be protected from
abduction and trafficking.
This constitutional provision promotes the right of the children and
does not deny them the right to work to learn new skills to enhance
understanding instead it protects them from abuse.
I grew up in a village where I could go to the bush to collect
firewood, rear cattle, clean byre, pound grain as there were no
grinding mills at the time and even now in my village, go digging with
my family members and do other things which none of the children from
the wealthier family could do now. It was not because my family was
poor. We had cattle with a complete camp named after my grant dad,
Makem Adim Kuan as it is known. It is a well-known cattle camp in the
village but we had to work because it was one way of teaching us how
to work. When I went to school in Peth village in the present day
Northern Bahr el Ghazal State at the height of civil war which ended
in 2005, I was engaged in cleaning our own class room which was under
a tree. This cannot be done today by the children I see these days
going to schools, simply because parents cannot allow that to happen
because doing so is a sign of not having enough love for the child; it
is child labour according to them. They do not know they are denying
their children a chance to learn certain skills which are only
acquired at childhood age.
We seem to have grossly misunderstood the issue of child labor. Making
a child cleans his or mess; making a child make his bed or clean his
plates is not child labour. Child labour a defined by the transitional
constitution is work that is considered harmful to the child, and
therefore should be eliminated.
Child labor should not be automatically associated with children who
engage in non-harmful work. Non-harmful work is part-time and does not
stop children from playing, having an education. Allowing children do
less harming work can be beneficial to them. It can be beneficial in
the sense that it gives the child the opportunity to learn certain
necessary things in life. It teaches children useful social skills.
Therefore, it is vitally important to not only eliminate harmful child
labour, but to also allow children to learn useful social skills. This
may help some children gain useful skills that they can use to
continue their studies and gain an education.
It is vitally important to support children who do have to work so
that they are able to continue their studies and gain an education.
Strict bans on child labour may cause more harm than good, forcing
children to work in underground and more dangerous conditions than
they would otherwise. Certain things have to be taken into
consideration when looking at what constitutes child labour. For
instance, there are certain things a child living in an affluent
community may not need to do that may be necessary for a child living
in a poor neighbourhood. There is need for local definitions of what
constitutes child labour. A poor approach to the issue of child labour
can cause a lot of problems for children. Today, we have fully grown
people still staying with their parents because they cannot live a
life of their own. They are still depending on their parents. We have
people who are still being treated as children and are being protected
from child labour. These are provided with all the necessities of life
and luxuries like cigarettes, alcohol, perfumes, clothes and so on and
so forth by their parents. They are being treated the same way they
were treated as under-fives. Some of them are even bringing spouses in
their parents’ homes and siring children there. Both they and their
children are protected from ’child labour’. The only people who work
are the parents and the people they have employed.
These are the consequences or the results of our narrow definition of
child labour. We have a generation that has been destroyed by the
’love’ or rather ‘exaggerated love ’ of their parents. This is a
generation that receives everything from the parents. They have
degrees obtained from expensive universities abroad and locally but
they don’t work, they can’t do anything. Those degrees are just there
to help them in discourse with others when they are drinking.
Everything is about my mummy this, my daddy that, my bally this and
that. Some of them are in their twenties still being protected from
’child labour’. Where will this end? What will be the consequences of
all this on the individuals involved and on the nation? "If our
parents brought us up the way we are bringing them up today, we
wouldn’t be here. These children are not objects. They should be
allowed to work so that they can learn new skills.
The author is a Sudan Tribune journalist and be can reached via
[email protected]
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