12 June 2009: Give girls a chance

World Day Against Child Labour, marked on 12 June every year, should touch the conscience of each and every one of us. Millions of children around the world work in degrading and hazardous conditions for pitiful wages to produce food and consumer goods.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that worldwide 126 million children aged 5 to 17 work in hazardous conditions and that some 22,000 children are killed at work every year. The numbers of those injured or made ill because of their work are not known.

Hazardous work in agriculture

Over 70 per cent of children doing work that is harmful to their health and well-being are involved in agriculture. More than 100 million girls and boys aged 5 to 14 work as child labourers on farms and plantations the world over. They carry heavy weights and work long hours. They mix, handle and apply toxic pesticides, use dangerous cutting tools, work in extreme temperatures, and operate powerful farm vehicles and machinery without training or protective gear.

At its worst, child labour is hazardous and potentially fatal. Even when this is not the case, it takes children out of school, or makes it impossible for them to keep up with their studies, thus blighting their future as well as their present.

Give girls a chance

This year the focus of the World Day Against Child Labour is on girls – on enabling families to keep girls out of hazardous and inappropriate work situations, and to send them to school.

“Girls living in poverty in rural areas of the developing world are triply disadvantaged,” said Maria Hartl, IFAD Technical Adviser on Gender and Social Equity. “Because they are poor, because they are female, and because they are children.”

IFAD works with poor and vulnerable households in rural areas and has a special focus on the economic empowerment of women. It supports mothers and female heads of households to increase their incomes and reduce their workloads. Children, girls in particular, benefit directly from this.

Labour-saving technologies lighten girls’ load

“Simple labour-saving technologies such as improved stoves make a huge difference to the lives of rural women and their daughters,” said Hartl. “The daughters are often forced to take over responsibilities such as fuelwood collection and cooking when their mothers are busy elsewhere. When they prepare meals, they inhale fumes from open fires, which are harmful to their health and growth. A reduction in women’s workloads lightens the load of daily chores for daughters in particular.”

Experience in IFAD-supported projects has also shown that increases in women’s incomes are more likely to benefit the children in the family than increases in men’s incomes. Once women have gained additional income, their first goal is to pay for school uniforms, books and fees.

Education for mothers means education for children

Many IFAD-supported projects include capacity-building and functional literacy, especially for women. “Studies have shown that education and training for women has a direct impact and trickle down effect on the schooling of children, especially girls,” said Hartl.

IFAD also supports vocational and skills training for young people in rural areas so that they can earn a better wage when they start work. Skills training can prevent the further marginalization of vulnerable adolescent girls and boys who are at risk of becoming victims of the worst forms of child labour, including slavery, trafficking and forced recruitment into the armed forces.