Paragraphe II :
Causes external
with the needs for the families
One of the factors of the child work, and undoubtedly one of
principal, is the failure of universal schooling. The UNICEF estimates that
today more than 130 million children are not provided education for, figure
which would reach even the 404 million if one includes all the children of less
than 18 years. It is very easy to establish the link between this figure and
that of the children to work. Among the 250 million active children in the
world, the International Labor Office evaluates to 120 million the number of
those which work full-time and thus having schedules of work incompatible with
any possibility of studies : 38% work more than 40 hours per week and 13%
at least 56 hours. Moreover, for the children who do not work yet, quantitative
and qualitative deficiencies of the educational infrastructures, prevent them
from having an education worthy of this name. Consequently, the parents prefer
to send their children in the fields, for example, rather than at the school
where what one will teach them them will not be of any utility. However, one
should not show these parents not to want to send their children to the school,
but to understand that two essential reasons push them to act thus : first
of all, the school expenses are very high for a poor family and finally, while
it is at the school, the child does not work and thus does not contribute to
the incomes of households. Indeed, the state education, supposedly free, in
general involves a very heavy investment for a poor family which must take
responsibility for her the books, uniforms and other school stationery,
transport charge, even sometimes to pay money with the teachers. That also
explains why many children are obliged to work to pay their school fees, but
everyone agrees to saying that after one working day, a child is not under the
best conditions, to draw all the benefit from the teaching which it receives.
Moreover, much of children access to education does not have,
quite simply because they do not have a school near their dwelling. We will see
later on that the fight against the child work must imperatively pass initially
by a considerable effort as regards education in the developing countries. It
is only by proposing an education accessible to all, geographically and
financially, and making it possible to the children to consider an improvement
of their situation, that the child work will move back.
For including/understanding the extent of the child work well,
it is necessary also to have for the spirit that childish labor is very
required and sought by the employers. The reasons are very simple, they are
economic reasons. It is considered indeed that the employers resort to this
labor, in spite of prohibitions, because it is to them less expensive than the
adult labor. Indeed, in much of case, the workers children do not cost
absolutely anything or almost, and this in particular in the companies of small
size, which are, let us recall it the largest childish employer of labors.
However, the economic viability of this type of company often depends on this
not remunerated labor. Considerations of cost enter also concerned in the case
of the small establishments not declared and financially precarious that one
meets in mass in the abstract sector of the developing countries. Under the
pretext, that the employers give them the possibility of learning the rudiments
from a trade, the pay of the children is often reduced to a little pocket money
granted of time other by the employer. In the domestic services, the roof and
cover are frequently the only remuneration of the work carried out by the
children, and that when the employers are not too severe, because often the
children have to hardly eat and sleep outside. The same applies to the children
who work to refund the debt of the parents, within the framework of the
constraint for debts, and which are thus not paid because their wages is
supposed to refund the debt, which is seldom the case. That the children are
less better paid than the adults is true in the majority of the cases, but
often that is used as excuse to the employers who call upon that the overcost
caused by the use of adults in the place of the children would prevent their
company from being competitive. It is often claimed that the children are
irreplaceable in certain industries of export which would cease being
competitive if they saw private possibility of childish labor ; it was in
particular the argument called upon by the manufacturers of carpets woven with
the hand in India. However, a study undertaken by the International Labor
Office showed that for these industries, the child work was not essential to
the economic survival of this industry, because the overcost of the use of
adults was surprisingly modest in proportion of the price to which the carpets
are sold in the importing countries : between 5 and 10% of the
price39(*). Under these
conditions, one can wonder why the employers continue to employ this childish
labor, the more so as the boycott movements of the products manufactured by
children multiply and cause a drop in the sales of these employers. The reason
in is simple, in the industry of the carpet, the final recipients are the
owners of trades, which are themselves poor and work with very weak profit
margins, therefore by employing children, they can double their incomes.
Lastly, beyond the economic slope of work, there is an important psychological
slope, explaining the recourse to this labor : the children are less
conscious than the adults of their rights, they make less stories, are
disciplined, go away less and especially they more easily accept a hard
employment without complaining. Their activity being generally illegal, they do
not risk in addition to going to complain with the authorities or affiliating
themselves with a trade union. Childish labor is thus very malleable and one
can thus exploit it more easily, because it does not complain. Another argument
used by the employers would be that the children would be irreplaceable because
of their « fingers of fairy » : for example, it is
often said that only the children, who have the very fine fingers, would be
able to tie carpets with a strong density of points. However, and that is not
any more to show from now on, some of the most beautiful carpets are
manufactured by adults, therefore if one can do without the dexterity of the
children to weave the carpets, one sees badly in which activities their fingers
of fairies would be essential ! Moreover, most of the time, the children
are employed with tasks such as handling or packing in industry, tasks that an
adult little completely to achieve as well. This argument of childish dexterity
is not thus any more from now on one valid argument, to be able to excuse the
behavior of employers not very scrupulous, eager quite simply to do an utmost
of profits on the back of the children, without worrying about the consequences
on the health of those.
Lastly, the last major cause of work children, is the epidemic
of AIDS which has prevailed for several years in Africa and Asia. With nearly
30 million adults and children infected by the HIV in 2000, sub-Saharan Africa
indeed constitutes the area touched hard. This area only records with it 50% of
the 8.500 new infections which occur each day in the world. The HIV is not
limited any more to the cities but is spread now at a speed alarming in the
rural zones and it touches the country population, in particular the most
productive people i.e. those old from 15 to 45 years. Consequently a great
number of heads of households died of the AIDS, and the families are inserted
more and more in poverty and the responsibilities are increasingly heavy for
the survivors, particularly the children. Questioned on the child work in the
plantations of tea of Tanzania, Mr. Norman Kelly, General manager of the
plantation Brooke Jump, answers: «Adult labor decreases quickly because of
the strong incidence of the HIV/AIDS among the workers.»40(*) A study carried out by the
UNICEF in six countries of the Southern Africa and East Africa notes that
«the HIV/AIDS dismantles the families and increases the possibilities of
exploitation of the children by work... Just at the age where the children
should go to the school, their doors and new responsibilities for heads of
households force them to give up their schooling». This cause of work
children, cannot unfortunately be fought by the International Conventions, but
by an immense work of prevention of the risks of the AIDS in Africa and Asia,
colossal work not easily realizable.
Conscious of these multiple causes and its impotence to fight
them quickly, the international community then decided to enact a convention
intended to fight firstly against the worst shapes of work children.
* 39 The ILO :
«Is child ploughing really necessary in India' S carpet
industry» Geneva, 1996.
* 40 Revue Africa Starts again,
vol.15 # 3 (October 2001), p.14 (File special : the protection of the
African children). Web site :
http://www.un.org/french/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol.15n
°3/153kidf4.htm
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