MODULE 7: PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS IN OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
SECTION 2: AT RISK WORKING POPULATIONS: WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Introduction
 

OBJECTIVES
By the end of this Section you should:
  1. understand what constitutes child labour and the distinction between child work and child labour;
  2. understand the focus on campaigns to eliminate the worst forms of child labour;
  3. understand the role of poverty and under-development in generating the problem of child labour;
  4. appreciate the hazards of child labour for child health and development;
  5. understand policy interventions to address child labour;
  6. understand and be able to apply legal provision that address child labour

WHAT CONSTITUTES CHILD LABOUR?

There is a traditional notion of bonded labour or sweatshop workers. But, what of:

  • informal sector (for example, taxi touts)?
  • pocket money work?
  • household chores?
  • household task that frees an adult to work?
  • work at school, or after school?
      

So, the key question is When does work become labour?

KEY DEFINITIONS:

Child labour: UN Definition:

"All forms of economic exploitation and any work that is likely to be hazardous or interfere with the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development"

Child labour: ILO Definition:

"Child labour is remunerated or unremunerated work by a young person under a certain age, the work of which impairs the young person’s personal development, health, safety, well-being physically, mentally and psychologically, impairment of which is in violation of national or international law"

The worst forms of Child Labour are: bonded labour, prostitution, drug trafficking, pornography, armed conflict, to name only a few.

Child labour versus child work:

We must bear in mind that-

REFERENCES:

  1. Presentation on Child Labour.
  2. Survey of Activities of Young People (SAYP) in Soutn Africa, 1999
  3. Draft Green Paper on a National Child Labour Action Program
  4. Draft White Paper on a National Child Labour Action Program
  5. Child Labour and Occupational Health: Policy proposals for South Africa (Draft)