1	Child labour and health - policy implications for health planning Adapted from a workshop on Child Labour MRC/NIEHS Meeting: BUILDING RESEARCH CAPACITY FOR CHILDREN, ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH IN SOUTH AFRICA May 2001 Leslie London, University of Cape Town
2	Why focus on child labour now? New democracy, new approaches Developments in International Arena: ILO coordinating IPEC (SAMAT) Child Labour Inter-sectoral Group (CLIG) SA Child Labour Action Programme Survey of Activities of Young People (SAYP) - StatsSA & Dept. of Labour
3	What constitutes child labour? Traditional notion of bonded labour or sweatshop workers But, what of: - informal sector (e.g. taxi tout)? - pocket money work? - household chores? - household task that frees an adult to work? - work at school, or after school? When does work become labour?
4	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”
5	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” Worst forms of CL: bonded labour, prostitution, drug trafficking, pornography, armed conflict, etc.
6	Child labour versus child work Not all child work necessarily bad Housework (limited) and chores plays role in socialising child Errands for reward part of self-identity / esteem ® distinction between child labour and child work
7	What makes child labour bad for children’s health and well-being? Health and safety threatened Educational deprivation Childhood development impaired Denial of a future Human rights abuse
8	Child Labour: Harm versus Benefit
9	ILO Child Labour Conventions 1973 Minimum Age Convention National policy Linked to schooling minimum: 15 (14) yrs Dangerous work: 18 (16) yrs “Light work” 13-15 yrs (12-14) Local flexibilty 1996 Worst forms of Child Labour Obligation on states Focus on free basic education Identify risk children Special focus girls “effective and time-bound measures…”
10	Child labour and health in SA What evidence? I. Agriculture DOPSTOP survey Stellenbosch, 1998: 1% self-admitted; 11% elsewhere on farm W Cape pestic. pois. Notifications 87-91: 7 cases children < 16yrs = occupational = 3% of total, 10% child poisonings PM review W Cape for occupational deaths ® high number of dam drownings
11	Child labour and health in SA What evidence? II. Other Lead in child newspaper vendors Lead poisoning due to family car battery recycling in Soweto backyard Anecdotal: service sector, street children, dump scavenging, Outsourcing ® increasing labour in families at home
12	SAYP data - methodology 2-stage survey in 1999: - 26 081 households interviewed to establish prevalence - 4494 in-depth interviews to characterise child labour Probability sample, rural and urban focus on children 5 - 17 years Statistical adjustments, weightings
13	SAYP data (I) Economic child labour (ECL) categories: 1. Work for pay, profit or family economic gain 2. Unpaid domestic work (not in family) 3. Fetching wood and water in child’s household Non-economic child labour (NECL): 4. Household chores > 7hrs/week 5. School labour > 5 hrs/week CHILD LABOUR: Broad definition = ECL > 1 hr/wk / any NECL Narrow definition = ECL > 3 hr/wk / any NECL
14	SAYP data (II): Prevalence of child labour
15	SAYP data (III) Majority of child labour takes place in non-paid form - esp. fetching wood and water Paid work by children - only 1.8% (but this represents +/- 250 000 children!) Higher amongst Coloured children (4.5%) Sectors - mainly agriculture (59%) and trade (33%)
16	SAYP data (IV) Hazardous conditions reported BY working children doing economic work: heat (36%), tiring work (27%), cold (26%), dust (19%), long work hours (18%), work outside daylight hours (12%) (subjective assessment) Slightly higher for males Slightly higher for older children (15-17yrs)
17	SAYP data (V): Specific hazards Hazardous exposures (e.g. chemicals) - only 2.4% Most likely in rural other and commercial farms Self-reported illness or injury - 2% LOW RATES = UNDER-REPORTING 65% households rely on paraffin, wood, coal
18	SAYP findings: Child labour mainly non-remunerated (but economic) work In economic work - mainly issues of climate, hours of work, dust Underestimation of occupational hazards, illness, injury
19	Child labour in SA: Some gaps and research questions What impacts of fetching wood and water? Known risk sectors for child labour: agriculture, manufacturing, informal sector Impacts of agricultural policies; trade? Impacts of deregulation and outsourcing?
20	Child labour in SA: Policy questions How will HIV epidemic impact on child labour in SA? How will measures to control child labour avoid job losses and accelerated poverty? How can measure isolate the worst forms of child labour for eradication?