I wonder if futureworkers have been following this issue. Melanie
/* Written 4:12 AM Apr 3, 1998 by [EMAIL PROTECTED] in web:reg.india */
/* ---------- "Child Labour Global March Goes Acro" ---------- */
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 05:29:49 +0530 (GMT+5:30)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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INDIAN-INSPIRED CHILD LABOUR GLOBAL MARCH GOES ACROSS CONTINENTS
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>From Frederick Noronha
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Panaji (Goa), March 28: "I just love to go to school," says
Nurullah. But instead, this twelve-year-old boy spends his day
selling plastic bags to shoppers visiting the local fish-market.
For earnings of Rs 15 to 35 (forty to ninety US cents) per day,
youngsters like Narullah are compelled to a wasted childhood and
an uncertain future. To highlight their woes, and battle social
myths about child labour, an ambitious 80,000 km-long global
march is traversing 70 nations worldwide.
Campaigners say it could become the "single largest social
intervention of its kind".
Late Friday evening, some 110 participants -- mostly former
child-labourers, including 27 from various Asian countries --
trooped into this former Portuguese colony of Goa. They've criss-
crossed through Asia, en route to the UN Palace in Geneva.
Local school-children and poor children compelled to work in Goa
itself greeted the marchers with fresh roses in Panaji's Azad
Maidan ('Freedom Garden').
Shared experiences makes the children realise that the fault is
not theirs. There is pride in Lily's eyes, as this 13-year-old
former flower-vendor from Bangladesh narrates what she went
through, in Bangla, a language nobody can comprehend in this part
of India.
But among the children, the language of solidarity is common.
"Please give your children a chance to study," appeals Makara,
14, a former construction worker from the Philippines.
In the first week of June 1998, marchers will converge in Geneva
to meet representatives of governments, business and unions
drafting a new ILO Convention on Child Labour. Campaigners want a
"strong and radical" agreement, which does not "compromise or
repeal" the existing age limit which defines who is a child.
This march which will cover 80,000 kms in all, entered India on
March 5. Earlier, it started in Manila, and went on to Vietnam,
Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
It has already undertaken a circuitous loop through the large
area of peninsular India. After entering through the eastern
state of Bihar, it went on to West Bengal and Orissa, then went
into South India's Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states before
landing up in Goa on the west coast.
>From India, it will go enter neighbouring Pakistan. Via Iran and
Turkey, it will go to Europe. There, the march will break up into
three legs -- heading to the UK, Scandinavia and Italy.
But this organisational nightmare is made more difficult by some
unhelpful official responses. "Children who never understood the
problem of passports, visas, borders and religion are facing
precisely such problems," complains global coordinator for the
march Kailash Satyarthi.
In India, some children got visas for only two weeks. Organisers
went to a court in Delhi to manage to take formerly bonded child-
labour with them to Geneva. In Indonesia, participants got
arrested, organisers said. Others were not allowed to march in
Malaysia.
But, on the other hand, the march got a welcome from governments
and presidents in Brazil, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines and Nepal.
Not-for-profit and voluntary organisations say that fighting
an issue which "governments should be doing". But some
governments seem to fear participation in this march could lead
to heightened awareness over this situation, which they suggest
would affect the Third World economic interests.
"That's a really difficult question to answer," says march
international coordinator Kailash Satyarthi, when asked how many
child labourers India really has. Government statistics put it at
20 million (rpt 20), while non-governmental figures say there are
as many as 120 million (rpt 120), he says.
Perhaps the most credible figures is 60 million, arrived at by
a professional survey group, ORG of Baroda, Satyarthi feels.
Seventy percent of India's child labour is believed to be in the
agricultural field. Rest is in the "unorganised" sector -- in
carpet making, glass and metal work, diamond cutting and
polishing, lock-making, and many kids work as domestic servants.
Recently, the Indian government highlighted its commitment to end
child-labour in "hazardous" industries. Campaigners say this is
"not enough" since it hardly covers 10% of child labour in the
country.
Satyarthi argues that "all child labour" is hazardous when it
blocks the young one's right to health, education and normal
growth. "We're not talking about a child who goes to a normal
school, and who is required to offer some help at home," says the
bearded campaigner.
Marches are a typically Indian strategy to raise concern over an
issue. Buddhist monks and Hindu religious men in past centuries
and freedom-fighters earlier this century undertook marches
across this vast land to spread their message.
"When we first floated the idea of the march in South America, it
was difficult to convince the people about its effectiveness,
because the whole concept was new and alien there," local
organiser Anita Haladi said in Goa.
In all, the marchers cross 70 countries. Some 150 odd core
marchers -- including social and human rights activists,
celebrities, laureates and children -- are travelling by bus
across this vast region. It is currently a hot and humid summer
with mercury crossing 32.6 degrees here.
Significantly, while the UN system has little space for top
delegates being addressed by NGOs, an exception is being made
here. Some 80 children are expected to address the UN meet.
Campaigners are quick to remind that child labour is a complex
issue, linked to a number of other crucial problems --
governmental priorities, arms spending, Third World poverty, the
adverse terms of trade for developing countries, and the like.
Just blocking children from working won't do; preventive measures
are needed, as is access to quality education for all youngsters.
"Governments should identify chronic child-labour areas, and
create alternatives and economic incentives," said Goa-based
trade union leader Christopher Fonseca. This problem need more
than "a little bit of charity".
"We are shocked that the new Indian government has been talking
of exercising the nuclear option and boosting their defence
budget. Both India and Pakistan can hardly afford this waste
(over military expenditures)," Satyarthi told IPS here.
Figures that the world spends $800 billion a year on militaries,
armies and weapons. Just $27 billion could give all children on
this planet a school to go to, says he.
Marching across the globe, this disparate goupe of youngsters
want their issue to be thought of, heard and discussed: "If a
child is made an asset for five years during childhood, he
becomes a liability for the next 50 years of his life." (END)
______________________________________________________________________
Frederick Noronha House # 784, Saligao Phone 832 27 6190
Journalist GOA 403511 INDIA Phone 832 27 8683
Fax 832 26 3305 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
