WUNRN
CHILD LABOUR - THE GIRL CHILD -
EDUCATE GIRLS
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A 9-year-old girl toils under
the hot sun, making bricks from morning to night, 7 days a week. She was
trafficked with her entire family from Bihar, one of the poorest and most
underdeveloped states in India, and sold to the owner of a brick-making
factory.
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ILO - ASSESSING THE GENDER
GAP Report 2009 - Link: Assessing
the gender gap: Evidence from SIMPOC surveys - Girl Child Labour - For Employment, In the Home + and
Impact on Education, Decent Work, Path Beyond Poverty.
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GIVE GIRLS A CHANCE - END CHILD LABOUR - ILO
Around
the world, an estimated 100 million girls are involved in child labour. Many of
these girls undertake similar types of work as boys, but often also endure
additional hardships and face extra risks. Moreover, girls are all too often
exposed to some of the worst forms of child labour, often in hidden work
situations.
ILO
calls for:
§
Policy responses to address the causes of child labour, paying
particular attention to the situation of girls.
§
Urgent action to tackle the worst forms of child labour.
§
Greater attention to the education and skills training needs of
adolescent girls - a key action point in tackling child labour and providing a
pathway for girls to gain Decent Work as adults.
Girls and child labour
ILO
standards require that countries establish a minimum age of employment
(generally 15 though developing countries can set the age at 14). They also
require that children (including adolescents aged 15-17) are not involved in
work designated as a worst form of child labour.
However
in many countries of the world, girls below the minimum age of employment can
be found working in a wide range of occupational sectors and services and often
in the worst forms of child labour.
Large
numbers of young girls labour in agriculture and in the manufacturing sector,
frequently working in dangerous conditions. A major sector of employment for
young girls is domestic work in third party households. Oftentimes this work is
hidden from the public eye, leading to particular dangers and risks. The
extreme exploitation of girls in the worst forms of child labour includes
slavery, bonded labour, prostitution and pornography.
Girls face multiple disadvantages
Most
child labour is rooted in poverty, often associated with multiple disadvantage.
Socio-economic inequalities based on language, race, disability and rural-urban
differences remain deeply entrenched. Girls can face particular disadvantages
due to discrimination and practices which allocate certain forms of work to
girls. Many girls take on unpaid household work for their families, usually
more so than boys. This work may include childcare, cooking, cleaning, and
fetching water and fuel. Girls often also have to combine long hours of
household chores with some form of economic activity outside the household presenting
girls with a “double burden”. This can have a negative impact on any
opportunity for school attendance and can present a physical danger to girls.
Girls still disadvantaged in education
Millennium
Development Goal 2 calls for all children to complete a full course of primary
education by 2015. Millennium Development Goal 3 has a target of eliminating
gender disparity both in primary and secondary education. However globally some
75 million children are still not enrolled in primary school. For every 100
boys in school, there are only 94 girls and girls in rural areas are
particularly disadvantaged. Gross enrolment at secondary level in developing
countries is 61% for boys and 57% for girls. In least developed countries the
figures are 32% for boys and 26% for girls. It is clear that in much of the
developing world huge numbers of girls are failing to access education at post
primary level.
Girls
may often be the last to be enrolled and the first to be withdrawn from schools
if a family has to make a choice between sending a boy or girl to school.
Girls’ access to education may also be limited by other factors, for example
the safety of the journey to school or lack of adequate water and sanitation
facilities.
Without
access to quality education, girls drift into the labour force at an early age
well below the minimum age of employment. It is therefore vital to extend
secondary education and skills training for girls and to ensure that children
from poor and rural households can access this provision.
Decent Work and development by educating girls
Education
for a child is the first steps towards obtaining Decent Work and a decent
livelihood as an adult. Research has proven that educating girls is one of the
most effective ways of tackling poverty. Educated girls are more likely to have
better income as adults, marry later, have fewer and healthier children, and to
have decision making power within the household. They are also more likely to
ensure that their own children are educated, helping to avoid future child
labour. Tackling child labour among girls and promoting their right to
education, is therefore an important element of broader strategies to promote
development and Decent Work.
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