WUNRN
UZBEKISTAN - CHILD LABOUR -
SILKWORMS - GIRLS
Full Article: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/silks-dark-side-uzbek-kids-made-to-tend-silkworms/414574.html#no
Alexander
Zemlianichenko / AP
Teenage girls cleaning silkworm
cocoons in
KOKAND,
Uzbekistan — For one month a year, from morning to night, Dilorom Nishanova
grows silkworms, a painstaking and exhausting job. She has been doing it since
she was 8.Uzbekistan's authoritarian government insists that child labor is
banned, but Dilorom, now 15, hasn't heard about it. She and her siblings, aged
9 to 17, think that it's perfectly natural to be helping their father grow
silkworms, as well as cotton and wheat.
"We
just help our parents," she said, her braided dark hair covered with a
traditional Muslim scarf. "That's what children have to do, right?"
Not so, say Uzbek rights groups. They say kids shouldn't be laborers,
especially in May, the breeding season, which happens to fall during school
exams. .........................
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GIVE GIRLS A CHANCE - TACKLING 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.