A Broader Perceptive on Domestic Child Labour
By George Kayange
Friday, July 9, is the day when Malawians commemorate the World
Day Against Child Labour, which was officially commemorated on 12
June worldwide. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) under
its special programme dubbed International Programme on the Elimination
of Child Labour (IPEC), established the World Day in 2002 to highlight
global efforts against child labour as a means of raising the visibility
of the problem, particularly its worst forms.
The theme for this year’s event is “Behind Closed Doors:
Domestic Child Labour.” Child domestic labourers are all children
in domestic service who are under the legal minimum working age,
as well as those above the legal minimum age but under the age of
18 who are in an exploitative situation. Most of these working children
are girls.
All domestic child labourers, without exception, are at risk because
of the very nature of child domestic labour, which is not only widely
accepted but often considered a “better” alternative
for children from poor families.
“They are in a workplace – even if that workplace
is someone else’s home – hidden from public view and
labour inspection. The children are consequently at risk not only
of exploitation but also of abuse and violence”, says Dr.
June Kane, the author of the newly published report, called “Helping
Hands or Shackled Lives? Understanding child domestic labour and
responses to it.”
Dr. Kane observes that it is vital that child domestic labour,
so often neglected because the exploitation and abuse take place
behind closed doors, receives attention.
Health Hazards
The health hazards that threaten child servants depend upon several
issues, such as their age and sex. However, the main factor, which
determines their quality of life and welfare, is the attitude of
the employer towards the child.
Domestic labour poses a threat to all young children under any
conditions. Many burn themselves while cooking and ironing, or cut
themselves with knives whilst preparing meals. However, the majority
of the time it is not the particular tasks performed by the children
that pose the danger - rather it is their level of mental and physical
exhaustion.
Cooking, boiling water, handling cleaning chemicals, using sharp
kitchen utensils, caring for young children and lifting heavy items
are all common tasks for most child servants. Child servants are
made to work long days without sufficient sleep and they are hungry
and mentally exhausted from the daily verbal intimidation. As a
result, these children are easily tired and complain of fatigue,
headaches and dizziness. The physical stress on these children is
immense, making them very accident-prone even whilst carrying out
even the simplest tasks.
If a child makes a mistake, breaks a glass, or works too slowly
they run a severe risk of being beaten by their employer. Employers
and their family members often physically abuse child servants.
In these cases, children are rarely provided with any appropriate
medical care for their injuries afterwards, nor are they allowed
any time to recover or heal from the experience. In this way open
burns and cuts may not be treated or cleaned properly, if at all,
increasing the risk of infection. These injuries affect the child’s
working performance, making it harder for them to move and to concentrate,
consequently increasing the risk of further accidents and subsequent
beatings from the employer. Child servants can potentially and have
lived in such uninterrupted cycles of violence for years on end.
Young domestic workers are frequently sexually abused by their
employers. This type of abuse can cause considerable damage to the
health of these young children. Sexual abuse exposes these children
to numerous dangerous sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis,
genital herpes and HIV/AIDS. If the child is very young, it is possible
that any forced sexual activity may cause internal infections and/or
irreparable damage to her reproductive system. If she has reached
puberty then she is also at risk of becoming pregnant. If this happens
the employer may force her to have an abortion, send her back to
her family where she may be rejected, or leave her on the streets
where she may be forced into prostitution.
Although many of these children are put at extreme physical risk
everyday and are regularly maimed and wounded, the greatest health
risks they face are the psychological and emotional effects of their
lives as domestic servants.
Every child is fragile and desperately needs love, care and emotional
support in order to grow in a healthy manner. Many child servants
are denied the most basic rights a child possesses; they are denied
love and affection, the right to play and make friends, and the
right to go to school and be educated. Instead, they are isolated
from the world, abused and forced to exist on a minimal amount of
sleep. As a result, these young child servants develop a sense of
self-hate. Unable to love or appreciate themselves, they become
demoralized and often depressed. Many have problems forming lasting
relationships with other people because they have been so badly
treated that they loose their faith in human kindness and their
ability to trust others. The psychological damage done to these
children can be irreversible, affecting them for the rest of their
lives.
Ten–year old Chimwemwe (not real name) is one of such child
domestic worker who lives in one of the cities in Malawi, and she
agonizingly laments:
“I used to dream of being a teacher, but now my dreams are
dead. I work in town as a housemaid for a big family. I get up at
4 am everyday of the week make fire, to heat water to cook breakfast,
to wash dishes, to clean the house. If a I stop o rest, I’m
beaten. I see girls my age playing with their friends and going
to school. At night I cry myself to sleep.” (Tisazunze Ana,
Story Workshop Trust, 2003)
Isolation
The child servant is often deliberately isolated. As mentioned
earlier, child servants spend the majority of their time inside
their employer's house, they are prevented from making friends or
going to school and are often prevented from visiting their families.
In addition to this isolation from the outside world, child servants
are also often isolated within the home where they work as they
are treated differently and viewed as inferior to the family members.
This double isolation leaves them highly vulnerable to physical
and sexual abuse.
Sexual Abuse
Isolation from both the outside world and from the family within
the home combined with the child servant’s lack of funds and
near complete dependence on their employer leaves the child vulnerable
to physical and sexual abuse. The type and degree of abuse inflicted
depends entirely upon the employer but in every case there is little
domestic child servants can do to protect themselves.
There are frequent reports of physical abuse towards child servants.
Studies also show that both male and female domestic child workers
are subject to frequent sexual abuse. As the children are not related
to the employer’s family, are hidden from the public eye,
and have few options for legal recourse, sexual abuse is easily
committed. In many cases, sex with the employer or his sons is even
considered to be an unspoken part of the child servants' contract.
Indeed, in Peru 60% of men who grew up with a child servant in
the house had their first sexual experience with the child servant.
In Fiji, eight out of ten domestic workers reported that their employers
sexually abuse them. In Bangladesh, over 25% of domestic child servants
report that they have been raped. Sexual abuse is clearly a widespread
and regular part of the child servant’s experience.
Girls at Risk
A recent global study estimates that 90% of domestic child servants
are girls. It is generally agreed that the majority of domestic
child servants are female; this is due to several factors:
- In many societies there is a traditional attitude that household
chores are ‘women’s work’, whilst the men work
outside the house.
- The education of a girl is seen to be of less importance than
that of a boy.
- Frequently the girl is sent to work as a domestic labourer to
help pay for her brothers’ education and contribute to the
cost of running the family home.
- Domestic labour is seen as an integral part of a girl’s
upbringing and education. It is her preparation for married life.
It is not seen as a job or a form of employment.
- When employed outside their own home girls are favoured because
they are seen to be more silent and submissive than boys.
Migrant Workers and Trafficking
Many destitute street children and orphans end up working as domestic
labourers. Countries that have suffered from internal conflicts,
such as Sri Lanka and Rwanda, now have extremely high rates of domestic
child labour because so many children lost their homes and families
during the conflicts. A 1997 UNICEF survey done in post-genocide
Rwanda showed that approximately 200,000 children were working as
domestic servants in their new ‘foster homes’. In 1994,
prior to the genocide that orphaned thousands of children and still
affects those children born today, child domestic work had not been
noted as a common or significant type of child labour in Rwanda.
When children are homeless, displaced or abandoned and living on
the streets they are easy prey for ‘job placement agents’
who have developed enterprising rackets by selling children into
the field of domestic employment. The trafficking of groups of children
into domestic labour is becoming a widespread and profitable business—indeed
it is estimated to be worth 7 billion US$ per year.
A recent UNICEF report on domestic child labour highlights the
problem of trafficking in West and Central Africa. Children are
shipped 'en masse' within the country and beyond to other African
countries, the Middle East, Europe and Canada. In most cases, these
children are kidnapped from small rural villages, notably in Ghana,
Togo, Nigeria and Benin. Depending upon their destination the children
may be transported by lorry or by ship, normally in horrendous conditions.
They are crushed into small dark spaces for the entire journey,
regardless of its duration and are given very little food and water.
It is a difficult and harrowing experience for all of the children
and many do not survive to the end of the journey.
The organisers of these rackets are often ex-slaves themselves
who have connections with professional agents. Due to their own
exploited childhoods, they are illiterate and unable to find profitable
jobs. By trafficking young children themselves they create a vicious
cycle, whereby they profit from the same system that once exploited
them.
Several international laws, which aim to curb and prevent the trafficking
of human beings of all ages, now exist. In essence these laws should
be sufficient to combat the problem. Unfortunately, several countries
have not ratified or implemented these laws. Others do not recognise
them and a few, who have ratified them, do not observe them.
Slavery
In some countries debt bondage is a common reason for children
to find themselves obliged or even forced to work as domestic servants.
Debt bondage is a system whereby children work in order to pay off
a debt, which has been incurred by their parents, relatives or guardians.
Employers and creditors offer these loans to destitute parents in
a conscious attempt to secure the cheap labour of their children.
The debt binds the child to their employer until it is paid in full.
This is an especially common problem in India where it has been
reported that children are often sent away from their villages to
work as domestics in order to clear a family debt. The child is
either sent to a household to physically pay off the debt by providing
domestic assistance or the wages they earn are sent directly to
their parents, who then gradually pay the debt. These loans have
immensely high rates of interest and, due to the profoundly low
wages the children earn, it is very hard for any child to pay off
the debt in their lifetime. In many cases, the debt is passed on
to a younger sibling or onto their own children.
Ultimately, many child servants never see the money they should
be earning. Indeed, even in the cases where remuneration is expected,
it is often not given.
Family and Parental Rights
Frequently, parents are not aware of the true conditions in which
their child might be working and, thinking it is an opportunity
for their child’s future, are deceived into giving them up
to domestic servitude.
In some cases, a verbal contract or agreement may be made with
the child or with his/her parents, but the majority of the times
these terms are not honoured. Parents often have too little information
on the quality and quantity of work their children are responsible
for and for young child servants, it is too difficult to try to
question their payment with the person they depend upon for food
and shelter. Ultimately, many child servants never see the money
they have been earning. Typically, parents are poor and far away
from the employer and unable to challenge such abuses even if they
are discovered.
Many parents send their kids to work believing that they will be
entitled to continue their studies at school. Several children actually
leave their homes or are sent away by their parents, in the hope
that they will receive a better education. For the most part, these
hopes are never realized.
Many parents of child servants do not even know their rights. Even
if they do, many think twice before exercising these rights out
of fear of angering the employers who feed, shelter, and pay their
child. The employers’ high social standing and superior financial
strength can also easily discourage both child victims and parents
from seeking legal action.
Adult Unemployment
There are many reasons that explain why people hire young children
as domestic workers. Children are cheaper than adults, and they
are young, obedient, easy to control, exploit, and manipulate and
less likely to try and negotiate a fixed wage or demand respect
for their rights.
While there are no comprehensive studies linking the impact of
domestic child labour on adult domestic workers it is clear that
child servants negatively impact the wages and employment levels
of adult domestic workers.
This is true of child labour in general. Indeed, in India there
are 60 million child labourers and 65 million unemployed adults.
Clearly children do not need to be working in these jobs when there
are so many unemployed adults who would happily take them. The elimination
of child labour is thus a matter of making domestic child labour
(and child labour in general) both illegal and socially unacceptable.
Poverty
It is fairly common for a young child to be sent away from home
by their parents in order to work as a domestic servant in the city.
In some cases parents make this decision because they feel that
the opportunities presented to their child will be better in the
city. In other cases, parents send their children away because they
cannot afford to support them anymore and so require them to leave
the family home and take up employment. In other circumstances,
a child may be sent from home at a very early age and required to
earn money in order to support the family and contribute towards
their sibling's education.
The way in which these children find their employment as domestic
workers also varies. It is fairly common for parents to send their
children to a relative's house where they are expected to help with
the domestic chores in return for their food and lodging. In effect,
the relative takes on the role of 'foster parent' or 'guardian'.
Usually the child will expect to carry out light chores around the
house but be permitted to continue their education and live alongside
the family.
Alternatively, a child may be sent away from home to independently
find some means of employment in the city. Consequently, they will
work for an unknown employer where they are considered a servant
rather than a family member. In such circumstances, children have
little or no chance of going to school and face a greater risk of
abuse in their work place.
Some parents can also be persuaded to hand over their child to
an agent for a small fee. The agent normally claims that he will
find the child a good foster home in the city or nearby town, where
he/she will receive a better education and more employment opportunities.
Some parents may be aware that their children will face exploitative
levels of labour but they recognise that sending them away from
home gives their child the best chance for a better quality of life
and education.
Ultimately, however, most child servants end up in working in horrible
conditions, do not receive an education, and end up perpetuating
the cycle of poverty that persuaded their parents to send the child
away to work in the first place.
Education
61.3 percent of resident domestic girls in Brazil do not frequent
school. A survey on girl domestics in Abidjan, Ivory Coast showed
that 52.2 percent of them were illiterate, only 39 percent had attended
primary school, and 8.5 percent secondary school. A review of working
children in Phuket, Thailand found that one third of the children,
who did not attend school, did so because they were engaged in full
time in housework.
Studies on child domestic labour have shown that the majority of
child servants do not manage to continue with their education whilst
working. These studies also show that the same children have a high
regard for education and wish very much to be able to go to school
in order to learn and make friends.
In Benin, 60 percent of parents who placed their children in domestic
jobs in the city believed they would also obtain a better education
and a chance for a better life.
In Malawi, according to The Malawi 2002 child Labour Survey, 26.5
percent of child labourers never attended school; whereas 53 percent
did not complete junior primary school.
Many children begin their jobs believing that they will be entitled
to continue their studies at school. Several actually leave their
homes or are sent away by their parents, in the hope that they will
receive a better education. In Africa, there is a tradition of moving
children away from their homes and placing them in foster care as
a means to improve their education and skills. In many circumstances,
sending a daughter away is the only plausible way of ensuring that
she is educated at all.
Unfortunately, whether or not these children ever receive the education
expected by them and their families is almost entirely dependent
upon the employer or guardian. In most cases, these children and
their families are misled by false promises of a better life and
education. The children soon realise that they are expected to undertake
domestic tasks for very long hours, normally every day of the week.
As a result, they are so exhausted that it is almost impossible
for them to attend school regularly, to concentrate or to do their
homework.
Generally, employers do not see the point in providing their domestic
servant with an education because it is not necessary to be literate
in order to undertake domestic chores. Not only is education irrelevant
to domestic work it also interferes with the child domestic’s
efficiency at work. Inevitably, attending school will reduce the
number of hours they are available to work around the house.
Many employers feel that they are under no obligation to provide
a child that works for them with an education, reasoning that giving
food, shelter and sometimes a small wage to the child is already
a sufficient re-payment for the domestic work that they undertake
every day.
It is also feared that an educated domestic child worker will realise
that they do not need to be so dependant upon their employers. An
education provides a wider scope of opportunities for employment
to any child, and these jobs offer better pay and a better life
to them, one that they are able to control themselves.
Worst Forms of Child Labour
Domestic child labour has always been at the centre of the debate
on the worst forms of child labour. Some argue that it should not
be considered as one of the worst forms of child labour because
the tasks involved in domestic labour are not as dangerous or hazardous
as those presented by other forms of child labour, such as mining
and factory work. On the other hand, there are many people who strongly
believe that domestic labour is one of the most exploitative and
hazardous forms of child labour, due to is hidden nature.
ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour outlines
the conditions and types of the worst forms of child labour and
although domestic child labour is not specifically mentioned, the
contents of several of the articles clearly include the conditions
that children are subjected to as domestic servants.
Article 3(d)defines the worst forms of child labour to comprise
of:
‘Work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it
is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety and morals
of children.’
This clearly indicates that any type of child labour, which is
likely to cause physical or mental harm to the child, should be
included as one of the worst forms of child labour. Domestic child
labour is often characterised by the brutal physical treatment that
is inflicted upon the children. Several domestic children are mentally
scarred from the verbal, physical and sometimes sexual abuse that
they must endure and many signs of physical trauma remain with them
for the rest of their lives.
Indeed, domestic servitude allows children to be placed in a great
deal of personal danger. Their safety can never be assured because,
as with all informal labour, it is very hard to monitor the quality
of the workplace. Since the registration of domestic workers is
scarce and they work within the confines of a private home, setting
up and form of effective inspection system is impossible. This also
reflects on the difficulty to regulate the minimum age and wage
of domestic servants and limits the possibility of rescuing those
in danger.
Article 3 (a) states that:
‘All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery…’should
be counted as the worst forms of child labour.
Therefore any cases in which a child domestic worker is confined
to the employers home, bonded by outstanding family debts, verbally
and/or physically threatened, forced to work extremely long hours
or not remunerated for their efforts, should be considered as a
worst form of child labour. Domestic child labour has been described
as a ‘modern day form of slavery’ and is, without a
doubt one of the worst forms of labour for children.
Recommendation 190, which accompanies the ILO Convention 182, states
that:
the alleviation of the worst forms of child labour should be put
into immediate action, giving special attention to: I/2 ( c)
(i) younger children
(ii) the girl child
(iii) the problem of hidden work situations, in which girls are
at special risk
All of these criteria directly apply to the important issues surrounding
domestic child labour; the hidden nature, the employment of young
children and the particular discrimination faced by girls.
END
References:
“Helping Hands or Shackled Lives? Understanding child domestic
labour and responses to it,” report.
The Malawi 2002 Child Labour Survey
Global March Against Child Labour
Unicef.org
ILO/IPEC
WAO-Afrique
J. Ennew, Maids of all work, 1993
|
