20. Child Labor: A Moral Dilemma?

I find that if I share my story to the people it makes them understand what education can change. That is Kinsu Kumar, he comes from a slum in India. At the age of six years old, Kinsu started working as a car cleaner and domestic helper. Instead of playing and learning, he contributed to his family's income. Today, Kinsu is a mechanical engineer. My life has been changed. This is one of the examples what education can create. Every child, either he is from a poor family or from a rich family. If they are given equal opportunities and chances, they can equally grow up and equally shine and be what they want to be. This is Finding Humanity, and I'm your host, Hizami Burmata. Through personal stories of courage and purpose, our podcast puts a human face on the most critical human rights and social justice issues facing our world. In each episode, we aim to educate and inspire you to take action, and together to help create a better world. Kinsu was born in a poor community in Uttar Pradesh, a north-eastern state in India. He is the eldest of seven children. His dad was a taxi driver and the family could barely make ends meet with the money that he earned. When Kinsu was a child, he helped his dad by cleaning his taxi. He also assisted his mother in cooking and looking after his younger siblings. While working at home, Kinsu remembers seeing other children on their way to school. They had books, they had a bag every morning they get up and I see them going to school with the uniform. And then I always thought that this is something which I would also love to aspire and go to school. Being isolated at home, Kinsu yearned for friendship. I never had friends at that age because all the children, those who were in school, they were more friends with each other. So I could never go mingle with them because they had their own groups with their friends who were going to school. So it was very hard to get involved with other children who were living in my neighbors. But even as a small child, Kinsu understood why he couldn't attend school. At the very early age, I also understand the limitations of my father or the conditions of my family. Like in Kinsu's case, poverty is a key contributor to child labor. There is no parent that will choose child labor for the childrens. That is solely Dada Rero. She is the chief of child protection in India for UNICEF. There is always some level of economic stress and pressure that leads parents to take those decisions. Some studies have shown that 1% of increased poverty leads actually to unincrease as well of around 0.7% in child labor. A lot of people hear the word child labor. What does child labor actually mean? What is considered child labor? It's actually a great question because child labor is much more complex than what it sounds. Formals because not every working situation of a child is considered child labor. There are children that are in employment and it's actually legal. But when we talk about child labor, we are talking about situations in which the laborer and the working is going to lead to the child being put at risk, the development of the child being compromised, and also the education opportunities for children to be hindered. Solidarity explains that the consequences of child labor can be detrimental, not only for the children, but also for subsequent generations. Child labor has a very strong impact on the health of the children to start with. There are estimations that calculated around 22,000 children are killed at work every year. And of course the physical injuries and disabilities might also be accompanied or highly likely to be accompanied by trauma and distress. There are going to survive and accompany the child during their adult hold as well. It has a tremendous toll on the development of the children. Even in the best case scenario where the child might actually attend the school, the actual learning or the great completion is likely to be extremely low. Unfortunately, child labor begets child labor and perpetuates intergenerational poverty. The chances of parents that were working when they were children making or leaning towards having their kids working when they are children is much more likely because they didn't have the education. And because perhaps they are not fully aware of the opportunity cost that putting children into child labor is going to take. By perpetuating poverty, child labor also affects economic development. We need to look at child labor not from the perspective only from the individual violation, which is bad enough, but also from the cost that it has to society's countries and economies. Child labor at the end of the day, it undermines the social capital of a country, depriving potential workforce to achieve their food potential and leaving part of the workforce that are children highly un-skilled. It has been found by some studies that for every dollar that you invest in stopping child labor, you will get a returning investment of around $7. So we are talking about seven-fold returning investment when any government or any country comments do ending child labor. Despite this, it is estimated that there are around 152 million children engaged in child labor. That is nearly one in every 10 children around the world. Around 70% of children engaged in child labor work in the agricultural sector. The rest are involved in the services and industry sectors. However, because a great amount of child labor takes place in private settings, it is not always easy to identify. What is a child helping their family business, what is a proper child labor, it is not oftentimes clear and obviously it makes their recounting of child labor much more difficult to be asserted. There is one area in which children get involved and work and that is particularly concerned especially for girls, which is the domestic service. This is probably one of the most hidden unreported and less understood sector. Some of the other sectors, which is part of the worst forms of child labor that are also types of exploitation, that are particularly concerning, that are also prevalent and are in the darkest sites of societies and situations, like the issues of commercial sexual exploitation and also the use of children for fighting by armed groups basically. Children living in countries affected by armed conflict are especially susceptible to child labor, with an incidence of 77% higher than the global average. We also know that child labor often leads to more human rights violations. Child labor can happen in the form of trafficking and also in the form of slavery. It is estimated that around 20% of the victims of forced labor and slavery in the world are actually children. It is also estimated that there is at least one million children that are victims of commercial sexual exploitation. And again, we need to realize that the children, they are in the critical stage of their lives, but they are also docile and more manipulable. And there is a clear side incentive for some of these illicit activities to be looking for children and being predators of children for their activities. For this reason, many have led and joined the fight to abolish child labor. Bachpan Bacho Andolan is a movement in India that campaigns for the rights of children. It was started by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi. India, there were at least 50 million children working in full-time jobs. It's a denial of childhood and that is unacceptable. Kinsu's father came in contact with the movement through a march they organized. 180 members of the Indian parliament participated in the 15,000 kilometer, 115-day march across the country. That march has not only impacted my life or my dad, but also it has changed the future of millions of children of our country. And that's because that march was organized for the making education as a fundamental right. That march and subsequent efforts by the movement resulted in the rights of children to free and compulsory education act. The act enacted in 2009 by members of the Indian parliament makes education for children between the ages of six to 14 compulsory and free. But the march also had an impact at a personal level. It encouraged many families to enroll their children in school. After learning about the impacts of child labor, Kinsu's dad decided to send his son to a rehabilitation center. Kinsu was seven years old when he left home to go to Balashram. He feels lucky because it wasn't too late for him to have a healthy educational journey. But that wasn't the case for many of the children that he met there. I have my children who have even problem with what they don't have very much words to express what they think or what they see. Because the circumstances they have lived or they were bonded or they were prefaced or they were kept as such places where they could hardly express themselves or speak with other people while staying at Balashram as a child. I have been with them and listened their stories and it was very hard for them to even come out from that trauma or come out from their past experience. At Balashram, Kinsu and other children had the opportunity to develop their skills and to recover their childhood. After coming to this place, they are free to laugh, they are free to cry, they are free to fight to each other and they can learn anything they want, they can go to school. Most important, we all get to know about our own rights that this is wrong, this is right, this is something nobody can do with us, nobody can make slave to us, nobody can force us to work. At Balashram, Kinsu learned that child labor goes against international law. The practice is condemned by the United Nations Convention on the rights of a child, the world's most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. The international labor organization also prohibits child labor. One of its conventions requires states to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. Another mandates them to establish a minimum age for entry into work and is the first ILO convention to be universally ratified. But that doesn't mean that child labor is on its way to a eradication or even a major reduction just because governments have ratified the convention. That is Jason Judd, executive director at Cornell University's New Conversations Project, which focuses on improving global labor practices. They have to then figure out how they're going to write that into national law. That's not particularly hard. And then they have to figure out how they're going to implement it and what they're going to do to enforce it at the workplace level, how they're going to do that in the formal economy, how they're going to do that in the informal economy. And there's a little too much emphasis on ratification of conventions, while that's important and getting the legal framework right is important. Just as important is what follows. The implementation of the law, the enforcement at the workplace level. And that includes not just places where it might be easy to see in a seafood processing or in a peril factory, but in places where it's harder to see where families are working informally. And especially in agriculture, which is where we see most of the child labor around the world. Because many of the goods we consume are often the product of child labor. Global corporations also bear the responsibility. The U.S. Department of Labor identified at least 148 consumer goods in the United States produced by child labor. The list includes clothing, beef, sugar, bricks, coffee, and other products originating from 76 countries. Consumers acting on their own can only do so much. It's incumbent on the big buyers running these vast global supply chains to pay attention to the right things. And that includes child labor and the worst forms of child labor. They have to make sure that their suppliers understand how important the issue is and they have to verify that there's compliance. And when there's not, there have to be consequences. The relationship between the governments, the big buyers, for example, Nike, H&M, Walmart, Costco. The relationship between those big buyers and the governments and their suppliers in these individual countries is enormously important. When looking into solutions to child labor, we must also address the root causes. There are not magic policies that will eradicate child labor unless we look at the socio-economic and root causes of child labor continuing to happen. That is solid that again. So when we talk to solutions, the most cost-efficient measure priority intervention that we should look at is education. So the antidote for child labor or the first antidote for child labor should and must remain providing education opportunities. Education opportunities that prioritize those children that belong to the most marginalized communities. Education opportunities that provide also opportunities for those children that were out of school, the drop out earlier to catch up. And also education opportunities that can also involve in education learning. Those children that were not able to follow the formal education path. The stopping child labor is absolutely critical not only because it affects, you want the morals and the human rights of individuals. But it will hinder and interact the growth and the achievement of the full potential of children that at the end of the day are going to become adults. It's going to become a child that spends his or her childhood in child labor is going to become a liability, a liability for the family, a liability for the society. And it's going to only lead to more poverty and more child labor in the future. Children are going to become parents one day is going to perpetuate intergenerational poverty. It's going to hinder the social fabric of any country and it's going to make communities and societies have an opportunity cost in terms of what is the potential and what is the possibilities of turning these children into productive members of society. Kinsu is a living example of how stopping child labor can benefit our society. After being at Al Ashram for six months he enrolled in school and went on to become a mechanical engineer. In college he started an initiative to tutor children in neighboring villages. Kinsu has also testified as a former child laborer at international congressional hearings and has become an ambassador for the rights of children. People say that children are our future and we should look after them but I believe that they are our today and we need to look after them today and then only we can have a good future. If we are doing something for them, either it's society or me or the people or the government, it's not we are doing any kindness or mercy to them by helping them. It's their own rights and it's our collective responsibility that we should look after them and we should see that no childhood is taken away from a child. While there are many reasons that contribute to child labor, we hope that this episode gave you insights into the conditions that enable it. Child labor is something that we have the power to eradicate. Through our podcast we aim to educate and inspire you to take action. There are many ways to do that. Here are just a few suggestions. First, on an individual level, be a responsible consumer. Do research to understand where the products that you buy come from and the conditions under which they were made. Second, if a company that you like engages in child labor or does not regulate its supply chain, advocate for change, write a letter, write an op head or use your social media to expose it. Where you spend your money matters. And third, keep your eyes open to exploitation that may be happening around you. If you see a situation that seems exploitative, report it or learn more about it and see how you can help. To learn more about child labor and how it impacts global communities, use the educational toolkit that we've prepared on our website. Post a teaching, share it with your friends, colleagues and community. Knowledge is power and you have the power to inspire real change. To learn more about this episode, check out the links to resources on our show notes and on our website findinghumanitypodcast.com. I invite you to please subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. And if you've enjoyed finding humanity, please share it and leave us a review. To learn more about topics in our podcast and other opportunities to engage with us, follow us on Instagram and Twitter @find_humanity and on Facebook @findinghumanitypodcast. In our podcast, we cover pressing and at times controversial, social and political issues. The views and opinions expressed are those of the interviewees and do not reflect the positions or opinions of the producers or any affiliated organizations. Finding Humanity is a joint production of the Humanity Lab Foundation and Human Group Media. Our executive producer is Camille Lorente. Associate producer is Fernanda Oriegas, Assistant Producer is Diana Galbraith, Associate Production, Policy and Research by Martina Vanat, Aisha Amin and Carolina Mendica, mixing editing and music by Maverick Aquino. For this episode, I'd like to thank Kinsu Kumar, Soli Dad Erero and Jason Judd. I'm your host, Hizami Bermada. Thank you for listening and I look forward to seeing you on our next episode. [Music] [Music]