May Day & Child Labour
The 1 May date was chosen by the American Federation of Labour to commemorate a general strike in the United States, which had begun on 1 May 1886 and culminated in the Haymarket affair four days later. The demonstration subsequently became a yearly event.
In 1889, the Marxist International Socialist Congress met in Paris and adopted a resolution for a “great international demonstration” in support of working-class demands for the eight-hour-day.
International Workers’ Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day.
May day and child labour, though the International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the first World Day on June 12th, Against Child Labour in 2002 as a way to highlight the plight of working children. May day’s appeal is very clear a eight-hour-day working proposal but child labour doesn’t know hours, specially for house hold maid servant.
Child labour is not merely an isolated issue, but a global mess.
According to the ILO report, 215 million children are still employed as labourers, of which 115 million are engaged under dangerous and worst forms of child labour.
According to Addis Ababa UN summit in 2010, 75 million children in the age group of 6 to 14 years are out of school.
And over the world, there are more than 100 million Domestic labourers. And most of the them are women and children. Hope is there, a Recent past, International community ILO enacted the Domestic framework, International Convention No 189 (Decent work for Domestic Workers). It guarantees the normal working hours, health care, weekly time off work, gender equality and minimum wages. This law also ensures abolishment of any coercion or discrimination at work and complete abolishment of child labour.
But the contrary that keeping maidservants has been an accepted norm in South Asian countries, and Bangladesh is not out of them. Often we hear, girl child labourer has been rescued from the homes of bigwigs in our society. We often witness with the newspaper the incidents of torture on maid working. As per a study, 80 percent of home prefer to keep children as servants, especially girls, below the age of 14, with the rest preferring adolescent girl with a minimum salary and in some cases it is out of cost only the day meals and a sincere advice.
Besides this, the poor conditions of the so-called juvenile justice homes meant for children are in conflict with the law. It is a kind of jail for children. Recent time a survey showed that Maximum percent of the workers and officials employed at a juvenile home have no knowledge of the rights of children.
And maximum percent of who is dealing with the child crime in our country, the police constable or superintendent or advocate or a NGO worker receives no training to behave with children in a friendly manner.
In fact, the tapestry in our society has been woven keeping in mind the comfort, needs, interests, and rights of adults, especially men.
When we are going to give a speech against child labour and so on, we feel no shame in sipping tea made by poor child at roadside stall, or in asking him to polish our shoes.
Nevertheless, our leaders, educationist, columnist, etc, never shy away from giving elaborate speeches on Children’s Day or on May Day year after year.
We should not forget that without ending child labour, it would not be possible to achieve the other objectives related to education, poverty, employment and gender equality. Which is marked in the SDG’s goals.
But the question is that any International or domestic law can rein the mad horse in the absence of political will, official honesty, and social consciousness etc.
According to Child rights activist novel peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi –
Children’s rights are not something that can be realized only with the help of law. It requires a sea change in our thinking, behavior and lifestyle. In fact, there is a need to establish a culture that values children’s rights. A beginning will have to be made, where people learn to respect childhood and to develop a friendly bond with children by winning their trust -at home, in school and in our public life.
An awareness of child safety also needs to be created among the common people.
Tomorrow, when every child takes her elders to task, will we have any answer to give her?
So at the end of the saying, I think now it is time to rethink, will we go forward or remain in mess.
Writer – Abdullah Al Hadi
Poet and Literateur and President of the 31st BCS Cadre Association.
[Sources – Will For children, Words Matter, Every Child Matters by Kailash Satyarthi. C189 – Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189). National Child Policy 2011. Internet and others.]
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C189
http://ecd-bangladesh.net/document/documents/National-Children-Policy-2011-English-04.12.2012.pdf