Hundreds of millions of girls and boys around the world are engaged in work that deprives them of education, health and basic freedoms. More than half are stuck in the worst forms of child labor—slavery, drug trafficking, war and sex work. This Sunday marks World Day Against Child Labor, and I join the International Labor Organization in raising awareness of and condemning these widespread egregious human rights violations. But we should also be careful that our desire to end the exploitation of children doesn't end up doing harm to many of those we're trying to help.
In the Western world, when we think of child labor, we probably imagine a kid slaving away in a dirty, sweltering factory, under the eye of an abusive boss. In reality, however, this is only a tiny percentage of the work children do. The majority of children in resource-poor and crisis-affected environments are economically active. They help their families in business; they do handiwork and domestic work; they do physical labor and sell items on the street. In the absence of a social safety net, a child's contribution to the household economy can mean the difference between the family eating and going hungry, siblings attending school or not. Hundreds of thousands of households around the world are headed by children who must work to survive and to keep their families going.
Everyone agrees that children should be playing and learning. Nobody wants kids to be missing school or putting themselves in harm's way for the sake of earning a living. But the idea of children's work cannot be condemned outright. Working children in earthquake-ravaged Haiti or flooded areas of Pakistan, for example, are essential to their families' well-being. Until they can be provided with relevant educational opportunities, and until their community's economy bounces back, we have to accept that they may have to work. In these cases, the task of those of us in the humanitarian field is to help them do it safely, and in a way that respects their rights.
For some adolescents, working—provided it is safe work—can even be protective. If they don't have safe work opportunities, they may have to resort to survival sex, crime and violence to support themselves and their families.
Ironically, one of the keys to eradicating harmful child labor is making employment and self-employment central to the mission of schools and education programs. This is especially true for kids who have dropped out of school or who never attended in the first place. These children don't have the luxury of going to school for the mere sake of getting an education. If school isn't seen as a place that can help kids earn a better living, families may not be willing to spend the time and money on education. Many countries have found success with education that focuses on learning and earning, and these approaches should be rolled out more widely.
Over and over, the conflict- or disaster-displaced boys and girls we talk to say they value the economic contribution they make by bringing in income to their families and running the household. Earning money is often the first priority they mention in interviews. In fact, a growing body of evidence shows that adolescents gaining work skills and experience leads to better outcomes in terms of their leadership skills, school grades and health. They are also less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol or resort to violence.
In spite of these realities, many of us who work on livelihood issues (the strategies that enhance a person's ability to make a living) treat the economic contributions of children as an after-thought. Too often, agencies fail to engage around issues of children's work because they fear accusations that they are encouraging harmful child labor. The ILO conventions do not allow adolescents to find employment even if they are already out of school and have no chance of continuing their schooling. The UN's child protection agency, UNICEF, has an ambiguous position on livelihood programs for children, even as many of its country offices engage orphans and vulnerable children in livelihood support activities out of necessity.
It's high time we bring children's work onto the radar of governments and international agencies—putting an immediate stop to that which violates fundamental human rights and supporting that which empowers kids to make a better life.
To learn more, see the Plan International paper: “A place for work in children's lives?”
WRC's Josh Chaffin leads the Global Task Force on Livelihoods, Economic Strengthening and Child Protection, looking at ways to get better outcomes for children from livelihoods programs in crisis-affected countries.