Lanka has a million child labours
By Charu Lata Joshi
The Times of India News Service
COLOMBO: A recent survey conducted by the International Labor Organisation
(ILO) shows that close to a million children in Sri Lanka are employed as
labor. Conducted under the aegis of the International Programme for
Elimination of Labor (IPEL), the sample survey was carried out among 14,400
housing units across the island, barring the north-eastern provinces, and
brings the shocking reality of child labor into focus once again.
Figures put together by the Child Activity Survey, as it is called, show
that nearly 25 per cent of Sri Lanka's total child population of 4.3
million, is engaged in some economic activity or the other. While Sri Lankan
laws define a child as a person under 14 years and a young person between 14
and 18 years, the ideal age of employment is regarded as 16 years for
beginning vocational training. However, the recently released survey shows
that the children in Sri Lanka are employed between the ages 5
to 14. The survey also showed that 20 per cent of the 85,906 children
dropped out of school to do a job; 12 per cent stopped schooling due to
financial difficulty and 11 per cent didn't continue school due to the
uncertainty of higher education.
`Working children', in the survey, have been categorised as paid
employees,self-employed and those who worked in family enterprises but were
unpaid.The number of domestic workers reported in the survey is 19,110 (2.3
per cent) of the total working children population. "However," says Jayanthi
Liyanage, senior programme manager at UNICEF, "there is a tendency to
conceal proper information on children who are working as domestics, as such
this should be treated as an underestimate." The survey also reveals that
most of the cases of child abuse are reported from urban households in
Colombo, which employ children as servants. Most of these children come from
poverty stricken plantation areas where parents are unable to feed and
clothe children. The recent survey has been welcomed by child activists who
feel that such reliable and detailed data will help government planners and
international agencies to work out a common strategy to help children in
need.
For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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