The impacts of Child Labour on the Development of Children

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1     Background of the Study

When speaking of child labour, it is important to go beyond the concept of child work to include the hazardous and exploitative engagement of children in works that threaten the development of the child and society. Yadar and Senguta (2009) argue that not all work done by children is to be classified as child work. According to the united Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF, 2001), child work is seen as work in which its primary emphasis is on the learning, training or socialization of the child, such that the work schedule is flexible and tends to enhance the development capacity of the child. Therefore, the participation of children in works that do not impede their health and personal development or interfere with schooling is generally regarded as a contribution to their development and as such these activities will provide them those skills and experience that would prepare them to become productive members of the society during adult life. On the other hand, child labour has been defined by UNICEF (2001) as a work that is essentially exploitative and injurious to physical, social, cognitive and moral development of the child. In the views of the International Labour Organization (ILO, 2002), child labour and work in a dangerous or unhealthy environment, with too much responsibilities for their age and at the expense of their schooling. In same vein, Oloko (1993) referred to child labour as work carried out at the detriment and endangerment of the child mentally, socially, physically and morally. To this effect, child labour is characterized by the denial of a child’s right to education and other opportunities. It is also the separation of a child from the family which as a cell of the society should an agent of socialization and integration, in longer hours of strenuous work. The separation of children from their families and subjecting them to poor working conditions such as long working hours, poor working environment, heavy work regardless of age, or gender, predisposes to various hazards.

When one ponders over the subject of child labour, many ideas and view come to mind. One might relate child labour to child trafficking, infringing on the child’s fundamental human rights, child abuse, exposing the child to arduous works, difficult tasks, hazardous environment, interfering with their physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. While  most organization and agencies such as International Labour Organization (ILO) and United nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) which denote child labour view the subject as listed above, Oloko (1994) added that child labour subjects a child to economic exploitation and deny the child’s educational opportunity and cognitive development. Adige (1998) observes that without education, these children are trapped in the poverty cycle and opportunities for good employment and severally limited ensuring another generation of child labour. Ezewu and tahir (1997) observed from a study in three riverine areas in the south-south zone that 76 of children aged or 6-16 were not attending school, either because of the difficulties to the access to school or the involvement of the children in fishing. In the rural areas, agricultural activities are major obstacle to school enrollment and attendance; even when they are formally enrolled, they are sometimes pulled out from school to assist in farming activities during peak period of the year.

Traditionally, children have always worked with their families learning skills they would need as adults, but today they are forced to work for their own families ‘survival. The money earned by these children has now become a significant part of their families’ income (Oyekunle, 1984). The few studies undertaken by Chukwem et al (1989); Adedoyin and Adegoke (1985); UNICEF (1999), Oloko (1991) have indicate that poverty is the main driver of child labour and they believe that until concrete measures are taken to reduce poverty, the rate of child labour will still increase, threatening the development of many children. Furthermore, child labour according to UNICEF (2002) consist of the following:

1. Labour in public places such as motor parks along traffic lights, market, streets, and bus-stop areas.
2. Labour in cottage industries, mechanical workshops and domestic services in private houses.

These labours include: vendors/market, market shop minders, beggars, shoes shine boys, car washers/watches, scavangers, head loaders. Hodges (2001) opines that street hawking has been observed to be the largest form of child labour, probably accounting for over half of the total urban child labour./ those who work in cottage industries and mechanical workshop include; apprentice mechanics, vulcanizers, bus conductors, iron and metal workers, carpenters, tailors, weavers, barbers, hairdressers, waiters/waitress, workers in the catering industries (Hodges 2001). Domestic service is another common practice of child labour which includes: maid/servants, cleaners etc. these set  of labourers who work in more preposterous families are the least visible categories of working children and are often exposed to sexual harassment (UNICEF 2001). In view of this, there have been several declarations on the global arena on how to curb rising tide of child labour, among these declarations are; International Labour Organization (ILO), conventions on the elimination of Child Labour, United nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Declarations of the Rights of Children, Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs), the Statistical Information and Monitoring Programme on Child Labour Survey (SIMPOLCLS) and many others. In spite of these concerns, child labour has continued unabated, showing that a more reliable approach might be to identify the root causes of the problem in the society, tacking it from there (Margaret 2008).  Thus, this study seeks to investigate the devastating impact of child labour on the development of Nigeria, specifically Uyo, and to proffer pertinent suggestions on how best to curb the menace.

Though restriction on child labour exists in most nations, many children do work. This vulnerable state leaves them prone to exploitation. The International Labour Officer reports that children work the longest hours and the worst paid of all laborers (Bequele and Boyden 1988). They endure work conditions which include health hazards and potential abuse. Employers capitalize on the docility of the children recognizing that these labours cannot legally form union changes their conditions. Such manipulation stifles the development of youths. Their working conditions do not provide the stimulation for proper physical and mental development. Finally, these children are deprived of the simple joys of childhood, relegated instead to a life of drudgery.

However, there are problems with the obvious solution of abolishing child labour. First, there is no international agreement defining child labour. Countries not only have different minimum age work restrictions, but also have varying regulation based on the type of labour. This makes the limits the limits of child labour very ambiguous. Most would agree that a six-year-old is too young to work, but whether the same can be said about a twelve-year-old is debatable. Until there is global agreement which can isolate cases of child labour, it will be very hard to abolish. There is also the view that work can help a child terms of socialization, in building self-esteem and for training (Collins 1983). The problem is, then, not Child labour itself, but the conditions under which it operates (Boyden 1991).

1.2     Statement of the Problem

The study was informed by the unabated continuation of the problem of child labour in the society in the city of Uyo, in Akwa Ibom State. The dimension and frequency of child labour in recent years are becoming complicated by the day. It is one of the saddest reality of our societal life that children who are expected to be the leaders of tomorrow are so involved in all forms labour the inimical to growth and the development of their society. As patrinos and Pschapopoulous (1995) pointed out, child labour prohibits genuine development, and creates social problems with serious consequences, thus thwarting the social development of the nation (Grootaert and Kanbur 1995). The child labour epidemic has generated great concern particularly among scholars and policy makers. Obviously, Nigerian government has made several attempts to check child labour. In order to address the problem of child labour, the government at various levels has come to rely on certain policies such as educational policies (Ukommi 2010). In 1976, the federal government in conjunction with the state government implemented the Universal Primary Education (UPE) policy and one of the aims of that policy was to remove a large number of poor children from the streets by granting them access to education (Umar, 1978).

In 2009, the Akwa Ibom State governments declared that education at the primary and secondary school levels would be free and compulsory. It went on to upgrade and extend infrastructures in schools across the state, supply  books and other teaching aids, pay examination fees for students, abolish all forms of fees for students, abolish all forms of fees in schools and reintroduced closed monitoring and supervision of schools particularly in the conduct of examination for students in SS2 for the purpose of placement in SS3 and reinvigorated inter/intra schools debate and competition, in addition National Poverty Eradication Programme (NPEP) launched conditional cash transfer programme that will provide funds to households under condition that their children remain in school.

Unfortunately, all remedial measures applied to curb child labour seemed to have failed to provide lasting solutions to the problem, parents still send their children to hawk during school hours while some are given out for domestic services as washing, cleaning, looking after children and elderly people in the family. This has remained major concern of the study, as a result, this study is prompted to focus on why child labour has persisted despite all efforts to combat it, the study also intends to find out what else can be done to reduce child labour and bring long lasting solutions to this problem so that it may not constitute an impediment to the development of the child and nation in the future.

1.3     Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this was to examine the impacts of child labour on the development of children in Uyo. Other objectives include;

1. To know the impact of child labour on the academic performance of children of children in the city of Uyo.
2. To find out if poverty is cause of child labour in Uyo.

• To know the working children’s perception of themselves as child labourers.

1. To examine the way in which labour can constitute an impediment to the future development of the child and Nigeria.
2. To investigate the efforts of government and Non-Governmental Organization in eradicating child labour in Uyo.