CHILD LABOUR: Sri Lanka Parliament last week amended Act No.47 of 1956 which deals with the Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children empowering the authorities concerned to penalise those who violate the law by imposing a fine of Rs.10,000 plus one year imprisonment.

Here I wish to deal with Child Labour as this is a matter that has caused much concern among our society which traditionally has a deep love for our children than many others do.

To parents, children remain children in this part of the world although they grow, get married and settle down.

When we speak of child labour or employing children, we are talking about children forced to labour without their consent and with no respect to the rights of the child. We refer to the worst form of labour which is very much similar to slavery.

From the child population employed, 10 to 12 per cent children are involved in hazardous work. Hazardous work exposes children to physical, psychological, sexual abuse, working in mines, at dangerous heights or in confined places. With dangerous machinery, equipment and tools involving manual handling or transporting heavy loads. Working long hours, during nights, under confinement and working in an unhealthy environment, exposed to hazardous substances, temperatures, noise levels or vibrations damaging to health.

Sri Lanka is a signatory to the International Convention on Child Labour. The Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No.182) of 1999 declared the trafficking of girls and boys under 18 years of age, a practice similar to slavery, and as such, a worst form of child labour.

By ratifying the Convention Sri Lanka commits herself to pursuing a national policy designed to prohibit and eliminate all worse forms of child labour including child trafficking and child abuse.

In the world 14 per cent children work as domestic aides while the figure in Sri Lanka is not very well known. But statistics suggest that while nearly a million children between the ages of 5 to 17 are pushed into forced labour, around 50,000 to 60,000 children - mostly girls - work as domestic aides.

Combining all these figures together one could draw a picture of the child population forced into labour. Percentage-wise it would be around 25 per cent of the child population in Sri Lanka are employed.

A majority of these children pushed into forced labour are thrusts into heavy work under horrific condition and beyond their ability.

They are abused and exploited. However the one million children mentioned above do not include the children involved in sex trade, phonography or prostitution. They comprise 20 per cent of girls and 10 per cent of boys who are in some way or other involved in the sex trade.

Introducing the Amendment to the existing law, Labour Relation and Foreign Employment Minister Athauda Seneviratne told the House of Parliament that the Amendment was necessitated as the original law did not cover the children under 14 to 17 being used in hazardous employment.

Trafficking in children is a contemporary form of slavery. That is one of the worst forms of child labour under the ILO Convention and needs be eliminated.

It is considered a pernicious violation of human rights that reduces victims of child trafficking to mere commodities to be bought, sold, transported, resold for sexual exploitation, domestic service, work in plantations, construction sites, mines, sweat shops or for begging. Thus it becomes an entry point to other forms of child labour.

According to the law of the land a child is recognized as one being under 14 years of age, youth between 14 to 17 and the rest as adults.

The amendment brought to the Act No 47 of 1956 and adopted by the House of Parliament promise protection to these children categorised under the ages 5 to 17 - both children and youth.

During the debate in the House of Parliament it was disclosed that the State has identified 30 types of employment as hazardous and 41 per cent of the employment which do exploit children. These come under harassment, sexual exploitation and forced labour.

The ILO is of the view that the children are typically recruited from poor, rural, male-dominated, patriarchal communities with low levels of education and they are expected to contribute to the family income and the children have little say in decisions that concern them.

True there is stark poverty in society, in families but does that warrant parents or guardians to part with their children in this way by condemning them into some form of labour. It amounts to an inhuman act.

A paper presented in March 2001 by the ILO on International Program on Eliminations of Child Labour discussed at length about the Worst Form of Child Labour Recommendations No.190 and it concluded that: "detailed information and statistical data on the nature and extent of child labour should be complied and kept up to date to serve as a basis for determining priorities for national action for the abolition of child labour, in particular for the prohibition and elimination of its worst forms, as a matter of urgency".

In the Asian region there is evidence to show an increase in child trafficking although the picture is not that bad in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, the country has been named as a victim of trafficking children for labour, prostitution and for other purposes.

Apart from the Probation and Child-care Department, Sri Lanka also boast of having one more institution to look after children: viz The National Child Protection Authority.

This was established with a view to cover all children and for their welfare. But with all that the question that rises in our mind is: "Do we really love children?" This is a question each parent of this country should ask oneself and ponder upon as they are parents responsible for their children.

In newspapers we sometimes read how parents give away their children to the rich and even to foreigners who come here with ulterior motives, because of poverty. We also read of children found by the wayside. There are also the types known as street children. Will the Amendment passed have its bearing on these children.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child applies to all children under the age of 18. Will the present amendment help to tackle the multifarious problems associated with exploited children. or will it be another piece of legislation limited to paper.

It is up to the Labour Relation and Foreign Employment Minister to see that law is implemented in the most severe terms so that no child is exploited or neglected. No Child shall be forced to into hazardous labour.

No child should be abused. The law should ensure that every child has the right to privacy and the right to education, play and live in the right environment. They should not be discriminated on the basis of their colour, sex, race or religion or their views.