“CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE’’ – UNLESS THEY ARE CHILD LABORERS
By Julia Suryakusuma*
In Indonesia we have many sayings regarding children: that they are entrusted upon us, that they are our good fortune (rejeki), that they are a grace from God, that they are the future of the nation.
This is for all children right? Well of course that is how it should be, but this is not the case for the 1,7 million child workers in Indonesia.
Today is World against Child Labor Day, commemorated since 2002 by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Every year they have a theme, this year’s is ““Children shouldn’t work in fields, but on dreams!”
There are a staggering estimated 152 million child workers worldwide working in every sector, dragged into “backbreaking labor, war, and sex trade […] that puts children at risk of ill health, injury or even death”.
Among these child workers, 88 million are boys, 64 million girls; 48 percent are aged between 5 and 11. Half of these child laborers are in Africa, 41 percent in Asia and the Pacific. Seven out of 10 work in agriculture which includes fishing, forestry, livestock herding and aquaculture.
Almost 73 million child laborers work in hazardous sectors (logging, construction, mining, prostitution, sex trafficking, slavery, debt bondage, etc.) and a quarter of them are children under 12 (19 million). Children are exploited as beggars, and as household servants, sometimes justified by the fact that they worked with their parent.
The situation in Indonesia is no different. Children work in the fields, plantations (palm oil, tobacco, rubber and sugar cane), the fisheries sector, in factories, mining and quarrying, scavenging, domestic work, entertainment, as well as child prostitution. They often have to carry heavy loads, are involved in dangerous farming practices, are exposed to dangerous chemicals, risking injury and ill health.
Indonesia is the biggest producer of palm oil, producing 50 percent of the world supply. Twenty percent of palm oil company workers are children.
According to a 2016 report by Amnesty International, ““They [children in palm oil plantations] run the risk of injuries from repetitive movements, carrying heavy loads and from working in an environment where they are exposed to chemicals.”
Indonesia is the world’s fifth largest tobacco producer, the second largest tobacco market after China, with an estimated 65 million smokers (aged 15+) and almost 500 thousand children (10-14, sometimes younger).
The thousands of child workers in the tobacco industry suffer from nicotine poisoning from daily contact with tobacco plants and leaves, and are also exposed to toxic pesticides and other chemicals.
As an archipelagic nation, the fisheries sector plays an important role in supporting national food security. Unfortunately, it has done so with the involvement of child workers in various stages of the industry, many hidden from the public eye. Jermal – fishing platforms 15-25 kms from the shore, measuring between 800 to 3500 m2 – are a case in point. The workers number anything from 10-16, half being children. Working hours are irregular, but are often long, work and living conditions are bad, nutrition is poor, the isolation is a prison, and obviously there is no schooling. Basically it’s slave labor and the kids are at the mercy of thejermal owners.
Poverty is the main trigger of child labor and the countries with the worst incidences of child labor are indeed countries with less developed country (LCD) status such as Bangladesh, Chad, Ethiopia, Liberia, Myanmar and Somalia.
However, there are also cultural factors that contribute to child labor: filial and family duty, child marriage, lack of education, lack of access to education, and the belief that earning money is more important than getting an education.
Are things getting better? According to the ILO World Report on Child Labor 2015 (https://ourworldindata.org/
The ILO has launched a campaign to end child labor in 2025. The Indonesian Manpower Ministry has also engaged in efforts to eliminate child labor by 2022. In 2017 they launched a “Roadmap Toward a Child Labor-Free Indonesia in 2022”. That’s great.
But we, as consumers, can also make a difference by making informed choices to not purchase products produced and sold by companies who still use child labor, so that indeed all children, can have a future, and be the future of the nation.
*A Jakarta-based writer
