File photo shows a Cambodian boy and girl pulling handcarts as they scavenge for recycled goods on a street of Phnom Penh. Some 1.5 million Cambodians under the age of 14 are being forced to work, often in hazardous conditions, a prominent rights group said Thursday at the start of a campaign to combat child labour.Thursday • August 30, 2007
AFP
Some 1.5 million Cambodians under the age of 14 are being forced to work, often in hazardous conditions, a prominent rights group said Thursday at the start of a campaign to combat child labour.
"The reality of poverty is that it is indiscriminate and affects not only adults but also children," the group Licadho said in a statement.
"This sadly forces many young children to engage in domestic and manual labour to support their families, with a large proportion working under severe conditions."
Nearly 90 percent of child labourers in Cambodia, one of the world's poorest countries, work as unpaid help for their families, according to the World Bank.
About 250,000 of them work in seven of the 16 sectors nationally recognised as hazardous, which include begging, waste scavenging, factory work or mining, the bank says.
Both the World Bank and rights groups have urged tougher legislation that would curb such practices.
Following years of civil unrest and government mismanagement, Cambodia remains mired in poverty, with 35 percent of its 14 million people living on less than 50 US cents per day.
Education often becomes the first victim in the daily struggle to survive, with a majority of child labourers being forced out of school at an early age.
"These children do not have an opportunity to receive an education and most of them face exploitation and physical and verbal abuse, every day," Licadho said.
The group this month launched a two-year awareness-raising campaign that hopes to expose employers and government officials to the dangers faced by child labourers.
"Governmental authorities, civil society and the private sector must work together to rescue child labourers and provide them with physical and mental rehabilitation services," the group said.
"The reality of poverty is that it is indiscriminate and affects not only adults but also children," the group Licadho said in a statement.
"This sadly forces many young children to engage in domestic and manual labour to support their families, with a large proportion working under severe conditions."
Nearly 90 percent of child labourers in Cambodia, one of the world's poorest countries, work as unpaid help for their families, according to the World Bank.
About 250,000 of them work in seven of the 16 sectors nationally recognised as hazardous, which include begging, waste scavenging, factory work or mining, the bank says.
Both the World Bank and rights groups have urged tougher legislation that would curb such practices.
Following years of civil unrest and government mismanagement, Cambodia remains mired in poverty, with 35 percent of its 14 million people living on less than 50 US cents per day.
Education often becomes the first victim in the daily struggle to survive, with a majority of child labourers being forced out of school at an early age.
"These children do not have an opportunity to receive an education and most of them face exploitation and physical and verbal abuse, every day," Licadho said.
The group this month launched a two-year awareness-raising campaign that hopes to expose employers and government officials to the dangers faced by child labourers.
"Governmental authorities, civil society and the private sector must work together to rescue child labourers and provide them with physical and mental rehabilitation services," the group said.
1 comment:
It all begins with jobs. Well maybe it begins with having a place to stay or where people want to be too, but even the best weather and the greatest natural beauty will not keep farmers at home when there is no food to eat and money coming into the household, and in fact, some were forced out of their property by the land grabbers. Most of people in the workforce are still engaged in agriculture, forestry, and fishing. Foreign investment is essential to job creation in Cambodia. Concerns among foreign investors about political instability and corruption have resulted in limited foreign capital inflows and only slow improvements in job opportunities. An additional obstacle to foreign investment and job creation has been the country's lack of a trained and experienced labor force possessing the desired productive skills.
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