Child Labour in Agriculture
What is not Child Labour? Anything that does not hamper the physical and mental development of a child is not child labour. Let me tell you a story; Once a 10 yrs boy was seen sleeping on the street and collecting plastics by a couple. When the couple asked the people of that place, they knew he was an orphan. They took him to their house and provided him with good food, clothing, and admitted to the school where their children were admitted. But after school, he had to work for them. While other children were playing, he would be working. Now tell me one thing, does this fall under the child labour? whether or not a particular form of work can be called child labour depends on:
- Children's age
- Type and hours of work performed
- The condition under which it is performed
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| A girl working on a farm |
A child is a person younger than 18 years of age. The engagement of such younger person in prohibited works and activities which hampers the physical and mental development is socially and morally undesirable. The activities like slavery, child trafficking, sexual exploitation, hazardous child labour, using a child in illegal activities, etc fall under the worst form of child labour.
| Level of work | The minimum age for employment (In General) | The minimum age for employment (In Developing Countries) |
| General work | 15 years | 14 years |
| Light Work | 13 years | 12 years |
| Hazardous Work | 18 years | 18 years |
Not every child working in Agriculture falls under child labour. However, 70% of the child labour falls in agriculture and in both developed and developing countries. Child labour has always been a burning issue in Nepal. There are many papers work to stop child labour in Nepal but the actuality in practice and the text resonate differently. Politicians are using this issue to win the election and some students group provide some reading materials or food or clothing and organize speeches and Bragg it in their circles as if they have done great help. Farming in Nepal is uncommercialized to some extent. The farming operations are carried by the family labourers. Children also go to their farms with their parents and work and play with nature. About 80% of the children work in the farms accompanying their parents and are unpaid. However, this cannot be considered as child labour. A 14-year-old girl in rural areas spends 19 hours on the farm with their family and the remaining hour helping in household works. According to CWIN, all children aged 5 to 14 regularly work on the farm. As expected the number of girl labourers is more than that of boys in rural areas. Among the working children, about 64 percent go to school and 36 percent do not go to school. However, the situation is not the same anymore. According to a survey conducted by ILO, child labour is decreasing which is a good sign.
What are the Laws?
Nepal has always been participating in various international conventions of the UN actively and signed many programmes with an expectation of abolishing child labour and restoring their rights. Nepal has passed many laws with the commitment to uproot child labour and they are just passing laws after laws. Child labour might have been terminated to some extent but still, the condition is not good. I believe Child labour need to be ended just like Sati Pratha but the irony is time is not the same. We were monarch then but now we are a proud democratic country where the corruption, ignorance and illegal activities are at the top. I rather prefer to call it the exploitation of Democracy. The following laws would bolster the initiation of effective action against child labour and provide legal provisions of stopping the child labour or the minimum age of children to work.
- Children's Act 1992
- Child Labour Prohibition And Regulation Act 2000
- Kamaiya Labour Prohibition Act 2002
- Human Trafficking And Transportation Control Act 2007
- The Citizen Rights Act 1995
- The Prison Act 1962
- Foreign Employment Act 2007
Why do children work on farms?
If you really intend to obliterate the child labour, then you must be aware of the reasons behind it. Let me tell you one thing; Giving food, clothing, reading materials and organizing speeches in Children's day won't help the situation. The question is why do the children have to work o the farm? Like other children, they also have the right to go to school, right to play, but are ended up working on the farms. Furthermore, they don't earn much and are not even considered as a contributor to the national economy despite such labour. What is the obligation that they have to work at such a young age?
- Poverty: Poverty is the main reason driving the child labour in Nepal. Suppose you are poor and it is difficult for you to eat even twice a day and you have two children. Will you send them to school? I don't think you will. Same goes to most of the families in Nepal. In such a condition the parents would think about how to eat rather sending their children to school and as a result of which children have to work. The education system of Nepal is not that much practical. The children would learn skills that are needed in life by working in the farms instead of going to school. we used to read a subject named population in school and there was this thing; the parents are poor so they will give birth to as many children they can thinking that they will earn more and they would become rich. I think it is somewhat true when we look at the farming families of the Terai region.
- Unemployment: The rate of unemployment in Nepal is high. When parents are unemployed, they want their children to earn and then they will force the children to work regardless of their age. The boy is supposed to work on the farm and the girl would help the mother in household works.
- Illiteracy: When you are illiterate, you are ignorant and can not distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. Due to the lack of education, the parents are obliterated of the importance of sending their children to school. They think that your aim is to earn money no matter which way you go, then why not start working early.
- Gender discrimination: I find it as one of the important factors to determine the reasons for child labour. According to a survey, the girls working on the farm are more than that of the boys. Parents discriminate between their children. They will send their son to school but not their daughter because they think that the daughters are to be given to others so why to waste money on them. Actually, they don't even want a daughter to be born. While trying for a baby boy they give birth to many baby girls and each girl have to work on the farm. So the number of girls of age group 5 to 15 is more than boys in child labour.
Are children working on family farms are the child labours?
Whether a work falls under child labour or not, depends on the child's age, its impact on the child and the level of the work. Every parent wants their children to help them in their work and for no surprise, the children also love to work on the farm as they can play with nature. As long as the children's future is not at stake and the working hour is less but with light works. As long as their schooling, their personal development is ensured, they are ok to work on the farm. But if the work assigned to the children is hard, the children work for hours and cannot attend the school then t certainly is child labour.
What are the consequences of child labour on children?
Suppose you sowed a seed, which is supposed to grow and bear the fruits. It will certainly bear the fruits if only you provide all the supplements required since the time of sowing, else the seed won't even germinate. If you said, hey seed! I won't give you anything, go search for what you need yourself and give me the yield at ay cost. You don't provide the seed with the required amount of moisture, sunlight and other supplements and how come the seed is supposed to behave as you please. Children are like the seeds, we must guide and groom them so that they can be resilient and build a better future. Every parent knows it but there is a thing called obligation. Child labour affects not only the working child but his siblings as well as the family. The consequences of child labour are highlighted below:
- Child labour, particularly in hazardous works, creates health problems that have repercussions on the physical and mental health in adult life.
- By leaving schools early, they would be deprived of the opportunity to get better jobs and life in the future.
- Child workers tend to develop chest and muscle pain, headaches, dizziness, respiratory infections, diarrhoea and worm infection. Many of them work under conditions that make them vulnerable to chemical and biological hazards.
- Children working in commercial agriculture are subjected to a number of hazards like long working hours, extreme weather condition, equipment fall, tools injury and carrying heavy loads. Many experience amputations.
- Mainly in domestic sectors, children suffer verbal, physical as well as sexual abuse.
- They are not even paid the exact sum of money as per their work.
Is there any consequence of child labour on agriculture?
When you play PUBG on a phone with 2 Gb RAM, you will face certain problems; the game may lag and it may not open as well. So when you deploy a child, then there are certain consequences, indeed. Children lack proper skill about the work and they may not be able to complete the work properly. In commercial agriculture, different types of equipment are used which a child cannot operate. The efficiency of work is less in the children so the work may be delayed. They may not carry out the agricultural operations properly, which may affect the yield.
Reasons why people prefer child labourers:
There are so many authorities working to eradicate child labour but still, the result is not up to the mark. I think that employers are fond of keeping children at work due to some reasons.
- Children are fast learners. Despite the fact that they have a problem doing skilled work at the beginning, they would ease that work within a few days or months.
- They can pay less to children.
- They can have full control over the child workers.
- It's easy for some psychopath to abuse the children.
How to eradicate?
Child labour is the derivative of poverty and is strongly related to the level of development. However, variations of children at work provide a scope of influencing child labour. ending child labour requires a multifaceted approach.
- Economic development, to the extent that is driven by technological innovations, makes it possible to work without a child is the key to combat.
- Proper legislative framework
- Government and the public authorities are responsible to record the cases of child labour and not only record but to take action against them.
- NGOs and many community-based organizations are responsible for disseminating information about the harmful effects of child labour on families and business and working with families to mitigate child labour.
- Improve the knowledge base
- Establish a proper Child Labour Monitoring System
- Strengthen social protection
- Make school affordable for a poor family as well
- Change the education system
There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way n which it treats it's children. Nelson Mandela
Agriculture is the most severe form of child labour. Working children are the most disadvantaged labours as per the socio-economic point of view. They are forced to work for a living sacrificing their childhood and their bright future. Child labour destroys children's potentials. in order to involve a child into labour, perception of the parents needs to be known. Participation of children in any work denies them from schooling and impairs their development.
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