GENEVA (ILO News) - With rap music and pinwheels, marches and solemn statements, many organizations - including children's groups - will mark the third World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June this year with a specific focus on efforts to eliminate child domestic labour.
The plight of children working in sometimes gruelling forms of domestic labour that involve long hours, low pay and little or no time for education and personal development has been identified as the theme of this year's global events.
The ILO launched the World Day in 2002 as a means of raising the visibility of the problem and highlighting the global movement to eliminate child labour, particularly its worst forms.
A new ILO report entitled, "Helping Hands or Shackled Lives? Understanding child domestic labour and responses to it" ( Note 1) will be launched on 10 June at a press briefing at 2.00 p.m. in Press Room 3 of the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The report will be available online at 10 a.m. GMT on 9 June, under embargo for publication on 11 June.
The ILO will host a panel discussion on the issue during the International Labour Conference at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The event will be held on 11 June at 11.30 a.m. in Room XVIII of the Palais and is open to the media.
Outside of Geneva, organizations around the word will also be holding events to mark the World Day, spark discussion and awareness on the issue and celebrate successful campaigns to prevent or stop child domestic labour. In Niger, children are planning a rap music performance on the theme. In Brazil, a "pinwheel march" will begin, with children passing the pinwheel - the symbol of World Day against Child Labour campaign - from state to state until it arrives in the country's capital. Nepal will use World Day to launch a major social mobilization campaign to change general perceptions among the public. (For more information, check local ILO and IPEC offices.)
Child domestic labour refers to situations where children are engaged to perform domestic tasks in the home of a third party or employer. Working in a private home, the overwhelming majority are often grossly exploited and abused. A wall of acceptance surrounds the practice, often considered a "better" alternative for children from poor families. The new ILO study recommends feasible and realistic action to help these children.
"It is vital that child domestic labour, so often neglected because exploitation and abuse takes place behind closed doors, receives attention", says Dr. June Kane, the report's author. "We have to remind ourselves that children are not just doing 'odd jobs': they are in a workplace - even if it is someone else's home."
Of the more than 200 million children working in the world, it is difficult to estimate how many are in domestic labour. ILO research, however, indicates that more girls under 16 work in domestic service than in any other category of work.
"The ILO through its Special Action Programme, the International Programme to Eliminate Child Labour (IPEC) is working with governments, employers', workers' and civil society organizations in an increasing number of countries around the world to find ways of combating this invisible form of child labour. We provide technical support helping them to open the doors to these children, who need our urgent attention and help", says Frans Roselaers, the Director of IPEC.
Note 1 - "Helping Hands or Shackled Lives? Understanding child domestic labour and responses to it", International Labour Office, 2004, ISBN 92-2-115747-4. For a copy of the report go to www.ilo.org/childlabour or contact communication@ilo.org.