Child Domestic Workers Project (Phase II)
| Time-frame |
Donor(s) |
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Duration: 48 Months
Starting date: March 2004
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Government of the Netherlands |
The project for preventing and eliminating exploitative child domestic
work through education and training in south Asia builds on experience
gained during Phase I (2002/03), which covered Cambodia, Sri Lanka,
Uganda, and Zambia. In Phase II, the project focuses on Pakistan
and Sri Lanka.
The main objectives of the Project are:
- To prevent children at risk from entering domestic labour;
- To withdraw and rehabilitate those working under exploitative
conditions by providing them relevant alternatives such as formal
and non-formal education, and pre-vocational training;
- To support the development of relevant policy related to child
domestic labour (CDL) and strengthen the capacity of partner organizations
to sustain action to combat CDL through training, sharing of lessons
learned, and networking among themselves.
The strategy for Phase II employs a framework with three interlinked
strategic components:
- Creating an enabling environment: To promote the integration
of child domestic labour as part of a broader child labour issue
in national development policy and programme;
- Direct interventions: To focus on direct action with child domestic
labourers, their employers, families, and communities as a continuation
and reinforcement of initiatives of Phase I;
- Knowledge management: To focus on providing opportunities for
information sharing anddocumenting of lessons learnt and good
practices emanating from the work of this project and otherrelevant
CDL projects in south Asia.
The direct beneficiaries for awareness raising, capacity building,
and knowledge development activities are representatives of the
Government, NGOs and employers' and workers' organizations in south
Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). Their
knowledge and capacity to address the issue of CDL has been enhanced
through a subregional network, information sharing, and capacity
building activities. In Pakistan and Sri Lanka, direct beneficiaries
include child domestic labourers (up to 18 years), children at risk
(8-14 years) and their families.
Key outputs under Phase I included the following:
- Training of approximately 85 social mobilizers amongst members
of the plantation communities situated in the central and southern
parts of Sri Lanka. Their work included gathering socioeconomic
data about the target groups, raising awareness about child labour
and children's rights, facilitating the peer-counselling programme,
and coordinating the non-formal education (NFE) and vocational
training interventions on the estates they supervised;
- Establishment of Community Hearts or community centres, which
form the hub for many of the interventions, including support
to the children's clubs and other activities such as recreation,
and peer-counselling facilities;
- Production of a code of conduct for employers of child domestic
labourers, advocacy material and a draft policy for child domestic
labourers, which can be incorporated into the existing child labour
policy. Additional products funded by TICSA and other projects
are the non-formal education training of trainers (TOT) manual
and a life skills education TOT manual, both of which will be
available shortly.
IPEC has also facilitated the finalization of the list of hazardous
occupations in Sri Lanka. Some aspects of child domestic labour
are included in the list, which is now awaiting endorsement by the
National Labour Advisory Committee.
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