A health approach to child labour - A synthesis report of four country studies from the brick industry

How do you decide whether a particular kind of work is too hazardous for a 17 year old person to do? How do you convince a parent, although he sees no particular danger in it, that the damage is invisible and the work his child is doing will harm her many years from now? And how do you explain, when everyone did this kind of thing when they were young, that their children should not do it now?

The children are mainly just “helping out” their families. But for the families, most of whom come from some of the poorest and most disadvantaged groups on the planet (migrants, social outcasts, religious minorities), the extra hands, though small, measurably increase the efficiency and productivity of their parents. Aware of this economic imperative and given that it is the parents’ “choice”, employers and policy-makers have tended not to interfere with a system that functions. They see little scope for change when it is an industry where the profit margins are minimal and people need the work.

The brick industry is not special; it is like many others where children comprise a significant portion of the labour force. It was selected for this series of studies in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan simply as an example of child labour in what appears, from the outside, to be work “that, by its nature or conditions, is likely to harm or jeopardise their health, safety or morals.”

The aim of these studies is not to find out whether in fact this work is hazardous; the purpose is rather to go a step further:

1. to know the nature and severity of the hazard so as to more effectively argue for more attention by policy-makers and better choices by families.
2. to demonstrate to a wider public that health is an essential area of inquiry and action in child labour work, and
3. to test methods of inquiry that (a) are inexpensive, (b) can be undertaken by non-professionals, and (c) can generate the kind of information that is needed for guiding practical, low-cost, interventions.

In presenting this synthesis report ILO hopes to stimulate further work on this important area and a further refinement of the research methods it incorporates.

The results contained in these studies document child work in the brick industry in terms of the physical, psychological and environmental risks the children face, and the health impacts they incur. The studies provide quantitative evidence that working children at all ages, and both girls and boys, suffer substantially more injuries, higher levels of respiratory impairment, and more musculoskeletal disorders than their peers who do not do such work. They also show that it is not only the tasks the children do, but the conditions they work and live in which compound the effects of work and which appear to increase the prevalence of acute and chronic diseases. It is very noteworthy that social factors seem to mediate the extent to which children suffer or benefit psychologically from the work experience.

From a larger perspective, the results of the studies underline the importance of looking at occupational risks from the perspective of children’s unique and greater vulnerabilities. We feel that these data can provide a more persuasive argument for elimination of child labour, as well as the importance of assessing the potential and feasibility of reducing risks so that youth of legal working age and adults can work more safely. And, specifically with regard to child labour in the brick industry, we strongly urge that those with the capacity to do so take note of the results and join ILO in taking action to protect brick children from further harm.