Article 32: Governments should protect children and young people from work that is dangerous or might harm their health or their education

Watch, Think, Reflect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpczR_HAGP4

Can you imagine what it would be like to go to work for 12 hours a day instead of coming to school? To be so tired that you haven’t got the energy to play? To work for a boss that you are likely never to escape?

Worldwide, there are 246 million children who have to work Worldwide, there are 246 million children who have to work. I don’t just mean doing a part-time job like babysitting or doing a paper round. I mean work that would be hard even for adults to do. Around 171 million of these have to do work so dangerous it could seriously damage their health. Most of them have no chance of going to school so their lives are unlikely to ever change. We would like to share some of these stories with you.

I’m Magendra. I live in India I’m Magendra. I live in India. I don’t really know how old I am because I’ve never been to school and neither have my parents. I have a job carrying rocks up a hill. At the top, they are thrown into a huge fire called a lime kiln. Eventually they’re turned into cement for buildings. Every day, I carry rocks up to the top of the lime kiln. I go up and down the ladder hundreds of times each day. I don’t have any days off. My hands and feet are cut and dry from the rocks and my throat is sore from the smoke. I have to do this work. My dad is the watchman for the lime kiln. My mum is sick and can’t work. Dad borrowed some money from his boss and promised that I would work for him for free until we have paid back the money. I don’t know when that will be. Until then I can’t leave, I have no choice but to keep on carrying these rocks.

I’m Babu. I work with my family on the farm I’m Babu. I work with my family on the farm. I don’t get paid as my work helps to repay the money my parents borrowed from the village chief. I work for 12 hours a day, seven days a week looking after the chief’s cows. Sometimes I have to walk miles to find good grass for them to eat. I also have to plough the land, weed it and harvest the crops. My work is worth about £3.50 a month but I never get any money. I have worked for this man for three years, but the money my family owes him is still not paid off. We have to pay back more than we borrowed so I feel like I will be working here for the rest of my life. My only hope is the evening school in our village. Between seven and nine each evening, children and adults who want to learn but have to work during the day can go to the school. Sometimes I think I might run away to the city and get a better job but I am frightened about what the headman would do to my parents if I didn’t work to pay the money back.

My name is Lakshmi. I am 10 ten years old. My job is making cigarettes My name is Lakshmi. I am 10 ten years old. My job is making cigarettes. For as long as I can remember I have made cigarettes every day of the week, including weekends. I work from nine in the morning until six at night. I have to make 1,000 cigarettes a day to earn about £3.50 a month. The place where I work is dark and smoky from the cooking fire in the corner of the room. There is only one dim electric light. Sometimes I can hardly see and my eyes hurt from the smoke. There are six of us making cigarettes. The youngest is Buji, who’s six. She’s been working with us for two years. She makes the tobacco leaves soft by scraping them with a pair of scissors. I roll the soft leaves into tubes and then stuff them with loose tobacco. We all sit cross-legged on the floor while we work. Our backs ache after a few hours. The only break is when we go home for an hour to have lunch. When I am at home I have to help my mother by fetching water and sweeping the house.

I’m Madhamal, I’m 15. These days the younger girls in my community look up to me but it wasn’t always like this. I come from a disadvantaged tribal group in my district and my family is very poor. When I was very young I collected firewood to sell. I didn’t really like doing that but my family needed the money. Because of a project called All For Children, my life was turned around and I could access education. The project is a joint project between Unicef and H&M which helps girls in cotton producing states in Southern india get out of work and into school. I loved going to school and it was my dream to become a teacher. But when I was a little bit older my father decided that he wanted me to marry, I said I was too young and this was illegal. He didn’t care and said I had to marry anyway. I didn’t want to so I told a teacher from the All For Children project who helped me and the wedding was called off. Today I am the first child in my community to reach the 9th grade at school and one day I am going to become a teacher myself!

What can we do to raise awareness?

12 June is World Day against Child Labour 12 June is World Day against Child Labour. It’s a day to remind us of the 246 million children who have to work. We can help by learning about their lives and supporting organisations like Unicef that work all around the world to help all children go to school. Unicef also makes sure that if children have to work for a few hours a day, they are not doing work that will hurt them.