EFFICIENCY MINUS ETHICS EQUALS EMPTINESS:

Friday,28th.June.2024.

Down with fetters that belay their fulfillments,

Dawn breaks, hopes whet their sunken sockets harbouring eyes,

Dreams defenestrated, childhood replenished, yet not depleted,

Determined to rewrite their destinies,

Determination determines destiny.

 

Desks replace the factories’ floor,

Dignity restored, childhood rekindled.

Dark shadows fade, daylight reigns over,

Dare to dream of unbridled life.

Dare to be the Daniel;

Dare to stand alone;

Dare to have the purpose firm;

Dare to make it gleefully known.

 

Defenders of their rights arise,

Decry the dead grave eerie and muted silence,

Demand their voices,

Deliverance from the dragons’ teeth,

Destinies shaped by the justice’s choices and decisions.

 

 

• Children are the bridge to Heaven.
• Children are the keys to Paradise.
• Children are the infungible, indelible and living messages that we send to the tides, times and vagaries that we shall not see.
• Children are not widgets to be moulded; they are people to be unfolded.
• Adults are just outdated children.
• A child can ask questions that sages cannot answer.
• A child seldom needs a good talking to as a good listening to.

 

 

Pint-sized hands , young in skin but wrinkled , calloused and gnarled hands and feet, rickety physiques , shoulders and heads slouched and aborted aspirations of innocent millions clutching tools of labour instead of crayons , toys and mental activation tools tearfully greet the world.

In the shadows of bustling and verdant markets and lustrous factories , lies a grin reality mutedly and silently endured by innocent millions.

Via spine chilling insights and narratives , the harsh and muted truths are unearthed , unpacked and unravelled microscopically and surgically and gaslights the clarion call to action tailored putting a tail end of child labour bedevilling innocents .

Craig Kielburger advises me and you that  , “The change starts within each one of us and ends only when all children are free to be children .”

 

Factually speaking and regrettably:

The acai berries from Brazil ;

The alcoholic beverages from Cambodia ;

The amber from Ukraine ;

The artificial flowers from China ;

The baked goods from the  Dominican Republic , El Salvador , Pakistan ;

The bamboo from Burma ;

The bananas from Belize and Brazil are produced by children in child and forced labour ; courtesy of the 28th.September.2022  report by the Bureau Of International Labour Affairs ( ILAB ) which is against the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act ( TVPRA ) 0f 2005 and subsequent reauthorizations.

 

For more than 18 arduous hours capered with measly dished out chicken’s feeds are children ill subjected to in the :

Cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast ;

Gold mines in Burkina Faso ;

Farmlands in Latin America and

Textile industries in Bangladesh .

 

Slavery and similar practises , child trafficking , drugs trafficking , humans trafficking , forced recruitment into armed conflicts , the rough trade , drugs production , illegal acts , debt bondages , hazardous works birthing injuries , moral corruption , forced domestic works , garbage scavenging , mining , building and construction , begging and agricultural works are some however not the limited offsprings of forced child labour .

 

Perennial conflicts , mass migrations , dearth of humans’ necessities , fighting child labour , lack of access to education , lack of exposure and equipping , lack of access to quality education , rigid archaic and draconian deeply embedded customs , religious extremism , limited understanding on the aftertastes of child labour , economic drawbacks , climate change , natural disasters   and rickety legal frameworks catalyse child labour .

 

The risk analysis firm Maplecroft ranks the following jurisdictions worldwide in the worst list of prevalent child labour and forced labour category :

Eritrea , Somalia , the Democratic Republic Of Congo  , Myanmar  , Sudan , Afghanistan  , Pakistan , Zimbabwe , Yemen , Burundi and Nigeria .

Admittedly economically empowered countries : China , India , Russia and Brazil are also in the extreme risk child labour zones as laws are often brazenly poorly enforced .

 

The International Labour Organization  ( ILO ) defines child labour : work that is mentally , morally , physically , psychologically , socially and spiritually perils fraught ; belaying their successful academic pursuits , impeding their psychomotor proficiencies ; compelling them to combine school attendance with excessively long and ardours works birthing , heralding and ushering dropouts incalculably  .

 

Of the 152 million children crippled by child labour : 48% are 5-11 year-olds ; 28% are aged 12-14 years old only and 24% are aged 15-17 years old only.

58% – 88 million are males and 42% , 64 million , are females .

Child labour is exhibited in 70.9% , 11.9% and 17.2% in the : agricultural  , industrial and services sectors respectively  .

 

160 million children globally are involved in child labour which represents one in ten children.

5% , 4% and 3% of child labour incidences are in : Americas , Europe  and Central Asia and the Arabs’ States respectively with Africa and Asia together accounting for nine out of ten children in child labour worldwide .

11million  , six million and one million child labour populations are in : Americas, Europe and Central Asia and the Arabs’ States respectively  .

Regrettably  , currently 160 million children are in child labour .

 

From 2000 to 2020 : child labour decreased by 85.5 million dropping from 16% to 9.6% .

Only 26.4% of children globally receive social protection cash benefits .

Only 1.1% of GDP globally is spent on social protection for children and only 0.4% of GDP for children in Africa .

Minus mitigation strategies , child labour could inevitably increase by 8.9 mind by the end of 2022.

 

Wednesday,12th.June.2024.  Global War Against Child Labour has three clarion calls to action :

• Reinvigorated national , regional and international action to put to a fag end to all forms of child labour ; addressing the root causes as called upon in the 2022 Durban Call To Action ;
• The effective implementation of the ILO Convention No.182 on the Worst Forms Of Child Labour and the
• Universal ratification and effective implementation of ILO Convention Number 138 on the Minimum Age which together with the universal ratification of ILO Convention Number 182 on the Worst Forms Of Child Labour achieved in 2020 ; would provide all children with legal protection against all forms of child labour  .

 

Redress Methods Are  :

1. Agile child’s rights advocacy all round the clock  ;
2. Equitable educational support to all children ;
3. Ethical investments;
4. Equitable educational support to all and sundry; breaking the glass’ ceiling in all facets;
5. Non Governmental Organizations’ Campaigns, Financing and Initiatives ;
6. PPP- Public Private Partnerships ;
7. Religious participations;
8. Sponsorships to brainy but pins and needles crippled pupils and students and uplifting their strata and
9. Support of information, knowledge, wisdom and witticism to all and sundry.

Children should never work in the scorching and sweltering heat hit fields but in our minds.

Child labour is a human rights thorn in the flesh; a cosmic thorn in the flesh and a cheek-by-jowl domiciled local thorn in the flesh.

The child is the father of the king .

By Professor and Philosopher Daniel Masese.