Child Domestic Work

What is Child Domestic Work? (courtesy: www.antislavery.org)

2010-04-12T04:32:00.000-07:00

Child domestic workers are persons under 18 years of age who work in other people’s households (and sometimes their own families’) doing domestic chores, caring for children, running errands and helping their employers run small businesses. Child domestic workers include those who ‘live in’ and those who live separately from their employers. A child domestic worker may be paid, unpaid, or receive ‘in-kind’ remuneration such as food and shelter.

Children enter domestic work for a variety of reasons. Poverty and promise of a better future sometimes lead parents to send their children into domestic work or children to decide to enter it of their own accord. Despite widespread abuse and exploitation enduring myths prevail. Employers often take girls in their house as a ‘favour’, thinking that they are protecting them and providing opportunities but fail to recognise the level of exploitation and abuse they submit them to. Parents send their children to work with a rich family thinking that it will bring them new opportunities. Domestic work is also widely perceived as a less dangerous type of employment than others, hence making it more suitable for girls. It is also sometimes the only way girls can continue their schooling.

How big and where is the problem?
While it is impossible to give precise and reliable figures about the number of children working as domestic workers it is estimated that millions of children are engaged in this type of employment globally.
• Most child domestic workers are between 12 and 17 but some are as young as five or six. The ILO estimates that domestic service is the single largest source of employment for girls under 16 around the world
• It is estimated that around 90% of child domestic workers are girls
• Child domestic work is performed throughout the world but it is estimated that Asia is home to about 60% of child domestic workers with 1.5 millions in Indonesia, 1 million in the Philippines and 100,000 in Sri Lanka
• Other estimates mention 300,000 child domestic workers in Haiti, 7,000 in Costa Rica and over 110,000 in Peru

Why is there a problem?
The main problems with child domestic workers are linked to their specific vulnerability as children, their invisibility as workers in the home and the low status that surrounds them.

Child domestic workers most at risk of abuse and exploitation are the ‘live-in’ child domestic workers, who are those who work and live in the home of their employers. They are often separated from their families, work far from home and benefit from no support networks.

The working conditions of child domestic workers are of particular concern. They often are paid very little money, sometimes none at all. They work very long hours, with ‘live-in’ child domestic workers often being on call 24 hours a day. They are made responsible for accomplishing a variety of tasks from cleaning, cooking, minding the children and livestock to collecting wood and more; some of these tasks can turn out to be very hazardous for very young children or children who are tired and overworked.

The working conditions child domestic workers are submitted to often go hand in hand with their exclusion from education, worsening their sense of isolation and diminishing their opportunities to get out of domestic work.

The issue of highest concern is the children’s vulnerability to verbal, physical and sexual abuse. Studies have shown that child domestic workers are commonly called names, humiliated, shouted at and insulted; they are often slapped, beaten, pushed and whipped; it is also not uncommon for girls to suffer sexual abuse in the home of their employer.

Our research has shown that a lot of child domestic workers have been trafficked, adding a layer of complexity to their situation. There is also growing evidence of the linkages between child domestic work and sexual exploitation.

Case studies
From May to October 2004, Anti-Slavery International and its local partners undertook consultations with more than 450 current and former child domestic workers in nine countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Consultations took place in Benin, Costa Rica, India, Nepal, Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Togo reflecting the reality of child domestic labour in many countries. The majority of those who participated were female -- but more than 100 boys also took part.

Cutting across cultural and language divides, the child domestic workers who were consulted had some clear messages about the best kinds of assistance to protect them from the daily abuse and exploitation that many of them endure. Their common appeal for those who seek to help them are:

• To provide opportunities for education and training which allow them to move on from domestic work;
• To assist them in seeking redress from abusive and/or exploitative employers;
• Not to alienate employers, but to make them part of the solution to their problems;
• To provide more services which cater specifically to the needs of child domestic workers (since their needs are often quite different from those of other child workers);
• To develop longer-term interventions, i.e. not to develop services for them and then pull-out after just one or two years;
• To develop interventions which take into consideration some of the issues which most affect child domestic workers, for example, early pregnancy and the effect of HIV/AIDS;
• More awareness raising about their situation, and to ensure that this awareness raising goes hand-in-hand with concrete services for child domestic workers;

Assistance in accessing government and state infrastructure that can help them; for example, in obtaining birth certificates, enrolling in school, in accessing health care, in locating families and returning home.

Perhaps the strongest message to emerge from the consultations was the importance of those providing assistance to talk to the children themselves about what they need. The work of Anti-Slavery International's partners in this area has shown that the most effective interventions are those which systematically involve child domestic workers themselves in the planning and implementation of their projects and programmes.

International Law
ILO Minimum Age Convention 138
ILO Worst Form of Child Labour Convention 182
The ILO is currently working on the adoption of an instrument on decent work for domestic workers by 2011.

Torture cuffs on couple

2009-11-09T05:32:00.000-08:00

Staff Reporter – The Telegraph

A senior official of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and his wife were arrested on Friday on the charge of torturing their 15-year-old help.

Shree Prakash Mishra, 38, a deputy general manager of RBI, and his wife Madhuri Das, a homemaker, had been torturing Manjari Nayak for the past few days at their Alipore home, police said.

“They confined Manjari in a room for two days and denied her food. The girl was also beaten up,” said an officer.

The couple were charged with “voluntarily causing grievous hurt” and produced in Alipore court on Friday afternoon. They were released on bail.

Mishra lives in a central government housing complex on New Road in Alipore with his wife and two sons. A preliminary probe revealed the duo had employed Manjari, a resident of Rourkela in Orissa, around five years ago.

A senior officer said the couple should have been booked under the Child Labour Act, which prohibits hiring children below 14 years. But an investigating officer said cops needed to confirm when the girl was employed.

“We will contact the girl’s family to determine when she was employed by the accused. We are also probing how long the duo had been torturing her,” the officer added. He said Madhuri Das had told the police Manjari was the daughter of one of her distant relatives.

The police said Manjari told them her employers beat her up on Thursday night and locked her in a room. She managed to escape early on Friday and rushed to the caretaker of the housing complex.

“She told him about the torture and he took her to SSKM Hospital. There were bruises on her hands, legs and back. Cops posted at the hospital alerted Alipore police station,” the officer said.

2009-09-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

My last post (could have said 'the first-ever", but this makes me feel like a veteran blogger, so what the hell!!) states that "This forum aims to bring together people who believe that this exploitative form of labour should be stopped, and people who want to know more about why people like us fight against this practise".
But this leaves out a large chunk of people who can make meaningful contribution to this debate- the supporters of Child Domestic Work. True, personally I do not support this practise, but then each one to her/his own.
So, though I still plan to write more about why this practise should be abolished, I promise not to be biased, and shall give equal importance to the opinion of people who are for this practise.
So blogaway (is there such a word?!.. Who cares!!) people.. :-)

Child Domestic Work in India

2009-09-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

Child Domestic Workers are children engaged to perform domestic tasks in the home of the employer. This culturally accepted and widely prevalent practise apparantly seems to doing good to such children by providing food, shelter, and education too at times. However, a closer look would help one identify the long-term harm done to such children by denying them the opportunity to go to school, develop their own capabilities and contribute as citizens. That this issue is closely related to child trafficking, and increases the possibility of mental and physical exploitation of these children, also needs to be taken into consideration.
While the Indian Government has banned child domestic work under the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act (CLPRA), not enough has been done to stop this exploitative form of child labour. One big reason for this is acceptance of this practise in our society.
This forum aims to bring together people who believe that this exploitative form of labour should be stopped, and people who want to know more about why people like us fight against this practise.
Feel free to post your opinion, experiences.. anything that related to this issue - positive or negative. Ask questions, if you think you need to understand the issue. Let's take a small step towards eliminating this practise..