The UN announced plans in early May to combat child labor, using novel, different strategies that have worked for many countries. Let's take a look...
Their World Report on Child Labor states that by introducing measures such as cash transfers to both parents and older people, as well as other social health measures, parents in the developing world are more likely to let their children go to school instead of forcing them into work early.
Brazil's Bolsa Familia cash transfer program, which provides families with a monthly allowance on the condition that they send their children to school, has been instrumental in reducing child labor in both rural and urban areas across the Latin American nation. Likewise, a scholarship program introduced in Cambodia, which also involves cash transfers, has reduced child labor there by 10 percent.
Social protection is also an important issue concerning child labor. More than 5 billion people around the world do not have access to comprehensive social protection. This massive figure contributes to the vast number of child laborers around the world. including the 115 million involved in the worst forms of child labor, debt bondage and prostitution included, and the 15.5 million involved in domestic work.
UN plans would guarantee basic income in the form of social transfers in cash or kind, such as pensions, child benefits, employment guarantees and services for the unemployed or working poor, while providing universal access to the essential basics of life. Those would include health, water and sanitation, education, food, and housing. In African countries when 50-60% of orphans live with their grandparents, income security in old age would also be extremely important.
These plans seem solid in theory, but they are much harder to implement in practice. The UN also estimates that it would cost $10 billion to implement universal education - Less than global military spending per year. Where does this money go? It gets lost somewhere along the line, never making its long journey from the big organizations to the poor, starving families in Africa and Asia. Child labor is a complicated problem. But each step we take is one step towards a better future.
Their World Report on Child Labor states that by introducing measures such as cash transfers to both parents and older people, as well as other social health measures, parents in the developing world are more likely to let their children go to school instead of forcing them into work early.
Social protection is also an important issue concerning child labor. More than 5 billion people around the world do not have access to comprehensive social protection. This massive figure contributes to the vast number of child laborers around the world. including the 115 million involved in the worst forms of child labor, debt bondage and prostitution included, and the 15.5 million involved in domestic work.
UN plans would guarantee basic income in the form of social transfers in cash or kind, such as pensions, child benefits, employment guarantees and services for the unemployed or working poor, while providing universal access to the essential basics of life. Those would include health, water and sanitation, education, food, and housing. In African countries when 50-60% of orphans live with their grandparents, income security in old age would also be extremely important.
Cash incentives are a good idea, but we need to keep in mind that in some places, child labor is an entrenched social norm. This needs to change.
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DeleteChild labor is both an economic and social problem, and needs to be addressed on both sides. Only then can the problem be completely solved.