–‘to remove this affliction from our society’

IN observance of World Day against Child Labour, the Ministry of Social Protection on Tuesday organised a Validation Workshop at the Herdmanston Lodge, to ready the Draft National Child Labour Policy for implementation shortly.

According to the International Labour Organisation(ILO), child labour is “…work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to mental and physical development.”

For Chief Labour Officer Charles Ogle, “It is beyond debate that child labour is one of the most deep-seated scourges which can impact the health and wellbeing of any nation.
“It is not always manifested, but can be so latent, pervasive and dynamic that it can easily evade the attention of the conscious and astute mind, let alone the casual observer.”

Speaking on behalf of Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Keith Scott, Mr. Ogle said, “Today, the Ministry of Social Protection wishes to make it abundantly clear that it is determined to absolutely obliterate child labour from our society, whenever and wherever it may exist.”

And, while those engaged in the “sub-human practice” will be dealt with in accordance with the law, focus will be directed to education, re-education and sensitisation, according to Ogle.

According to the International Journal on Health Services, “The root cause of child labour is extreme poverty.”

The said document has also proven, through evidence gathered here recently by way of a rapid assessment, that reports of child labour are far more widespread in the “informal economy”, particularly in the agriculture and small-scale mining sectors than in any of the other sectors.

As such, the Department of Labour is working assiduously to regularise, or formalise, the informal economy.

Ogle said too, that every act that is directed at the elimination of poverty, a mandate of the APNU+AFC coalition government, can also be considered an attack on child labour.

“No effort is being spared at removing this affliction from our society. It is not a natural disaster, but it has all the characteristics of one and it must be absolutely obliterated,” the chief labour officer affirmed.

Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle was Assistant Chief Labour Officer, Karen VanSluytman-Corbin, who enlightened that the policy being validated was developed after consultations were held from March across several regions of Guyana.

The consultations were held in seven of the 10 administrative regions, i.e., Regions Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); Four (Demerara-Mahaica); Five (Mahaica-Berbice); Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni); Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).

Ogle said the ministry would have liked to conduct consultations in all 10 regions, but the data that was gathered is satisfactory enough to suffice. He also said that satisfactory conclusions were drawn, and a “working document” was developed which would receive inputs from Tuesday’s validation exercise to create an “acceptable” Child Labour Policy.

Said VanSluytman, “We wanted to hear from [stakeholders], to have their input on crafting the policy,” and she further explained that the validation workshop aimed to present the policy to more stakeholders so that they could make any additional comments, before the policy is taken to cabinet for approval by the Social Protection ministers.

According to her, the policy is expected to be enacted by September of this year, to coincide with the start of the new school year.

Also rallying around the need for a comprehensive policy to end the scourge of child labour, and to promote child education were various workers’ organisations.

General Secretary of the Guyana Trade Union Congress (GTUC) Lincoln Lewis led the charge, in urging that the policy must introduce a programme and must be accompanied by a strategy, which will work to ensure that the policy is effective. Lewis opined that a national development strategy must be conceptualised also, which would etch poverty reduction as one of its principal tasks.

He argued, too, that the child labour policy must not become something that is left to gather dust, but one that takes aims at improving the livelihood of each child.

Lewis’s sentiments were echoed by UNICEF’s Paolo Marchi, who also called for a policy that will guide efforts to completely eradicate child labour.