CHIEF Labour Officer, Charles Ogle came out swinging against the occurrence of child labour in Guyana, calling its perpetration a “hideous crime.”

In his address to a forum on social issues in the mining sector recently, Ogle defined child labour as work that exposes children to harm and exploitation and interferes with their development, while adding that it deprives them of “their childhood, their potential and their dignity.”
He elaborated that child labour “includes work that is mentally, physically, socially, or morally dangerous and harmful to children.” Ogle added that in its most extreme forms, child labour includes all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, citing as examples, the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, serfdom and forced or compulsory labour.
Additional forms of child labour, the Chief Labour Officer posited, include the use or offering or procuring of children for prostitution, production of pornography and pornographic performance, as well as for the production and trafficking of drugs.
He said that the issue of child labour bears particular relevance to the mining sector, and stressed that mining officials believe that children should not be employed there.
The forum was held at the Guyana International Conference Centre as part of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission’s commemoration of Mining Week 2013.
In Guyana, as in much of the Caribbean, Ogle highlighted that child labour occurs in the form of children selling and working in the streets or in the market during school hours, lifting heavy loads and being exposed to hazards. Additionally, he noted, child labour includes children working on farms, while being exposed to the threat of injuries, the effects of pesticides, as well as attacks by insects or other animals. Other incidences of child labour, he averred, include children scavenging on garbage dumps for saleable projects even as they face prolonged exposure to dust, smoke, heat and toxins.
Ogle asserted too that young girls being hired to work as domestic labourers or being kept at home to do chores and look after their siblings, also constitutes a form of child labour.
The Chief Labour Officer opined that as in other countries around the world, factors such as the family situation, poverty and cultural influences contribute to the existence of child labour.
“Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of child labour and extreme poverty is conducive to it in all forms,” he explained.
He reasoned that poor families view the immediate gains from work as being greater than the returns of a long term investment in education. Additionally, Ogle pointed out, because of “the high cost of quality education in the region” some low income families are prompted to divert their children towards work rather than to study.
“[It is] work that interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school, causing them to leave permanently; [it is] work that requires them to combine school attendance with excessively long hours and heavy work,” the Chief Labour Officer stressed, even as he opined that having children work instead of study does not augur well for the future of the nation since “children subjected to extreme forms of exploitation, [and] with little or no basic education or skill are not likely to contribute to building a productive workforce.”
He warned, however, that under the Education Act (Chap 39:01), a duty is placed on the parent of every child to cause the child to receive efficient rudimentary instruction in reading, writing and mathematics, remarking: “And if a parent fails to perform that duty, he or she shall be liable to the orders and penalties provided in the act.”
Meanwhile, Ogle noted, other contributory factors include low levels of education of both parents and child, low parental skill levels, the orphaning of children whose parents die of HIV, as well as the impact of peer groups and “external material influences.”
“We should be concerned about child labour in our country because it is a matter of saving lives. The effects of hazardous work on children can even be more acute than they are for adults, resulting in the loss of lives or limbs; in some instances, it can be traumatic,” the Chief Labour Officer passionately emphasized.
He exhorted the forum participants to help combat child labour in their respective communities by motivating children to stay in school; lobbying for children’s access to education and vocational education; promoting the value of education among children and parents; advocating for poverty alleviation programs and more adequate social services; supporting international and local campaigns against child labour; and making more people aware of child labour, its hazards and risks.
Ogle urged members of the audience to report any known incident of illegal child labour activity to the relevant authority. According to him, legislative protection of children from child labour exists in the form of the Employment of Young Persons and Children Act (Chap 99:01) which stipulates that a child under the age of fifteen should not work. In addition, he pointed out that Guyana is signatory the International Labour Organisation’s Conventions 138 and 182, which respectively affirm that the minimum age of employment is fifteen and that for certain categories of “hazardous” work, the working age shall be no lower than 18.