inShare 0 views Presentation from international meeting on children's work and child labour hosted by the Africa Child Policy Forum, Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, and Young Lives in Addis Ababa, 20-21 March 2014

1. Child Labour in Sudan: Factors and Repercussions
By: Ibtisam Satti Ibrahim (PhD)
Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology
U of K
Presentation at East African Regional Symposium on
Child Work/Child Labour, 20-21 March 2014

2. Introduction:
Sudan in north-eastern Africa is a multi-cultural society
( ethnic, religious, climatic and livelihoods diversities)
Population of about 40 million according to the 2009
census.
Since its independence in 1956, a civil war between the
North and the South had erupted, ended with the
separation of the South.

4. Definitions of Child Labor:
No consensus on the limits of childhood, which means that
no agreed upon definition of the word "child" exits.
 Age alone is not adequate as a basis for the definition as far
as culture and social values determine the definition
The Declaration of the Rights of the Child considered as
working children persons between 12-18 years of age.

5. The United States National Labor Committee defined
child labor as
"any work by children that interferes with their full
physical development, their opportunity for desirable
minimum of education or their needed recreation".
 The International Labor Office (ILO) considers the
phenomenon as a social problem is when the work of
the child hinders his/her harmonious physical and
mental development so that he/she is to be protected.
 Generally, child labor is defined as:
"the systematic exploitation of children by employers
outside the child's family."

6. The General Assembly of the United Nations issued The
Declaration of the Rights of the Children in 1959 which
stresses the rights of the child to:
 enjoy special protection ,to be given opportunities and
facilities,
 to enable him to develop in a healthy and normal manner,
 to enjoy the benefits of social security including adequate
nutrition, housing recreation and medical services,
 to receive education
 to be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty and
exploitation.

7. Nevertheless !!!
According to recent ILO statistic, 246 million
children aged 5-17 years are engaged in child labor.
Most of the children between the ages of 5 to 14 in
developing countries are working.
Africa and Asia together account for 90% of total
child labour around the world, compared to 2.5
million children who are economically active in the
developed economies.
179 million are found in the worst forms of child
labor.

8. In Sudan about 4% of the labor force is children of 6-9 years
old.
 This number represents 47% of the total number of children.
 Between the age 10-14 the number of working children
represents 10-12% of the total labor force and 53.9% of the
total number of children.
In rural areas child labor represents 13% of the labor force
and in urban areas it represents 5%.
 Child labor in Sudan became a pervasive phenomenon and
it is a striking common everyday sight in urban centers.

9. Traditional Child Labor: A Process of
Socialization?
Worldwide 60 percent of all child laborers in the age group 5
- 17 years work in agriculture, including farming, fishing,
aquaculture, forestry, and livestock (129 million child).
The majority (67.5%) of child laborers are unpaid family
labour.
 About 59 percent (or 70 millions) of all children in
hazardous work aged 5–17 are in agriculture.

10. It is, sometimes argued that child labor in agriculture:
 stems out of the traditions of the society itself.
low level of technology and hired labor is extremely
difficult or non-existent
not harmful in the majority of situations.
is part of the farming household's survival..

11. child labor is a common practice In these
societies,
the working force is hardly distinguished from
the total population,
 because of the low level of technology.

12. Children – especially boys – are considered:
Economically – capital asset.
Socially – qualification to social prestige.
Politically – source of power

13. But
Their contribution "is enlisted by a gradual process of training,
specific tasks are assigned to them according to their age and
physical abilities.
Thus
Their work is regarded as a process of socialization

14. 3 Examples from traditional Sudanese
societies
Among the Kababish, who are mainly pastoral nomads duties of
men focused on the care of animals.
Women, are responsible for looking after household consumption
needs.
Small children both boys and girls take part in an un systematic
fashion in the simpler tasks such as fetching wood, carrying light
objects, minding the cooking pot or smaller siblings.
 As boys get older, they tend to dissociate themselves from
feminine tasks and devote themselves fully to the task of herding.

15. In Hausa community, children are highly
involved in economic activities and perform a
lot of work inside and outside the home.
They help their mothers in sale of food and
other products which women prepared for sale.
 Boys also help in some agricultural activities
and minding small animals.
 Girls of ten years started to sell bean nut and
tasali to save money and buy household
utensils and prepare themselves for marriage
which usually takes place early

16. Among the Baggara, pastoral nomadism which is a full-
time activity, calls for a high degree of skills,
A boy of fourteen could be responsible for a family.
 He, by that age is supposed to be well aware of the
environment and able to herd his own animals.
 Boys learn the lore of grasses, waters, soils and insects
and acquaint themselves with the different areas of their
county.

17. Pastoral education is regarded as very
important and essential for herding, which
requires a high degree of skill and knowledge.
For this reason parents are reluctant to send
their children to schools because they think
that if the child spends more than two years
away from the nomadic life, he becomes
softened by the urban manners, and unable to
readapt to the demands of nomadic cattle
husbandry.

18. With the high rate of migration (due to economic and
environmental factors), women and children who stay in the
countryside came to perform most of the work used to be done by
the head of the family.
 They do most of the agricultural tasks beside other domestic
work.
 Women and children do over-worked to compensate for the
absence of other family members.
So
child labour became more exploitative than traditional.

19. Child Labor in Urban Centers
Historically, Sudan witnessed many transformations:
Traditional economic relations were replaced by new relations in
which private ownership and the production of cash crops
dominate.
 New technology was introduced and family labor in communal
farming was no longer capable of providing a living for the
majority of rural people.
Many of them became landless.
The use of the modern agricultural technology decreased
employment opportunities and the existing ones are only seasonal.
 The only choice left to the people is migration to urban areas..

20.  labour is pushed from rural areas to urban centers looking for
work
 Small portion of the labour is absorbed in the urban formal
labor market and the rest, the majority, will largely ends, up in
unemployment or less remunerative jobs.
All family members work to fulfill the family basic needs.

21. Factors Operating on Child Labor
Children start work at the age between 6-18 years.
 In few cases, some start work even before the age of
6.
The number of working children increases in a positive
correlation with age.
 Generally, girls start work in a relatively older age
than boys.
 This is due to the prevailing values that disfavor
female work outside the family.

22. Two sets of factors operating in child labor:
1- At the macro-level,
the colonial heritage, which still shapes labor policies:-
labor migration(seasonal or permanent).
 sharp rural-urban disparity.
 breakdown of the family as a production unit.
 the educational policies (focus on academic education).
 the demographic structure(Childern under 15 represent 42.6%).
 the nature of the labor market itself, which coalesces two sectors,
a formal and an informal one.
 prolonged periods of conflict, wars and unrest in Sudan.

23. prolonged periods of conflict and unrest in Sudan
resulted in:-
 wider forms of child rights violations,
inadequate livelihood systems,
 insufficient adult support,
 limited access to education, health care,(76% Urban,
54%Rural children enrolment in education)
inadequate physical environment,
excessive migration to towns – mainly Khartoum.

24. 2- On the micro-level, factors operating on child labor are:
 poverty of the family(34.9% of the working children couldn’t
pay school fees )
 large family size many dependants,
 Lack of interest in education
 traditional resistant to education
 failure in school and high dropout rate
 death or absence of the head of the family
 lack of social protection

25. Types of Occupations:
Children are generally employed in the informal
sector.
Job choice is affected by the existence of friends and
relatives in a particular job.
Ethnic networks are very important in competition for
or selection of the work.
The suitability of the job for the child is never
questioned in this selection.

26.  Generally, children specially boys, engage in street occupations
 (peddling, shoe shining, selling of soft drinks and water, car-
washing, porting, guarding, loading and unloading, selling
magazines and newspapers etc.)
In commercial activities, boys are found to play an important role
in the sale and the distribution of different commodities.
In manufacturing and handicrafts production, they contribute
directly by providing essential services in metal workshops and
carpentry.
 They also work in mechanical workshops and car repairing.
 So they continue in less remunerative occupations and thus
continue in poverty.

27. •Sexual division of labor is clearly noticed.
• Girls usually work in jobs that are traditionally or typically,
women's jobs and that are compatible with their future lives as
house-wives.
•They work in food and beverage selling. or in domestic service.
•They rarely work in industrial work which call for skills and
knowledge.
•Boys usually work in jobs that call for physical strength and
long hours of work
•Recently boys under 18 are engaged in military works.
•Girls engage in alcohol distribution

28. Domestic work is one of the few options available for girls
 Abuses against domestic workers take place inside the
homes and are hidden from the public eye.
 Therefore, domestic work is considered among the most
exploitative and abusive work in the world.
 Generally, for girls to work as domestic workers is mainly
determined by the economic conditions and often the level
of racial marginality of the girl/ child.
Border trafficking of girls is highly spread

29. Repercussions of Child Labor
Physical Impact
Working children beside being deprived of education and
training
jobs performed are harmful to their physical development and to
their health
They walk long distance, work long hours, Work under the sun
or in cold weather, in damp and unhygienic surrounding without
suitable clothes.
Chronic illnesses, skin troubles, damage of the sight and ears,
tuberculosis, malnutrition, psychological disturbances, are all
common among working children.
Vulnerability to occupational risk or potential accident situations

30. Psychological Impact
Their mental and psychological development are affected,
especially that they work long hours, away from their families
,decreasing childhood dependence and deprived them from
play and recreation activities.
 Many suffer from emotional disturbance and may lead to
psychopathic reaction, depersonalization and derealization
syndromes.
 Child workers also furnish a very large proportion of recruits
to the criminal population

31. Moral Impact
Their moral standards declined due to long stay in
the street.
 Child workers furnish a very large proportion of
recruits to the criminal population.
Addiction , glue sniffing, smoking, etc. is common
among them.

32. Social Impact
Child work interrupts child's education and cognitive
development (33% are illiterate).
Child work impacts a child’s social development child
spends time doing labor instead of playing with peers in
social play. Low role assimilation
Child labor is exploitative (law wages,no work
contract, exposure to punishment, sexual abuse etc.)

33. To summaries:-
Child labor thus has its socio-economic implications and it should
no longer be seen as a traditional practice.
Regardless of the number of working children, qualitative
investigation is sufficient to emphasize the evils of child labor,
which involves two aspects, an economic practice and a social evil.
 Work in the case of children became an economic rather than a
developmental activity and it involves the risk of destroying
children's entire lives. and society capacity building.

34. The job, which a child undertakes, is in many situations
unsuitable for his/her age and his/her developmental needs.
 Furthermore, the child who loses the opportunity for
education is also losing the chance of training for a future
job, which perpetuates and means that he has no future
career or prospects in life.(job dissatisfaction is very high)
The child in many cases is left with no alternative, but to
continue in unskilled jobs and in poverty without being
able to break out of this vicious circle

35. Policies and Programs
Sudan has a long history of child legislation:
 In 1909 an apprenticeship Ordinance determined the age of 10
as the earliest age for apprenticeship.
The cotton Ordinance of 1926 which was designed for cotton
ginning factories, forbids the entry of children under 9 to enter
cotton work rooms in factories.
 It also prohibited the work of children under 12 in nights and
more than 7 hours in a day. The minimum age was later been
revised and raised to14 years.
.

36. The regulations of this ordinance continued in effect until it
was repeated in the labor Relations Act of 1981 .
The domestic Service Act of 1955 stated that domestic
servants should obtain an identity card which should not be
issued to persons under 15 years of age

37. After independence Sudan Permanent Constitution contained
many articles concerned with child welfare.
 Article (26) of that constitution stated that" the State shall
provide care for the young and protect them against
exploitation and physical and spiritual negligence.
 This Act prohibited the work of Juveniles - defined as any
person under the age of 18 – with the exception of vocational
schools , training workshops not for purpose of profit and
those who work within their families enterprise or under the
supervision of the family.
A major shortcoming of these legislations is that they were
dealing only with children working under an employer,
although the majority of children are self-employed

38. Sudan signed The Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC) in July 1991 and ratified it in September 1991.
 The CRC contains four general principles:
 non-discrimination (Article 2)
 the best interests of the child (Article 3);
 the right to express views and be heard (Article 12);
 and the rights to life, survival and development (Article 6).
 Sudan had also signed the Optional Protocol on the
involvement of children in armed conflict in 2005 and the
Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution
and child pornography in 2004 .
 Sudan has also ratified the African Charter on the Rights
and Welfare of the Child

39. In 2004 Child act was issued to protect children from
abuse.
Sudan also ratified all international conventions
concerning child rights
The Interim constitution of Sudan (2005)stated many
child rights.

40. A major achievement in the past ten years in Sudan is the enactment
of the Child Act in 2010.
 Though there are many challenges in terms of nforcement.
Challenges remain in the areas of education, health, protection and
participation
Significant progress in revising the list of hazardous work.
The endorsed list was reviewed by ILO/IPEC legal specialist and
comments forwarded to the government.
The Sudan list of hazardous work covers emerging forms of
hazardous child labor

41. Conclusion:
Labor legislations and child legislation, which no one adhered
to, will not solve the problem.
Most families cannot afford to pay for education and the
majority cannot forego the meager income the child brings in.

42. So,
 In the short run, child labor is to be organized and supervised
by the state.
In the long run, the abolition of child labor is only possible if
we change the whole structure of the economy to cater for the
poor. To attain balanced development and to break off
dependency.
To fight child labor is to fight its root cause:-
(POVERTY)

43. Thanks for your attention