An Autobiography of Child Work: a reflexive account

Children’s perspectives are crucial in understanding the life-worlds of working children

An Autobiography of Child Work: a reflexive account. By Birendra Raj Giri in Childhoods Today, Volume 1 issue 2, December 18, 2007, Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.

This is an impressive account of the childhood of the author, Birendra Raj Giri, from Nepal, highlighting the ‘double trouble’ of combining schooling with work in rural areas. The article shows the importance of the different roles children play in their own family and society and how these are often not acknowledged by adults.

He managed to combine school with a heavy workload at home. Birendra’s description of his experiences brilliantly shows the awkward position of many children whose views are ignored by adults who claim to act in the best interest of children.

“While I loved attending school, teachers would be my worst nightmare because my household work often would not allow me to complete the homework and I had to pay the penalty for that. The common form of punishment at the school was beating from palm to shoulder with a long skinny stick and asking students to straighten their arms or slapping on their backs. The stick would have such an impact that not only the pain but also the ‘blue stripes’ on their hands or backs would last for days and a couple of times, I received cuts on my palm and arm because the teacher was using a rough stick.

……

There were numerous other forms of beating, including slapping students’ cheeks, pulling ears/hair, hitting on the head with books, putting a pen between two fingers and squeezing them, etc.

….

However, I felt the beatings were completely unfair because the teachers were not prepared to listen to my side of the story: although I would arrive at school bare-footed, wearing torn clothes and completely exhausted by working and walking, the teachers would blame me for being indolent; if I told them the truth, they would then accuse me of lying, in spite of the fact most of the teachers were aware of my family circumstances.

Telling my parents was not useful because they would say, “look son, teachers are good people, they want you to be good too; that’s why sometimes they punish you to teach you good discipline.” In Nepal, teachers are considered as ‘gurus’ who cause no harm to their pupils, but this is not always true, especially if you have to go through constant beating like an animal. Moreover, my father had warned me that if I ever failed, he would stop sending me to school. Thus, until I was about 15 years old (I left the village after I completed 10th grade or secondary education), I had no other choice than to believe that everyone was acting in my best interests – they had good intentions, wishing to make me a good person, so I had to continue to carry out household and farm work alongside my studies (Blanchet, 1996; Nieuwenhuys, 1994) - which meant that I was trapped between heavy work at home and severe beating at school.

In the light of such experiences, if those children who only engage in harsh work are called ‘child labourers’, and those who do acceptable jobs are called ‘child workers’, while those who neither work nor go to school are called ‘nowhere’ children, then children like myself should indeed be called ‘double troubled’ children, because they are caught up between heavy work and study, not to mention the severe punishments at school. My childhood experiences therefore make me believe that rural children of Nepal are deprived of education in multiple ways. Firstly, most village parents are extremely poor like my own, and cannot afford to send their children to school. Secondly, there are often no schools nearby and small children cannot walk for hours to reach the school. Thirdly, many children are double-troubled with work and schooling, which often become incompatible. Finally, the inferior quality of education quality and unfriendly student environment (viz. physical punishments) seriously discourage children from attending school.” (pages 9-11)

Based on his own experiences Birendra stresses the need to take children’s views into account in research and discourse on child work:

“[This does, however,] require that we understand children’s living and working conditions and how they make sense of the environment that they (are forced to) work in and only carefully devised research is likely to produce useful results regarding the different sectors in which children are found working.” (p.18)

Childhoods Today is a new e-journal published, bi-annually in the first instance, by the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, and supported by the Worldwide Universities Network.

The aim of the journal is to publish high quality empirical and theoretical work by up-and-coming researchers in the field of childhood studies and to provide a reference for others working in this and related fields.

Childhoods Today is an externally reviewed journal that is unique in providing an international forum designed exclusively for the publication of articles by postgraduate students (i.e. those studying for their MA, M.Phil. or PhD, as opposed to post-doctoral students) working in the field, which can be accessed by other interested postgraduates and academics.

African Movement of Working Children and Youth

I have received new information from the African Movement of Working Children and I have updated my earlier post.

Working children and youth organisations and movements

Working children and youth organisations and movements

I came across a position paper by Nandana Reddy of Concerned for Working Children, on how young workers see their work. This document is a useful compilation of extracts from several Working Children Declarations, quotes from the documentary film Taking Destiny in their Hands, and answers to a questionnaire that was sent out to the three movements of working children in Africa, Latin America and South Asia.

The compilation is organized region wise, with a common framework of six questions:

1. What is the International movement?
2. Child and work: is work a good place for a child? Does it depend on the age of the child?
3. Good work – Bad work : What kind of work a child can and cannot do?
4. What does work bring to children’s lives?
5. ILO and working children: are the convention 138 and 182 good for them?
6. Movement history: did their positions change with time? Are there differences of opinion between the members?

It starts with explaining the position of the International Movement – as it presents the foundational principles all the movements agree on, and then goes on to describe the regional positions. The document ends with some general observations.

NOTE: Throughout, the document speaks of the "Asian Movement", which is rather unfortunate since Southeast and East Asia region is not represented in this movement. It is not a matter of exclusion - from either side, however, the organisation of working children has developed differently in Southeast and East Asia.

More about the International Movement of Working Children (also referred to as the World Movement of Working Children) in the next post.

The African Movement of Working Children and Youth

The African Movement of Working Children and Youth

The AMWCY was set up in 1994. As of March 2007, the African Movement of Working Children and Youth had 80 associations, in as many as 64 towns of 20 African countries. It is made up of about 728 grassroots groups including more than 37,000 active members. Members include housemaids, girls who are vendors in the market, independent working children and youth in streets and markets, as well as female & male apprentices. 70% of members are below 18, and 53% of members are girls. More facts (in French) including all contact details of the associations can be found in the latest annual bulletin of the movement: "WCY face the challenge, volume 7".

The Working Children and Youth began by organising themselves in their working and living places. They set up associations in their own towns in order to strengthen their solidarity and also gain respect from authorities, as well as from communities. From 1996 onward, the AMWCY noted that the promotion of their rights should be fulfilled through concretisation.

Movement of Working Children and Youth organisational set up
Grassroots groups from the same town get together in Associations of WCYs (AWCY), in the same area. Several AWCY are often created in the same country. They form themselves into a National Association or into a National Coordination of AWCY.

During the African meetings of the AMWCY (every 2 years), these Associations or Coordinations elect a female or male delegate (below 18 years) who will represent them at the Regional Commission of the AMWCY which meets once a year.

The AMWCY has developed clear criteria to become a member of the movement (such as being active for at least one year, providing an annual report, and having an action plan). At present 20 associations are being considered to become members.

Activities of the Movement of Working Children and Youth

• Technical assistance
• Promotion of the rights
• Lobbying
• Fight against child trafficking
• Income Generating Activities (IGAs)
• Technical assistancePromotion of their rights

The WCY articuled 12 rights which they consider to be the backbone for all WCY in 64 African towns. They match children’s rights, mentioned in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and in the African Charter on Human Rights and Children’s Welfare, but they are very specific towards the situation of working children such as the right to remain in the village.
Promotion of these rights can be voiced through “information” and “implementation” activities. Information about the 12 rights is dispatched to the WCYs themselves, so they can be aware of them in order to be able to defend and promote those rights by themselves. This information also gets to the public through direct contacts, or via the media.

ENDA Jeunesse Action International
The Jeunesse Action team from ENDA Tiers Monde supports children living in difficult conditions. Its objectives are to strengthen children's organisation on the local, national and regional levels. They facilitate exchange, training and communication between organisations and supporting institutions that assist children living in difficult conditions in more than 60 towns in 20 African countries. The International Office in Dakar, coordinates the regional activities of the Calao Programme. It includes three working groups which are coordinated by a Committee made up of three persons in charge and of a regional coordinator.

WCY face the challenge is an annual news bulletin of the African Movement of Working Children and Youth published by Enda Tiers Monde, Jeunesse Action in Dakar. The editorial committee is made up of WCYs with the assistance form the Dakar Jeunesse Action team. In this bulletin, we find articles, interviews, impressions, portraits, poems, games, etc. produced by the WCYs and their supporting structures from Africa and Latin America. It is aimed at the general public, authorities, decision-makers informing them about the life, problems and daily fight WCYs go through.

“Calao Express” is a monthly electronic (through Email) news bulletin published by Enda Tiers Monde, Jeunesse Action in Dakar, which was first released in February 2005. At a click, one can get lots of information on WCYs activities, as well as their supporting institutions and NGOs and other organisations in Africa and worldwide in French, English, Portuguese, Italian and German.