Some reports reveal around152 million children are taking jobs. The number may go far beyond what is reported. They earn a few cents an hour and they simply do not have enough time to go to school and improve their future prospects. Global report also estimates around 72 million children are forced to work in dangerous and unhealthy conditions. Pusaka Indonesia is really committed to helping the situations of millions of children who face these worst forms of child labor. These children are forced to work in plantations, mines, factories, as domestic slaves and as prostitutes. They perform exhausting work for many hours in a row, often in unhealthy and hazardous conditions. The work is physically, psychologically and/or morally harmful for children.
Overview of Child labor in Asia
Child labor is very common in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines. Roughly about 41 million children are at work nowadays. For children between the ages of 5 and 11, this means they have a paid job for at least one hour per week, or work in the household for over 28 hours a week. Children between the ages of 12 and 14 work in a paid job for at least fourteen hours a week, or work over 28 hours a week in the household. Surprisingly, almost half the working children are girls.
Strong emphasis and target should be given to children doing very hard and often dangerous labor to some extent. These include the worst forms of child labor, such as slavery (including heavy household work), the use of children in illegal activities and work that threatens the health and safety of children. We, most especially fight against the issue and practices of child exploitation in palm oil plantation sites, in small and bigger scale companies and along the supply chains companies, sugar cane plantations, and various other hazardous places.
How Pusaka Indonesia helps Child Labors.
As a common rule, poverty often leads to child labors. Many parents of the world over regard children as additional sources of income out of their ignorance. In addition, war, migration and discrimination against minorities also leads to child labors. There has been a common belief that child labors are regarded as ‘normal issues’. Pusaka Indonesia is striving hard to fight against the issue of child labor by making planned efforts to:
- provide support medical care where the situation applicable and the resource is available and to withdraw children taking jobs in risky working conditions;
- raise awareness among local communities on the common disastrous consequences of dangerous and poorly paid work, the importance of health care and the need for education for child labors;
- educate parents to prevent the next generation from ending up in the vicious circle of poverty;
- enable as many children as possible to be back to school again;
- lobby with government bodies and private sectors to counter child exploitation and to put child rights on their respective working agenda.
Planning Ahead
Child exploitation exists all over the world. Pusaka Indonesia runs programs to stop child labor in Indonesia, with possibility of various collaborations with various different interest groups; the government, the donor agencies both nationally and internationally, any humanitarian agencies focusing in similar interests with Pusaka, private sectors and various experts of similar points of view.
What is meant by Child Labor?
Child labor comes in many different forms. It may be visible or invisible. Many children work at dump sites, stone cutting fields, in small and big factories, plantations (mostly palm oil), car workshops or as a carrier in ports or on construction sites, and in various types of hazardous places simply unknown to public life. Many parents all over the world are also sending children out to go begging on the street corners and traffic lights. Many other work as prostitutes or domestic slaves. Pusaka Indonesia recognizes the definition of child labor stated in Convention 182 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) about the worst forms of child labor:
- all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labor, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
- the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;
- the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;
- work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.
Help and Join Us
Children that are victim of exploitation for sure need proper protection. Together with our partners and donors we provide legal aids, shelters, various types of cares, as well as education. When necessary, we also help parents to increase their income that they eventually able to provide better care for their children. We already helped thousands of children, but one thing remains a home work that there is still a long way to go. Join the fight against child exploitation.
Make a Donation, Now
Donate, now. Please donate any amount that will help and mean a lot towards this effort:
You Contact us.
Yayasan Pusaka Indonesia (YPI)
Jalan Kenanga Sari NO. 20, Medan (20132).
Telp/Fax: 62-61-8223252. Email: pusaka@indosat.net,id: website: www.pusakaindonesia.or.id or
- Fatwa Fadillah (director) at fatwafadillah1@gmial.com
- Prass (vice director) at prass2775@yahoo.com
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