Child Labour in Islamic Countries Has Become a Humanitarian Crisis

By New Age Islam Staff Writer

29 August 2023

Islamic Countries Have Failed To Curb Child Labour

Main Points:

1.    Pakistan has 3.3 million child labour

2.    Yemen has 1.3 million child labour.

3.    25 per cent children in Afghanistan are labourers.

1.    4..1.6 million children in Jordan are child labourers.

4.    Child labour increased in Afghanistan by twenty times under Taliban.

------

 

For representational purpose. Photo: Indian Express

------

Child labour has been identified as one of the major humanitarian issues of the world. Child labour is found in almost all the countries of the world but its magnitude is alarming in Islamic countries because of hostilities, conflicts, civil wars, poverty, illiteracy and lack of awareness about the rights of children.

The child labour is rampant in Arab countries and in the Islamic countries of Asia. Out of the 22 Arab countries, almost half have been going on through conflicts, wars and civil wars and these conflicts affect the children the most. 15 per cent of children in Arab countries are labourers. For example, in Yemen where the war between the Houthis and the government has been going on since 2014, children have been the worst sufferers. They have had to give up school and were employed in the government armed forces as child soldiers. 17 per cent of Yemeni children are child labour. Children of Yemen are subject to the worst form of child labour including in commercial sexual exploitation.

According to International Labour Organisation, child labour in Arab State, children and young adults make up half the population of 280 million. An estimated 13.4 million, or about 15 per cent, of all children in the region are child labourers. The real level of child labour may be much higher, however, because of the predominance of child labour in the informal sector, which is difficult to measure. Work in the urban informal sector, seasonal agriculture, street work, domestic labour as well as are of particular concern. Gender inequality affecting the enrolment of girls in school is also an important issue influencing child labour.

One of the most predominant worst forms of child labour in the Arab States is child trafficking, and efforts to address the issue are underway in several countries. The Government of Yemen has signed trafficking agreements with neighbouring countries, provided training to security and border officials on how to recognize and care for trafficked children.

Egypt is another country where child labour has become a serious issue, particularly after 8 children drowned in river Nile while returning from work in a poultry farm in Alexandria in 2022. The government became active and took some steps to curb child labour but it was more of a knee jerk reaction. The country has poultry farming as a major mall industry where children are employed. Apart from it, children work in farm lands, unauthorised factories

Jordan has seen a rise in child labour since 2007 which indicates that socio-economic conditions of the country have deteriorated and the government has not been able to implement its laws and fulfil international commitments.69,000 children work as labourers in Jordan. They work in fisheries, forestry, agriculture and wholesale and retail trade. The children are exposed to health hazards and injuries.

The situation is worse in Syria. 60 per cent of children in Syria are out of school and many of them have to work to support their family. The refugee children also have to work to sustain themselves.

The children of Afghanistan have suffered the most under the rule of Taliban. Nearly 2 million children have given up school in Afghanistan. While the girls have to sit at home after they have been barred from attending schools, the boys have to join their parents in their business or work. Nearly 25 per cent children of Afghanistan are child labourers. According to a Human Rights Watch report:

"At least a quarter of Afghan children between age 5 and 14 work for a living or to help their families. Many are employed in jobs that can result in illness, injury and even death due to hazardous working condition and poor enforcement of safety and health standards. Children in Afghanistan generally work long hours, with little or no pay. They work in the home-based carpet industry, as bonded labour in brick kilns, in the metal industry as tinsmiths and welders, in mines, in agriculture and on the streets as vendors, shoe shiners and beggars."

In Pakistan, child labour has been institutionalised though its law prohibits child labour and compulsory education is guaranteed by law to children aged 5 to 16. Still the country has 2.5 children who have not gone to school. 3.3 million children in Pakistan work as child labour or bonded labour in farm houses with their parents or work as domestic help in the houses of landlords, judges, Sufis, ministers and other categories of rich families. They work in garages, small factories and shops or work as vendors. They undergo physical and psychological abuse. Minor girls are tortured by their employers, kept hungry, sexually abused and even beaten to death. The state does not have any mechanism to prevent child labour and to protect children from torture and abuse. During the last seven years three major cases of torture and sexual assault on minor girls by peers and judges and their wives have come to light but the government of Pakistan has not been able to ban child labour. Poverty is the main cause behind child labour in Pakistan. Pakistani families, particularly in tribal areas of Sindh, Balochistan and Swat generally have ten, fifteen children, mostly girls. Parents cannot afford to send them to schools or feed them. Therefore, they send their children to work as domestic help.

Islam stresses on good treatment and care of the children. Mistreatment and torture of children has strictly been prohibited in Islam. But ironically, children in the Islamic countries suffer physical and psychological trauma due to political instability, poverty and lack of economic development. The countries that have some kind of instability do not care about children and allow child labour despite formal laws prohibiting them.

 

URL:    https://newageislam.com/islam-human-rights/child-labour-islamic-countries-humanitarian/d/130551

 

New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism