The discourse about child labour in South Sudan
By Ngor Arol Garang
June 11, 2013 – Today, at the national parliament while at the gallery, I run into friendly discussion with someone from the office of the president. It was civilised and educative exchange of views and ideas. He is a gentleman I know as a friend having lived together in Yambio, Western Equatoria State and Rumbek, Lakes State in 2003 and again in 2004 until 2005 when the comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended the over two decade conflict with Sudan from which we seceded in July 2011, was eventually signed. We, however, parted from Rumbek as we got different assignments in different locations. He was deployed to Khartoum in the office of the 1st vice president during which he remained in Khartoum with limited visit to the South during the interim period where I remained and got engaged in the private.
Meeting again after such a long time was not only joyous and refreshing but was a confirmation that people who had the opportunity to live together can have a possibility of meeting again after separation. While meeting again was interested me, I was moved when he said he has long been looking for me and that it was fortunate meeting at last.
According to him, he said he was seeking opinions on child labour from civil right activists and informed citizens and that he would be glad contributing my opinion. I saw this as an obligation as an informed citizen. And I did not hesitate as we immediately started exchanging views while waiting for the session for which I showed up to follow deliberations as it was about the oil row with the government of neigbouring Sudan. He was smart, eloquent and had his own understanding about child labour and whether it was right for children to work. For him, the issue of child labour seems to be grossly misunderstood to mean no work at all for a child. I told the friend what I now want to share with the general public as this was what he proposed that he was completely right, because he was entitled to his own thinking and interpretations. And I must state clearly that here this article is not in any way meant to oppose understanding of the child labour and child rights. This piece of article is to contribute to discourse about child labour in the country.
My understanding and the interpretation could be different and someone else is equally entitled to disagree with me. I have no objection to that because I believe in the world where I engage people with different opinions. Holding different opinions in fact encourages health debate because it allows communications between the two sides whose engagement will be assessed by their audience to figure out who of the two has made a point worth support. It is with understanding that I believe there are things children can do. For instance, we can have children helping mothers sweep compounds, cleaning of the cooking pots, utensils, toilets, washing their own clothes, rear calves in the cattle keeping communities, go fishing, assist in farming activities etc. These are things which are not harmful. Things which are not heavy, which are not exploitative but those they can do to learn. Children learn from what they see their parents do. This is why they are sent to school to learn and enhance their understanding.
This understanding does not violate child right instead it is one way of teaching them how some works are done. Understanding that sees this as a child abuse should go beyond this thinking to explore more opportunities, and I believe this is one of the reasons why we have children who are growing up totally spoilt. They can’t clean their own mess; they can’t make their own beds; they can’t clean the plates on which they are fed. Everything has to be done for them. As a result of this, we have children who are growing up not knowing anything, not being able to do anything for themselves. Some of them can’t even boil water and make a cup of tea for themselves. We have teenagers who would want everything to be done to them. They would want their parents or those who live with them to clean their bottoms and flush the toilets for them. This may seem an exaggeration but this is how bad things have become, especially with children from well to do families. Everything is associated with child right and abuse which is misleading indeed. Our constitution is very clear. Article 17 (1) clearly states that every child has the right: (a) to life, survival and development; (b) to a name and nationality; (c) to know and be cared for by his or her parents or legal guardian; (d) not to be subjected to exploitative practices or abuse, nor to be required to serve in the army nor permitted to perform work which may be hazardous or harmful to his or her education, health or well-being; (e) to be free from any form of discrimination; 6 (f) to be free from corporal punishment and cruel and inhuman treatment by any person including parents, school administrations and other institutions; (g) not to be subjected to negative and harmful cultural practices which affect his or her health, welfare or dignity; and (h) to be protected from abduction and trafficking.
This constitutional provision promotes the right of the children and does not deny them the right to work to learn new skills to enhance understanding instead it protects them from abuse.
I grew up in a village where I could go to the bush to collect firewood, rear cattle, clean byre, pound grain as there were no grinding mills at the time and even now in my village, go digging with my family members and do other things which none of the children from the wealthier family could do now. It was not because my family was poor. We had cattle with a complete camp named after my grant dad, Makem Adim Kuan as it is known. It is a well-known cattle camp in the village but we had to work because it was one way of teaching us how to work. When I went to school in Peth village in the present day Northern Bahr el Ghazal State at the height of civil war which ended in 2005, I was engaged in cleaning our own class room which was under a tree. This cannot be done today by the children I see these days going to schools, simply because parents cannot allow that to happen because doing so is a sign of not having enough love for the child; it is child labour according to them. They do not know they are denying their children a chance to learn certain skills which are only acquired at childhood age.
We seem to have grossly misunderstood the issue of child labor. Making a child cleans his or mess; making a child make his bed or clean his plates is not child labour. Child labour a defined by the transitional constitution is work that is considered harmful to the child, and therefore should be eliminated.
Child labor should not be automatically associated with children who engage in non-harmful work. Non-harmful work is part-time and does not stop children from playing, having an education. Allowing children do less harming work can be beneficial to them. It can be beneficial in the sense that it gives the child the opportunity to learn certain necessary things in life. It teaches children useful social skills. Therefore, it is vitally important to not only eliminate harmful child labour, but to also allow children to learn useful social skills. This may help some children gain useful skills that they can use to continue their studies and gain an education.
It is vitally important to support children who do have to work so that they are able to continue their studies and gain an education. Strict bans on child labour may cause more harm than good, forcing children to work in underground and more dangerous conditions than they would otherwise. Certain things have to be taken into consideration when looking at what constitutes child labour. For instance, there are certain things a child living in an affluent community may not need to do that may be necessary for a child living in a poor neighbourhood. There is need for local definitions of what constitutes child labour. A poor approach to the issue of child labour can cause a lot of problems for children. Today, we have fully grown people still staying with their parents because they cannot live a life of their own. They are still depending on their parents. We have people who are still being treated as children and are being protected from child labour. These are provided with all the necessities of life and luxuries like cigarettes, alcohol, perfumes, clothes and so on and so forth by their parents. They are being treated the same way they were treated as under-fives. Some of them are even bringing spouses in their parents’ homes and siring children there. Both they and their children are protected from ‘child labour’. The only people who work are the parents and the people they have employed.
These are the consequences or the results of our narrow definition of child labour. We have a generation that has been destroyed by the ‘love’ or rather ‘exaggerated love ‘ of their parents. This is a generation that receives everything from the parents. They have degrees obtained from expensive universities abroad and locally but they don’t work, they can’t do anything. Those degrees are just there to help them in discourse with others when they are drinking. Everything is about my mummy this, my daddy that, my bally this and that. Some of them are in their twenties still being protected from ‘child labour’. Where will this end? What will be the consequences of all this on the individuals involved and on the nation? “If our parents brought us up the way we are bringing them up today, we wouldn’t be here. These children are not objects. They should be allowed to work so that they can learn new skills.
The author is a Sudan Tribune journalist and be can reached via [email protected]