In 2002, the International Labour Organisation launched the day against child labour to create an awareness of the issues faced by children across the world and to take effective measures to eliminate it. The United Nations’ theme for 2016 is “End child labour in supply chains – It’s everyone’s business.”
Everyone is responsible for every child. It is our duty to protect and speak up for the rights of children, especially with respect to an abuse of labour. In Nigeria, we must break the supply chains in child labour as is portrayed in domestic work abuse, street hawking, begging on the streets, work that deprives them of school, child trafficking and the like. One of the many practical ways we can do this is to stop buying from kids who hawk; in that way, those who send them to hawk in the streets would come to understand that this is not a viable means of sustaining themselves, and that supply chain is thus broken.
With reference to these slogans shared on World Day Against Child Labour, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Child in pain is no gain!
There’s nothing a child can indeed gain from pain. It neither forms the mind nor strengthens the bones. Instead, it plants the seeds of bitterness in them by making them believe it is normal to live a life of pain. - For a better nation, stop child exploitation.
Kids are the leaders of tomorrow. If today’s children are exploited, what kind of leaders are we forming for the future? - Small hands can handle a pen better.
Definitely. For ideas flow at their purest from their minds. If you think a child’s mind is too small for ideas, then you definitely would have a rethink when you watch series from ‘Little Big Shots’. - Give your girl child pencil, not utensils.
Give her pencils. There will always be utensils, tools and room for outsourcing, but there can be no substitute to the mind’s formation at an early age. - Every kid deserves their childhood.
Yes, they do. Childhood only comes once and every child deserves to enjoy it. - Say NO to child labour and YES to child education.
The reverse of this is often a result of poverty. When parents, relatives or guardians do not have the means to sustain their family let alone educate a child, they send the child off as domestic or work slaves. This is still a form of slavery, and there is no justification for it. - Books are the best tools you can give to children.
Yes. Unless those tools are educative, they work better with books than they could ever do with tools of labour.
