(20 Nov 1997) English/Nat
Demonstrations against child labour were staged in India and South Africa on Thursday as part of a global campaign to highlight the problem.
The demonstrations took place on the day designated by the United Nations as the Universal Day of the Rights of the Child.
The protests were also aimed at publicising a Global March against child labour planned for next year.
More than 2-thousand students and activists rallied in India's capital on Thursday to protest against child labour.
Middle class students joined hands with poor children who slave in sweatshops, turning a central New Delhi park into a colourful and poignant carnival.
The young protesters chanted as they marched through the streets of New Delhi, led by activists who bused in children from around northern India for Thursday's rally against child labour.
Uma Sarkar, a spokesperson for the South Asia Coalition on Child Servitude, said pulling off a Global March against child labour next year would be a major achievement.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The biggest accomplishment that Global March can make is to have so many kinds of different organisations involved in this - from business leaders, trade unions, non governmental organisations. The typical kind of a coalition is human rights groups and development organisations, but everyone involved is trying to figure out the best ways to deal with child labour. You can't look at child labour and say it's boycotts, for example, because that's less that ten per cent of the export industry made by child labour, so we have to look at many ways of dealing with this problem."
SUPER CAPTION: Uma Sarkar, Spokesperson, South Asia Coalition on Child Servitude
The International Labour Organisation estimates 250 (m) million children under the age of 15 work around the world - many of them in extremely hazardous conditions in places like fireworks and match factories, stone quarries and mines.
Over 60 per cent of the world's working children are from Asian countries - and more than half of those live in India, where the population is fast approaching the one (b) billion mark.
In May, leaders of India and six other South Asian nations declared
they would work to eliminate child labour by the year 2010.
Last month, U-S President Bill Clinton signed a bill banning all imports made by child labourers.
Yet social workers remain sceptical.
They point out that while the Indian government talks, children work on.
The only hope, many say, lies in providing education - something these middle class Indian students agree with.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"They deserve a proper way to get their education and we should give them education. And we should admit them in a good school like us.They are also like us. We can't spoil the future of our country."
SUPER CAPTION: Indian primary school pupil
In Johannesburg, children gathered to sing songs, release balloons and tell South Africans they are opposed to child labour, which still goes on in this country.
The demonstration is also aimed at publicising plans for a Global March next year, when participants will travel on foot, by bus, or by boat over six months.
The Asian leg of the march will start in Manila on January 17th, while the Latin American leg will set off from Rio on February 25th.
Organisers in Africa hope Nelson Mandela will start them off from the Cape of Good Hope on March 21st - Human Rights Day in South Africa.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We want to conscientise the world that child labour is something that should be abolished by all countries."
SOUNDBITE: (English)
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