ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHILD LABOUR IN NIGERIA SOCIETY
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ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHILD LABOUR IN NIGERIA SOCIETY
Chapter two.
Literature Review
2.1 Child labour.
Sri.V.V.Giri, the former President of India, describes child labour as a “economic practice” and a “social evil”. 1 To begin, ‘economic practice’ refers to the engagement of children in gainful jobs with the goal of increasing the family’s overall income.
Second,’social evil’ refers to the nature of the jobs in which children are employed, the risks to which they are exposed, and the possibilities for development that they have been denied.
In the current circumstances, children are denied even their most basic and essential necessities. Children are innocent, weak, and dependent, and because they are unable to appreciate their rights, they are susceptible to abuse during their formative years.
Thus, child work has become a harsh reality and a worldwide phenomenon. Child labour is defined in two ways: (1) as any labour force activity by children under a certain age, and (2) as any employment, economic or not, that is harmful to children’s health, safety, or development.
According to Kulashresta, the term ‘Child Labour’ is sometimes used as a synonym for ’employed child’ or ‘working child’, whereas Grey Rodgers and Gay have classified child labour into four categories:
(1) Domestic work;
(2) Non-domestic work and non-monetary work;
(3) Bonded Labour; and
(4) Wage Labour.3 Child labour is performed by any working child who is under the age specified by law. The term ‘work’ refers to full-time commercial job to support oneself or to supplement the family’s income. Child employment is harmful to a child’s mental, physical, social, educational, emotional, and spiritual development.
In general, “child labour” refers to any youngster who works to support themselves and their families. 4 Technically, the term ‘child labour’ refers to children engaged in profitable activities, whether industrial or non-industrial.
It is especially relevant for activities that are harmful to their physical, psychological, emotional, social, and moral development. It has been studied and proven that a child’s brain develops until the age of 10, muscles until the age of seventeen, and lungs until the age of fourteen.
To be more explicit, any action that endangers the natural growth and development of these important organs might be considered damaging to natural human growth and development and referred to as ‘child labour’.
5 According to the Committee on Child Labour, “Child labour” is widely defined as any section of the child population who works, whether paid or unpaid.
6 Child labour is described as work that deprives children of their youth, potential, and dignity, as well as harming their physical and mental development.
7 Homer Folks, Chairman of the United Nations Child Labour Committee, described child labour as “any work by children that interferes with full physical development and their opportunities for a desirable minimum level of education or recreation.”
8 The International Labour Organization’s comprehensive definition of child labour states that “Child Labour includes children prematurely leading adult lives, working long hours for low wages under conditions damaging to their health and to their physical and mental development, sometimes separated from their families, frequently deprived of meaningful education and training opportunities that could open up for them a better future” .
9 Child employment is defined in the Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences (1959) as “when the business of wage earning, participation, or family support conflicts directly or indirectly with the business of growth and education.”
Work in childhood serves mostly developmental purposes rather than pecuniary ones.
10 Children’s work, as a social positive, is the exact opposite of child labour as a social evil.
11 The ‘Operation Research Group’, based in Baroda, India, defines child labour as “a child falling within the five to fifteen age bracket and who is at remunerative work, may be paid or unpaid, and busy at any hours of the day within or outside the family.”
12 Article 24 of the Constitution, which recognises the prevalence of child labour in India, states that “no child under the age of fourteen years shall be employed in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.”
According to the Committee on Child Labour, “child labour” involves the use of labour at its lowest productivity points, making it an inefficient use of labour force. Child labour entails premature expenditure rather than savings.”
It concludes that “the argument that employing children increases family earnings and keeps children away from other children is misleading.” Child work impairs physical growth, inhibits intellectual development, and forces them into low-wage jobs for their whole lives. Child labour is economically unsound, psychologically devastating, physically risky, and morally destructive.
13 According to an elected representative of the people, “child labour” is no longer a means of economic exploitation; it is required by economic compulsions of the parents and, in many circumstances, the child himself.
They labour because they have to in order to survive and provide for their families. As a result, any attempt to pass legislation will be unsuccessful.
The concept (problem) of child labour
The concept of child labour is multifaceted in nature. The term ‘child labour’ is a mixture of two components: ‘child’ in terms of chronological age, and ‘work’ in terms of nature, quantity, and income-generating capacity.
15 The term ‘labour’ is a difficult notion to define, particularly in the context of child labour, as child work and child labour are frequently used interchangeably.
However, not all employment is detrimental for children because certain light work, when properly planned and regulated, is not considered child labour.
This suggests that employment that does not interfere with other important activities for children, such as recreation, play, and education, is not child labour. “Child labour” refers to work that involves some degree of exploitation, such as physical, mental, economic, or social, and thereby harms children’s health and development.
16 It is futile to make a distinction between child labour and child work, or between dangerous and non-hazardous employment. Work that appears to be safe for adults becomes risky for children because they lack negotiating power.
17 There are two schools of thought on the conceptual and definitional issues surrounding child labour. According to the first school, known as the abolitionist school, education should be made a fundamental human right for all children aged 5 to 14, and any child who is not in school should be considered a prospective working child.
They believe that eliminating child labour and providing compulsory primary education are two sides of the same coin that cannot be achieved without the other. According to them, the distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous labour is irrelevant.
18 According to the second school, known as the reformist school, child labour is a ‘hard reality’, which indicates that given India’s socioeconomic realities (such as poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy), it is impossible to completely eradicate the problem of child exploitation.
They believe that eliminating child labour should be considered as a long-term aim to be reached gradually. As a result, they call for a dual strategy that prohibits child labour in hazardous jobs while regulating it in non-hazardous jobs.
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