On the World Day Against Child Labour on Wednesday, a new report says about 10.5 million children — most of them girls — are working as domestic workers in people’s homes, in hazardous and sometimes slavery-like conditions.
The report, ‘Ending Child Labour in Domestic Work’, by International Labour Organisation, says 6.5 million of these child labourers are under-age (between 5 and 14 years) and over 71 per cent are girls.
Most of the children who work in homes carry out tasks such as cleaning, ironing, cooking, gardening, collecting water, looking after other children and caring for the elderly.
“Vulnerable to physical, psychological and sexual violence and abusive working conditions, they are often isolated from their families, hidden from the public eye and become highly dependent on their employers. Many might end up being commercially sexually exploited,” the report cautions.
It cites the example of West Bengal, where a study indicated that a third of the child domestic workers surveyed had their genitals touched by members of their employing family.
Verbal bullying, physical violence
Research has also indicated that girls tend to suffer more from verbal bullying and boys more from physical violence.
“In a 2006 study of 500 child domestic workers in West Bengal, for example, it was found that 68 per cent had faced physical abuse, with almost half suffering severe abuse that had led to injuries and 86 per cent of child domestic workers had experienced emotional abuse. The study also found that nearly a third of families had no idea where their children, mostly daughters, were working, and 27 per cent admitted they knew that they were being beaten and harassed,” the report said.
Constance Thomas, Director of ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, said: “The situation of many child domestic workers not only constitutes a serious violation of child rights, but remains an obstacle to the achievement of many national and international development objectives.”
Robust legal framework
Thomas has called for a robust legal framework to clearly identify, prevent and eliminate child labour in domestic work, and to provide decent working conditions to adolescents when they can legally work.
The report also called for improved data collection and statistical tools so that the true extent of the problem can be ascertained.