Saarc bid to combat child labour in South Asia

KATHMANDU, AUG 29 - The Saarc apex body for children entered into a partnership on Tuesday to promote children’s rights in South Asia. Dr Rinchen Chophel, director general of the Regional Secretariat of the South Asia Initiative to End Violence against Children (SAIEVAC), and Tine Staermose, director of the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s Decent Work Support Team (DWT) for South Asia, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the presence of Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Children, Balananda Sharma, in the Capital. The agreement aims to reinforce the organisations’ work on child rights and child protection by improving cooperation. It will focus on exchanging information and providing technical advice and organising consultations, meetings and workshops.

The MoU will also support the implementation of SAIEVAC’s five-year work plan and will use the mechanisms and processes of Saarc. “This cooperation framework will strengthen SAIEVAC’s efforts to improve child rights in general and end violence against children in particular, by helping us influence policies, plans and programmes,” said Dr Chophel. An ILO report showed that South Asia had the highest number of child labourers. There are 140 million child workers aged 5-17 in Asia-Pacific and 14 million aged 5-14 in South Asia. “Given the huge numbers of working children in South Asia, this is a battle we must win,” said Staermose. According to her, the number of child labourers increased significantly worldwide after 2008’s recession. “The recession is no longer just an issue for Europe and the US. This is not the time to be complacent or else, we will never meet the 2016 goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labour,” she said.

The MoU will promote child rights and child protection in line with the UN Convention on Rights of the Child, the ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (No 182), the ILO Convention on Minimum Age to Employment, (No 138), and their related Recommendations and Protocols, taking into consideration specific country situations.
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