27
Free poverty and accidental education “a study of the positions of child labour in the countryside”
Land Centre for Human Rights is issuing its report about child labour in Egyptian countryside under the title “Free Poverty and Coincidental Education”. It is the report no. 27 in Economic and Social Rights series, which is dedicated to discussing farmers’ rights. The report captures different international and local aspects of the phenomenon and displays a field study of child labour in 6 villages in different rural provinces (Giza, Menufeyya, Dakahleyya, Beni Sueif, Kafr Esheikh, and Fayyoum. The report also makes an overview of the phenomenon in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe in addition to size and reasons of child labour in Egypt and the effect of the new policies of the state on farmers’ positions in Egyptian countryside. These new policies generally affected social and economical life in Egypt and consequently participated in raising child labour rates. The report also discusses the legal framework of local child labour and the problems that hinder implementing these laws in Egypt.
In the part dedicated to field study, the report depends on 300 interviews with child labourers from the chosen provinces. Special care was given to the study of the families of child labourers. Those families were characterised by big sizes, for 74.3% of child labourers were from families that exceed 10 persons. The report also studies economical positions of those families, which were mostly very low. As for parents’ work, 74% of parents are domestic workers, 3.3% are employees, 15% work temporarily in any place they can find, and 7.7% own a small farmland. The report also studies the relation between education and child labour. Researchers of LCHR found out that 17.33% of children did not receive any kind of education because poverty pushed them to work for their living. Researchers also discovered that poverty has defeated conservative traditions of Egyptian society and pushed even female children to work. 63.3% of total child labour in Egypt are females and 36.66% are males. In addition, those children work in cruel circumstances that are so hard for their age. The last part of the report is dedicated to analyse the results that were conducted by Researchers of LCHR. Results convey medical, educational, and work positions in addition to the size of child labour problem. Percentage of labourers between 12 and 15 years old has increased to 72.7% in Agrarian sector. Children who escaped from education in Egyptian countryside represent 26.6% of Egyptian children, 37% of them are in the northern part of the country and 21.6% are in Upper Egypt.
Finally, the report contains some recommendations to support poor families that are working in agrarian sector. Activists should work through political parties, governmental authorities, NGOs and domestic organisations for establishing a series of bureaus in villages and rural districts. These bureaus would be dedicated to providing social, economic, cultural, and medical care for child labourers and their families. In order to be able to do that, these bureaus should be granted official authorities. Following are some of the suggested missions for these bureaus:
o Urging employers to sign official contracts with child labourers. That procedure will guarantee the rights of those children, especially the rights mentioned in labour law and the right to social insurance.
o Distributing a free daily meal of 200 Grams of Milk for every child in rural areas.
o Restricting child labour in dangerous places (agrarian works has proved to be the second international dangerous work for children)
o Ensuring that child labourers get enough amounts of pure water and free medical care against work diseases
o A comprehensive revision of economic and developmental policies of the state including different fields of governmental expenditures, which led to more poverty and marginalization for wide social categories all along the past two decades.
LCHR calls all officials and activists in Egypt to work for implementing these recommendations in order to build a new generation that is able to carry its responsibilities in the future.