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No one knows exact number of children involved in street and illegal labour in Azerbaijan – INVESTIGATION
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03 Nov 2008 14:51 ]
Baku. Kamala Guliyeva – APA. Friedrich Engels, one of the founders of Marxist philosophy, was the first to protest against child labour. Engels writes if socialists come to power, one of the first problems they will fight against, will be the use of child labour. But there was no need to wait for the socialists to come to power, in order to fight against child labour. The first law banning the use of child labour was adopted in Great Britain in 1833. Most think that child labour is more urgent in undeveloped countries. Actually, child labour is considered more profitable, since it is cheap. From Soviet republics Uzbekistan is mostly mentioned for child labour. Even some British companies wanted to impose veto on buying cotton fiber from Uzbekistan, since child labour was used in cotton production in the country.
Now June 12 is marked as the World Day against Child Labour. The convention of the International Labour Organization adopted on January 1, 1970, bans employment of children under 15. But according to the assessments of International Labour Organization, the labour of over 250 million children aged 5-14 is used in developing countries. 120 million of them work full time and 130 million part time.
-How is the situation in Azerbaijan?
According to the law on “Children’s rights” adopted in Azerbaijan in 1988, everyone under 18 is considered a child. The existing laws of the country – Constitution of Azerbaijan Republic, Labour Code, Family and Marriage Code, law on “Children’s rights” regulate children’s rights and their labour in Azerbaijan. Though laws impose some restrictions on the child labour, children are still broadly exploited in Azerbaijan. Nabi Shukurlu, chief of State Labour Inspection of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population told APA that the national labour legislation does not allow employing persons under 15 in Azerbaijan. The legislation bans to employ children aged 16-18 in workplaces with difficult and harmful conditions, underground jobs, night clubs having negative influence on the children’s morals, bars, casinos, places producing, selling and storing tobacco, narcotics, toxic agents. According to the investigations of State Labour Inspection, mainly children of low-income families work in the places banned for them. Employers have various reasons in using child labour. Employers mostly use child labour, since children’s work is cheaper and they are easily managed.
Nabi Shukurlu said the legislation allows use of child labour in exceptional cases. Pupils of secondary and vocational schools reached 14 can be employed in the jobs with harmless and easy conditions with the permission of their parents, or any person of authority. The chief of State Labour Inspection says that the persons employing children under 18 make them responsible for the employees. An employer is to ensure increase of skills of such employees and additional conditions and commitments should be envisaged in employment agreements. The legislation covers some prohibitions and responsibilities. But employing children without any paperwork, “frees” the employers from these responsibilities.
Despite the events for the protection of child labour, State Labour Inspection revealed improper use of child labour in 11 cases last year. 5 of the facts were related to transport. 4 children under 18 suffered in the aftermath of industrial accidents in 2007, 2 of them were injured, 2 died. Injuries were recorded in construction and industries, fatal casualties in the construction. No casualties were recorded among children under 18 in January-September this year.
-Baku, Ganja, Sumgayit, Shaki amd Lankaran are leading
“A child labor exists in Azerbaijan, but does not spread widely”, concluded Nabil Seyidov, leader of NGO Alliance for Children Rights. The child labor is widely used in the agricultural regions of Azerbaijan, as well as in Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, Lankaran and Shaki, Seyidov told APA. It is interesting that neither the governmental, nor non-governmental organizations working with the children can specify the number of street children and children involved in illegal labor, it is impossible to estimate such statistics. “We can make some calculations. Usually the international organizations multiply the figures they have by ten. There are approximately 4000 street children in Azerbaijan. Their number is changing seasonally”.
The NGO Alliance’s attitude to the child labor in the agricultural field is not simple. Seyidov said there was nothing bad that children were working in the farms to support their families if it didn’t damage their health and education.
“However there are some fields of the agriculture like tobacco plantations where children can not work. The children are working in the tobacco plantations mostly in the north-western regions”.
According to ILO Convention, if children are involved in labor they have to receive same salary with adults. Non-signing of labor agreement with the children violates their rights. 90 per cent of children involved in labor in Azerbaijan have no such contracts. They have no idea about the labor agreements. Such cases widely spread in restraints and cafes.
Seyidov said parents and employers should be educated, which was responsibility of the local executive powers’ commissions for work with the under-ages. “This commission is former soviet organization and its restricted activity is not useful. These commissions are not working. There are protection and patronage institution and psychological- medical-pedagogical commissions near the Ministry of Education. These institutions need to unite as Children Protection Department, which has to operate in all regions and to subordinate to the Ministry of Education, because teachers meet with the children within a week for 5-6 hours a day and they can fix first changes in the children. If children avoid the school, it means the situation is very serious”. Seyidov said the Children Protection Department would cover 1.5 million children and it should be supported and controlled by the government.
-Why child police is not established?
According to the law on prevention of homelessness and right violation among the under-age children adopted in 2005, a child police should be established in Azerbaijan. However there is still no child police in the country. Absence of juvenile police tackles effective methods against the street children and registration of children rights violation and child labor exploitation. The under-age children commit nearly 500 crimes, including theft, robbery, rape, deliberate wounding and drugs, a year. Nearly 4000 children were registered by police. 30-40 per cent of them are hard-road children. According to the official statistics, 10-15 children face with sexual exploitation every year. In fact this figure is more than 10-20 times. Most of them are girls.
-Working girls are involved in prostitution
The State Program for solution of the problems of homeless and street children in 2003-2006 in Azerbaijan was already completed, said deputy chief of the Children Problems unit of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Problems Jeyran Rahmatullayeva. “Level of this problem had to be specified at first. There are no exact statistics of street children yet. ILO researches show that homeless children working in the streets and the children working in the streets, but living with the family are street children in Azerbaijan. The children working in the streets, but living with the family dominate among them. It related with the refugee and IDP problem, migration from other countries and poverty. Recent fall of poverty level shows that irresponsible parents also contributed to this problem”. The committee official said age limit for the boys was 12-14, for the girls 12-16. The girls at this age are involved in the prostitution mostly. The boys are working as auto washers or bus conductors. “The researches show that monthly earning of the street children is 20-50 dollars. The highest figure is 100 dollars, which is earned by the prostitutes. Only 2 per cent of these children spend their earnings to education. Most part of them spends only for daily foods. 64.7 per cent of these children are living with the single mothers and brothers and sisters”. Rahmatullayeva said a risk of various disease infections was higher among these children. “There are street children among the AIDS-infected people in the country”.
According to the report of AIDS Prevention Center, this year 13 children at age 0-14 and 5 at age 15-18 were infected with AIDS.
98 per cent of street children avoid the education. Rahmatullayeva called it as very painful fact and said indeed there were talented children among them. “These children may become victims of child trafficking, violence and sex exploitation in future”.
-Is it possible to prevent child labour by administrative measures?
“We are forward than European norms in terms of legislation on child labour. Sahib Mammadov, Head of Citizens’ Labor Rights Protection League stated that there was not child labour in Azerbaijan in comparison with Southeast Asia and Latin America. To him, usage of child labour is decreasing in Azerbaijan gradually. Child labour is used in non –state sectors.
“Child labour has decreased in trade, transport. Child labour occurs in catering. There are many reports on the facts that many young girls are involved in disco-bars and dance in restaurants. The legislation bans to involve young children in works damaging them mentally and physically,” he said. Mammadov considers that it is impossible to prevent child labour by administrative measures.
“One of the toy fabrics used child labour in India. Campaign was conducted against it and the fabric stopped it. According to next observations, most of children and their family members died of starvation. There is such child that if he does not work, he or his family will be hungry. Therefore, the government should give salaries to poor children. Social assistance is a good way out of situation. There are serious problems on it. Firstly children should be satiated with the prevention of the problem,” he said.
-There is a condition for children, but what else do they need?
It is true that children are involved in labour at present. We can approach to this fact from various aspects. But there is a serious factor on this issue. There are only paid circles, where children can use their times productively. Sometimes the parents have not money to send their children to these circles. In such case, young children want to earn money themselves. In such case there occur several situations:
First, they earn money and spend it to sport and circles.
Second, usage of money changes after earning money. New and attractive ways are found (cigarette, alcohols, narcotic substances etc.).
Third, the parents make them spend earned money to needs of the family. Sometimes there occur a cleft between the parents and children.
It is undesirable situation that the child is obliged to earn money. If we seek the ways out of this problem, then children should be paid attention to spend productive time. Otherwise, children, who want to spend productive time, can go astray.
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