Working children and education
From the kitchen to the classroom: call for political commitment and empowerment to get girls out of child domestic labour and into school
Child domestic labour: an overview and practical responses
Authors:
B. Suriyasarn
Publisher:
United Nations [UN] Division for the Advancement of Women , 2006
Though domestic service work is the single largest employer of working girls worldwide, it is hidden from view and often overlooked in statistics on child labour.
This paper presents an overview of the situation of girls who are employed to undertake domestic work outside of their family home, and efforts to date to address the problem of girl child domestic work (CDW). It then identifies key actions required to prevent violence and discrimination against girl CDWs.
The report notes that girl CDWs are frequently more vulnerable than boy CDWs. On average, girl CDWs:
- are paid less than boys
- are less likely to attend school while working
- work longer hours than boys, commonly 15 hours per day)
- are not given days off each work, whereas boys commonly are
- are more likely to become locked into low-skilled domestic work whereas boys will tend to leave for other jobs.
Initiatives to address the problem of girl CDWs include:
- legal and institutional frameworks at the international and regional levels
- national declarations and programmes
- direct action with CDWs, outreach, direct services and empowerment
- regional information sharing and cooperation, particularly to address slavery
The paper asserts that the elimination of discrimination and violence against girls in child domestic labour cannot be achieved unless the root cause of gender inequalities are addressed. Noting the success of a participatory programme in the Philippines, it argues that education and empowerment are the most potent forces to enable women and children to protect themselves. This requires not only grassroots action, but concerted and committed action by governments to realise girls’ rights to an education and to protect them through legislation.
Achieving these initiatives will require extensive capacity building of policy makers and programme implementers in the public and private spheres, employers and parents in communities and, most importantly child and adult domestic workers themselves.
