News - Plantation companies pledge to prevent child labour

Six plantation companies signed a pledge to prevent the use of children from the plantations in various forms of exploitative employment, an official of the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) said.

The pledge was given in support of implementing the International Labour Organization Convention 182 of 1999.

“The main purpose of this pledge is to stop the trafficking of children from plantation communities to urban areas where they may become involved in hazardous forms of child labour,” IPEC National Programme Manager Shyama Salgado told The Sunday Times.

“Children who are trafficked into urban areas become involved mostly in child domestic labour, which is recognized by the Government as one of the 49 hazardous forms of child labour in Sri Lanka,” she said.

Plantation Human Development Trust (PHDT) and the ILO are supporting the implementation of the pledge by providing technical assistance and funding vocational and educational training of children in plantation communities through the Domestic Child Labour Prevention Programme in Plantations.

“14 educational centres have been established in 14 estates in Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Kandy, Ratnapura, Galle and Kegalle, three of which have been accredited and absorbed into the non-formal education unit of the Education Ministry,” Ms. Salgado said.

“Our aim is to provide alternatives and therefore prevent domestic child labour. However, at this stage, the complete elimination of such labour is not advisable as it might create a situation where the child is forced to become involved in worst forms such as child prostitution,” she said.

The number of incidents of domestic child labour reported to the Labour Department has been steadily declining due to extensive awareness campaigns, Commissioner-General of Labour Somaweera Edirisinghe told The Sunday Times.

This has been especially significant among children aged below 14 years; the national minimum age for working, he said.

“The exploitation of children for commercial sexual purposes such as pornography and prostitution is carried out in an undetectable manner, although the number of complaints in relation to this issue has declined,” he said.

In Galle, approximately 250 children were rescued from hazardous employment through awareness programmes.

“Approximately 200 children were provided with non-formal, remedial and catch-up education, 40 were sent back to school and 10 were sent back to their parents,” said PHDT Regional Director in Galle, Yajith de Silva.

“We are lobbying to increase the minimum age of employment for children in Sri Lanka from 14 years to 16 years,” said Bethsi Selvaratnam from the Ceylon Workers’ Congress.