THE PREVALENCE OF DOMESTIC CHILD LABOUR IN SSA-Proposing a Dynamic Economic Model.”

THE PREVALENCE OF DOMESTIC CHILD LABOUR IN SSA-Proposing a Dynamic Economic Model.”



By Samuel Stephen Wakdok*





Preamble:

Poverty, cultural and religious inhibitions, ineffective government policies, widening income gap as a result of inequitable distribution of income, corruption, inefficient allocation of scarce resources, high rate of unemployment, de-industrialization, HIV/AIDS induced mortality among various factors have conspired to recruit and retain a growing number of Sub Saharan African children in child labour. The statistics are alarming. Eleonore Meyer writing on Child Labour Flourishing in Fast Growing Economies in the Global Geopolitics and Political Economy( August 19,2010) revealed that nearly 160 million kids aged between five and fourteen are trapped in child labour world wide. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), around one in three children – 69 million are engaged in child labour.



These minors are practically everywhere as domestic helps in homes, as farm hands, engaged in sex labour, conscripted into the army as child-soldiers in war worn countries/regions and used in various ethno- religious conflicts. The inability of successive African Governments south of the Sahara to ensure decent standards of living and also as a result of high unemployment rate; have caused many families to send their children to work on the streets or at other people’s homes. They are either hawking on the streets, roads and highways thereby exposing them to various forms of dangers such as crimes and exploitation or they are hired as domestic helps also exposing them to maltreatments, molestations and exploitations.



Theoretical framework:

The focus of this model is restricted to domestic child labour with the hope that it will open a wider discourse on the whole subject .The minors engaged as domestic child labourers at such tender ages ought to be in the comfort of their parents’ protection and guidance but are rather exposed to harsh environments and practices. This not only put physical pressure on them but also emotional, psychological, and biological pressures. Their rights to go through the complete child development processes are tempered with. They are prematurely initiated into the adults’ world to work, earn and cater for themselves and their relations. At an age they are supposed to be dependents; they now have dependents.



These innocent children most times are exposed to different forms of maltreatment. They are prone to crimes and abuses by adults. Some are beaten, drugged, starved, underpaid and in some cases abused sexually. Their future is often truncated when they are denied access to education, even free government education. Only a few number of children employed in child labour are enrolled in schools since the very essence of hiring them was to cater for the children of the working class/business women in most cases.



As the economic and social rights of women to work improved coupled with the demand to meet economic needs of their families, the past three decades have witnessed a paradigm shift from house wives to corporate wives. Even the self employed women spend less time at home and more at their businesses or trips to meet with clients and suppliers. The implication is a surge in the demand for domestic child labour to cater for the home front left vacant by the absentee wives/mothers.



To this end, the positive improvement in the economic and social rights of women has led to a negative effect on the rights of children-those employed in child labour. Unfortunately since the demand for child labour comes with an explicit increase in the income they earn, thus seen as addressing their economic poverty and their families, no notice is taken of the increase in other forms of poverty as social, emotional, and psychological which are implicit.



Model Specification:

Expressing the above statement in a dynamic economic model as below;

I (ESW) =I (DCL) ---- 1

Where

I = increase,

ESW= Economic and social rights of women and

DCL= Demand for domestic child labour.



Decomposing the Right hand side-RHS of equation 1 will give

I (DCL) = I (MB) + d (NMB) --- 2

Where:

MB= Monetary benefits

NMB= Non monetary benefits.



If we denote I an increase with the positive sign (+) and d a decrease with the negative sign (-) and replace the coefficients I and d with their respective signs we now have;



+ DCL = + MB + (-NMB) ---- 3 which is the same as

DCL= MB –NMB --- 4



Substituting equation 4 into the initial equation 1 above we have;



ESW= MB-NMB--- 5

Where NMB <0.





Where NMB = 0 we have

ESW= MB --- 6



Where NMB>0 we have

ESW =MB+NMB --- 7



Discussions:

Most times emphases are placed on the increase in the monetary benefits of domestic child labour as a result of the increase in the economic and social rights of women. Often the decrease in or negative non-monetary benefits such as different forms of abuses, truncated childhood development, stress and trauma, lack of access to education are overlooked. Focusing only on the monetary benefits leads to “commodification” of these children especially since they are engaged in child labour at a tender age when they do not have the ability or capacity to make their own decisions. Even when they do make such decisions to go into child labour, their decisions are not unbiased of their emotional preconditions subject to the economic conditions of their families. This is further compounded if they are orphans or their mothers are widows or when their bread winners are incapacitated in any form. This is a gross abuse of their social rights.



In as much as government policies and inefficient resources allocations will always make available a high supply of child labour on one hand, with the increase in working class or entrepreneurial woman on the other hand (including affirmative actions for women to participate in politics and other social ventures); it will be unrealistic to eliminate either the supply of or the demand for domestic child labour especially in Africa.



Recommendation:

Therefore the thrust of this model is to provide an alternative to the dehumanization or/and ‘commodification’ of domestic child labour. “Humanifying” child labour will minimize and even eliminate the negative non monetary benefits of domestic labour. Governments must compensate for their inability to provide decent standards of living to their various citizens by providing adequate machineries to check mate the exploitation of those involved in child labour especially as it concerns non-monetary benefits. Government and non-governmental agencies must come up with monitoring channels to drive down and eliminate the negativity in the non monetary benefits. More emphasis and efforts must be made to compel those employing domestic child labourers not to only concentrate on payments of wages and salaries which form the monetary benefits on the right hand side of the equation, but also to eliminate all forms of physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuses. Then push further to the provision of education and other skill enhancing opportunities. Emergency telephone lines should be made available for calls at no charge to report abuses or exploitations. The more the negative non- monetary benefits of domestic child labour tend towards zero and even cross to the positive side, the greater will be the benefits of domestic child labour. But as long as the right hand side fails to achieve that positive sign, the left hand side which is an increase in the economic and social rights of women harbours some externalities which are unquantifiable.









Illustrations:

Assuming the economic and social rights of women increase by 5 and non monetary benefit is estimated at 3, obtain the amount of monetary benefit that will achieve equilibrium when NBM is less than zero, zero and more than zero respectively.



Scenario One- When Non Monetary Benefits <0

Recall equation 5

Where NMB <0 we have;



ESW= MB-NMB

Making MB the subject of the formula

MB= ESW +NMB

MB= 5+3

MB= 8

{5=8-3 =5}



Interpretation:

MB of 8 must be paid to compensate for negative NMB of 3 at an ESW of 5.This equilibrium is not attainable because it is not feasible and rational for an employer of child labour to pay a higher monetary benefit than what the working class wife earns in order to make up for the degrading human conditions like abuses, low self esteem inherent in the negative NMB. This is a level of dehumanization.



Scenario Two- When Non Monetary Benefits = 0

Recall equation 6



Where NMB = 0 we have

ESW= MB

{5=5}



Interpretation:

MB of 5 must be paid to achieve equilibrium at an ESW of 5 when NMB is nil. This happens when non monetary benefits is neither dysfunctional nor available and the whole increase in economic and social rights of women must be paid to the child labourer as a compensation for the absence of non monetary benefits like access to education among others. However, this equilibrium is not always attainable because it will be irrational to pay all one earns to the domestic help except in an extreme situation. This scenario if achieved will merely be commodifying the child labourer.





Scenario Three- When Non Monetary Benefits > 0

Recall equation 7



Where NMB>0 we have

If ESW =MB+NMB

MB= ESW - NMB

MB= 5-3

MB= 2.





Interpretation:

MB of 2 would be paid to compliment the positive NMB of 3 at an ESW of 5.This is therefore the feasible equilibrium. It is both practicable and rational to pay out a fraction (2/5) of what the working woman earns as monetary benefits to domestic child labour rather than paying higher as in scenario one or paying out the total earned as in scenario two. This will be complimented by provision of non monetary benefits like self esteem, educational opportunities etc.



Conclusion:

Monetary benefits alone can not liberate those engaged in child labour from the poverty circle. Consistent increase in the non monetary benefits such as access to education, more humane living conditions, self esteem, and developmental opportunities like skill acquisition will be the realistic approach to breaking the poverty circle which traps those engaged in child labour. Domestic child labour is bad enough as it is, but making the conditions in which they work sub-human is worse. Until the problems of poverty and under development are addressed in Sub Saharan Africa, the best we can do is to maximize the equilibrium level of the domestic child labour by striving to increase the non monetary benefits which give dignity to human life. By maximizing the non-monetary benefits of domestic child labour, the society will move towards a healthy balance. This will cause the domestic child labourers to have the status of surrogate children and they in turn will act as surrogate parents to the wards they are catering for. This means that the increase in economic and social rights of women will make it possible for their children left in the hands of domestic helps to grow in the right hands and right minds. On the contrary failure to achieve this dynamic model will be exposing the children, the family and the society to the risks of our improbity.