Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

This member contributed to:

    • Global March would welcome an integrated approach of child labour in agriculture. Until date most of the interventions are scattered. In potential they have a positive effect on the numbers of children working but because of the absence of a child rights organizations the basic conditions are overlooked to eliminate child labour. All organizations that work in the rural areas should always consult with a child rights organization. Especially agricultural universities overlook the child labour issue and stay. Furthermore more research on the link between climate change and child labour is needed, the impact is going to be devastating in several countries.

      1) Hunger and Malnutrition

      School feeding programmes have been very successful to withdraw children from work.. Those programmes should always be promoted. Although there is still little data available if girls are benefiting from this programme as well. We need more research to see how girls and boys equally can benefit from a school feeding programme. Furthermore we need other stakeholders to be vigilant on how these activities can contribute to the food supply of families. We have found examples in our sugarcane research on how farming practices and land rights have a disastrous effect on the possibility of families growing their own food.

      3) Family farming

      We have seen a reduction in the number of children working under hazardous conditions, because of farmer training programmes. This training will educate farmers about hazardous working conditions for young adults. This training should also be included in small holder farmers training, like the ones for improving yield.Social protection schemes for the small holder farmers would also be beneficial, as would be for companies sourcing from small holder farmers to sensitise them and incentivise non-employment of children, as well as shifting engagement of young adults (those above the minimum age) from hazardous to non-hazardous work. 

      4) Innovation 

      We see great benefit in price prediction. Working with futures will give farmers a good idea on how much they will get and will help them to maximise income and reduce investment costs. Mechanisation is not only a potential decent solution to making labour less intensive and reducing dependency on child labour and its impacts on daily wage, seasonal and part time migrant agricultural workers and children should be taken into consideration.The stakeholders also need to take into consderation the alterntives such as other livelihood options for families dependent on farm work and access to education for chidren. In rural regions either in the global north or global south, manual work is still a major source of income for many women, despite being exploitative in its nature. Thus, the gender impacts of mechanisation need to be taken into consideration as well while measuring the success of mechanisation interventions. Lastly, small-scale farmers are also not yet in the position to afford mechanisation in absence of subsidies and access to relevant resources, making mechanisation a complex challenge. 

      5) Public and private investment

      There is direct link between financial incentives and the reduction of child labour. Like the cash transfer programmes. All investments done in improving the life of farmers should have a link with education. Special attention is needed for vocational training of young adults, which does not necessarily be linked to agricultural training. We should take the local job market into account.

      6) Attention to domestic supply chains

      We always make a direct link to the domestic supply chain when we are implementing a project for international supply chains. Good advocacy on the ground will lead to the improvement of the domestic supply chain as well. There is never a direct link between export and sourcing area. Therefore to make an impact on an international  agricultural supply chain you need to address the domestic issues as well. There needs to be more attention to this within the whole international supply discussion. We always collect sex desaggreted data to see where boys and where girls are mostly working. In most cases you will see that the girls work is hidden and not always as seen as child labour although their work directly interferes with school attendence.

      7) Cross-sectoral policies and strategies

      A) Most of the interventions to improve the situation of agricultural workers are limited to the independent actions/initiatives of stakeholders. In India for example, most of the labour laws are not of any benefit to agricultural workers as the workers are mostly not-registered and are seasonal or temporary migrants and in some cases casual, daily wage farm workers. Trade unions in some states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and other surrounding agricultural states have been trying to ensure agricultural workers have access to grievance mechanisms wherever possible and to bring the agricultural workers under the purview of the organised sector but it remains the biggest challenge. Therefore successfully improving working conditions for agricultural workers to reduce the vulnerability of households that engage in child labour is still a far fetched idea even outside of India.

      C) Social protection schemes for the small holder farmers would also be beneficial, as would be for companies sourcing from small holder farmers to sensitise them and incentivise non-employment of children, as well as shifting engagement of young adults (those above the minimum age) from hazardous to non-hazardous work. In India, you have the MNREGA and the Mid Day Meal Schemes. However, they have failed 100% to cater to vulnerabilities of migrant agriculture labour, including children especially because even when the children migrate with their families for seasonal agricultural work, they are not able to access the meal schemes. MNREGA too can barely cover the local, more permanent workers (the ones who do not or can’t migrate) and has only seen a downfall in its budget, wages and work provided to villagers in the last 6-7 years.