Dear Editor,
I note your article in the Stabroek Business of January 22, 2010 captioned ‘Child labour, trafficking in persons persist here despite legislation –Office of US Trade Commissioner’ and wish to express government’s rejection of your claim that the report speaks to increasing trends towards child labour. I have had a close read of the report and have not seen such a statement. Your newspaper, perhaps mistakenly or deliberately, has set out to paint an incorrect image of deteriorating conditions for our children.
Nevertheless, I would like to offer a few comments on your article and the issue of child labour.
There are no increasing trends concerning child labour in Guyana. No study, survey or inspection can so establish because it is simply not a trend. In fact, the trend is in the opposite direction. Our records show greater school enrolment and more persons staying longer in school.
I would not argue with anyone who says that we still have too many truants out there. Minister Baksh only recently addressed this matter, but truancy is not equal to child labour.
What really is ‘child labour’? When we speak of child labour we point to the following:
1. Employing persons who are under the legal age of entry into the workforce. Our law says that it is illegal to hire anyone under 15 years of age.
2. We say that child labour exists if persons below the age of consent are involved in the sex industry.
3. We say that child labour exists if parents are keeping children away from school and putting them to work in the family business or farm.
Many times persons confuse child labour and child work. Children can work in the family business, but not at the expense of their education and allowing for a degree of play and the enjoyment of their childhood. Most of these reports confuse this.
Guyana has set the age for employment at 15, but in the United States of America and Canada children as young as 13 can work for a specified amount of hours per week in stores and do paper routes.
The sad thing about the US reports is that they are based on anonymous and anecdotal reports. There was a survey done by the US financed EDUCARE project. It did not support the view of increasing trends or any high degree of child labour.
Yours faithfully,
Manzoor Nadir
Minister of Labour