18% percent of Guyana’s children between the ages of 5 and 17 are engaged in child labour, according to statistics provided in a recently conducted survey done by Guyana in collaboration with the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The survey also found that 10% are involved in economic activities above the age-specific threshold, 1% performs household chores above the age-specific threshold, and 13% work under hazardous conditions.
Additionally, it notes that both boys and girls are engaged in child labour, with the involvement of boys, measured at 20%, being slightly higher than the involvement of girls, which was measured at 17%.
The Guyana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Round 5 (MICS5) was conducted in 2014 by the Bureau of Statistics. The project was part of a global MICS programme and technical support was provided by UNICEF, which along with the Inter-American Bank (IDB) and the Guyana Government provided financial support.
The findings in relation to child labour support other reports that have repeatedly said that child labour continues to be a problem in Guyana.
The 2014 United States Department of Labour (DOL) report had stated that Guyana’s children continue to be engaged in child labour in agriculture and in the worst forms of child labour in commercial sexual exploitation.
The report, which was released last year, had pointed out that there was no comprehensive plan to combat child labour, since the existing social programmes did not fully address the problem.
Since taking office, the APNU+AFC government has not implemented a concrete policy to tackle the scourge, even though former Social Protection Minister Simona Broomes had announced some plans, which included the setting up of a unit to specifically deal with child labour.
According to the survey’s findings, children living in interior areas are more likely to be involved in child labour, with 37% of them engaged in the activity. It was noted that this phenomenon is especially prevalent in Region 9, where 71% of children are involved and 57% of them are working under hazardous conditions. Other interior regions, Regions 7 & 8 (grouped as one), 10 and 1, were also seen to have relatively higher levels of child labour at 35, 28, and 23%, respectively. These regions also had relatively higher proportions of children working under hazardous conditions, with Regions 7 & 8 accounting for 30%, Region 10 25% and Region 1 15%.
The survey said too that Region 2 also has a comparatively high level of child labour (22%) and 15% working under hazardous conditions.
It was pointed out that one of the main economic activities in regions 1, 7, 8 and 9 is gold mining, and bauxite mining in Region 10, while logging is done in all of the mentioned regions.
The survey also found that 41% of children living in households with an Amerindian household head are engaged in child labour, and 34% of them are working under hazardous conditions, while for households with a household head of other ethnicities, this proportion ranges from 13% to 16% for child labour and 9% to 11% working under hazard conditions.
According to the survey, there is an inverse relationship between child labour and household wealth, with 32% of the children in the poorest quintile involved in child labour and 24% working under hazardous conditions.
“While there is no clear trend in child labour according to mother’s education level, children whose mothers have higher education have a markedly lower involvement in child labour (13%) and work in hazardous conditions (7%), compared to those whose mother have no education or have a primary or secondary education,” the survey said.
It was also noted that although children’s involvement in economic activities below the age-specific threshold is more common among those not attending school than those attending school, overall child labour involves both children attending and not attending school equally (18% and 19%, respectively).
The global MICS programme was developed by UNICEF in the 1990s as an international household survey programme to support countries in the collection of internationally comparable data on a wide range of indicators on the situation of children and women. The surveys measure key indicators that allow countries to generate data to use in policies and programmes, and to monitor progress towards the former Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed upon commitments.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO)’s programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) under its Tackling Child Labour through Education (TACKLE) had funded a 2011 survey which was conducted among 532 children and young workers in nine areas of the country in three age categories: 15 years and younger, 15-16 years and 16-18 years.
Among its findings was that most of the children employed were involved in selling and agriculture but in addition to which, hidden evidence of prostitution activities were discovered.
The conditions of labour at the time of the survey also included work involving pesticides, glues, dust, fumes, and gases. In addition, children were also found to be involved in activities such as begging, weeding, lifting of heavy loads and operating machinery.
