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Child labor: Allow it or say “no”

“Yuzhnyi Kazakhstan”, # 123 (18. 351), 10/10/2007
M. Limarenko

Child labor: Allow it or say “no”


   I can not look without pain, as a little boy collects change for which I pay for my travel on the “Gazelle” route. One could say he grew up in front of passengers. The child is busy and rather than sit at school desks, attending classes, reading books, mastering and learning about the world, he announces the stops and counts the change. How many such cases are seen! Children wash clothes, work on foreign cars, are shop assistants behind the counters, and porters at markets and railway stations. There are now few places where you can not see boys and girls earning money. “What is wrong if a child helps its parents to support the family; in fact, it even introduces the children to work that was taught by our forefathers,” is a common thought of adults today. However it is necessary, as they say, to separate flies from cutlets. In order to explain the difference between socially acceptable work and child labor, we asked a specialist.
   Shakhnoza Khasanova, is a psychologist and telephone operator at NGO “Sana Sezim”:
   If a child helps parents at home or in the family business, earns pocket money after school or during holidays, labor practice that takes place in the company to learn a profession, then it is possible to consider this socially acceptable work, and which incidentally, includes subbotnik, which for many years has been practiced in our schools. In all these cases, the work performed by children has no effect on their health and psychological development, and is not an obstacle to obtaining education or takes a long time. Just the opposite, it contributes to their development and helps them to get the skills and experience that is necessary for the future. But when it comes to irregular working hours, heavy physical and psychological conditions, prevention from having the opportunity to go to school in time, then we can talk about the worst forms of child labor. Tragically, Kazakhstan, like many states, is inherent in the problem. In our country today, you can see children working in cotton and tobacco fields, as prostitutes, beggars, and part of the production of pornography involving minors. Life has shown that the state alone can not eradicate this evil. Solving the problem should be addressed by a social structure, non-governmental organizations. Everyone, including teenagers and their parents, should be aware that the use of child labor is to the detriment of the health and normal development of the younger generation, and it should be punished by law. NGO “Sana Sezim” monitors the negative effects of child exploitation and provides free confidential assistance to all who have suffered or witnessed such incidents. Our phone number is 56-47-54. Call.