“Yuzhnyi Kazakhstan”, # 68 (18.296), 01/06/2007
N. Kazorina

   The Legal Center for Women’s Initiatives “Sana Sezim” has started a new project “Mobilizing against the worst forms of child labor”. It will cover the Maktaaral and Sayagash regions, and Shymkent. It will include an information campaign aimed to mobilize the public for the protection of children’s rights and the prevention of the worst forms of child labor.
   “How serious is this problem in the world,” I ask the president of the center, Hadicha Abysheva.
   “According to the ILO/IPEC, the number of children in the world, ages 5 to 17, that are working has decreased 11 percent (from 2000 to 2004). At this pace, it could be ten years before an end to this problem. Projects and programs, within the framework of the ILO/IPEC, have directly affected the fate of five million children; however, there are more than 218 million who are working! We have seen the work of this movement. The use of child labor in the markets is not so obvious anymore; young beggars have almost disappeared in central stores and marchrutkas. But still, a high percentage of child labor occurs in agriculture. According to statistics, seven out of ten of these children are forced to work even at the expense of their studies.
   “This theme has already been raised at a meeting and parents sincerely believe that this should be addressed. How else can you address the issue of child labor?”
   “We are convinced that the most effective way to explain the difference between acceptable child labor and that which is exploitation is through a volunteer. Our volunteers speak on the principle of “Peer to Peer”. A group of fifty volunteers and three mobile consultants will lead the information campaign in Shymkent and the other regions. They will sport bags and caps with the slogan “We are against child exploitation”. The action teams will be in contact with local authorities and communities.
   “Who is the audience of this campaign?”
   “Initially the audience is employers, government officials, teachers, parents, and children. In the course of the campaign we will be monitoring the use of child labor in order to have a clearer picture. Also we will work a telephone hotline, which will provide legal consultations on the consequences of the use of child labor and the responsibilities of parents and other adults for the violations of children’s rights.
   The project will participate in a national campaign today, “12-day fight against the exploitation of children”, organized by the ILO/IPEC in Kazakhstan and the Women’s Union of Intellectual Work. A competition for the best essay and drawing based on the theme of “Child labor: the real stories” will be held for students of rural schools. It is open to children and adolescents under the age of 18.