This business about child labour is troublesome. A regular West Africa
correspondent for the BBC looked into the matter recently and declared herself
quite unable to draw the line between teaching a child the
skills of life on the one hand and on the other, avoiding abuse in the child who does work: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23332948
No doubt, many countries have come a long way since dark satanic mills blighted lives, including those of children in the now well-developed countries. But it must be difficult to preach the gospel of a labour-free
childhood to the peasant living today in his or her African village and convince
them of the evils of making their able-bodied child toil, fetch and carry when
there is no other way in which food or water and other commodities can be
delivered into the home. Indeed, such parents may be struggling mightily to provide the wherewithal of life,
sustained by nothing more than the hope that when they are gone, their
children would have acquired the skills by which to do likewise for their own.
I myself, at a tender
age, had to fetch water, pound rice and even turn a cauldron or two of foo-foo
meal over an open fire. And indeed, this was almost universally the case for those of my generation in many other families. Looking back, few of us have had any reason to regret or wish our life had been otherwise.
Twenty-thirteen is of
course another time altogether, and all of us now expect higher standards in
our societies, whether in Africa or elsewhere. But how do you free children
from the bondage of living within an impoverished community where existence may
still be just a hand-to-mouth one? I think we all know the answer, which is that every child must
be able to go to school, where he or she is taught by competent, knowledgeable
and empathetic teachers.
That is one of the millennial challenges. Any takers?
Tell Fren Tru
