Government to launch awareness campaign on child labour

Officials at the labour ministry on Monday announced plans to launch an “aggressive media campaign” next month to sensitise citizens to child labour issues in order to discourage the employment of minors. “Officials from various government bodies and other organisations must roll up their sleeves and begin to coordinate amongst themselves to reduce the rate of child labour,” said Asil Medanat, head of the ministry’s Child Labour Department (CLD). Medanat went on to warn against a rise in levels of child labour in the near future unless “serious measures” were taken. According to experts, the employment of minors in Jordan has grown steadily in recent years as a result of deteriorating economic conditions, with needy families often pushing their children to help generate much needed income. Medanat explained that, in a country suffering from an almost 15 percent poverty rate, the total elimination of child labour would be almost impossible. “We can never eradicate child labour if we don’t provide needy families with a financial alternative,” she said. Under Jordanian law, a child may not work more than six hours a day – between 6:00am and 8:00pm – and is required to take a one-hour break every four hours. Employers caught in violation of these restrictions are legally subject to fines ranging from US $140 to US $700. However, many officials say these laws are seldom enforced. What’s more, according to Medanat, children are often subject to harsh working conditions, employed in workplaces falling well short of the minimum safety standards set by the ministry. “Most working children are involved in the auto-repair industry, where they risk inhaling toxic material and having serious injuries,” she said. Ministry officials say that obtaining accurate figures for child labour has proven difficult. “When working children spot an inspector, they inform the others, who immediately flee the scene,” said one inspector who insisted on anonymity. The last official study, conducted in 2002 by the CLD, revealed that some 32,000 children were working countrywide, particularly in urban areas such as Amman, Zarqa and Irbid. Medanat, however, believes that figures and statistics are not the most important factor in the fight against child labour. “Now we must focus on creating a long-term strategy to minimise the problem,” she said. In an effort to alert the public to the hazards of child labour, the planned campaign will include text messages to mobile-phones throughout the kingdom, seminars, conferences and paid advertisements in local media. MBH/AR/AM