The story of Binita, a girl who works in a brick kiln in Nepal, is just one example of child exploitation around the world — a phenomenon that could be worsened by environmental degradation and climate change. An editorial by Terre des Hommes.
Now 17 years old, Binita is able to carry far more bricks than she could a few years ago, even though she was already lending a hand at the brick kiln where her whole family works from the age of 9. "Fortunately" for her, it is seasonal work, lasting the six months of the year when there is not much to do in her home village. Local agriculture is in fact being severely affected by climate change: in recent years, the timing and quantity of rainfall have shifted, throwing the traditional sowing and harvesting calendar into disarray. Those who depended entirely on agricultural work have had no other option for survival than to move with their entire families to the area where the bricks are made.
Child labour like Binita's is often necessary to repay the loans taken out to start this activity. Extreme events such as the 2015 earthquake had a dramatic impact on the survival prospects of Nepal's poorest people. Binita's house collapsed, and her family now lives in a hut while waiting for government compensation that may never come. "To fill our stomachs I have to help my family work the clay, put it in the moulds and then stack the bricks," she tells the Terre des Hommes workers collecting testimonies from child labourers in the kilns. "I only managed to go to school up to the fourth grade; then all this constant moving back and forth between the village and the kilns forced me to miss months of lessons, so I couldn't pass my exams. Now I would love to have the chance to take a vocational course in tailoring and dressmaking and stay in my village for good."
Nepal is just one of the cases examined in Terre des Hommes' new report, The neglected link – effects of climate change and environmental degradation on child labour, which illustrates how environmental problems have a direct impact on child labour — both as an initial driver leading children into it, including through migration, and in terms of the type of work undertaken, as well as the working conditions, exposure to hazardous toxic substances and risks of exploitation.
The figures are stark: more than half a billion children live in areas affected by recurring floods, and nearly 160 million children live in zones suffering from high or extreme drought. Their survival and quality of life are severely affected by climatic conditions, which frequently push them into work — to cope with their family's growing poverty — and into migration. "If we want to eliminate child labour, we must take into account the consequences of climate change and integrate children's rights into environmental protection policies," says Raffaele K. Salinari, President of Terre des Hommes Italia.
This study, released to mark the World Day Against Child Labour, is one of the first reports in the world to address the question of how environmental degradation and climate change amplify children's vulnerability to labour exploitation. Although official data on child labour exist, they are not sufficient to understand all the causes and dynamics underlying the phenomenon. Furthermore, the data available on the effects of climate change and environmental degradation relate mainly to health issues. Further research and awareness-raising campaigns on the relationship between environmental change and child labour are therefore needed — a relationship that must not be overlooked by policies and programmes aimed at eliminating child labour. This phenomenon currently forces more than 83 million children worldwide to risk their physical safety every day, condemning them to a future of poverty and social exclusion.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 26 per cent of the 6.6 million annual deaths of children under five are linked to environmentally related conditions and causes. Pollution and environmental degradation have serious consequences for children, not only in terms of mortality rates, but also for their cognitive and physical development.
In addition to Nepal, the Terre des Hommes study presents four case studies on child labour in five countries that are particularly exposed to extreme climate events: Burkina Faso (ranked 60th out of 180 in the Global Climate Risk Index for 2015), India (4th), Nicaragua (24th) and Peru (32nd).
In Burkina Faso, climate change in the Sahel region is producing unpredictable weather patterns and soil degradation, forcing families to seek alternative sources of income. Poor living conditions, low-quality education and a lack of decent work opportunities for young people and adults, together with rising gold prices, are driving the exploitation of children in gold mines, with extremely harsh working conditions and the use of highly polluting, health-endangering substances such as mercury. In 2011, government sources estimated that 20,000 children were working at the country's gold mining sites, but since then the number has at least doubled.
The case of India shows that migrant children in particular are increasingly being pushed into hazardous forms of labour as their families flee areas under severe environmental stress. In the state of Odisha, climate change has extended the duration of seasonal migration from three to six months, denying children access to quality education. In 2011, 92,000 children were working in that area, as farm labourers and unskilled workers in quarries and cement and brick factories.
Unlike the other examples cited in this report, the case of Nicaragua shows how environmental degradation gives rise to new forms of work for both adults and children. As agricultural productivity declines due to climate change and the increased frequency of extreme weather events, families begin to migrate — seasonally or permanently — to urban areas in search of better prospects. Vast rubbish dumps represent an income opportunity, being work that can be taken up easily, even though it poses serious health risks. At the same time, those who collect waste are in a sense providing a solution to environmental problems and see their work as a contribution towards a cleaner, healthier environment.
Peru is a good example that illustrates the effects of global climate change on the agricultural sector. Local smallholder farmers are not equipped to respond to the income losses caused by climate change, and as a result they end up turning to adaptation strategies such as migration to urban areas and recourse to child labour. This phenomenon is widespread: on average, 50 per cent of minors aged 14 to 17 work, with the figure rising to 80 per cent in rural areas and 32 per cent in cities. In the Andes and in Amazonia, 68 per cent of adolescents work in agriculture. The enormous expansion of metropolitan areas has caused demand for bricks to soar, and their artisanal production employs tens of thousands of families, children included.
In closing, the study puts forward a series of recommendations to the international community and to local governments. According to Terre des Hommes, children must be placed at the centre of international and national strategies for mitigating climate change, and must benefit from a portion of the funds allocated to those strategies. International policies to eradicate the worst forms of child labour must include environmental factors as potential causes of child exploitation. More in-depth research into the relationship between climate change and child labour is needed, along with more effective prevention programmes and stronger links between those working on environmental policy and those working on children's rights.
Both national and international policies must give particular consideration to the vulnerability of migrant minors, offering them access to quality education and therefore to long-term prospects, so as not to force them into early labour that marks their social exclusion.
Terre des Hommes Italia is active in many countries around the world to combat the exploitation of children through labour, with prevention and counter-measures. Among other initiatives, in Burkina Faso it has launched a project at ten gold-mining sites focusing on the prevention of exploitation and abuse of children, access to education and medical care, and vocational training for adolescents and young people. In Nepal it helped build 38 temporary schools immediately after the 2015 earthquake. In the Indian state of Tamil Nadu it protects migrant children working in cotton fields. In Peru it supports the education and recreational activities of children who make bricks on the outskirts of Lima, as well as children at risk of exploitation in the Andes. Finally, in Nicaragua, for over ten years it has run a centre for child workers at the Mercado Mayoreo in Managua, and supports children's education and income-generating activities for their families in the rural areas of Masaya, thereby preventing migration.
