Today is the World Day Against Child Labour. It is the most visible point of a largely unseen political and institutional consensus, one which pushes governments, NGOs, and international agencies to invest hundreds of millions of pounds annually in support of policies and projects to end ‘child labour’. We contend that this money often does more harm than good.
The drive to ‘do something’ about child labour has only increased in urgency with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and with the release of reports suggesting that children may suffer the brunt of the fallout more deeply. We agree with the ILO that coronavirus will undoubtedly impact child workers. But in order to ensure that its negative effects are mitigated rather than exacerbated by policy, we feel compelled to highlight the significant body of evidence showing that there are major problems with orthodox thinking around children’s work.
The dominant approach involves preventing children from working in sectors deemed unacceptable and removing them from sectors where prevention has failed. Implicit here is the concept of ‘harm’ and the idea that certain kinds of work are inherently harmful for children. Yet researchers from all continents as well as movements of working children themselves argue that this approach fails. At times it even harms the young people it is supposed to be serving.
