Sri Lanka

Increased dependence

by family enterprises on child labour...

There are a number of serious health and safety risks associated with child labour in many occupations in Sri Lanka. For example, even though there have been attempts by both the Government and UNICEF to improve the living conditions of plantation works, living quarters remain congested and food shortages are common. Studies reveal that both children and adults in this sector face a ranger of major environmental and occupational hazards (Goonatilake and Goonesekere, 1988, p.184).... In both industry and plantation agriculture, production targets are stringent and this places severe strains on the workforce. Conditions at the workplace are often poor and in many instances child labourers inhale pollutants such as tea dust and industrial wastes. The nutrition and health status of child plantation workers has been a subject of particular concern for decades. Many of these children are malnourished and exposed to toxic substances such as pesticides which are used freely, often without protection. Children working long hours in tedious activities in the fields are also vulnerable to the heat and to exhaustion. In addition, their role as supplementary labour not only increases adult dependence on them, but also seriously undermines their schooling.

Young children are also engaged in a range of production and service activities in the informal sector of agriculture, on subsistence farms, small estates and outwork in industry. Studies of subsistence farming and small-scale estates indicate that younger children are not normally directly involved in production because rural women attach some importance to their care within the home (Karunatissa and Rupasinge, 1982). On the other hand, children over 12 years perform a high percentage of the work, assisting their parents in a wide range of tasks. The burden o their labour is such that there is little time for rest or recreation and many drop out of school. Thus, in the Mhaweli River settlement areas, for example, where land has been allocated to present farmer settlers, there appears to have been an overall increase in dependence by family enterprises on child labour. The children work long hours picking chilli and face many of the serious dangers, such as the risk of poisoning from pesticides, experienced by under-age plantation workers.

In recent decades government-sponsored schemes to generate income and promote self-employment have encouraged subcontracting and home-based outwork in industry in Sri Lanka, thereby increasing informal sector activity overall. Children are incorporated in this sector as family labour and as such face many risks associated both with their impoverished family circumstances and their work. Just as with adults in these occupations, they are denied the protection of labour laws and are exposed to a series of occupational hazards. But as children they experience a number of additional risks: working in family concerns, they receive no wage and because of their immaturity they are more vulnerable than adults to accidents and other health hazards. Research shows, though, that at least these children benefit from a generally stable home environment and supportive family relations, a situation contrasting dramatically with that of child domestics, child combatants and certain other groups of under-age workers in Sri Lanka. Because affective ties within the family are strong, they are less exposed than wage-earning child labourers to abuse.