COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Sanctions may cause increase in child labour

Social activists in New Delhi fear that the number of working children in South Asia will go up due to economic hardships following the wide range of sanctions imposed against India and Pakistan for carrying out underground nuclear explosions.

Some 20 million children in India and two million in Pakistan will be affected if international aid for programmes like the district primary education programme and the international programme for elimination of child labour are frozen, the Child Labour Action Network said recently.

In separate letters to the United States president, the European Union chairman, and the World Bank president, the network urged against discontinuing or putting conditions on funds earmarked for the education and health sectors in the two countries.

Observing that the World Bank had deferred its May 26 meeting on the $900 million aid package for India, and Japan's tough stance had forced postponement of the Aid India consortium meeting, scheduled to be held in June in Tokyo, CLAN said the signals were that the development aid would shrink in future.

Besides this, a DM 300 million German aid has been frozen, a $140 million US aid held back and a $3 billion aid from the International Monetary Fund is jeopardised due to international pressure.

"All this indicates that the programmes meant for bringing improvement in the quality of life of the poor, particularly children, are likely to be greatly affected," said CLAN spokesman Joseph Gathia.

While India may be able to overcome the problem in the trade sector there was urgent need to analyse the impact of the nuclear test fallout on the social sector, particularly in areas heavily funded by the developed countries, he added.

UNI