Assessment On Monitoring Mechanism To Stop Employment Of Children As Domestic Workers And Protection Of Older Child Domesstic Workers

12/22/2009 12:00:00 AM

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Penelitian Kerjasama PKPM Unika Atma Jaya dengan ILO

 

Background

 

A study by ILO/IPEC and the University of Indonesia in 2002 – 2003 estimates that in Indonesia there were around 700,000 child domestic workers below the age of 18 with more than 90% being girls.  The study also shows that the majority of CDWs come from rural areas and typically enters domestic work between the ages of 12 and 15 years.  Most employers recruit CDWs through friends or families or through other CDWs. Some recruit the CDWs through recruitment agencies.

 

The characteristics of child domestic labour are different from other types of child employment, for example they work inside the private households that are considered as a domestic sphere and the working children live in the employers’ houses. These girls live and work hidden in isolation behind the locked doors of their employers’ homes, away from their family and peers. Such working conditions place them at higher risk of abuse and with fewer options for finding help. In the worst cases, due to the lack of social protection, the girls were physically, psychologically and sexually abused by their employers or their employers’ family members, in addition to being exploited for their labor. 

 

While child domestic labour is not specifically mentioned in the text of Convention 182, it can be included under some of the definitions of worst forms of child labour, for example working in slavery like conditions and many child domestic workers are exposed to hazardous conditions. Paragraph 3 of Recommendation 190, which accompanies Convention no. 182, defines hazardous work as:

 

1. work which exposes children to physical, psychological or sexual abuse;
2. work underground, under water, at dangerous heights or in confined spaces;
3. work with dangerous machinery, equipment and tools, or which involves the manual handling or transport of heavy loads;
4. work in unhealthy environment which may, for example, expose children to hazardous substances, agents or processes, or temperatures, noise levels, or vibrations damaging to their health;
5. work under particular difficult conditions such as work for long hours or during the night or work where the child is unreasonable confined to the premises of the employers.

It is found that many of these types of hazard are faced by children in domestic labour. It is useful therefore to draw a line when child domestic labour can be tolerated and when it should be not tolerated. The following diagram describes the characteristics that make CDL acceptable or unacceptable.