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It is 10 years since the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Peter Sain ley Berry examines what effect the Convention is having on children at work.

A civilised society is marked from an uncivilised one to a great extent by the way it treats its women and children. Recognising this the United Nations adopted in 1990 the Convention on the Rights of the Child which for the first time set down the rights that children should expect as they grow up. The Convention has been signed by virtually all UN Member States and ratified by most. Naturally the Convention covers child labour, cases such as that of Stelito, from north east Brazil.

When Stelito turned 11, he started work extracting fibres from sisal leaves to make into ropes and carpets. Adult pay rates in sisal processing are too low to sustain a large family, so most children have to help their parents: Stelito, is one of 120,000 in this situation, working many hours a day and being injured all to frequently by the sharp tips of the sisal leaves. He has no time to play; and after work he is too tired for education. A vicious cycle of illiteracy, unemployment and poverty is perpetuating itself.

There is nothing in the Convention that prohibits parents from expecting their children to help out at home in ways that are safe and appropriate to their age. At times, children's help can be essential in the running of a family farm or business but the Convention requires that the work should not jeopardise other rights such as education, rest or recreation. If this is so then such work can help children learn about the responsibilities they will have as they grow older. Unfortunately, as in Stelito's case, these conditions frequently are not met. Worse, children are exploited deliberately for financial gain, often in tragic and horrendous circumstances.

UNICEF estimates that there are some 250 million children in the world working full or part-time in the developing world. One of the worst regions for abuse is South Asia. 'The Hindu' newspaper reports the complacency surrounding the problem, even in Government circles.

"Jaya is 14 years old and has been working since the age of nine. She came to the city believing she could study further, but has ever since been busy with cleaning, mopping and looking after a six-year old disabled child. She gets beaten up for the effort and is paid nothing. Mythili is worse off: coming from Andhra Pradesh, she speaks only Telugu and cannot approach any of the neighbours with her problems. Even small mistakes result in verbal and physical abuse being heaped on this eight-year- old"

The paper reported a study that showed 26 per cent of child domestic workers were actually employed in the houses of government servants despite a 1997 Government order in 1997 explicitly banning this. When asked, most officials said they were simply not aware.

India has in fact one of the worst records of failure to protect children from exploitation Ten year old Hakim Sheikh works in an unlicensed spectacle factory in West Bengal inhaling glass dust and poisonous fumes in order to support his mother who is a single parent.

In Uttar Pradesh, seven year old Renu makes glass bangles, burning her fingers as she takes them in and out of the oven for up to 12 hours each day. She and the other 60,000 children employed in making the colourful glassware earn about 10 rupees - that is 15 pence - a day. Children in the garment trade or employed in India's carpet belt earn even less. Moreover, the Indian government now classes carpet weaving as a hazardous activity on account of the damage it does to eyesight.

Nor is carpet weaving the only hazardous occupation at which children are regularly employed. Cashew processing one of the commonest occupations in coastal India. The hands of nine year old Mufisun Khatun from West Bengal are covered in sores; so are those of her young friends who work with her at the local factory. The process is simple: the raw cashew is roasted, then the children crack the tough shells with hammers, stripping them off by hand and earning just 6 rupees (9 pence) for each kilogram they process.

But the sores on Mufisun's hands do not come from handling the burning nuts alone. Cashew shells are poisonous; when the shell is cracked the poison enters any small cuts or abrasions, causing an infection that can in some cases be fatal.

Such examples, collected by the NGO, Free the Children, India, are commonplace. Their estimate is that there are about 150 million children working in India, that is every other child in the country. While by no means all are exploited it is undeniable that many unscrupulous employers see child labour as a simple way of reducing costs. But getting rid of child labour is not that easy.

Bangladesh is a major garment exporter. The industry, which employs over a million workers, most of them women, has also employed child labour. According to UNICEF, up to 75,000 of the industry's workforce in 1992 were children under 14.

Although these children were employed illegally, this attracted little attention until retailers in the United States and elsewhere came under pressure from public opinion to introduce 'child labour free' codes. This was followed by legal moves that would have prohibited the importation of such goods into the US.

This wholly laudable attempt at suppressing one problem simply created another. The garment employers took fright and immediately dismissed 50,000 children from their factories. But though free of the factories, the children remained trapped with no money, education, and precious few opportunities. Simply going home was not an option for it is usually their extreme poverty that forces parents to find paid employment for their children in the first place.

So dismissed from their sewing machines and lacking all means of sustenance the children merely became game for even more extreme forms of exploitation, the majority ending up as street hustlers, stone-crushers and prostitutes, according to a UNICEF study.

Some good came eventually from this disaster. The Bangladesh garment industry has now committed $1 million to tackle the child labour problem. UNICEF and the International Labour Organisation are also contributing and a long term strategy including establishment of a permanent monitoring system, has now been put in place. The jobs of the dismissed children are being offered to qualified adult family members and they themselves are being sent to school on an appropriate allowance.

Only constant pressure on governments and employers coupled with informed consumers will rid the world of this Dickensian scourge and free millions of children from bondage. Adequately resourced inspectors are desperately needed to police the factories, the UN's Committee on Rights of the Child said earlier this year, if national labour laws are to be enforced.

But changes are happening. Stelito from Brazil is now 14. He no longer works at the sisal plant but has joined a UNICEF sponsored 'Programme for Prevention and Elimination of Child Labour'. Thanks to this 30,000 young Brazilians have found freedom and are now participating in educational, sporting and cultural activities. Stelito's family even gets a grant to help them make up for his wages.

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