‘Mi haffi come out fi look something fi eat’

Thirteen-year-old *Sanjay Green sat on top of a water bucket under the bridge at Three Miles, Kingston, with his squeegee and a bottle filled with soapy water in hand.

Periodically, his tiny frame joins the throng of older windshield wipers who bombard motor vehicles held captive by a red stop light to offer their cleaning services.

It was early afternoon on Wednesday, and Green, a first form student at a Corporate Area high school, acknowledged that he should be attending classes. But the perceptive youngster told The Sunday Gleaner that this is not possible unless he “hustles”.

He shared that he lives with his crippled mother in a nearby inner-city community. And his father, though he helps him out sometimes with lunch money, is more often out of work.

So when he was just eight years old, he felt he had to work to help send himself to school and assist his mother financially. As Green tells it, he’s been “working” at Three Miles before the bridges were built there in 2019.

“Mi haffi come out come look something fi eat, or look mi lunch money,” he said matter-of-factly.

The aspiring soldier disclosed that he is unafraid of the dangers that come with him being on the street sometimes as late as 1 a.m., as although just a child, he has already seen enough to harden him.

“Mi all see man dead right out deh suh,” he said while pointing up the road.

“Mi all see man kill mi uncle. Him own friend kill him.”

His uncle was his primary guardian who he lived with in St Mary. After he was stabbed to death five years ago, Green said he moved to Kingston.

“Mi sad mi uncle dead. A mi uncle mi used to live wid. Mi neva did used to wipe car glass dem time deh,” he said sombrely.

Further up the road, *Akeem Brown shared a similar story of poverty and hardship in his single-parent household that pushed him on to the streets to provide for himself and family. Brown, who is also 13 years old, switches between begging motorists and wiping their windshield to earn some money.

“Mi haffi find something to eat,” he told The Sunday Gleaner, adding that his mother is unemployed and unable to provide for them.

His 15-year-old brother, who wipes car windshields across the road, looks out for him.

160 MILLION CHILDREN INVOLVED IN CHILD LABOUR

These boys are among the 160 million children, or one in ten, worldwide who the United Nations say are involved in child labour, as the world commemorated World Day Against Child Labour under the theme ‘Social Justice for All. End Child Labour!’ last week.

“We must commit to redouble efforts to stop this harmful practice and protect children from exploitation,” UN Secretary General António Guterres said.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines child labour as work that deprives children of their childhood, potential and dignity. It is also work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children.

In 2016, a Youth Activity Survey from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) revealed that 37,000 children were exposed to child labour locally.

According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, a recent child labour risk model revealed that close to 54,000 children are at risk for being engaged in child labour. The parishes of Portland, St Thomas, Kingston and St Andrew, Clarendon, Trelawny, St James, Hanover and St Elizabeth were identified as those with the highest risk.

Under Sections 33-45 of Jamaica’s Child Care and Protection Act, it is illegal to employ children under 13 years old unless the work is of an artistic nature and does not compromise the child’s schooling or their right to play and recreation.

The law allows for “light work” between the ages of 13 and 15 years. However, it does not specify what light work is.

Warren Thompson, director of Children and Family Programmes at the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), told The Sunday Gleaner that “light work” could include working at a shop or packing bags in a supermarket after school. However, it must not be forced labour and should not interfere with the child’s schooling.

The law also allows for a child to work on a full-time basis between 15 and 18 years old in establishments that “do not expose them to any moral danger”.

LEAST REPORTED FORM OF CHILD ABUSE

With 250 to 350 child labour cases reported to the National Children’s Registry each year, Thompson said child labour is the least reported form of child abuse in Jamaica.

“The majority of people who report those incidents, they are not necessarily reporting child labour, they are reporting because they are aware that there is something putting the child at risk, there’s something happening with the child – people are taking ‘disadvantage’ of the child or the child may have a behavioural issue,” he said.

“From the narrative that they give when they report, we pick up that there’s something that looks like child labour that requires investigation.”

He lamented that a lot of Jamaicans have a nonchalant attitude towards child labour, which some deem as cultural.

“If you look at the education data, you will see where school attendance of boys, for example, tends to fall significantly when they pass grade nine. Very often some of those boys are engaged in various kinds of work … and that’s partly a feature of our culture which says by the children reach a certain age they need to start work, and there are some families who push their children to get work,” he said.

‘SOMETIMES MI ALL SLEEP OUT DI WHOLE CLASS’

Young Green said his disabled mother is aware that he wipes car windshields in the streets, but shared that she often discourages him.

His school attendance is sporadic and he is usually absent on a Friday. On the days when he does go to school, he comes out on the street in the late afternoon to make enough money for the next day.

“Mi come out ya Friday morning when mi nah go school,” he said, stating that he can make up to $1,500 a day.

He admits, however, that his street hustle is affecting his performance in school.

“Sometimes mi wah sleep. Sometimes mi all sleep out di whole class,” he said.

UNICEF’s June 2022 Evaluation of the Child Protection System in Jamaica found that one out of six children was living in poverty as recently as 2018. The coronavirus pandemic also had a significant impact on child poverty, with nearly 80 per cent of households with children having their income reduced after the 2020 global health crisis hit.

Thompson noted that the majority of children who participate in child labour are from poor socio-economic backgrounds.

‘IT IS NOT JUST A JAMAICAN PROBLEM’

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 120,000 students were unaccounted for in Jamaican classrooms that had transitioned to online teaching. However, a $103-million ‘Yard to Yard Find The Child’ initiative launched at the beginning of 2022 by the Ministry of Education and Youth saw the majority of those students being re-engaged.

Up to December last year, however, it was reported that 7,000 students were yet to return to the classrooms that had returned to face-to-face learning.

At the time, Richard Troupe, acting director of safety and security in schools, revealed that these were senior students who had chosen not to return to school, largely because of economic issues, and decided to work to “complement the family income or they are trying to earn on their own”.

Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison is urging the Government not to get complacent, but to reassess and create strategies to tackle the issue of child labour.

“It is not just a Jamaican problem, it is a regional and global problem, and it’s a human rights concern,” she told The Sunday Gleaner.

“When children are working in an unfavourable environment, when they are exposed to hazardous and toxic material, it is exposing them to harm and impacting their ability to access education, because if they are working during school hours then that’s having an impact on education.”

JAMAICA WORKING TO COMBAT CHILD LABOUR

Newly minted Minister of Labour and Social Security, Pearnel Charles Jr, told The Sunday Gleaner that his ministry is leading efforts to combat child labour in Jamaica at the policy level and through evidence-based interventions at the community level.

He noted that Jamaica is signatory to a number of conventions fighting child labour and has implemented various pieces of legislation aimed at addressing this issue.

“Jamaica is one of 31 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that form the Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour – a regional alliance where governments, employers, organisations and trade unions coordinate regional strategies and local actions for the protection of children and adolescents,” he said.

The aim, the minister said, is to seek to prevent child labour, withdraw those already engaged in child labour, and restore their rights.

He also noted that the ministry continues to receive support from the ILO to facilitate education campaigns in the most affected parishes.

“This year, as we continue to combat child labour, this ministry, together with its multi-agency partners, will continue community-level engagements with civil society groups, educators, and families to bring about greater awareness and provide structured responses for victims of child labour as well as preventative measures in the most vulnerable parishes,” Charles Jr said.

[*names changed to protect identity]

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com

Persons can call the 24-hour 211 hotline to report cases of child labour.