Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 30 Nov. - 6 Dec. 2000 Issue No.510

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City of soldiers

By Gihan Shahine

The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day.
-- John Milton, Paradise Regained

Breaking the cycle of poverty in Third World nations suffering from unemployment and overpopulation begins not with today's underprivileged workforce -- underpaid, uneducated and tragically resigned -- but with the children set to inherit this unwelcome bequest. But if the children of today are to tell us what we can expect of tomorrow, then the future is grim indeed.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that worldwide, some 250 million children between the ages of five and 14 work for a living. Aside from being robbed of their innocence painfully early in life, almost half work full time, every day, all year round, and as many as 70 per cent toil in dangerous environments. Many more go uncounted, hidden from view in virtual slavery.

As is often the case in matters controversial, there are no accurate statistics of child labour in Egypt, but rough figures are indicative. According to Ahmed El-Borai, head of the social legislation department at Cairo University's Faculty of Law, children between six and 18 years of age accounted for almost nine per cent of the Egyptian workforce in 1974. A decade later, the figure had gone up to an estimated 11 per cent. In 1988, the percentage dropped to under eight per cent, but only because of a general increase in the workforce, and not a decrease in the number of children working.

The ILO has been trying to rein in the numbers with several international conventions on child labour and Egypt has shown that it is willing to play ball. But as Egypt endeavours to ratify the organisation's Convention 182, which demands sweeping reforms targeting the worst forms of child labour, it becomes worthy of discussion whether more legislation is really the answer. Many legal experts agree that Egyptian law already largely conforms with Convention 182. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Egyptian legislators have been regulating work for children in some industries. Most significantly, the minimum age for employment has been raised to correspond with the completion of basic education (primary and intermediary school, which coincides with Convention 138 of 1973, ratified by Egypt in 1999).

"The problem is one of practice, not legislation," El-Borai explained. Child labour, he maintains, is an economic malady. It is a symptom of a stagnating economy that manifests itself in insufficient family incomes and escalating poverty. Low and unstable wages and the absence of a comprehensive social insurance system, El-Borai adds, compound the problem. Children are forced to fill in the gaps. All manner of laws can be passed making more forms of child labour illegal, but unless an alternative is provided, legislation is merely pasting band-aids on an open wound.

Enter the Miltonian efforts of human rights activists and dreamers like actor Mohamed Sobhi, whose project to educate and empower street children is one of the many programmes aimed at combating child labour in Egypt. Sobhi's ideas about child exploitation and guidance have been none-too-subtley conveyed in his popular TV series A'elat Wanis (Wanis's Family). In the show, Sobhi plays Wanis, the head of a municipality who decides to give top priority to street children in the area. In one episode, he launches a project to instruct street children in the high arts -- acting, ballet, music and the like. The children prove to be naturally talented and ultimately find an outlet for their creativity in the arts.

Here is where the series lays on its message thick: not only do the children become excellent performers, but, more importantly, they end up developing a sense of dignity and learn to recognise their rights. They refuse to perform at a fund-raising party for Wanis, which they deem to be an illicit form of exploitation. Ultimately, they prefer to go back to the streets than to be used by Wanis to generate resources.

The series is only one incarnation of a much larger dream Sobhi has been working to realise for much of his life, Sobhi told Al-Ahram Weekly. The underlying premise is simple: give children back their humanity, and eventually, they will themselves raise their own standards of living. A tour of the sprawling 60-feddan premises for his national project reveals a far more formidable task at hand. Situated on the Cairo-Alexandria road, Sobhi has created no less than a city for underprivileged children -- almost entirely paid for out of his own pocket. Behind the towering fences and gates, says Sobhi, is a hands-on solution to child labour.

The project, like the series, will take underprivileged children -- runaways, child workers, orphans, etc. -- and give them a basic education and training in the arts. The project will start off with 24 pupils between the ages of six and eight, selected by a committee made up of specialists including psychologists and artists. The children will then be offered accommodation on the project's campus and given training. Sobhi has insisted on the children not only being educated, but being taught a craft -- something they can rely on for an income, if necessary.

Sobhi has collected professional tutors from around the globe who are willing to volunteer their services. Instructors from the US, Spain and England are all set to teach free of charge -- which is important considering that as the sole financier of the project, Sobhi has already spent some LE10 million on the project to date. "I have totally depended on the savings of my past 30 years of work," Sobhi says with a smile. "But of course, I will need to get funds from donors once I have set up the infrastructure. It's a very costly project, you know."

And with problems of money, of course, come legal problems. To raise donations Sobhi will have to establish an NGO (non-governmental organisation), the licencing of which has been delayed for years thanks to bureaucracy at the Ministry of Social Affairs. Part of Sobhi's project is a private investment, meaning that revenues may sometimes be necessary to cover occasional shortages in funds. Sobhi's ultimate dream, however, is that when the first generation of children graduate from their 12-year apprenticeship, they will manage the project themselves and teach the future generations.

Sobhi is obviously an ambitious example, but what Egypt clearly needs is more people like him to be the hands and legs of an otherwise impotent body of law. His devotion to the cause of child labour got its day in the sun last week, when Sobhi presented his project to the ILO as part of a celebration organised to raise awareness of Convention 182.

Convention 182 is meant to condemn and eradicate what has been defined as the worst forms of child labour -- slavery, forced or unpaid labour, human trafficking, pornography, prostitution and other forms of hazardous exploitative work. When an ILO member-state ratifies Convention 182, the provisions of the convention become effective 12 months later, which means that the country has to be able to prove that it has made significant efforts to enforce the recommendations of the convention -- either through legislative measures, or with practical direct help for children and their families.

But does Egypt have what the convention defines as "the worst forms of child labour"? Human rights experts agree that compared to many other Third World nations, Egypt is largely devoid of the worst forms of child labour described by the convention. In societies where religion plays a key role, children are far less likely to be subjected to institutionalised prostitution or sexual abuse. Still, the convention includes work that is considered harmful to the health, safety and morals of children, or exposes children to physical, psychological or sexual abuse.

Estimates suggest that children between 12 and 14 constitute almost half the paid labour in Egypt. A quarter of all working children are aged between 6 and 21. Failings in the schooling system have driven many children out of classrooms and into paying jobs -- a practice tacitly encouraged by unscrupulous employers who welcome the cheap and deft labour. "To combat child labour, we need to revise the social insurance system, not labour laws," suggests Cairo University's Ahmed El-Borai. "In Egypt, education is free, but many parents cannot afford the personal expenses incurred by their children. These families should be offered financial assistance."

But ratifying Convention 182 can still serve to raise awareness of these problems, and reaffirm the government's commitment to exposing and fighting them. "We cannot even claim that we do not have the worst forms of child labour, as we have no studies on such a sensitive issue," claims Margrit Saroufim of the Coptic Evangelical Organisation for Social Services (CEOSS). "But I can easily imagine that many street children are sexually abused."

CEOSS is currently launching a project in the impoverished area of Kom Ghorab, in Old Cairo, where an estimated 1,500 children work the hazardous conditions as part of the ceramics and leather industries. "Lack of awareness -- not only at home, but in the children themselves -- is what we are mainly fighting," Saroufim says. "We tell these children that they have rights -- that they're being abused by their employers." CEOSS has been providing aid to impoverished families, so that children will not have to provide income. Children between the ages of 12 and 15 have also been given apprenticeships in alternative crafts, to get them away from hazardous conditions.

Similar projects are sporadically launched by several NGOs and official bodies in Egypt, but problems of child employment and exploitation seem to persist. "Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime," the saying goes. But what to do when there are more fisherman than fish?

Related stories:
Removing the child labour hurdle 12 - 18 October 2000
Taking social development by the reins 9 -15 November 2000
'Our dearest investment for the future' 25 Nov. - 1 Dec. 1999
Should do better 11 - 17 March 1999
A time for play 5-11 November 1988

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