How should the principles set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) be applied in development practice? Is a strong stress on child rights sustainable at the programme level, and what effect does it have on poor children? Does the problem of child labour show an absence of child rights in Bengali culture, or do human rights just not apply to the poor?

A paper from the University of Bath relates child rights rhetoric to the reality of poverty in Bangladesh. It reports on interviews and group discussions with thirteen agencies engaged in promoting child rights and sixty street and working children, in Dhaka and rural Bangladesh. Findings cast doubt on the critical assumption underlying the child’s rights discourse, that children form a unitary group with common rights and interests.

Promotion of children’s rights in Bangladesh comes up against an immediate hurdle – there is no single Bengali term for ‘child’. Instead, beyond infancy individuals are assessed differently according to size, gender, and how much they are thought to 'understand'. Nevertheless, child rights are now firmly on the development agenda in Bangladesh. At the same time, however, large numbers of poor children are caught in a wide range of exploitative work situations. Wage levels and profit margins are extremely low, and they face the constant danger of being cheated, assaulted and abused. Live-in girl domestic workers, for example, may receive no wages at all, but only food, shelter, clothes and the hope of generosity when they get married. The use of kinship terms between employers and child workers traps children as outsiders within. On the one hand it mystifies the relationship, denying the value of child labour. On the other hand it encourages children to hope for decent treatment, so it hits them all the mor

Are the ideals of the UNCRC relevant to the lives of marginalised children in developing countries? Does identifying the specific rights of children make sense in the face of stark economic realities and pervasive class divisions? In Bangladesh, a few agencies report that they have now stopped all direct training on child rights because the gap between the rights they have drawn from UNCRC theory and the realities of their practical experience was simply too traumatic for poor children. Instead of being ‘ empowering’, the training made then angry, frustrated and depressed.

Other points brought out include:

• While all the agencies regard child rights as a priority, some relate this to advocacy, while others try to insert 'rights-talk' into essentially welfare programmes.
• A strong stress on child rights at the programme level may not be sustainable and can have contradictory outcomes for poor children.
• Some middle class development professionals take a moralistic and self-righteous stance, attributing child labor to the ignorance or greed of poor parents.
• Agencies need to take care that their public use of ‘victims’ and 'testimonies' do not exploit vulnerable children.
• Working children place a premium on the quality of relationships and show a strong sense of (in)justice and entitlement.

The paper urges agencies trying to promote UNCRC values in developing countries to:

• Engage with the way people actually think and the resources the local culture offers
• Guard against 'rights-talk' displacing practical actions to support real children
• Recognise that the critical issue is not ‘childhood’, but poverty
• Recognise that the specifics of children’s poverty can only be addressed in the context of their families and communities.

Source(s):
‘From the politics of poverty to the politics of identity? Child rights and working children in Bangladesh’, paper presented at the Development Studies Association (DSA) conference, Manchester, by Sarah C. White, September 2001

Funded by: ESCOR, DFID

id21 Research Highlight: 11 March 2002

Further Information:
Sarah C. White
Department of Economics and International Development
University of Bath
Claverton Down
Bath BA2 7AY
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1225 385298
Fax: +44 (0)1225 383423
Contact the contributor: S.C.White@bath.ac.uk

Department of Economics and International Development, University of Bath, UK

Other related links:
'Reality check – has the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child made a difference?'

'Small fry? Shrimp production and child labour in Bangladesh'

Child Rights Information Network spells out basic human rights of children

Read the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Eldis provides a portal on information related to Children and Development

See also the UN Special Session on Children